Denafrips Terminator Plus Measurements (Old)

A more recent post with more in-depth measurements is available here: https://goldensound.audio/2021/10/07/denafrips-terminator-plus-with-gaia-measurements/

Test Setup:

– Audio Precision APx555 B-Series Analyzer with 200kOhm input impedance

Thank you very much to Diego Estan from the SoundStage! network who conducted these measurements.
A link to their write-up of the terminator plus and their own measurements will be posted once it is up.
SoundStage! contacted me after seeing my Ares 2 video which demonstrated that it was not a NOS dac, and after repeating the tests on the terminator plus they had with them, found that it exhibited the same behaviour.

I sent Diego my APx project file, and he ran the terminator plus through it once in ‘NOS’ and once in Sharp OS.

I’ve not heard this DAC myself (though would very much like to), and so will not make any comment on the measurements or performance and how it relates to sound, because…well…I’ve not heard it, and so it’d be silly to do so.

All measurements shown are taken in Sharp OS mode via BNC SPDIF unless otherwise specified.

– Exact analyzer/filter configurations for each measurement are detailed in the full reports
– APx Project is included in the reports folder should anyone wish to repeat this set of measurements or use it for another DAC

Full Reports:

Reports available here:

Reports contain the following measurements:

– 1khz Sine View
– 15khz Sine View
– -90.31dBfs Sine View
– Phase Response
– Filter Ultrasonic Attenuation
– 20hz-90khz RMS Noise Level
– Device Output Level (Vrms)
– 20hz-20khz Noise RMS Level
– Idle Noise FFT
– 1khz FFT (0dBfs and -3dBfs)
– 50hz FFT (0dBfs and -3dBfs)
– Effective Number of Bits (0dBfs and -3dBfs)
– THD+N (0dBfs and -3dBfs)
– THD+N / Frequency
– Dynamic Range (AES17)
– SNR
– IMD (SMPTE)
– 50hz/7khz IMD SMPTE FFT
– IMD SMPTE vs Output Level
– Linearity
– Linearity (No Bandpass)
– SINAD/Output Level
– Crosstalk / Frequency
– DC Offset when Active
– DC Offset when Idle
– 44.1khz Jitter
– 48khz Jitter
– 90khz Bandwidth test
– 32 Tone FFT
– 1.2Mhz Bandwidth Noise FFT
– 1.2Mhz Bandwidth 1khz FFT (0dBfs and -3dBfs)
– And more!

Measurements:

Dynamic Range (AES17): 125.009dB

SNR: 123.1dB (lower than dynamic range due to dual-ladder design)

DC Offset: 299uV Active, 367uV idle

1khz 0dBFS:

1khz -3dBFS:

THD+N / Frequency:

Linearity:

SINAD/THD+N vs output level:

IMD (SMPTE) vs Output Level:

Crosstalk:

-90.31dBfs 1khz Sine (Recorded with 192khz ADC Sample Rate):

Filter Ultrasonic Attenuation (OS):

Impulse Response:

As with the ares 2, the IR for NOS mode inferred from transfer function differs from the one seen when doing an actual IR test.

Actual NOS IR (2.5mhz recording rate):

Idle Noise Spectrum upto 1.2Mhz:

44.1khz Jitter (USB):

48khz Jitter (USB):

Multitone:

Note: Multitone test in the reports is erroneous due to the delay that this DAC has. This measurement was manually re-run and the result is shown below