Was I wrong? Denafrips Hades/Thallo + Hestia Review

I was puzzled by the sound of the Denafrips Hades/Thallo combination, but did I give them a fair crack of the whip? I re-evaluate them after months of use. Also, switching in the Hestia preamp threw up some surprises.

Link to global distributor, Vinshine Audio's website:

Link to my Patreon:

Time Stamps
Denafrips Hades/Thallo update 0:00
Design & features 4:46
Technical insights 6:04
Sound quality 6:47
Setup & partnering equipment 9:09
Conclusion 12:21

[LorDarkGoose]

If the Penguins of Madagascar can't change 'em nothing will! 😂

[backrack]

Not sure what the prices are for Schiit gear in the UK compared to what they are in the states. But the Freya S or Freya + is the best fully balanced preamp I've found in their price range. Now that the bitfrost 2/64 is fully balanced as well...
Guess it'll just depend what one likes. I do prefer the Denafrips Ares II over the Bitfrost 2/64 though with the Freya +.

[ioannisthpapanagiotou]

Why don't you just say that Hestia, Hades & Athena they are unity gain preamps which means zero gain preamps and zero gain preamps can't drive all power amps!
They may not be able to do it at all, in fact sometimes
For the money as preamps they do have excellent build quality but the matching of the power amp needs a lot lot of attention and knowledge
Thank you very very much

[carlitomelon]

@TheBritishAudiophile
Tarun, My Hestia12th arrived this week.
Decided to try a *balanced* SS preamp between Ares2 and Bryston B3sst.
Other pre is a Musical Paradise MP701mk2. The Hestia will give me a baseline for all the tube and capacitor rolling possibilities available🎶((😅))🎶

I had to switch the amp to higher sensitivity input and disable the automatic gain limits in BS Node2i to drive 2.2 LRS/RELs to satisfying levels.
Initial impressions are of a dense warm, full bodied, transparent presentation full of lively dynamics and with very expressive timing. Emotionally engaging !
Solid imaging and decent depth:
Had some trepidation, but NOT clinical in this setup - thanks for asking.

BTW the extra remote buttons operate my Marantz CD63, 67SE and Musical Fidelity X-ray V3 CD players
🎵🎶😁🎶🎵

[garyalexander]

Hi Tarun. Thank you for yet another brilliant review. It sounds as though the Denafrips Hades/Thallo kit benefit from a proper run-in. Unsurprisingly though, their basic sound apparently does not change, nor should it. My preference is for a warmer sound, though not to the point where everything comes to sound as though it's been covered in molasses. And that's been a challenge for me in assembling gear. For myself I've learned that what works best is starting with speakers and their interaction with the room. A safe choice in amplification is an integrated amp. But then you may be missing out on what a particular amplifier can do with your chosen speakers. I've certainly put a foot wrong more than once in this regard. It's madness of course, but loads of fun. May Queen Elizabeth II live forever in our memories.

[earthoid]

Since you asked for input, I have been looking for a good preamp to solve a mismatch in my system but I'm not sure if a preamp would be the best fix for my problem. I have the Ares 12th-1 DAC connected to the balanced input of my Parasound HINT (Halo Integrated) amp. Speakers are Salk HT-2TL.

The problem is that the balanced output of the DAC is too hot for the HINT, so the volume knob rarely goes above the 8pm position, never more than about 9:30pm even after a good beer or two. This makes setting volume a hit or miss affair especially at lower late-night volumes. The remote has wobbly buttons that don't help either, and being a resistor-ladder DAC the Ares should not be used to control volume. Using RCA interconnects instead of balanced lowers the volume about half, and since the HINT is probably not a true balanced amp it shouldn't matter which one I use.

My thinking is that a separate preamp might give me better volume control. The Schiit Kara has 3 selectable output levels and might offer a solution. Or maybe the HINT amp itself is the problem and should be replaced. Parasound will not give me a schematic, not even the part where the preamp circuit connects to the power amp so I don't want to attempt to modify the circuit without that.

[jimfarrell]

Something I have discovered relatively recently is the synergy which comes by matching different types of gear and genres of music. I now run an Allnic 300b SET amp at 12.5 watts per channel and a Kinki Studio class AB solid state amp with 215 watts and switch between them according to what I am playing. Valves for acoustic music and jazz, solid state for rock and orchestral.
Works for me though it involves a jungle of cables.

[Stevie-F]

Really enjoying your channel and views. Re matching components i have a Schiit Freya+ pre with a Bryston 4b3 at first wasn’t happy but was still running a Cyrus Dacmaster which i had for around 30 years. Changed for a Gustard x-22 dac and was blown away. All running xlr.
I stumbled across your Reviews of Pontis ii and am considering a dac upgrade soon. 👌🏼👍🏼

[isaacestep]

I use enyo, hestia, Hyperion with Klipsch heresies Iv. I really dig this combo.

[derekjarman]

Thanks for the review - I really enjoy how you show us the guts of the products you get in.

[TheChin]

Well done and thanks for hard work. It’s such a honest review. Any chance to review kinki studio ex m1+?

[mjmonjure]

Now I’m scratching my head. As you walk us through various combinations of pre amps and amps and the resulting tonality (or lack of), I seemed to have missed which DAC you were using. You mentioned the Pontus II 12 anv. (Which I recently purchased to replace my very old Burson RTR DAC), but still not sure if that is in fact the DAC used. I was days away from purchasing the Hestia and now I am definitely holding off because I, like you, do not want anything to interrupt the wonderful tonality, 3D sound from the Pontus. I think I need to keep looking for a pre amp that will not do that. I am using a Rotel 120 watt per channel, but will be receiving a new Audiophonics HPA S400 D class power amp.

[nacarp]

Hi Tarun. When you said matching your Exposure Pre to the Thallo, or the Hades to the Exposure Monoblocks, I hope you used the RCAs and not the XLRs, that is because the Exposures although having XLRs are infact single-ended connections, only 2 of the 3 pins are connected. The XLRs should only be used when connecting Exposure to Exposure, to use a more secure cable than RCA terminated cables. This and the fact that the Denafrips Pre's have virtually no gain would both be issues.

[maxadams]

Appreciate the thoughtful and careful (on-going) evaluation Tarun. I'm running Iris - Pontus2 - Hestia - Hyperion - Buchardt S400 mk2. Pretty happy with the music!

[johncallaghan]

My most significant experience with synergy relates to speaker cables. I have two systems, the main one in the lounge at around £4000, and a secondary one in my study at c. £1300. The main system is hooked up to the speakers with Tellurium Q blue II cables (about £100 for a factory-terminated pair when I bought them); the secondary one, with Audioquest FLX/SLiP 14/4 cables (self-terminated with Amazon basics bananas, about £45 in total when I bought them).

A few weeks ago, I thought I'd treat myself to two pairs of Audioquest Rocket 22 cables, one for each system, costing me £230 (a bargain price on Amazon -- should have cost me c. £400). I'm quite sure they're the genuine article, but was very disappointed when I hooked them up. Never mind, I thought, they'll break in after a week or two. But they never did and now I've changed back to my old cables, which sound MUCH better. No help for it, I'll have to sell the Rocket 22s. They've been quite heavily promoted, but to my ears they sound extremely mediocre, and not just in one system, but two.

The difference would be really obvious to anyone. My advice to someone not quite happy with their gear -- especially if they haven't yet experimented with alternative speaker cables -- is to beg, borrow or steal (don't buy buy straight away!) a few different pairs to try. They could prove to be far and away the best bang for your buck, and surprise you with how good your system can sound after all!

[kibreddy]

In my experience, cables both RCA and Speaker types, play a very important role in Synergy. You can literally tune your system when you have equipment that's not balanced. I keep a bunch of RCS's with different characteristics handy for just such an application. Furutech cables are very analytical with awesome bass definition, Acoustic Research Master series are smooth, VDH is where you go if you dont really know what you are doing and need to throw away some money fast ect..

[carlitomelon]

RIP QE² from an ex-pat Brit.
End of an era:-/

Well Tarun, that puts a nail in the Hades' coffin for me;-)
Not looking for sterile/accurate.
Love my Ares2 for that reason!
Recently acquired a Musical Paradise MP 701mk2 preamp for my Bryston 3Bsst amp. A rectifier & signal Valve and capacitor rolling "tweakstation"!
So many possibilities, but good timbRe & holographic right out of the box.
Basic model is $720+ shipping....
Review one, please?
🎶🤔🎶

PS
Burning in a high end amp in your 8year old's bedroom?
Classy!
😅

[wouterkolkman]

On synergy: I use the Denafrips Athena pre with the Denafrips T+ DAC successfully with ATC active 50s resulting in a highly resolving neutral setup which according to some outperforms systems costing considerably more. I am glad you did the re-visit and explained potential matching issues. Very interesting review as alway Tarun:-)

[brown-eyedman]

First, Tarun, I join you in mourning (from here in the States) the passing of Her Majesty the Queen. Truly a great lady.
Thanks for another entertaining and informative review. Always look forward to your videos.
Over the years I've owned several pre and power amps, and while some satisfying results could be attained by mixing and matching, the best results for me have always come from using pre/power combos from the same brand. Not sure this would apply if the pre and power were from different time periods.

[markcarrington]

Great video, Tarun. Can’t say you didn’t try! Over the last couple of years I’ve been burning in capacitors regularly in amps, speakers and cd players. I haven’t noticed vast differences, but then the changes happen slowly so I wouldn’t have expected to. It’s more of a sudden realisation one day, listening to music I haven’t heard for a while, that it sounds bigger and more open than I remember. Occasionally some edginess has gone or an instrument sounds a tad more like it should.

As regards matching, I haven’t done much, but I have a random pre/power combination which has worked out very well. I started with a NAD integrated amp in my study system, which, as with most from the brand, allows a separate power amp to be used. I rebuilt a Quad 306 to see if it could get a grip on my Monitor Audio speakers. On doing a bit of reading, I discovered Quad preamps are particularly low in output compared to the normal levels used by most other makers. This means the 306 was going to be somewhat over-sensitive with the NAD, or any other, come to that.

By swapping some resistors on the input I adjusted the sensitivity down to a more regular setting and it worked fine with the NAD. So the next obvious thing was to find a better pre-amp. Being a Musical Fidelity fan a bagged a vintage Elektra E200 for a reasonable price and that was a huge step up on the NAD. So, for me, it’s been a case of blind luck, as the amplification on my study system is now brilliant. None of it is standard and I’d be really interested to put it up against something like your Hegel.