Denafrips Ares 12th dac User manual

V1.1

4th Jan 2022

ARES 12TH DAC

OWNER’S MANUAL

Contents'

1. INSTALLATION & SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS ......................................................................... 2

2. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 3

3. DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS ........................................................................................................ 4

3.1 ADAPTIVE FIFO BUFFER RECLOCKING ...................................................................... 4

3.2 PROPRIETARY, STATE-OF-THE-ART USB INTERFACE ................................................. 4

3.3 PROPRIETARY SPDIF DIGITAL AUDIO RECEIVER ....................................................... 4

3.4 NOS/OS ..................................................................................................................... 4

3.5 PROPRIETARY R-2R AND DSD DECODING ARCHITECTURE ....................................... 5

3.6 DAC ARCHITECTURE ................................................................................................. 6

4. OPERATING INSTRUCTION ............................................................................................... 7

4.1 Quick Start Guide ..................................................................................................... 7

4.2 USB DRIVER INSTALLATION – WINDOWS OS ......................................................... 12

5. SPECIFICATIONS ............................................................................................................. 16

6. WARRANTY ..................................................................................................................... 17

1. INSTALLATION'&'SAFETY'INSTRUCTIONS'

This DAC is designed and built to provide trouble-free performance, but as with all

electronic devices it is necessary to observe a few precautions:

• Unpack the DAC carefully.

• Position the DAC on a stable, horizontal surface, i.e. sturdy rack.

• The DAC supports voltage 100-250VAC worldwide voltage by a voltage selector. The

voltage selector can be found at the bottom of the DAC. Switch it to the correct

voltage prior to powering it up, i.e. 115V for the US / 230V for the EU.

• Please connect the AC power cord with earth(ground) pin unless it is absolutely

required to reduce hum from the ground loops of the connected devices.

• Always ensure that when disconnecting and reconnecting your audio equipment the

mains supply is turned off.

• Position the power cord and signal interconnects where they are not likely cause trip

and fall hazard.

• Do not use the DAC near water, or place water-filled containers on the DAC. Entry of

liquid into the DAC is hazardous and may cause electric shock and/or fire hazard.

• Do not place the unit under direct sunlight or heat source.

• Do not remove any covers or try to gain access to the inside. There are no user

adjustments or fuses to change without qualification.

• Clean regularly with a damp soft cloth. Do not use any cleaning agents as it might

damage the surface finishing.

• The electronics in modern hi-fi equipment is complex and may, therefore, be

adversely affected or damaged by lightning. For protection of the audio system

during electrical storms, disconnect the mains plugs.

2. INTRODUCTION'

Thank you for purchasing the DENAFRIPS ARES 12TH DAC.

The ARES 12TH DAC is built with a sole objective in mind - to reproduce digital music to

analogue-like sound for today’s audiophile. The use of advanced hardware design, powerful

digital processing technology, combined with the know-how of recording and reproduction

experiences, ARES 12TH DAC achieved the digital music playback goals - musical expression.

The architecture uses the most primitive R-2R DAC technology, it is probably the most

suitable architecture to reproduce music. Despite the test results of various measurements

and parameters of the conventional R-2R DAC may usually not as good as the mainstream

integrated DAC chip, but the sound of R-2R DAC, is often filled with emotion, relax, high

resolution, and additive musicality that most of the common mainstream integrated DAC

chip cannot match.

' '

3. DESIGN'HIGHLIGHTS'

3.1

ADAPTIVE FIFO BUFFER RECLOCKING

The DENAFRIPS approach to address the jitters issue by FIFO BUFFER RECLOCKING. The

adaptive FIFO buffer store the source digital audio data in the memory. These data are read

from the memory using the low phase noise, precision FEMTO Clock, located right in the

DAC.

This technology is close to the perfection, especially so with the local FEMTO Clock. The

jitter is so small that it can be neglected.

3.2

PROPRIETARY, STATE-OF-THE-ART USB INTERFACE

The ARES 12TH is equipped with the proprietary USB Audio Solution, powered by

STM32F446 Advanced AMR Based MCU. DENAFRIPS redesigned and optimized circuitry,

allow the DAC to be used as high-end DAC with computers / streamers. It supports

24bit/1536kHz* PCM data stream, and native decoding of DSD up to DSD1024*. It comes

with licensed THESYCON USB Driver for Windows Platform.

NOTE: The USB Module is designed to trigger on only when USB Input is selected. This is

intended design to reduce digital input interfaces cross-interference for best sound

reproduction. *High res support may vary depending on system compatibility.

3.3

PROPRIETARY SPDIF DIGITAL AUDIO RECEIVER

The SPDIF Coaxial, Optical, input support up to 24bit/192kHz digital audio format. The ARES

12TH abandon the use of Digital Audio Receiver chip. The digital data is decoded by the on-

board FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), signal path is shortened and eliminated the

undesirable coloration.

3.4

NOS/OS

The ARES 12TH allow the user to change the sampling mode on the fly.

NOS, as the name suggested, does not over-sampling to digital input data.

In OS mode, the PCM 44.1kHz or 48kHz based audio data are up-sampled to the maximum

rate of PCM1411.2 or PCM1536. There is no up-sampling of DSD audio signal.

3.5

PROPRIETARY R-2R AND DSD DECODING ARCHITECTURE

The ARES 12TH is equipped with 24Bit R-2R DAC to decode PCM data stream and 32 steps

FIR analogue filters hardware decoder to decode DSD data stream. These designs

guaranteed the PCM format can be perfectly decoded, at the same time, the DSD format

can be perfectly decoded as well. It is rare in the currently market that a R-2R DAC can

hardware decode both the PCM and DSD formats.

3.6

DAC ARCHITECTURE

DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING – All digital input data are stored in the on-board FPGA high-

speed RAM.

FEMTO CLOCK – These data are read from the memory using the low phase noise, accurate

FEMTO Clock, located right in the DAC. The processed data are sent to the final stage

Discrete R-2R for DA conversion.

R-2R LADDER NETWORK – The data bits are converted to analogue signal by the true

balanced R-2R ladder network arrays. The linearity of the conversion is guaranteed by the

high-precision thin film resistors, with low thermal effect temperature coefficient of the low

10/15ppm.

4. OPERATING'INSTRUCTION'

4.1

Quick Start Guide

The ARES 12TH II is easy to use. Nonetheless, please read this section to fully understand

the functions and features available.

Figure 1. ARES 12TH II Front Panel

Description:

(1) Standby Button

Press the button once to switch on the DAC, vice versa, press once to switch the DAC into

standby mode.

(2) Standby LED

The Standby LED shall be on when the DAC is in Standby Mode. The LED shall be dimmed

when the DAC is in Operating Mode.

(3) Input Selection: USB

Press the button to select USB as current input source. The respective LED shall be on.

(4) Input Selection: COAXIAL

Press the button to select COAXIAL as current input source. The respective LED shall be on.

(5) Input Selection: OPTICAL

Press the button to select OPTICAL as current input source. The respective LED shall be on.

(6) Input Selection: I²S

Press the button to select I²S as current input source. The respective LED shall be on.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

(7) OS/NOS

Press the button to toggle OS/NOS Mode. NOS LED On: NOS Mode, NOS LED Off: OS Mode

(8) Phase Button

Press the button to toggle Phase Output. Phase LED On: Positive Phase, Phase LED Off:

Negative Phase

(9) Mute Button

Press the button to enable/disable Mute. When mute, the Mute LED on.

(10) Digital Audio Signal Input Sampling Rate

The following table illustrate the Input Sampling Rate LED status.

Base%Sampling%Rate%

Multiplier%

Input%Format%

44.1 kHz

88.2 kHz

176.4 kHz

352.8 kHz

16X = 2X + 8X

705.6 kHz

32X = 4X + 8X

1,411.2 kHz

48 kHz

96 kHz

192 kHz

384 kHz

16X = 2X + 8X

768 kHz

32X = 4X + 8X

1536 kHz

DSD

DSD 64

DSD 128

DSD 256

DSD 512

16X = 2X + 8X

DSD 1024

Table 1. Sampling Rate

Parameter Settings:

Filter Selection (Effective in OS Only):

1. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode

2. Toggle the OPT button momentarily

• NOS LED On = Slow Filter

• NOS Off = Sharp Filter

3. Wait for 5s

4. ARES 12TH II back in operational mode

I²S Pin-Out Configuration:

1. Select I²S Input

2. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode

3. Toggle the I²S button momentarily, 1X 2X 4X will turn on/off in a fixed pattern to

denote binary 000-111

4. Wait for 5s

5. DAC back in operational mode

Video Guide:

https://www.denafrips.com/config-ARES 12TH

I²S Pinout Configuration

MODE

LED

I2S PINOUT

DATA

BCK

LRCK

DATA

BCK

LRCK

MODE

DATA-

DATA+

BCK+

BCK-

LRCK-

LRCK+

DATA+

DATA-

BCK+

BCK-

LRCK-

LRCK+

DATA-

DATA+

BCK-

BCK+

LRCK-

LRCK+

DATA+

DATA-

BCK-

BCK+

LRCK-

LRCK+

DATA-

DATA+

BCK+

BCK-

LRCK+

LRCK-

DATA+

DATA-

BCK+

BCK-

LRCK+

LRCK-

DATA-

DATA+

BCK-

BCK+

LRCK+

LRCK-

DATA+

DATA-

BCK-

BCK+

LRCK+

LRCK-

Table 1. I2S PINOUT CONFIGURATION

Figure 1. HDMI i2s Input

Figure 2. ARES 12TH II Rear Panel

Description:

(1) AC Power Supply

CAUTION! Select the correct AC Power Supply voltage prior supplying the power to the

ARES 12TH II. The voltage selector switch is located underneath the ARES 12TH II chassis.

(2) Digital Audio Signal Input

There are 4 inputs, namely, USB, COAX, OPT and I²S.

(3) Analog Audio Signal Output

Balanced output via XLR (pin2 hot), singled ended output via RCA. The ARES 12TH II is a true

balanced DAC, we recommend using balanced output whenever possible. The RCA and XLR

output are shared, please use either of the output at a time. It is not recommended to use

both RCA and XLR output simultaneously.

NOTE:

The ARES 12TH II chassis is connected to the power supply earth.

4.2

USB DRIVER INSTALLATION – WINDOWS OS

USB driver is required for Windows Operating System (Windows 7/8/8.1/10, X86/X64). The

USB driver is licensed by THESYCON to provide the highest quality audio playback for

Computer Audio System.

NOTE: Mac and Linux OS do not require the USB driver.

Installation Guide:

• Download the driver from the support page: https://www.denafrips.com/support

• Do not connect the USB cable from the computer to the DAC. Remove it before the

USB driver installation

• Double click the “DENAFRIPS_UsbAudio_v4.82.0” (or the latest version) to install the

USB driver.

• Follow the on-screen instruction to complete the installation

Figure 2. Welcome screen

Figure 3. Default Installation Directory

Figure 4. Preinstallation Successful

Figure 5. Completed

• Restart the computer to complete the installation

• Connect the USB cable to the DAC

• Power on the DAC. Select USB input

• The USB DAC shall be detected. The driver status can be monitored as follows

Figure 6. Taskbar & Control Panel

• Select DENAFRIPS USB DAC as default Windows OS Soundcard

Press Set Default button

Properties of the DENAFRIPS USB DAC

Direct-Sound default format

ASIO Buffer Size

Playback software recommendation:

• roon

• JRiver

• Foobar2000

• Sonicstudio Amarra

5. SPECIFICATIONS'

Description%

Parameters%

AC Power

115/230V, 50/60Hz

Power Consumption

< 30W

Frequency Response

0-70K Hz(-3dB)

THD+N

≤0.004%(1KHz A-weighted)

Output (RCA)

2.2(+/-10%) V RMS(1KHz)

Output (XLR)

4.4(+/-10%) V RMS(1KHz)

Supported Format (DSD)

DSD64 All Input

DSD64 – DSD1024 USB Only

Supported Format (PCM)

24bit/44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz All Input

44.1 – 1536 kHz USB Only

S/N Ratio

115dB(RCA), 114dB(XLR)

Dynamic Range

>119dB(RCA), >120dB(XLR)

Stereo Crosstalk

≤-124dB(RCA), ≤130dB(XLR)

Dimension

215 *230 *45 mm

Weight

3.5kg

6. WARRANTY'

DENAFRIPS ARES 12TH purchased from the Authorized Distributor comes with 36 months of

warranty from the date of purchase / delivery (whichever later).

Defective

Within

Warranty Policy

First 30 Days

DENAFRIPS to bear both way shipping fee.

Within 1st Year

Customer to bear one-way shipping fee. DENAFRIPS shall

cover the return shipping fee.

Within Warranty

Period

Customer to bear both way shipping fee. DENAFRIPS to repair

at free of charge.

Out of Warranty

Customer to bear both way shipping cost. DENAFRIPS to

provide repair / maintenance services at cost.

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