 I've had many questions about which of these DAX was the best to buy. I also try to produce reviews that do not make hard statements like this, since whether a DAX is the right choice for you depends on many factors. But let's help you a little bit further here. We are talking about the Denafrips Terminator Plus, the Mola Mola Tambacchi and the Cort Dave. They range in price from €6,500 for the Denafrips, €10,000 for the Mola Mola and €10,750 for the Cort. True high-end prices for true high-end DAX. They differ not only in prices but also in features. All three have it in common that they use proprietary technology instead of off-the-shelf DAX chips. The Denafrips is a so-called R2R ladder converter that can be used as non-oversampling DAC but oversampling can be switched on if you like. In contrast to the other two DAX, it uses an FPGA for switching on the right combination of resistors to get the output voltage that corresponds to the digital code. A field-programmable gate array, simply put, is a chip that can be programmed by the equipment manufacturer. Although it uses an FPGA, it is not seen as a so-called FPGA DAC since the FPGA is not used for digital filtering and resampling. The Denafrips has no volume control and thus cannot be used to drive and power amplifier directly. It is designed to work with a pre-amp and power amp combination or an integrated amp. Both single-ended and balanced outputs are present. A headphone output and a remote control DAC. But it does have the most types of digital inputs of the three, including I2S and dual AES EVU. It is also extremely large and heavy. A link to the complete review is in the top right corner and in the show notes. The Mola Mola is an FPGA DAC. Here the FPGA has the important function of recalculating the incoming digital signal to be sent to an N-Bit DAC circuit. N-Bit is the term for converters that use a low number of bits, varying between 1 and 5 and use noise shaping to achieve the same dynamic range as a very good 24-bit ladder converter, which by the way will be around 20-bit real world. The well-known designer Bruno Petzseis was involved in the design. It offers the same type of digital inputs as the Denafrips with the exception of the dual AES EVU. From each type of input is only one available. It does not have unbalanced RCA outputs. You need to use adapters if you need RCA's for your amp. Two headphone outputs can be found on the rear, including a balanced version on XLR4. It is the only DAC here that has a Rune endpoint compatible network bridge integrated. That offers good quality, although the digital signal from my Aurelac Aries G2 gives a further improvement in sound quality. If you like, you can connect the Tumbaki directly to a power amplifier, since it has a volume control and 12V trigger outputs to switch on power amps. MolaMola offers mono power amps using an identical housing. Furthermore, it has a remote control and a small display. The cabinet is narrow and deep and has a curved top. You can stack other MolaMola products, but not other gear. Watch the full review for more information. The Core Dave also uses an FPGA for up-sampling, filtering and feeding the proprietary NVIDH DAC. It runs the renowned WTA filtering designed by Rob Watts. There are seven digital inputs but no I2S or dual AES EVU. Instead, it has a dual SPDIF input for connecting their amp scaler. There are both single-ended and balanced outputs. The single-ended headphone output is situated on the front. A large rectangular color display in the porthole gives the most information about the status of the DAC. A remote control comes with the unit. Judging sound quality is all about references. Over the past few years I used the MyTech Brooklyn DAC in my reference set of one. In recent years with a very good power supply, first the syntax and currently the firm Nipsis. Links to the reviews in the show notes. I think that for many people that already is a very fine solution. The Brooklyn offers both asymmetrical and balanced outputs and even functions as an analog preamp for line or phono input. Enable the MQA function and you activate a good sounding minimum phase filter, also when playing non-MQA tracks. The successor was the Brooklyn Plus, but soundwise and in use it differs hardly if at all. It appears that this model is end-of-life too. Still available is the version with the network bridge integrated, aptly named Brooklyn Bridge. Again these are very fine DACs that offer serious value. That doesn't mean no steps can be made further upwards in sound quality. That was one of the reasons to review the almost entire range of Denafrips DACs. For the manufacturer has created a range of products that clearly increased in sound quality every step up, ending at its pinnacle with the Terminator Plus. And it's done very skillful since the improvements are well spread over all qualities. Check out the sound quality chapters in my tests for more information. You will see that I am very enthusiastic about the sound quality of the Terminator Plus. On top of the agreeable sound quality of the Brooklyn Hipsis combo comes more detail, a more relaxed yet dynamic sound, better control of sibilance and improved spatial imaging. When the Mola Mola came in, it was immediately clear it had an even higher resolution and again larger and more precise spatial imaging. Also bass had more definition and texture and voices were cleaner. The Dave took that yet another smaller step further. The most noticeable was the very detailed texture in the bass region, an extremely good micro-dynamics. All equipment had to leave again, of course, and today I packed the Dave. A step back to the Mitake Brooklyn with Hipsis power supply made quite clear what a step up the Dave is. And it should be at around 3.5 times the price. By the way, I have been asked how these compare with earlier DAX I reviewed and I am reluctant to answer, since my set of one now uses a higher quality amp and that does make a difference. There might be one or two DAX that I might be visiting due time and provided that I can get the sample on loan again. There also is a lot to do about upsamplers, also called oversamplers or scalers. What they do is use advanced ways of improving the timer resolution. Where in a simple DAC simple pulses are rendered that equal the digital value of each sample into a voltage. This voltage is held for the duration of the sample period, after which the next sample is rendered. This results in a staircase-like waveform that is then fed through a low pass filter at half the sample frequency. This means that anything that happens within the duration of that sample is averaged. Not only the amplitude but more importantly in time. Harry Nyquist has proven in 1928 that all information within the bandwidth of half the sampling frequency is maintained when a signal is digitized. He took until 1949 for Claude Shannon to further perfect the theory. This is where this Senex-based reconstruction came from. Watch my simplified explanation in the court amp scale review. A link is in the top right corner and in the show notes. Using this theory and developments by the designers of upsamplers far better time resolution can be achieved. Given the computational power needed to do this right, good upsamplers won't be cheap. I reviewed the Orelik series G2.1 upsampler when the Terminator Plus was in the house and at that time the best DAC I had heard. The series has two modes, one optimized for NBIT converters and another for use with non-oversampling ladder DACs, like the Denafrips. And indeed, using it with the Denafrips the NOS setting gave better result while with the Brooklyn DAC the NBIT setting was better. Another advantage of the series is the wide choice of digital outputs. USB Audio Class 2, SPDIF, AES-EBU, TOSLink and Orelik's own L-Link. The court amp scale can only deliver output signals on SPDIF and dual SPDIF. SPDIF is limited to 384 kHz, dual SPDIF to 768 kHz sampling. I've tried if the dual SPDIF output would work with the dual AES-EBU inputs on the Denafrips Terminator Plus and the Venus II by the way, by using a 75 ohm to 110 ohm transformer, but apparently the metadata was not matching. This all took so much time that no time was left to test it with other DACs. But I will pick that after the summer. Choosing the best products is always a matter of combining products of equal quality. Unless you try to grow in quality and deliberately choose a product of higher quality to later on upgrade other components in your setup. And there is the factor of convenience. If you get irritated every time you use a product, you won't enjoy it. But if we prioritize sound quality, and we limit ourselves to these three DACs, I can say the following. The Denafrips Terminator Plus is a very good DAC for the money and if that's your budget, go for it. The Molo Molo Tambaki and the Core Dave are not far apart sound quality wise. I have a slight preference for the Dave, especially bass notes have so much more texture while metal instruments sound cleaner. But the Tambaki offers an integrated network bridge for ruin users and it has a wider variety of in and outputs. When we look at the combination I tested with Upsamplers, the Terminator Plus with Orelik series G2.1 brings a lot of transparency and spatial imagery. Since I have been asked, if you use this combination adding the Denafrips Gaia can be omitted. But the absolute winner for me is the Core Dave with Mscaler. There is so much detail, so much texture in the lows, extremely well controlled sibilance and a special imaging that is hard to describe other than real. It is the Core Dave with Mscaler combination I have chosen to become the new top end reference in my setup 1. This means that my setup 1 now also has two digital sources that might take Brooklyn on the lower end and the chord combo at the top. I will produce a new oversight of my reference setup within a few weeks. And on that bombshell we come to the end of this show. As usual there will be a new video next Friday at 5pm central european time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumb up, or link to this video in the social media. It is much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on the hvproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music. Butter Tambecki offers an integrated network reach for Roon users and has a wider variety and it has a wider variety and it has a wider variety and it has a wider variety and it has a wider variety