DENAFRIPS VENUS II User manual

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1. INTRODUCTION
Thank you for choosing DENAFRIPS products!
PONTUS is DENAFRIPS premium DAC. To achieve the highest possible sound quality within
the price constraint, DENAFRIPS adopted a lot of the technology and architecture can be
found in the flagship DAC, the TERMINATOR. Yes, that’s right, Pontus is designed about the
similar architecture of the Terminator. Pontus is further enhanced in the power supply
design compared to Ares. The power supply is encapsulated in a 1.5mm thick metal alloy,
equipped with dual o-core transformers, completely isolated super linear regulator power
supply for digital and analogue section, ensuring low noise, high availability power supply to
the DAC.
The Pontus employs true balance R-2R DAC design. Each channel is equipped with
independent high-speed FPGA to control the decoding by 4 sets of 0.01% R-2R network. This
design has very small linear error, high decoding speed, low digital noise, not only to ensure
that the audio signal is low distortion, but also to ensure a very low background music noise;
allow listener to enjoy the true music with dark background.
We are confident Pontus sound quality far exceed its modest price tag.

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2. DESIGN HIGHLIGHT
2.1 ADAPTIVE FIFO MEMORY CACHE ARCHITECTURE
Adaptive FIFO technology is used to transfer the audio data input to the high-speed RAM
buffer, and, by using the high stability active crystal clock signals generated from within,
extract the audio data from the high-speed RAM and converts these data to I2S protocol,
then, transmit the I2S data to the R2R DAC for DA conversion.
This FIFO is literally jitter free. It eliminates the possible jitter caused by the upstream
source, cable, or the digital receiver chip in the DAC. Let’s put it this way, the number of
jitter in Pontus DAC can only be caused by the quality of FIFO active crystal. Pontus’ crystals
are Japanese NDK made, and powered by LDO regulator, the jitter is so small that it can be
neglected.
2.2 I2S INPUT
Pontus i2s DAC works slave mode, the source i2s shall provide the necessary MCLK to work
with the DAC. The i2s is not an industrial standard, DENAFRIPS cannot guarantee the
compatibility with other i2s devices.
2.3 AMANERO USB MODULE
The Pontus is equipped with the famous Amanero USB Module, with DENAFRIPS redesigned
and optimized circuitry, allow the Pontus to be used as high-end DAC with computers /
streamers. It supports 24bit/384kHz PCM data stream, and DSD64, DSD128, DSD256
decoding via asynchronous USB input.
NOTE: The USB Module is designed to switch on only when USB Input is selected. This is
specially designed to reduce inputs interference for best sound reproduction.
2.4 LOW JITTER AKM AK4118 DIGITAL AUDIO RECEIVER
It is known that the jitter contributes greatly to the sound quality. The use of a low-jitter
digital audio receiver chip is indeed necessary. The AKM AK4118 is currently the lowest
clock jitter digital receiver audio chip available in the market.
2.5 NOS/OS
Fancy of NOS/OS selection to change the sound signature of the DAC? The Pontus allow user
to change the sampling mode on the fly. NOS, as the name suggested, does not do Over
Sampling of the digital input stream. The sampling rate of the digital input signal remain
untouched, and it is converted to analog output signal right away.

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2.6 PROPRIETARY R-2R AND DSD DECODING ARCHITECTURE
The Pontus is equipped with 24Bit R-2R DAC to decode PCM data stream and 32 steps FIR
analog 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 PCM and DSD formats.
2.7 DAC ARCHITECTURE
This is the simplified architecture diagram. All digital input data are fed and buffered
through the internal DSP board FIFO high speed RAM buffer except for Amanero USB
module. The Amanero module comes with its own on-board FIFO.
These data stored in the internal high speed FIFO and the Amanero FIFO buffer, are
retrieved via the local cystals (CCHD-957 FEMTO on Venus & Terminator), processed, and
reconstructed, for the final stage Discrete R2R for DA conversion.
The reliance of digital input source clock quality is less critical. This made DENAFRIPS DAC
sounds good with literally any source.
As in all audiophile high standard, a good source quality does make a different to the sound
quality. But we’d like to stress that, don't lose sleep over the technical aspect of the DAC.
Just sit back, and... enjoy the music!

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3. INSTALLATION AND SETUP
The Pontus is easy to use. Nonetheless, DENAFRIPS advice to read this section to fully
understand the functions and features available.
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2
3
Figure 1. Pontus 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. The Standby LED shall be on when the DAC is in Standby Mode. The LED shall
be off when the DAC is in Operating Mode.
(2) Control Button (From left to right)
a. INPUT +- :
Press the button to select the input source, namely, CO1, CO2, OPT, AES1, AES2,
USB, I2S. Press + to select the next right input. Press – to select the previous left
input. The respective input source LED shall be on to indicate that the input
source is selected.
b. RESERVAL (Yes this is a misprint, we can’t do anything now, more than hundreds
of front panels are stocked in our factory).
Press the button to toggle Phase Output.
LED On: Positive Phase, LED Off: Negative Phase
c. OS/NOS
Press the button to toggle between OS/NOS model. The LED lit to indicate the
DAC is in NOS mode.
The OS/NOS mode works in PCM mode only. In DSD playback, OS/NOS function is
disabled.
d. MUTE
Press the button to enable/disable Mute. When mute, the Mute LED will be
blinking 1s in interval.

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e. MODE – Updated 15th Sep 2017
DENAFRIPS HDMI i2s Pin-out is configurable to mate with various non-industrial-
standard i2s source devices. In i2s input mode, press 'Mode' button to select
different configuration as per following table.
The LEDs 1X, 2X, 4X serve as indications of 2s' binary combination from 000 - 111
(2 ^ 3 = 8 configurations). The trick is LED 1X correspond to BCK, 2X - DATA, and
4X - L / RCLK.
LED DATA BCK L/RCLK
1X 2X 4X Pin1 Pin3 Pin4 Pin6 Pin7 Pin9
0 0 0 DATA(-) DATA(+) BCK(-) BCK(+) L/RCLK(-) L/RCLK(+)
0 0 1 DATA(-) DATA(+) BCK(-) BCK(+) L/RCLK(+) L/RCLK(-)
0 1 0 DATA(+) DATA(-) BCK(-) BCK(+) L/RCLK(-) L/RCLK(+)
0 1 1 DATA(+) DATA(-) BCK(-) BCK(+) L/RCLK(+) L/RCLK(-)
1 0 0 DATA(-) DATA(+) BCK(+) BCK(-) L/RCLK(-) L/RCLK(+)
1 0 1 DATA(-) DATA(+) BCK(+) BCK(-) L/RCLK(+) L/RCLK(-)
1 1 0 DATA(+) DATA(-) BCK(+) BCK(-) L/RCLK(-) L/RCLK(+)
1 1 1 DATA(+) DATA(-) BCK(+) BCK(-) L/RCLK(+) L/RCLK(-)
Table 1. I2S PINOUT CONFIGURATION
Figure 1. Pontus HDMI i2s Pinout

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(3) 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
1X 44.1 kHz
2X 88.2 kHz
4X 176.5 kHz
8X 352.8 kHz
48 kHz
1X 48 kHz
2X 96 kHz
4X 192 kHz
8X 384 kHz
DSD
1X DSD 64
2X DSD 128
4X DSD 256
8X N/A
Table 2. Sampling Rate

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1
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1
2 3
Figure 2. Pontus Rear Panel (RJ45 or HDMI i2s)
Description:
(1) AC Power Supply
CAUTION! Worldwide AC Power Supply voltage supported. The AC input voltage is
automatically ranged thanks to the DENAFRIPS smart power management technology.
(2) Analog Audio Signal Output
Balanced output via XLR (pin2 hot), singled ended output via RCA. The Pontus is a true
balanced DAC, we recommend using balanced output whenever possible.
(3) Digital Audio Signal Input
There are 7 inputs, namely, COAX 1, COAX 2, AES 1, AES 2, OPT, I2S and USB.
I2S RJ45 (LVCMOS) I2S HDMI (LVDS)

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4. SPECIFICATION
Description Parameters
AC Power
Worldwide AC Power Supported 110 - 230V, 50/60Hz
In 110VAC supply, the min voltage range from 92V to max 126V
In 230VAC supply, the min voltage range from 184V to max 253V
Power Consumption < 30W
Frequency Response 0-70K Hz(-3dB)
THD+N ≤0.0025% (1KHz A Weighted)
Output (RCA) 2.2(+/-10%) V RMS(1KHz)
Output (XLR) 4.4(+/-10%) V RMS(1KHz)
Supported Format (DSD) 2.8224MHz(DSD1X) All Input
5.6448MHz(DSD2X), 11.288MHz(DSD4X) USB & I2S Only
Supported Format (PCM)
24bit/44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192,
352.8(USB & I2S), 384(USB & I2S) kHz
S/N Ratio 115dB(RCA), 114dB(XLR)
Dynamic Range >117dB (RCA), >121dB(XLR)
Stereo Crosstalk ≤-100dB(RCA), ≤100dB(XLR)
Dimension 320 *330 *80 mm
Weight 8.5kg
5. WARRANTY & SUPPORTS
DENAFRIPS Pontus comes with 36 months of warranty from the date of purchase / delivery
(whichever later). Customers shall bear the two-way shipping cost for RMA. In event of
tampering found on the unit, the warranty shall be voided.
Visit our website at www.denafrips.com for more updates
Enjoy The Music!