Sounds interesting can’t wait. R2R vs Tube… 
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Finally managed to get the Pasithea DAC on some speakers, i plugged it in for 12 hrs overnight to make sure the parts inside warmed up and it has been plugged in continuously on my HP set-up previous to the 10 mins i had it powered down to swap locations.
As an FYI, the B3 currently is running a slightly mid forward but mostly neutral tube compliment, just shy of $1k’s worth of hard to find tubes that were researched and based on the experiences of more experienced tube rollers than I.
The Pasithea is allowing the low end to present itself w/ a bit more energy, the subs are a bit more present. I will eventually try it on the speakers w/ no subs in the system to see if there is any better texture and presence beyond the B3.
My system is already pretty mid-centric w/ speakers, tubes and amplifiers. I am well pleased with these pieces to give me great midrange. The Pasithea is a beautiful compliment there, no less texture or clarity that i can discern based on a few albums tried.
It’s not throwing sound behind me like the B3 is capable of doing on some tracks, i think its because i’m using the Nordost tyre2 USB as opposed to my Callisto, the sound stage is not as overly expansive but the Nordost USB is known to me to pull the stage in a bit left and right. The sound depth is focused a bit more forward between the speakers, the B3 is well behind…all the way to the back wall on many albums.
Background blackness is excellent, as promised by the mfgr. This helps bring out great detail and separation, nothing unnatural in the presentation and it does not feel as slightly over emphasized as the B3 can be, which i happen to love. 
The slight bottom end exaggeration I’m getting currently is adding some very pleasant warmth to the speakers, Decware Tube Tots, it fits the speaker character well and the bottom end is blending nicely on the vocal centric music I’m listening to.
These are the stand out thoughts i have at the moment. I have locked the volume and am using it fixed. USB input direct from Innuos Zenith mk3, i don’t feel lacking in what I’m feeding it.
I need more time to figure out where it may be lacking or other benefits it can provide and what it does w/ more speaker combos and livelier music genre’s. Nothing negative at all to say, I’m feeling very positive about this unit, really liking the R2R implementation and ease of use so far 
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Additionally, i am being forced to listen to music with my eyes closed, I’ve got a stye on my eye that is requiring warm compresses regularly and my hearing is hyper focused. There is a very nice crispness along many notes that’s very pleasant, a sharp level of detail that the B3 does not capture, more akin to the kind of detail the Berkeley DAC presents but less than it. It’s honestly somewhere in-between and i like it very much.
I’ve also noted what i believe is called decay at an additional level w/ some instruments. A bit more of the notes as they trail off…I’m not experienced enough to give expert details on these types of characteristics but i’m getting good ear time and using familiar music catching some very pleasant characteristics of this unit.
I’m very curious to try this unit w/ the volume control in play and play w/ the feature that lets you adjust the output for various amplifiers…
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I’m still under the weather and listening mostly with eyes closed…This is a good thing, it really allows me to concentrate and I’ve been able to focus well.
This morning i connected the Sonnet Pasithea direct to Radu Shiny Eyes amplifier via RCA’s feeding a pair of Tube Tots, for shits & grins i am choosing to go with NO subs just to get a feel for a most minimal chain and abilities.
This is a large room with 18ft ceiling and the speakers are placed many feet away from the walls and fully 1/3 into the room, bottom end is light w/ no walls or corners to help reinforce the lower frequencies a pair of good subs really is night and day difference in this situation. Despite this though we have an energetic presentation, Bubbles by Yosi Horikawa which has become a go to for me in testing space, imaging, depth, separation, soundstage, and height gave an admirable presentation. Think, from the John Wick soundtack was throwing a properly wide soundstage, about 3 ft to either speaker, NICE Height was good and tall and the center image is and continues to float just forward between the speakers. There are absolutely instruments and sounds behind the speakers but unlike the B3 which has put the musicians well behind the speakers 4 ft back to the wall, the Sonnet unit is not going deep and rearward w/ the center image. It’s a thing, it’s all good, we have a nice holographic image w/ a slightly different presentation. Male vocals, via Gregory Porters, God Bless the Child were Chantal Chamberland, Temptation was rich and so pleasureful to listen to. Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra sounded full and rich, the bottom end bloom in the song was all there.
As my mixed playlist of well recorded tracks of various genre’s moved on and my ears settled into the sound, bass details if not the powerful energy, presented themselves well through more and more music that does not focus on the energy level itself in the recording. This is where the energetic nature of the DAC’s presentation really paid off for me. I can see this piece growing on a person and remaining an engaging well appreciated DAC.
I know full well I can’t break down my experiences well and detailed enough to give you guys the details and information you may desire to make a purchase, many of you are so well advanced and beyond where i may ever get in my abilities to break down the fine nuances presented in music. For the more average user though, i can say all the music i listened to today was enjoyable, extremely so. There was really good energy, nothing felt flat or dry, this combo of DAC and amplifier presented slightly warm and rich in the middle with allot of good energy there. The top and bottom ends were on the light side, both rolled off and within the limitations of the speakers and amplifier in this particular room. I was only using 6wpc, on diminutive 12” speakers, which use a pair of 4” drivers, in about 9000 cubic feet of room volume w/ no subs 
hehehe. All pieces performed exemplary, the Sonnet Pasithea working as both a DAC and pre-amplifier did a wonderful job.
The details as i see them on using the Sonnet Pasithea as both a DAC and pre-amplifier/volume source;
The screen is small, but that’s not much of an issue since it doesn’t really offer up too much info or get busy. There is a way to turn it off for those who prefer no light sources. The remote is solid aluminum, the buttons are in a logical order w/ power way up top and volume controls at the bottom. Solid and positive feel on the buttons but they DO make a positive clicking noise each time engaged, thus going up or down in volume will entail also listening to multiple clicks. It’s not bad or good, just figured i would mention the “clicky” noise.
Most of the time, I choose to use the RCA connections to my amplifiers, it’s my preferred choice unless I need to make a longer run beyond 1 or 2 meters. In this instance i tried the XLR connection but was unsuccessful in getting the DAC to mate w/ the amp, i think this is where the internal setting of the DAC in appropriately mating it to an amplifier come into play. I was too lazy to read through the instructions so off to my standard RCA we went. The RCA connection was straightforward and painless. I used a mid-quality high end RCA of some type, I honestly don’t keep track of my cables.
And now, what we have all been waiting for in this lengthy, overly detailed and drawn out post, the volume control. The volume control worked well, very well, I am pleased and despite my general dislike for volume control on my DAC’s i had no issues or complaints. As both a DAC and combination pre-amp/volume control there is value and quality offered up by the Sonnet Pasithea.
I can thus far heartily recommend this DAC for someone who wants the R2R chipset, may need a pre-amp/active volume control, and who would prefer a more energetic presence in their DAC. Thus far the pieces i have mated w/ the Pasithea are tuned and play to the warmer, richer, sound signatures I prefer and at no point has this been a concern or has the DAC over-emphasized anything so much that it felt unnatural or off. This piece was an impulse acquisition for me, i really thought i was gonna turn around and sell it along w/ my B3 and look for another DAC upgrade, I’ve got more DAC’s than systems to run them in. I like this DAC enough though to sit on it a good while longer. A very good front end is important in your system, I swear by it, the Sonnet Pasithea is kicking ass and in all honesty I’m not sure what i want or expect beyond the level of performance it or the B3 can provide. 
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Very well done!!! Did you ever connect it to a separate preamp?
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Negative, I have not had an opportunity to run it off of a pre-amplifier yet. I have locked in the volume and run it directly to 2 integrated amplifiers.
For HP use I fed my PASS HPA-1 and for 2 channel my VInnie Rossi L2iSE.
Those were my initial impressions captured in the first post.
The posts captured afterwards were 2 channel using a different amp and using the volume control on the Pasithea itself.
I will at some point incorporate it into a system using a pre-amp in line and capture any impressions of they vary at all from my current understanding of the unit or it’s performance. The more pieces incorporated in-line though make it very difficult to narrow down performance characteristics to a single piece because the variables go up so much now that multiple pieces and in my case tubes too are now influencing the sound character and performance parameters. I’ll do my best to offer honest impressions.
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The Sonnet Pasithea is currently my favorite HP use DAC. I have put more time in using HP’s lately simply because I have finally stumbled onto a combination of equipment that I find exciting, vivid, energetic, and dimensionally pleasing that is beyond just good, it’s actually really good well beyond what the standard level of good is. 
I managed to clean up my HP only rack and put some effort into it. What I came up with is not unreasonable using older somewhat attainably priced equipment and it’s genuinely providing me a fun and well above average experience, finally best tuned to what I am realizing is my own preference for how I want the sound between my ears to play when I can focus on listening 
My desk/office set-up has a neutral somewhat warm easy to listen to sound character. I use it when working, paying bills and researching the internet. My preference there is background music that doesn’t interrupt my thought process and I have spent years keeping the overall signatures there within those confines. Sometimes I stumbled through the process, other times failed completely, but as my desire to avoid adding more gear to my desktop grew I basically stopped upgrading and left things alone, if for no other reason I just didn’t want more beyond what I was getting there.
I keep a smallish rack for HP use in my smaller listening room, it’s not much, it’s easy to access and swap pieces around and best of all it’s compact enough that I can keep cable runs short and clean.
—-The Sonnet Pasithea DAC has found a proper long term home in this location mated to a SoTM “triple stack” streamer, LPS and USB regen which is fed to an older Matrix2 DDC. I keep the DDC in-line because i want to, not because i have to.
—The SoTM stack are fed via fiber converted ethernet, then an Ideon USB cable feeds the streamer from the USB regen which in turn feeds a Nordost TYRE2 USB to the Matrix2 DDC. The DDC feeds a DH labs AES to the Pasithea, This a ridiculously mismatched and improperly priced set-up and i simply do it because i can and have no desire to lose hundreds of dollars trying to sell/trade etc. cables to either get matched or better researched cable. It all works fine.
—The USB input of the Pasithea has not caused me any consternation and the USB output of the SoTM stack keeps very tight and noise free control of the USB feed.
Front end is important, I use ROON exclusively with this SoTM set-up, I am unable to stream music otherwise. The Sonnet Pasithea was a good deal I stumbled across via my audio dealer, i was familiar w/ the company, and was aware they use a pretty cool R2R set-up that i was excited to experience. I took an educated chance on the DAC based on getting a good deal and boy was i happy, I stumbled onto personal nirvana by dumb luck of being at the right place at the right time 
I’m a sucker for spatial cues; all the elements of soundsatge; height, depth, width great separation within that space and a center image i can well visualize. The Pasithea along with the other elements associated w/ this particular set-up has satiated me thus far while also providing a very lively sound character with allot of pop everywhere. It’s not neutral in any way i can think of, on the contrary i feel the DAC emphasizes a bit across the board, no warmth, no laid back, no neutrality…It’s a snap, crackle, and pop show all the way. I know this has got to be one of the worst descriptions ever but I just don’t know how else to describe what I am experiencing as such a lively character that also does spatial cues better than anything else in my small stable of equipment
Lastly, I’m not going to pretend it’s just the DAC, i know it’s not because i fed my 2 channel stuff with it, i liked what it does but did NOT fall in love w/ it till i went to HP use. That’s where i finally found a component w/ the spicy zest i did not know i was missing/lacking until i finally experienced it for myself. I would replace the SoTM stack in a heart beat to get another Innuos Pulse or the mini so that i could stream using the Sense software, I think that would put me over the top in resolution ability using the Pasithea, i feel its an extremely competent DAC.
DAC’s are stupidly hard to describe and usually I stick to the elements i can most clearly define, visualize, hear and put to words. The Pasithea provides more and I hope others do a better job at capturing and putting to words it’s abilities and character, i wanted to add my ramblings to the collective for whatever it’s worth, I’ve had some time and the inclination lately to try and put anything that could be useful to folks in writing. 
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I enjoyed reading through your impressions of the Pasithea going back to January. I like how you describe things in simpler terms or use phrases like snap, crackle, and pop, that made perfect sense to me.
I’ve been considering different dacs to try in my headphone system to replace the Bricasti MC1 or just offer a different flavor to that dac. Recently the only dac I was considering was the Meitner MA3 but I’ll have to add the Pasithea to the list since it sounds like a dac I’d enjoy.
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Thank you @Christof. I appreciate the kind words and encouragement.
I have difficulty capturing musical character appropriately no matter how many times I read through the musical terms and try to grasp them. I can talk about sound and the other senses in me that It wakes up and speaks to when it’s played so I am very happy to know that at least some folks can relate 
Always go back and read my other posts too to see where things cross paths or if there are blaring disparities so that I can go back and listen again. The equipment changes so often I’m never sure if I am capturing the effects of the proper piece. I try real hard though.
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Just received a Hermes I picked up off USAM. Only had a half hour to listen but I’m impressed so far. I had some anxiety about the weird ethernet I2S and then just realized I don’t even have a use case for the I2S since none of my headfi DACs have that input 
So far in about half an hour or so got to listen last night it seemed to squarely beat the bluesound node I had, and might be besting the Matrix Audio X-SPDIF 3 I had hooked up to my PC.
Right now I’m using it’s Coax out which I think according to the website is galvanically isolated which is something I hadn’t really seen before over a boomslang into my Chord TT2
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After a week or so of listening to it knowing that you’ve gotten to know it’s sound. Try it with the Matrix between it and the Chord. Hermes > Matrix > Chord and see what you think.
Matrix only has usb in and I don’t the the Sonnet has a USB out.
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just looked at the back, yeap.