Didn't have them at the same time, but I had the Ares, then later got the Soekris 1541 DAC/Amp (still have that). About twice as much, but definitely more refined, a bit more transparent, and I THINK a bit better extension at both frequency extremes. Twice as good? No....but better overall.
I also owned the USB-powered 1101....not as good as the desktop unit, but better than several other DAC/amp units I had tried at work.
BTW, the amp sections on the 1541 is just good, not great. A fair bit lost compared to putting the line outs to a nicer external amp. I'm using mine with an ECP DSHA-3F (custom output for the Focal phones).