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Review and Measurements of Holo Audio Cyan DSD DAC

BYRTT

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...Square wave response shows asymmetrical ringing:

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I thought it was clipping but it doesn't seem so...


...:oops:... literal looks a COMB thing ...:p...
 

pkane

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Amir didn't mention it is a DSD test signal. It looks like a 44/48k signal to me.

I missed that part. So this was probably PCM converted to DSD by Cyan. That makes sense. Then the conversion looks really poor.

Holo Spring, while not doing the PCM to DSD conversion, looks nearly the same with a PCM 48k square wave as it does with DSD256.
 
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amirm

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Amir didn't mention it is a DSD test signal. It looks like a 44/48k signal to me.
The test signal was a PCM one at 44.1 kHz (or was it 48k?) converted to DSD128. I didn't have time to play with a higher bandwidth one....
 

mikemaverick

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This unit has some issues with the DAC module so some of the result may not look good
 

NTomokawa

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Too young, too simple, sometimes naive.

Seriously though, after seeing the spectacular performance of the Gustard unit, I'm having a hard time imagining how any DAC at any price can top that thing.

Now I can't wait to see the measurements of the Benchmark DAC3.
 

Miska

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A custom dac implementation? Not sure what the purpose of that is.... DAC chips themselves are pretty cheap.

Because you get around some of the limitations of DAC chips and get to choose your own modulator as well. Since in modern DAC chips and also in this case (all are SDM DACs) the sound largely depends, in addition to the conversion stage itself, on the digital delta-sigma modulator.

Sure, you can do it with some DAC chips as well, like the more recent AKM ones that have DSD Direct mode, and with TI/BB chips fed with DSD.

I have this Cyan DSD and also both Spring 1 and Spring 2 DACs and running at DSD256 they sound about as neutral as the RME ADI-2 running at DSD256, with less characteristic sound than ESS Sabre which always seems to have it's own immediately recognizable characteristic flavor (and doesn't support direct DSD). The on-board AKM chip to convert PCM to DSD has surprisingly poor performance though, I would have kind of expected more from AKM.

Given selling price of these, like Holo and Chord, surprisingly they are not really more expensive than comparable chip-based designs either.
 
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