These are my initial impressions comparing the Denafrips Venus II 12th Anniversary Edition to the PS Audio Perfectwave Directstream DAC MKII. I will refer to the Denafrips Venus II 12th Anniversary Edition as just the Venus II and the PS Audio Perfectwave Directstream DAC MKII as the PWMKII.
At the time of writing this, my PWMKII’s firmware version is 3.1.3. I include this detail because I believe some comparisons would change over time as PS Audio pushes the capabilities of the FPGA chips and architecture.
Please see the end for a complete list of my system.
Sound characteristics comparison TLDR:
The Venus II presents a very mid-forward, romanticized, full-bodied sound, while the PWMKII presents a very balanced, very high-resolution sound.
Both DAC manufacturers claim their sound leans slightly warm. But compared to each other, the Venus II doesn’t lean warm; it is warm. That doesn’t mean the PWMKII is cool, but I think PS Audio’s interpretation of “leans” differs from Denafrips. The Venus II is more like mid-July, while the PWMKII is more like early June.
This difference translates to very different pros and cons. For example, the presentation is more full-bodied and pleasurable with the Venus II in an early Sunday morning low-volume listening session with Miles Davis’s So What from the album Kind of Blue.
Conversely, the auditory presentation is much more pleasurable with the PWMKII when listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams from the album Rumours. This completeness stands out in the high-resolution sparkle and shimmer of the cymbals on which the Venus II comes up short.
Both DACs soundstage really well; at times, the Venus II can go a bit larger, but it can come across as a bit of a novelty as it stretches to the point of romanticized or “hyperreal.” This hyperreal scale is especially noticeable when listening to Moses Sumney’s album Aromanticism.
Electronic music sounds impressive on both the Venus II and the PWMKII. The mid-forwardness of the Venus II can occasionally result in an odd-sounding presentation. This oddness is particularly noticeable on Nitzer Ebb’s album Showtime, where some of the sounds Nitzer Ebb used to build the texture of the music are way more forward than I believe the creators had ever intended, resulting in a presentation that is inconsistent with any other system I’ve ever heard the album on. Conversely, the dense soundscapes that the Venus II presents in Boards of Canada’s Aquarius from the album Music Has The Right To Children is nothing short of an enveloping listening experience, in a very good way. Ultimately, the PWMKII’s ultra-high resolution and balanced sound present complex electronic music consistently in perfect, highly focused 3-dimensional space.
Rock and Jazz depend on the mastering/recording. As I mentioned, the Venus II is really pleasant to listen to at low volumes, but the PWMKII presents a much more complete, high-resolution picture. So, if the album is well recorded and you listen at average or above volume, the PWMKII would be my preference all day.
Something I wasn’t expecting was the PWMKII’s ability to tame the overly saturated Meze Empyrean I. The sound is very thick when used with the Venus II, but with the PWMKII, the Empyreans have the sound characteristics of more expensive higher-end headphones while retaining enough of their signature ooomf.
I have two additional quibbles with the Venus II.
First, there are very audible timing errors when using my Cary Audio 306 as a transport with Redbook. Research suggests a buffer reaching capacity, which results in the glitchy sound. I tried every digital input/output in every upsampling configuration, but audible errors were consistently present. These errors only happened with the Cary Audio 306; there were no issues when connected to the Cambridge Audio CXC transport via coax or the Jays Audio CDT2-MK3 connected via coax or i2s. This compatibility issue was my primary reason for being open to replacing my Venus II with something else.
Second, every once in a while, the sound would drop in the octave for about half a second. This odd octave drop only happened about twice a month and wasn’t enough to factor into my replacement considerations.
Design & features
This section is going to be a bit more of a landslide. Compared to the Venus II, the PWMKII offers a very readable display that clearly indicates what signal is coming into the system and what input I’m on. But wait, there’s more. It doesn’t matter that I can easily see the input because the PWMKII can auto-switch inputs as I go back and forth between my streamer and disc player. On Venus II, input indication and signal are nearly impossible to understand at any reasonable distance.
I know the PWMKII also offers additional features related to galvanic isolation and grounding; however, there is zero hum or noise in the DAC’s “out-of-the-box” state, so I haven’t felt the need to try and fiddle with them.
Performing firmware updates on the PWMKII appears very straightforward, whereas Venus II is a multi-step process requiring a computer, and if you mess it up, your DAC is bricked.
A couple of final points.
The Venus II: I really enjoyed my time with the Venus II; it’s a great, enjoyable-sounding DAC at 3k. Burn-in is real if you’re considering getting a new Venus II. It took 200+ hours before it sounded anywhere near its $3078.00 asking price. The sound difference was night and day.
The PWMKII: I don’t know what PS Audio did for the USB implementation, but for the first time, I can no longer hear a difference between my streamer and my disc player. Both are magic to my ears.
Preamp: PS Audio BHK w/ NOS-12AU7 RCA Clear Top tubes
Streamer: Lumin U2 Mini (connected via Audioquest Carbon USB)
DAC: PS Audio Perfectwave Directstream DAC MKII (connected via Audioquest Water XLR)
DAC: Denafrips Venus II 12th Anniversary (connected via Audioquest Water XLR) no longer in my system
CD/SACD: Cary Audio 306 (connected via Audioquest Carbon Coax for Redbook & DH Labs Silver Sonic XLR for SACD)
Amp: Pass Labs XA 25
Speakers: Vivid Audio Kaya S12 (connected via DH Labs Q10-Signature)
Sub: KEF KC62
Headphones: Meze Empyrean I, HIFIMAN HE1000se
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