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Review and Measurements of Holo Audio Spring DAC

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WolfX-700

WolfX-700

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There are multiple versions starting at US $1,700 going to US $2,600.

The developer said there will be some new product lines. Among them, R2R products will provide higher performance than Spring. Maybe I can get a prototype for measurement in a short time.
 
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Tatteredmidnight

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Great review! It’s nice to see more APs show up on the forum, exciting possibilities for more user contributed content. Are the measurements standardized enough for direct comparison to Amir’s?
 
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Great review! It’s nice to see more APs show up on the forum, exciting possibilities for more user contributed content. Are the measurements standardized enough for direct comparison to Amir’s?

Yes I think
 

patient_ot

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Interesting. Can't say I'd buy one given that you can get the substantially the same performance out of a much less expensive D-S DAC. At least the R2R nuts now how an option for something that actually measures pretty well though.
 

Blumlein 88

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Wow. Must be a half-assed OS implementation then. Wonder how it would measure with HQPlayer's upsampling at DSD512/DSD1024 sample rate.
@WolfX-700
You've already done this with the upsampling in Roon. But doing it with HQPlayer would be interesting. You can download a trial version which is fully functional. I think it works for 30 days.

In any case, thanks for your measurements. A real asset to the forum using your AP unit to add to our measured devices.
 
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@WolfX-700
You've already done this with the upsampling in Roon. But doing it with HQPlayer would be interesting. You can download a trial version which is fully functional. I think it works for 30 days.

In any case, thanks for your measurements. A real asset to the forum using your AP unit to add to our measured devices.

I will try to use HQPlayer when measuring the next R2R unit from Holo Audio (they say they will send me a prototype)

This device has been returned to its owner.
 

Veri

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I will try to use HQPlayer when measuring the next R2R unit from Holo Audio (they say they will send me a prototype)

This device has been returned to its owner.
I'm looking forward to whatever they'll be sending you :) very cool, indeed.
 

garbulky

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It also gets rid of the argument that R2Rs by definition can't measure well.
Yes it does, doesn't it? I pointed that out to Jason on the head-fi page because that was his defense that R2R's don't measure as well. Perhaps his DAC Chip itself couldn't measure well but it's not completely down to the architecture. Also the Soekris measured reaosnably well.
 

scott wurcer

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This is an R2R DAC, just not commercial. It's also based on IC's not discrete.
part1.jpg
 
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scott wurcer

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What's the source of those images? :)

A thesis sent to me in confidence, I felt showing a small excerpt would be OK. I would personally vouch for the quality of work and results. It's the same DAC in the Schiit BTW.
 

Veri

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A thesis sent to me in confidence, I felt showing a small excerpt would be OK. I would personally vouch for the quality of work and results. It's the same DAC in the Schiit BTW.
Oh I remember you bringing it up once, IC with deglitcher right? Would be cool if it would have made it to a commercial product.
 

scott wurcer

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Oh I remember you bringing it up once, IC with deglitcher right? Would be cool if it would have made it to a commercial product.

Yes, the prototype was all off the shelf parts. I could not get any interest on my end.
 

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