Measurements & Preview of Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC / wPreamp (Prototype)

[mikemaverick]

Sign magnitude-like R2R with over-engineered error correction, over-engineered output stage with over-engineered capacitors and power supply (holo is BTW not fully discrete; to compare to soekris for example which is "no" or very little feedback into OPA1656. holo audio uses all tricks to get such superlative DAC performance which include feedback and high-performance op-amps(which I don't know)). The first holo spring was already quite good, I suppose due to the financial success they could put money where their mouth is and improve, and improve yet again in spring 2 and 3(trickle-down from the MAY statement DAC).

That to say R2R does not equal "fully discrete" or other such things, to get this good of performance it would need all the technological marvel accessible. Put a tube anywhere in there and the performance will get drastically worse lol from what I gather the spring 3 only has NOS mode though? No more oversampling chip. And actually, makes sense since it was an AKM chip. RIP that factory...

I think Holo Audio used the combination of OPA1612 and LME49720/ADA4898 for their output stage (plus BJT push-pull stage obviously)

 

[Mikechw]

I received my Holo Audio Spring 3 Level 3, 2 weeks ago.

I bought this because I use HQPlayer to upscale my music.
I want to try out R2R implementation on PCM upscale.

Spring3 only have NOS filtering.
What is the recommended settings for HQPlayer for this DAC ?

Comparing to my D90, I found D90 DSD decoding is better than Holo's DSD decode.

Also the unit is a little warm after powered up for an hour or two.
I can keep my hands on top of the unit for about 5 second before taking it off.
Do you think I should using something to cool it ?

 

[gvl]

What is the recommended settings for HQPlayer for this DAC ?

We happen to have someone here who can answer this: @Miska

 

[Veri]

Also the unit is a little warm after powered up for an hour or two.
I can keep my hands on top of the unit for about 5 second before taking it off.
Do you think I should using something to cool it ?

The warmth is very 'normal' behaviour.

 

[Miska]

What is the recommended settings for HQPlayer for this DAC ?

For PCM side, set "DAC Bits" to 20 and use a suitable noise shaper like NS9, NS5 or LNS15, at 705.6/768k output rate or even better 1.4122/1.536M. This removes any low level non-linearity effects that would otherwise appear with R2R.

For DSD side, use ASDM7EC modulator at DSD256 rate if possible (takes quite a bit of CPU). If not, ASDM5EC. Or fall back to ASDM7 which runs on most modern computers. With ASDM7 you can likely also go for higher output rates like DSD512 or DSD1024 if you like to.

With filter of your choice. You could get started with something like poly-sinc-ext2 or poly-sinc-gauss-long for example. If filter CPU load becomes an issue at higher source rates, you can use a shorter one for "Nx" (hires) content.

 

[Mikechw]

Thanks Miska.

For PCM, I have set DAC bits to 22 and have been using LNS15 at 1.4122/1.536M.
I will try out setting DAC bits to 20 tonight.

 

[Miska]

It is better to set DAC Bits too low than too high. If you go one bit too high, all the benefit is lost. But you can go down to 16 bits without any loss in SNR or dynamic range within 50 kHz or so, and with steeper noise shapers within 100 kHz. But 20 bits should be safe already.

 

[Kenmoreira85]

I received my Holo Audio Spring 3 Level 3, 2 weeks ago.

I bought this because I use HQPlayer to upscale my music.
I want to try out R2R implementation on PCM upscale.

Spring3 only have NOS filtering.
What is the recommended settings for HQPlayer for this DAC ?

Comparing to my D90, I found D90 DSD decoding is better than Holo's DSD decode.

Also the unit is a little warm after powered up for an hour or two.
I can keep my hands on top of the unit for about 5 second before taking it off.
Do you think I should using something to cool it ?

My dac hasn't been turned off in the 5 weeks I've had it. It never gets warm..

 

[Kenmoreira85]

For PCM side, set "DAC Bits" to 20 and use a suitable noise shaper like NS9, NS5 or LNS15, at 705.6/768k output rate or even better 1.4122/1.536M. This removes any low level non-linearity effects that would otherwise appear with R2R.

For DSD side, use ASDM7EC modulator at DSD256 rate if possible (takes quite a bit of CPU). If not, ASDM5EC. Or fall back to ASDM7 which runs on most modern computers. With ASDM7 you can likely also go for higher output rates like DSD512 or DSD1024 if you like to.

With filter of your choice. You could get started with something like poly-sinc-ext2 or poly-sinc-gauss-long for example. If filter CPU load becomes an issue at higher source rates, you can use a shorter one for "Nx" (hires) content.

So you'd roll back shape / filter before dsd sample rate?

 

[Miska]

So you'd roll back shape / filter before dsd sample rate?

Sorry, I didn't understand what you mean, can you explain a bit?

 

[Freeway]

The spring uses its r2r for dsd. It has a whole ladder dedicated just to dsd.

Per website
The DSD module of Spring3 does not use R2R architecture for the DSD, more specifically it uses a very specific architecture which is optimized to perform DSD to analog. So to be entirely accurate the DSD part of Spring is using resistor ladders, not R2R..

 

[Giuseppe Catapano]

È possibile sapere se entrambe le uscite bilanciate e sbilanciate sono autonome e utilizzabili contemporaneamente?

 

[Doodski]

È possibile sapere se entrambe le uscite bilanciate e sbilanciate sono autonome e utilizzabili contemporaneamente?

¿Puede formular su pregunta o pregunta de manera diferente? No puedo entender tu pregunta.

 

[boXem]

¿Puede formular su pregunta o pregunta de manera diferente? No puedo entender tu pregunta.

It's Italian, not Spanish

 

[Freeway]

È possibile sapere se entrambe le uscite bilanciate e sbilanciate sono autonome e utilizzabili contemporaneamente?

Rca e xlr sono entrambi live contemporaneamente.
Viene selezionato solo l'input come uno alla volta.
Le uscite hanno stadi di uscita dedicati... il che significa che entrambi possono essere utilizzati contemporaneamente se aveste bisogno di questa applicazione meno comune.
Il volume può essere controllato dal telecomando o dalle frecce su/giù dallo chassis. Si prega di scaricare il manuale digitale dalla pagina del prodotto per familiarizzare con il prodotto e le sue funzioni complete.
Per Tim Connor @ Kitsunehifi via email.

 

[Giuseppe Catapano]

Sarebbe possibile nel caso si acquistasse la versione provvista di preampificatore
interno analogico escluderlo?
E ancora, si potrebbe avere un ingresso analogico?

 

[TheInquiring]

Dear experts:

Have you found if there are any audible differences between the Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC’s various inputs, please?

How would rank: I2S vs. AES vs. COAX vs. TOSLINK vs. USB ?

Please chime in!

 

[Veri]

Dear experts:

Have you found if there are any audible differences between the Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC’s various inputs, please?

How would rank: I2S vs. AES vs. COAX vs. TOSLINK vs. USB ?

Please chime in!

I just used USB with Holo spring 2. Simple. Easy. I did use it with AES source and it didn't sound any different..

 

[Freeway]

Haven't tried different inputs yet, but will be hooking up the CD player today and will be checking out all variations.
Did change output from XLR to RCA this morning. Didn't like it. Perhaps I just need another cup of coffee.
Received the Spring a couple days ago.

 

[TheInquiring]

I did use it with AES source and it didn't sound any different..

That is very interesting indeed, @Veri ! Yours truly used to believe I2S or, for that matter, AES are "superior" to USB... Another "audiofool" myth, probably...

... will be checking out all variations.

Please do report your findings, @Freeway !

Did change output from XLR to RCA this morning. Didn't like it.

This very much coincides with my experience in Audio as well. I trust quality interconnects have been employed in both cases...