DENAFRIPS 1082119038 Terminator-Plus DAC Owner’s Manual

TERMINATOR-PLUS DAC
OWNER’S MANUAL

V1.31

 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. It weighs 20KG. Having a second person to assist would be helpful.
• Position the DAC on a stable, horizontal surface, i.e. sturdy rack. Please use the spike shoes provided for vibration control and protection of the surface.
• The DAC supports voltage 100-250VAC worldwide voltage. Please connect the AC power cord with the 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 hazards.
• 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 hazards.
• 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 are complex and may, therefore, be adversely affected or damaged by lightning. For the protection of the audio system during electrical storms, disconnect the main plugs.

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for purchasing the DENAFRIPS TERMINATOR-PLUS DAC. It is a state-of- the-art Digital to Analog Converter, one of the finest available on the market.
The TERMINATOR-PLUS DAC is built upon the success of the TERMINATOR DAC. DENAFRIPS pushes the boundaries further in all aspects, to reach new heights. The top-quality performance of the TERMINATOR-PLUS DAC is for the serious audiophile who seeks the very last bit of ultimate refinement.

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DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS

3.1 DIGITAL/ ANALOGUE ISOLATION

The TERMINATOR-PLUS Digital Processing Board and R-2R ladder network arrays are completely isolated. The two boards are physically linked by the 00(0 modules. The physical isolation yields even lowered noise-floor and achieved a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

3.2 OVEN-CONTROLLED CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR – OXO

“The best clocks are the clocks inside the DAC”.
The TERMINATOR-PLUS is equipped with dual OCXO operating at audio frequencies 45.1584Mhz, 49.152Mhz. Encapsulated in a metal casing, located at the center of the DAC, these OCXO are specially designed for high-end audio applications with ultra-low phase-noise and ultra-accuracy. The dual OCXO is powered by the completely redesigned power supply circuitry (encapsulated, shielded, underneath the mainboards), supplying a constant current to the OCXO. The adequate power reserves ensure the linearity and stability of the OCXO.

3.3 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 ultra-low phase noise, ultra- accuracy OCXO, located right in the DAC.
This technology Is close to perfection, especially so with the local OCXO. The Jitter is so small that It can be neglected.

3.4 I2S INPUT

TERMINATOR-PLUS comes with three (3) types of 12S Input. Despite the 125 Input has no Industrial standard, it is probably the best digital Input interface to date. NOTE: DENAFRIPS cannot guarantee compatibility with other 12S devices.

3.5 PROPRIETARY, STATE-OF-THE-ART USB INTERFACE

The TERMINATOR-PLUS is equipped with the proprietary USB Audio Solution, powered by STM32F446 Advanced AMR Based MCU. DENAFRIPS redesigned and optimized circuitry, allows the DAC to be used as a high-end DAC with computers/streamers. It supports 24bit/1536kHz• PCM data stream and native decoding of DSD up to DSD1024•. It comes with a licensed THESYCON USB Driver for Windows Platform.

NOTE: The USB Module is designed to trigger 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.

3.6 PROPRIETARY SPDIF DIGITAL AUDIO RECEIVER

The SPDIF Coaxial, Optical, AES/EBU input support up to 24bit/192kHz digital audio format. The TERMINATOR-PLUS abandon the use of the Digital Audio Receiver chip. The digital data is decoded by the on-board FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), the signal path is shortened and eliminated the undesirable coloration.

3.7 NOS/OS

The TERMINATOR-PLUS allows 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 the DSO audio signal.

3.8 PROPRIETARY R-2R AND DSD DECODING ARCHITECTURE

The TERMINATOR-PLUS Is equipped with 2681t R-2R DAC to decode the PCM data stream and 32 steps FIR analog filters hardware decoder to decode the 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 current market that an R-2R DAC can hardware decode both the PCM and DSD formats.
3.9 DAC ARCHITECTURE

DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING — All digital input data are stored in the onboard FPGA high­speed RAM.

OCXO — These data are read from the memory using the ultra-low phase noise, super-accurate OCXO, 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 an analog 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 a low thermal effect temperature coefficient of the low 10/15ppm.

OPERATING INSTRUCTION

4.1 Quick Start Guide

1. Standby Button
   Press the button once to switch on the DAC, vice versa, press once to put 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 + / Input – :
   Press the buttons to select the input source, namely, COAX, AES1, AES2, OPT, I2S-A, I2S-B, I2S-C, USB. 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. PHASE
   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 indicates the DAC is in NOS mode.
   d. MUTE
   Press the button to enable/disable Mute. When mute, the Input Signal LED will be blinking from Left to Right.

3. Digital Audio Signal Input Sampling Rate
   The following table illustrate the Input Sampling Rate LED status.

Table 1. Sampling Rate

1. Filter Selection (Effective in OS Only)
   1. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode
   2. Press the Mode momentarily
   •1X LED On, 8X LED On = Slow Filter
   •1X LED Off, 8X LED On = Sharp Filter
   3. Wait for 10s
   4. DAC back in operational mode

2. Dual AES/EBU Input
   1. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode
   2. Press the INPUT+ momentarily, AES 1, AES 2 LED will turn on/off
   •AES1 On = Dual AES/EBU Input Enabled
   • AES2 Off = Dual AES/EBU Input Disabled
   3. Wait for 10s
   4. DAC back in operational mode

3. I²S Pinout Configuration
   1. Select I²S-A Input
   2. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode
   3. Press the Phase button momentarily, 1X 2X 4X will turn on/off in a fixed pattern to
   denote binary 000-111
   •PSAUDIO I²S Standard = 1X On, 2X 4X Off = 100
   4. Wait for 10s
   5. DAC back in operational mode

4. I²S DSD Channel Swap Configuration
   1. Select I²S-A Input
   2. Press the Mute button once to enter configuration mode
   3. Press the NOS button momentarily
   •COAX On = DSD Channel Swap
   •AES1 On = Normal
   4. Wait for 10s
   5. DAC back in operational mode

I²S Pinout Configuration

MODE LED

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12S PINOUT

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lx| 2X| 4X| | PIN| DATA| | BCK| LRCK
| DATA| BCK| LRCK| | MODE| 1| 3| 4| 6| 7| 9
0| 0| 0| 0| | 0| DATA-| DATA+| BCK+| BCK-| LRCK-| LRCK+
1| 1| 0| 0| | 1| DATA+| DATA-| BCK+| BCK-| LRCK-| LRCK+
2| 0| 1| 0| | 2| DATA-| DATA+| BCK-| BCK+| LRCK-| LRCK+
3| 1| 1| 0| | 3| DATA+| DATA-| BCK-| BCK+| LRCK-| LRCK+
4| 0| 0| 1| | 4| DATA-| DATA+| BCK+| BCK-| LRCK+| LRCK-
5| 1| 0| 1| | 5| DATA+| DATA-| BCK+| BCK-| LRCK+| LRCK-
6| 0| 1| 1| | 6| DATA-| DATA+| BCK-| BCK+| LRCK+| LRCK-
7| 1| 1| 1| | 7| DATA+| DATA-| BCK-| BCK+| LRCK+| LRCK-

Table 2. I2S PINOUT CONFIGURATION

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Description:

1. AC Power Supply
   CAUTION! TERMINATOR-PLUS supports worldwide AC mains, ranging from 100-250VAC. Please use a good quality power cord with earth/ground pin connected

2. Analog Audio Signal Output
   Balanced output via XLR (pin2 hot), singled ended output via RCA. The TERMINATOR-PLUS is a true balanced DAC, we recommend using balanced output whenever possible. The RCA and XLR output is shared, please use either of the output at a time. It is not recommended
   to use both RCA and XLR output simultaneously.

3. Digital Input Interface
   ** There are 8 Digital Input Interfaces, namely, COAX, AES1, AES2, OPT, I2S-A, I2S-B, I2S-C, USB. I2S-A HDMI (LVDS)| I2S-B (LVDS)| I2S-C RJ45 (LVCMOS)**
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4.   CLOCK OUT
   The TERMINATOR-PLUS supports the following clock frequencies output, leveraging the high-quality internal OCXO, you may sync the audio equipment clocks to improve the sonic performance.

MASTER CLOCK

• 45.1584MHz, 49.152Mhz
• 22.5792Mhz, 24.576Mhz

WORD CLOCK

• 44.1KHz, 48KHz

CLOCK-OUT Configuration

1. Press Mute button to engage mute/setting mode

2. Press the Input- button momentarily multiple times. The LED light up in the following sequence as you press/release the Input- button
   o COAX (No output)
   o AES1 (44.1K/48K)
   o AES2 (24/25Mhz)
   o OPT (45/49Mhz)
   o I2S-A (Clock out disable, note that CLOCK LED will be off too)

3. To confirm the setting, wait for 10s, the DAC shall be back to the operation mode

Use Case Examples:

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

1. Download the driver from the support page: https://www.denafrips.com/support
2. Do not connect the USB cable from the computer to the DAC. Remove it before the USB driver installation
3. Double click the “DENAFRIPS_UsbAudio_v4.82.0” (or the latest version) to install the USB driver.
4. Follow the on-screen instruction to complete the installation

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• 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

• Select DENAFRIPS USB DAC as default Windows OS Soundcard

Playback software-recommendation:

• roon
• JRiver
• Foobar2000
• Sonicstudio Amarra

 SPECIFICATIONS

Description

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Parameters

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AC Power|

Worldwide AC Power Supported 110 – 230V, 50/60Hz In 110VAC mains, the min voltage ranges from 92V to max 126V In 230VAC mains, the min voltage ranges from 184V to max 253V

Power Consumption| < 30W
Frequency Response| 20-40KHz -0.2dB
THD+N| 0.0010% (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 & I2S Only
Supported Format (PCM)| 24bit/44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz All Input 44.1 — 1536 kHz USB & I25 Only
5/N Ratio| 122dB(RCA), 127dB(XLR)
Dynamic Range| >132dB
Stereo Crosstalk| -110dB
Dimension| 430380105 mm
Weight| 19.0kg

WARRANTY

DENAFRIPS TERMINATOR-PLUS purchased from the Authorized Distributor comes with 36 months of warranty from the date of purchase/delivery (whichever later).

cover the return shipping fee.
Within warranty period| Customer to bear both way shipping fee. DENAFRIPS to repair free of charge.
Out of Warranty| Customer to bear both ways shipping cost. DENAFRIPS to provide repair/maintenance services at cost.

10th June 2021
© DENAFRIPS CO. LTD. & VINSHINE AUDIO PTE. LTD. (SINGAPORE)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

References

• SUPPORT | Denafrips

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