Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE impressions

Just use a standard HDMI, nothing expensive (even cheap ones are fine). Length is best kept to under 3 meters since that's are long as we have done much testing with. As for pin out it looks like the Holo Spring 3 KTE I2S mode ALT 1 matches our current pinout. Note that future versions of the PI2AES (after January next year) and Mercury from the start will use the PS Audio pinout which would be mode HOLO (ALT 0?)

 

I'll be getting the loaner in soon. Any consensus about the performance of single ended vs balanced on this DAC?

 

Thanks, I thought I looked through the thread but that must've been the May thread.

 

HOLO SPRING 3 KTE vs YGGDRASIL LIM

Magnavox CDB650 CD transport + USB from computer ---> Schiit Yggdrasil LIM + Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE (USB + AES input via BNC to AES adapter.... SE output used on both) ---> Eddie Current ZDSE ---> Focal Utopia + Focal Clear + Sennheiser HD650 KISS Modded

I've been lucky enough to have both the Yggdrasil LIM and Holo Spring 3 KTE loaners at the same time. Both of these DACs have been on my radar as my potential next DAC purchase and I'm very thankful to this community for the opportunity to try and compare them both.

Let me start out by saying I have a long history with Schiit DACs so have an immediate bias, but for good reason. I started my headphone journey with them after buying a Magni/Modi combo back in 2014 or so, and eventually worked my way up to a modi multibit, Bifrost 4490, Gungnir Multibit A1, Bifrost 2, and eventually an A2 Gungnir and A2 Yggdrasil. All of these DACs have been amazing in one way or another, but the Yggdrasil blew me away more than any of them. In fact, to this day the Yggdrasil A2 may be the most impressive piece of gear I've heard outside my old Eddie Current 445 and current ZDSE.

The Yggdrasil is just beyond words in its ability to portray a realistic and pleasing soundscape. Doubly so with classical music. My only gripes with the Yggdrasil A2 was the long warmup time (yes, I noticed continuous changes until it settled after 3 weeks of being left on), and gimped single ended outputs.

The LIM was supposed to solve all these problems as well as present a blacker background, so you can imagine how excited I was to receive this loaner.

NOS is the wild card in this situation because I don't have a ton of experience with it. NOS DACs have become all the rage lately, and I had to know what all the fuss was about. @Erroneous was nice enough to loan me his modded MHDT Paradisea+, a very nice implementation of NOS I've come to realize, but decidedly mid-fi and not enough DAC for my ZDSE longterm. Hence my interest in exploring the NOS sound in better implementations via the Holo Spring 3 KTE and seeing if it can seduce me away from the Schiit camp.

Both of these DACs are extremely competitive. They take the sound of the ZDSE up a major notch, creating a very enticing and at times, magical listening experience. But they are also different in how they present music.

But before we get to the sound, let's talk looks and functionality. I mean, these are very different design philosophies in not only sound but looks. On the surface, the Holo just looks cooler because there is more going on... more functionality. And I really like the bronze on black aesthetic. It is a much more modern looking piece of gear. But I still really like the give no fucks, utilitarian, iconoclastic look of Schiit gear. The Holo will satisfy those after a more "lifestyle" looking piece of gear... not meant as an insult, but it is what it is. The Yggdrasil has its own thing going on and I still like it. I honestly don't prefer one to the other in the looks department as they are both very visually pleasing. In fact, they each kind of visually reinforce their sound philosophies. Modern vs. classic. I do like that the Holo comes with a remote though and has more input and sampling rate options.

On the Yggdrasil single ended and XLR sounded 99% identical. The Holo's SE sounded slightly worse than XLR, but did not sound gimped. I also felt Unison was better implemented than whatever USB the Holo was using... not bad at all, but Unison is just that good.

Upon first being switched on, both DACs sounded pretty good. The Yggdrasil kind of congested and the Holo a little bright and edgy but both listenable. The LIM settled after 24 hours and I didn't detect any changes after that, something I was very happy about, as I'm used to longer warm up times with the TOTL Schiit DACs. The Holo on the other hand didn't sound great to me until day 6, when it finally seemed to settle... before that it was shouty and lacking nuance. I was actually close to writing it off, as the LIM was clearly superior in every way during those 6 days, but I'm happy to report it did settle after about a week and became more competitive.

The Holo is the more vivid of the two. It is a more "showy" sounding DAC, with cleaner/sharper leading edges, richer, more colorful overtones and ultimately a more "hi-fi" tuning. That's going to be some people's thing and other people's deal breaker. The Yggdrasil was more "normal" sounding (not to be confused with boring), in the sense that it does not call attention to itself... I found it to be more even handed in its delivery of musical information (by a significant margin) and more "mature" sounding overall... as if one is designed by an up and coming ace technical genius eager to show off (this is not an insult btw), and the other designed by an older wise sage, who has seen it all and is tired of drama and just wants to get back to basics (guess which DAC designer is which). Both approaches are completely worthy of consideration and it's going to come down to priorities for people looking to up their DAC game (or simplify it).

Blackground was truly impressive on the Holo, blackest I've heard but with no "black hole sucking in plankton" effect I've heard with other blackground inducing gear. Yggdrasil is close, and has a noticeably blacker background than the A2, but slightly falls short of the Holo. Honestly, I'm not too bothered by the whole blackground thing unless the greyness is truly distracting and so far it hasn't been with any DAC I've heard. But I do appreciate the darker backgrounds since they seem to allow the music to "pop" more... this is doubly so on the Holo.

The major takeaway in this comparison is that the Yggdrasil seems to resolve noticeably more musical information, the stuff buried under the surface of notes. The Holo has brighter overtones, a kind of "hi-fi sheen" to the sound that pushes everything to the forefront. The Yggdrasil is more nuanced in that there are more layers to notes.... soft notes have a more gradual progression to bigger notes, leading to crescendos which are more impactful since there is more contrast between sounds... the ebbs and flows of a track more faithfully reproduced. The Holo seems to place a little more emphasis on everything both big and small to the point where the intensity and velocity of notes was a little too similar to sound totally realistic to me... a more vivid/surreal approach to music, which some may like. Reminds me of Convert 2. The Holo is more nuanced than the Convert 2, but it has the same kind of aggressive overtly macro bias I heard with that DAC. The Holo is also very good at highlighting specific musical moments and making them distinct. Like the rattle of a tambourine or the sizzle of an electronic note. As a result, the entire soundscape becomes more "exciting", as if one is watching a digitally shot 3-D movie. Yggdrasil is more 70mm film with its liquid grainy textures and endlessly nuanced layers.

All this was subtle but noticeable on the gear I was using... really most stuff involving DACs is subtle, but these subtleties can completely color a listening experience so it's important to address it. Reviews are always going to magnify issues out of proportion though, relative to what is ultimately going to be someone's DAC listening in isolation... where there are just enjoying the gear they're using. In isolation, the Holo is an insanely compelling piece of gear... the blackground was actually incredible to witness... sounds just emanating from nothing... there is also a ton of resolution, competitive with Yggdrasil, with noticeably better clarity and bass slam than the LIM (which is no slouch). So my seemingly backhanded compliments like "3D" and "hi-fi" with regard to the Holo should be taken with a grain of salt. But I heard more plankton and spatial cues on the Yggdrasil... the fine grit of a violin was more audibly rendered... voices sounded more fleshed out and the Yggdrasil was slightly thicker overall, with a more organic sound, but not unrealistic in any way. Piano especially sounded strikingly better on Yggdrasil.

Staging is kind of a non issue since I was using headphones, but even still, The Holo had a deeper stage, with more air between notes, giving the impression of a larger stage, but they were too close to call one better or more accurate.

The Yggdrasil ultimately revealed itself as more magical and beguiling, having the ability to maintain a level of engagement that was extremely satisfying... it has this impressive liquid smoothness without anything being goo-ified or truncated. While remaining very clear and distinct. It just sounded much closer to live music, like most of the Schiit multibit DACs, but this one feeling more even tempered. The Spring on the other hand, while exciting and grand, seemed a bit more "gimmicky" for lack of a better term, in its presentation... having a "vivid mode" quality. The Yggdrasil was much more of a chameleon.

With the Yggdrasil LIM it just felt like I was always hearing what the musician intended. The Holo seemed to have its own interpretation of music, perfectly valid for those who are into that interpretation which is exciting and dazzling. And I do think it is absolutely worth auditioning the Holo to come to your own conclusions here. It is a worthy piece of gear.

Pricing has to be taken into account here, since the Spring 3 is more expensive than the Yggdrasil, but I felt the Yggdrasil was the better performing DAC on a technical level. Emotionally it's going to come down to the subjective feelings of the listener, but Yggdrasil was more emotionally engaging to me. On the other hand, the Holo's greater feature set (NOS/OS/DSD/I2S, etc) may make up the difference, so it's going to come down to what people are after. Anyone running CD transports or simple USB without the need for a bunch of extras and who are not into hi-fi/vivid-mode tuning should seriously look at the Yggdrasil LIM. Anyone looking for all the bells and whistles and likes a kind of amped up presentation would be wise to seriously consider the Spring 3.

That said, a choice must be made and I've chosen the Yggdrasil LIM as my next DAC purchase. It's just a crazy, extraordinary piece of gear I can't pass up the opportunity to have in my system.

NOTE: My thoughts about the Holo were consistent over NOS/44.1 Redbook and NOS/upsampling 44.1 redbook to 8x, 16x rates as well as DSD. The upsampled material fared slightly better but the issues remained consistent regardless.

 

Filter (and modulator for DSD) choices here? For my Spring 2 KTE, I just upsample 44.1 and 48 2x with Roon's sharp linear phase filter. For my May KTE (main system at a different location) I've started using HQPlayer with @winders filter/modulator recommendation to DSD256.

I also own an Y. A2 I can also hear some of the "old wisdom" vs "new school" differences between it and the Holo DACs that you documented so well. But with the Roon filter, and more so with that HQPlayer recipe, I found that the Y. A2 ended up behind, confusingly sounding both a bit slower and a bit harsh in the upper mids (amps: ecp DSHA-3F, Ec Af, BW2; headphones: ZMF Verité open and closed, Auteur).

 

This is what has kept me from getting one it's not just you. I heard this with the A1 Gungnir too even with "smooth" upstream gear.

 

My $0.02.

Yggdrasil A2 and Gungnir A2 have good synergy with my ZDSE, but not as much with Studio B. Holo Spring 2 KTE has much better synergy with the Studio B but not so much with ZDSE. This is definitely a case of synergy makes a difference.

 

I tend to agree with @atomicbob that synergy matters. I compared a bifrost 2 to the Holo Spring 3 KTE with my Kenzie Ovation. Owning both DACs, it was only a question of which would remain on my headphone vs 2.1 rig. I simply enjoyed the KTE with the Kenzie Ovation more. 4x oversampling from my Roon Core with USB sounded slightly more intimate and vivid to me with the KTE. Thanks to my switching setup, I could easily swap between either DAC. All evaluation was done sighted and roughly level matched.

Now like other SBAF members, I use a Pi2AES with HQPlayer over I2S into the KTE. I enjoy the ability to mix and match DSP settings to the music and my mood.

 

It was either JRiver upsampling or HQplayer ASDM7/poly-sinc-ext2 DSD 64/128 (computer couldn't handle anything higher). I didnt care for any of the upsampling, as it sounded softer and less engaging than NOS 44.1 redbook. DSD 64 was my preferred OS if I had to use it.

 

Holo would agree with you, as they say good quality USB sounds the best with their DACs

 

Looks like gear synergy and personal taste are playing a role... Although I love the NOS redbook tonal density with Holo DACs, I find the result a bit smeared, which is why I've been exploring external upsampling. For the Spring 2 KTE, the simple 2x linear upsampling I'm using reduces smear while preserving the other qualities I like in the DAC. For the May, the following in HQPlayer -- 1x Filter: poly-sinc-gaus-xla, Nx Filter: poly-sinc-gaus-hires-lp, Modulator: ASDM7ECv2, Output: DSD256 -- does not sound soft at all, it gives excellent leading edge definition and nice decays without any harshness. In NOS, May is more precise, less smeared than Spring 2, but the above preprocessing get it to an even better place, at least for my source material and other gear.

 

I didn't find any kind of smear with any of the modes on the Spring 3.

 

Playback chain: Roon > USB/Pi2AES via AES > Spring3KTE/Yggdrasil A2 > SE out/Bal out via PO-2XLR transformer > Saga OG > DNA Starlett > Utopia/FA D8000 Pro

First Impressions:

For a first date given Holo's confidence in its USB input I decided to start out using it, SE out, comparing directly to Yggdrasil A2 Bal out to Jensen transform to SE Starlett. The Holo is immediately impressive in its technical ability. Being a microdetail/plankton whore I noticed how I am having trouble distinguishing which DAC is superior in this area. Being slightly less "thick" in character, particularly in the low mids/bass, the Holo at first wants to trick you into believing it is the more detailed, but soon I realized I was hearing a lightness/clarity in this area without actual increased detail. Looking for the differences in initial attack/decay that I expected given others impressions, but again this is very hard to distinguish...perhaps the Holo's decay occurring a touch faster into a "blackground", whereas the Yggdrasil A2's character is a bit more "denser". The headstage of the Holo is slightly deeper, but only just, whereas the Yggdrasil's is slightly wider. When combined with the above differences there is a small delta in overall image precision/separation, but again it's not "better" then the Yggdrasil A2, just "different". That said it has me wondering if it would make more of an impact in a two channel situation.

When A/B different test tracks, I found myself liking what the Holo did on some, and what the Yggdrasil A2 did on others. In fact it is about 50/50. A certain Cowboy Junkies track would benefit from the Holo's clarity in the bass, where as a string quartet would benefit from the Yggdrasil's beguiling "denser" character. Both render the timbre and overtones of piano very well, but again slightly differently.

So my initial thoughts are that these two dacs are extremely comparable, more alike than different, and what is different is just that - different and entirely a question of preference. Notice my liberal use of adverbs such as "slightly"

I will update this post over the next week as spend more time with it, trying the AES input fed via Pi2AES, etc. I quickly settled on up-sampling 44.1/48 khz content to 176.4/192 via Roon's precise linear phase filter (I left 88.2/96 content native) as this seemed a touch better in Holo's NOS mode. I will try the Holo's internal up-sampling functionality later, though I probably won't mess with DSD as I own so little of that...

Update:

Last night I spent some quality time with the Holo, not A/Bing but listening straight through to familiar albums of small ensemble Jazz. 2.5 things stood out:

• The Holo's headstage (and thus noticed separation) really is superior to the Yggdrasil's (at least in my chain). First your sitting farther back, which when combined with more depth allows a larger, more "3D" illusion of space. Throw in the half step of clarity over the Yggdrasil to the effect as well, and you notice a real sense of space, whereas the Yggdrasil presents a smaller, more front row "intimate" experience that still has plenty of separation, detail, etc.
• The Yggdrasil's timber accuracy and sense of "organic" acoustic instrument presentation (e.g. the realistic "blat" of a trumpet, or the "woodiness" of a cello) is still ahead of the Holo. The Holo is not in any way "sterile" taken on its own, but compared to the Yggdrasil it lacks that last 1/2 (1/4?) step of inner note realism, seemingly to have emphasized clarity and separation a bit more. A rough analogy might be the difference between a well implemented AKM (Yggdrasil) vs. a well implemented ESS (Holo).
  
• Related to the stage/row placement, the Yggdrasil is more visceral, having more bite and "slam", whereas the Holo places you farther back and the whole presentation is more laid back and balanced. Sometimes I found myself turning the volume up with the Holo, where in the same place I might want to do the opposite with the Yggdrasil.

I'm travelling the next couple of days but when I get back I will spend one ore two more days with it (still need to try AES input) and move it on to the next person.

Final Update:

• Set up AES and I2S to compare to USB (PLL off to prevent 15 second or so "locking" delay). Wow, I can't reliably (i.e. beyond confidence outside of placebo) tell any difference between any of them. Very impressive that.
• Did not try DSD, HQPlayer, or spend any real time with 44.1/48 content at NOS. I2S made it easier to A/B with Yggdrasil since all I had to do was switch input and level match on Saga OG.

Conclusion:

Well shucks I want one. For me, synergized with the rest of my gear it would be a sidegrade...mostly. The main trade for me would be the Holo Spring 3 KTE's slight increase in clarity, stage, and imaging precision over the Yggdrasil's slight advantage in timbre "density" and at times perceived "accuracy". Other advantages are the quality of the digital inputs. At about $500 more the Yggdrasil A2, you can't call either a "value" but the quality of the digital inputs would easily be worth the delta to me. If I had taken the time to properly evaluate HQPlayer and/or PCM-to-DSD conversion would that have moved it from side to upgrade? Perhaps after I have had the Yggdrasil for a few more months

 

I thought the spring 3 (though maybe it was in spring2) doesn't have the upsampling built in due to AKM fire and you would have to go for the May if you wanted that? Also maybe it's worth a trying converting things to dsd if it's easy to try if only because I think it's a separate ladder network /implementation than the pcm input (with half the output power?)

I could be wrong.

 

Also my experience with Spring 2 KTE and, to a lesser extent, with May KTE.