In the interests of giving something to the community I will post this short review of the Ares
Why??
1; 'OCD hifi guy' is working on some significant mods for this and the project may be of interest to some diyers.
2; Ares is quite rare in UK and buying will most likely be blind, so here is a clue of how it sounds
Notes;
1; My Ares is in fact an 'ex dem' model of the rebadged version in the shape of the armature chronos - exactly the same inside and out
2; I can only compare it to the Rega Apollo 35th anniversary which apparently is almost 1/2 way-ish twixt apollo and saturn. The DAC is used with this as transport.
3; Gear - passive NC400, Ellam Flex 3W, scanspeak sub + ucd400. (the sub is driven from the RCA outs - and of course hypex has a high Zin)
btw; i intend to possibly upgrade the transport and am thinking audiolab (with the buffer, which i like the sound of) is a good candidate for audition
- any comment or suggestion here welcome
The sound; (Ares vs Rega)
bass; a bit deeper, clearer and less boomy - more controlled for sure though perhaps not massive gains
mid; more detail. 'shoutiness' or sibilence on some recordings controlled admirably.
treble; a bit more bite and extension, though without the impression that this is much brighter
biggest differences; soundstage - much bigger all round, separation and 'air' round instruments/vocals, sounds coming from way above the speakers, and way behind the wall. Much more pacey, involving and 'immediate' (not sure what I mean though immediate describes it!).
Overall this retains the warmth of the rega, and although it does not sound 'detailed' (which often can mean bright...?) certainly you can very much hear parts clearly you haven't really heard before - big time. It sort of sounds as though it's not 'trying' to sound 'analogue' (perhaps like the rega) though is still in the tonal ball-park. Kind of more 'honest'. A very non-fatiguing and natural sounding presentation without sounding dull, though I can imagine detail freaks and metal dome fans not going for it.
'burn in' (or warm up?); out of the box it was a bit 2 dimensional, a couple of days and the speakers gradually dissapeared. Left on it barely gets warm, which bodes well for all 72 smoothing caps!
OK I'll never be a reviewer, though I hope this is helpful to some!
You have probably gathered I am rather pleased!
n.b. there is now a steve guttenburg review at 'C Net' and utube on his audiophilliac channell - comparing to bifrost multibit and border patrol
Why??
1; 'OCD hifi guy' is working on some significant mods for this and the project may be of interest to some diyers.
2; Ares is quite rare in UK and buying will most likely be blind, so here is a clue of how it sounds
Notes;
1; My Ares is in fact an 'ex dem' model of the rebadged version in the shape of the armature chronos - exactly the same inside and out
2; I can only compare it to the Rega Apollo 35th anniversary which apparently is almost 1/2 way-ish twixt apollo and saturn. The DAC is used with this as transport.
3; Gear - passive NC400, Ellam Flex 3W, scanspeak sub + ucd400. (the sub is driven from the RCA outs - and of course hypex has a high Zin)
btw; i intend to possibly upgrade the transport and am thinking audiolab (with the buffer, which i like the sound of) is a good candidate for audition
- any comment or suggestion here welcome
The sound; (Ares vs Rega)
bass; a bit deeper, clearer and less boomy - more controlled for sure though perhaps not massive gains
mid; more detail. 'shoutiness' or sibilence on some recordings controlled admirably.
treble; a bit more bite and extension, though without the impression that this is much brighter
biggest differences; soundstage - much bigger all round, separation and 'air' round instruments/vocals, sounds coming from way above the speakers, and way behind the wall. Much more pacey, involving and 'immediate' (not sure what I mean though immediate describes it!).
Overall this retains the warmth of the rega, and although it does not sound 'detailed' (which often can mean bright...?) certainly you can very much hear parts clearly you haven't really heard before - big time. It sort of sounds as though it's not 'trying' to sound 'analogue' (perhaps like the rega) though is still in the tonal ball-park. Kind of more 'honest'. A very non-fatiguing and natural sounding presentation without sounding dull, though I can imagine detail freaks and metal dome fans not going for it.
'burn in' (or warm up?); out of the box it was a bit 2 dimensional, a couple of days and the speakers gradually dissapeared. Left on it barely gets warm, which bodes well for all 72 smoothing caps!
OK I'll never be a reviewer, though I hope this is helpful to some!
You have probably gathered I am rather pleased!
n.b. there is now a steve guttenburg review at 'C Net' and utube on his audiophilliac channell - comparing to bifrost multibit and border patrol
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Since this is diyaudio, maybe see if it can be compared to a Soekris if a member has one in the area. My guess is the Ares would fare poorly.
wushuliu - seems 'OCD HiFi' has changed his mind about his mods which was kind of the diy aspect of my post...
The amplification in my system is DIY, Elekit TU-8500 pre and an M2X, so I guess it is kind of valid (in a round about way), I have also started a pair of DIY bookshelf speakers.
On a system level, I'm pretty DIY.
Not many members in my area either.
gr8! I would be interested if you think it improves with 'burn in'. I don't go in for audio 'magic' much, though I really found the soundstage to open up after about a week or so - this could of course be explained by me 'learning' how to listen to it...
i do have designs on moving the psu to an outboard box though will get some mileage out the the unit as is for a couple of years at least before i much about with it.
i do have designs on moving the psu to an outboard box though will get some mileage out the the unit as is for a couple of years at least before i much about with it.
@diyrob
Thanks for the review, I am also interested in the Ares dac, I currently have a Rega dac. Was it a major improvement?
I was thinking about diy'ing a dac, but I had a few dacs and if I don't like the sound selling a diydac loses a lot of money.
I do like diy'ing amps and speakers, currently listening to ACA and Troels SS Discovery 3WC. I also have M2X but I prefer the ACA (more smooth). My current chain is Bluesound node 2 > Rega DAC > ACA > SS 3WC, I go directly from dac to power amp (sounds more clear than having my Nutube B1 pre before power amp). The bluesound node 2 has transparant digital volume control, very handy.
Thanks for the review, I am also interested in the Ares dac, I currently have a Rega dac. Was it a major improvement?
I was thinking about diy'ing a dac, but I had a few dacs and if I don't like the sound selling a diydac loses a lot of money.
I do like diy'ing amps and speakers, currently listening to ACA and Troels SS Discovery 3WC. I also have M2X but I prefer the ACA (more smooth). My current chain is Bluesound node 2 > Rega DAC > ACA > SS 3WC, I go directly from dac to power amp (sounds more clear than having my Nutube B1 pre before power amp). The bluesound node 2 has transparant digital volume control, very handy.
hi pieter - short answer - yes.
i believe your rega dac is quite similar to my apollo 35th, and your speakers are very much the same family as my ellam flex 3w, so the likelyhood is you would get a similar improvement. There are no areas where the rega betters the ares. the biggest difference is you a get a 'grown up' soundstage. in terms of 'high end' audio its a good bang for the buck, easily commeasurate with a £500-1000 CD player change. I will stand by the other descriptions in my original post, which do align with utubes 'the audiophilliac' review. i think a lot of digital trying to sound analogue is the same as a lot of SS trying to sound tube - it kinda sounds a bit eq'ed - ares sounds more 'naturally' analogue. i believe the latest ares is mk2 with some improvements from mk1. give it a few years and i may move it's PSU to another box, which is effectively one of the upgrades the next models up have, so it is DIYable in some respect.
i believe your rega dac is quite similar to my apollo 35th, and your speakers are very much the same family as my ellam flex 3w, so the likelyhood is you would get a similar improvement. There are no areas where the rega betters the ares. the biggest difference is you a get a 'grown up' soundstage. in terms of 'high end' audio its a good bang for the buck, easily commeasurate with a £500-1000 CD player change. I will stand by the other descriptions in my original post, which do align with utubes 'the audiophilliac' review. i think a lot of digital trying to sound analogue is the same as a lot of SS trying to sound tube - it kinda sounds a bit eq'ed - ares sounds more 'naturally' analogue. i believe the latest ares is mk2 with some improvements from mk1. give it a few years and i may move it's PSU to another box, which is effectively one of the upgrades the next models up have, so it is DIYable in some respect.
Thanks for the quick answer. I was afraid it was going to be very good, so now I feel compelled to buy it. I can get the Ares II from the Bulgarian dealer for 790€ at my door, that is hard to beat with diy. When I diy, it also has to be worth it compared to commercial products.
What do you use as source to feed the Ares?
I currently use a Bluesound node 2 as source. Before I did a lot of experimenting with raspberry pi/dac boards (allo digione, allo usbridge)/different os/linear power supplies but the sound always had a hard edge to it, the node definitely beat it.
What do you use as source to feed the Ares?
I currently use a Bluesound node 2 as source. Before I did a lot of experimenting with raspberry pi/dac boards (allo digione, allo usbridge)/different os/linear power supplies but the sound always had a hard edge to it, the node definitely beat it.
hi pieter
the source was the rega apollo which i compared it to (35th anniversary model) - now an audiolab transport (better; cleaner in mid bass, further depth and separation of soundstage)
the source was the rega apollo which i compared it to (35th anniversary model) - now an audiolab transport (better; cleaner in mid bass, further depth and separation of soundstage)
Uh ....
Have I gone batty .... or am I not posting this message on a DIY site ... where circuits and topology are at least MENTIONED ... and not play-by-play product reviews.