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Holo Audio - Spring DAC - Level 3 - "Kitsune Tuned Edition" - Impressions & Reviews

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Torq, Nov 7, 2016.

Page 9 of 23
  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I'm warming everything up now on the bedroom headphone rig. Give me at least a day before any impressions. Everything on that rack is cold (finally had a chance to put stuff back together after the meet). I'll move it to the SET / speakers setup around that time and ship it out on the loaner before I head out to London and Dubai.

    DSC_3235.JPG
     
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #161
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    And no, this don't sound like no "shitty NOS" DAC.
     
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #162
  3. Thenewerguy009

    Thenewerguy009 Friend

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    You still have your Yggdrasil to compare?
     
    Thenewerguy009, Dec 4, 2016
    #163
  4. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

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    I heard the Holo Spring DAC today at the end of a headphone meet at Urban Hifi, the new home of Linear Tube Audio. The setups was Holo Spring -> Asgard 2 -> Hd 650. Here are my thoughts:

    The NOS mode is nice and warm with bass a little too fat and emphasized and the treble is audibly rolled off a bit. The DAC has good but not great separation (nothing close to Burrito Holography) and little of that NOS grain but lacks air.

    The oversampling mode normalized the bass tonality a bit and added back in the treble but timbre is off and is glare city. Sounds like chi-fi delta sigma garbage like a bowl of soup with cornstarch and horse penis. The filter needs a lot of work. The emphasized tape hiss in the Yggdrasil is absolutely nothing compared how bright and forward the Holo Spring OS mode is.

    Now onto the worst part: whatever bullshit XMOS Chi-fi garbage they are using as a USB receiver doesn't work. Their ASIO drivers do not allow for exclusive mode; the windows volume control still works. Gross. A USB defucker in the store greatly improved it but it still wasn't great.

    This is a good DAC when used in NOS without USB but still contains Chi-fi garbage with dysfunctional XMOS USB implementation, poorly done oversampling filters, and DSD sample rate dick slinging. Holo Audio should ditch all the shitty Chi-fi memes and improve the one aspect of their non-oversampling DAC that actually works: the non-oversampling mode. Still not as good as Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    Psalmanazar, Dec 4, 2016
    #164
  5. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    You might take into consideration the fairly weak amp it was paired with.

    Pretty definitive opinion on something from a meet setting. It needs a good source (not straight USB) and amp to even be worth an audition.

    Not defending the Holo for my own sake because I had to cancel my order for now.
     
    Luckbad, Dec 4, 2016
    #165
  6. SoupRKnowva

    SoupRKnowva Official SBAF South Korean Ambassador

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    haha you clearly dont understand psalmanazar's love affair for the Asgard 2...
     
    SoupRKnowva, Dec 4, 2016
    #166
  7. songmic

    songmic Gear cycler East Asia edition

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    Lol exactly what I thought
     
    songmic, Dec 4, 2016
    #167
  8. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    I hope I didn't derail the thread.
     
    Luckbad, Dec 4, 2016
    #168
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yggdrasil at EC labs, but too lazy to haul around. Secret that people will never believe: The only difference between Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil, when fed from a good transport, is the bass below 200Hz. Most of the differences are with the USB Gen 2 and Gen 3, and even then we are talking about 1.4%-2.32%
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #169
  10. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Because of my limited time, I won't be covering USB or DSD. The XMOS is not bad (in that you can go a lot worse), but ultimately mediocre in the overall scheme of things. I do agree it's brightish DAC, or at least a tad incisive for my tastes. A more romantic or slowing sounding amp would be a better pairing than what I have at hand (my custom 45 or the Jotunheim). The DAC does seem to need to be warmed up at least a few hours, crunching bits.

    Formulating heptagon plot in my head right now. Will be revisiting in the next few days to see if things change.
     
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #170
  11. songmic

    songmic Gear cycler East Asia edition

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    Torq's and Hand's review seemed to imply that the Holo Spring is a warmer DAC than Yggdrasil, but you think it's actually brighter? I was interested in the Spring because I was looking for a DAC warmer than Yggdrasil (since my Studio is already a bit bright) and I thought Spring might be just the ticket.
     
    songmic, Dec 4, 2016
    #171
  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    TBH, I've only glanced at their impressions to not be too influenced by them. I would also like to give the DAC more time, at least 48 hours, to give more definitive answers. At it stands right now, the Gungnir MB, and by extension the Yggdrasil, have stronger more precisely pitched low and sub bass. There's a better sense of foundation to sounds. In terms of mid-to-high bass the levels are about the same. The other notable area of difference is with the treble rendering. The Holo does have much better "blackground" than the Yggdrasil / Gungnir Multibit (this slight greyness or haze has always been one of the Schiit DACs' greatest weakness), and has a more incisive and faster attack. This last part doesn't gel well with amps like the Jotenheim or the Studio, which needs something more along the lines of a Sonic Frontiers or Theta Gen V kind of sound. I can see the Holo work really well with something like the Woo WA5 (depending upon tube compliment). So in a sense there is more detail, or macrodetail. However, I still feel Gungnir Multibit MB / Yggdrasil is slightly better in terms of microdetail (retrieval of low level information) and microdynamics, and expect it to move even further ahead once I get them hooked up to my uber 45 amp. In terms of soundstage, I haven't been able to arrive at a conclusion*. I actually feel the Jotunheim is holding these DACs back. However, for an R2R NOS DAC, the Holo is surprisingly good at plankton.

    * Comparing soundstage on headphones is like comparing 1/4 times and trap speed with Japanese FWD 4 bangers. It's dumb, because there things like American V8s, or speakers.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #172
  13. gandhisfist

    gandhisfist Aurorus Audio - MoT

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    Also heard the Spring DAC today. Meet conditions and listening through the Cavalli Liquid Gold with HE-6 and HD800, so disclaimers all around.

    I heard the Spring in NOS mode using redbook PCM music and thought staging, imaging, placement and separation were all very similar. Gives me the same "look over there" effect as the Yggdrasil, and felt that I could read the relative placement of instruments well in the space it presented. The space seemed appropriate to the music, not artificially widened or deepened. Overall I felt that technical differences between Yggdrasil and Spring, if any, were small. Where I felt the Spring pulled ahead was in timbre, not having the same dryness as the Yggdrasil's presentation.
     
    gandhisfist, Dec 4, 2016
    #173
  14. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    I can't believe I'm asking this but how long was the Yggdrasil left on? When I owned it it sounded dry as heck if it wasn't left on for 2-3 days after it was well worn in.
     
    zerodeefex, Dec 4, 2016
    #174
  15. gandhisfist

    gandhisfist Aurorus Audio - MoT

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    Was sufficiently warmed up, was brought to meet on a UPS, hass been constantly on probably for months at this point.
     
    gandhisfist, Dec 4, 2016
    #175
  16. gbeast

    gbeast Mighty Moral Power Ranger

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    ^I think he means not turned off... Did you go to a meet where the Yggdrasil was already plugged in all day, or was the Yggdrasil brought to that meet? Sorry if I am asking a dumb question.
    That is probably the reason for my unpopular impressions of the Yggdrasil. It was at a meet, and though I sat with it for a good time, it wasn't left on all day and I keep reading it needs to be on for a long time and that is the reason people find it troubling to bring it to meets. When I heard it, it was dry and kind of lean sounding with good bass and details.

    Regarding below.... Plus I keep forgetting they were using USB every time I heard the Yggdrasil. Thats probably a big part of where my memory of the Yggdrasil holds it as good but not ideal for me. I need to hear one w/o USB as well. Im good with the Pavane but I really want to hear it vs the Yggdrasil in good conditions for funs sake.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    gbeast, Dec 4, 2016
    #176
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Well, I don't have Yggdrasil on hand; but I'm not finding this to be the case with Gungnir Multibit, even with only less than a day with Gungnir Multibit on.

    The Gungnir Multibit is actually the more organic sounding DAC. The Holo is more strident. But I am running a CD transport though (modified Marantz) so all bets are off if you use USB. Those who run the Lynx and especially Rednet have a good idea of my CD transport sound. They are more similar to each other than not, and very different from USB.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #177
  18. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    I call bullshit. Marv and I are the only two idiots dumb enough to do this that I've seen at a meet so far.

    Either that or you're deaf because the Yggdrasil is not "dry".
     
    zerodeefex, Dec 4, 2016
    #178
  19. bazelio

    bazelio Friend

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    If impressions formed via USB sources are not considered null and void at this point, they should at least be relegated to footnote status and qualified. IMO
     
    bazelio, Dec 4, 2016
    #179
  20. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    USB is legit. Just needs to be qualified, almost down to the laptop model. I'm just weird that I don't do computer audio and still live in 1985. But as I said, the RedNet or Lynx stuff that avoids USB sounds more like good CD transports than not.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2016
    purr1n, Dec 4, 2016
    #180
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