"I’ve sat at the keyboard of my piano enough to know how wide it is supposed to sound and there, and in recordings of that (whether from my playing or visiting concert-level pianists)"

Have you tried self-recorded binaural recordings before? I always find regular stereo recordings to not render images nearly as accurately; our spaced ears don't hear stereo like most stereo recordings. You may know how far a piano sounds to your ears when you're playing at the piano, but a stereo recording won't necessarily pick up those same timing, and thus imaging, cues.

I don't think there is a better example of the concept of "diminishing returns" than comparison of the Spring and Yggy and their sound quality and that of all the DACs available at 2x to 20x more, or even more (think I saw an MSB for like 130 k or something?). Astonishing. Great review as always. Thanks for your continuing efforts. Cheers mate.

@miceblue 
 
Yes, I've done the binaural recording thing, both myself and have a reasonable library of commercial stuff (relative to what there is, anyway).  And I've other recordings that aren't mic'ing the piano with hard left/right configurations.  It does make a big difference.
 
Regardless, the image presented is wider with one DAC than the other, from the same recording, which puts the delta in the realm of the DAC rather than the source material in this case.

senorx, just mentioned the msb. i assume the select dac is what he saw. i was thinking the holo is just like the msb select for 60x less money. i have the msb select. i needed a smaller dac for a smaller system but still reference level in it's own right. just smaller. what i take from this review is that is is no where near comparable to the msb select dac. who are we kidding? if you are comparing it to the schiit and often prefer the schiit. not wanting to sell it in preference of the holo i gather it is no where close to the msb select. if you have $130,000 to spend obviously that is a different ballgame. let's be realistic. i am not sure this is reference quality if you are comparing it to, often preferring the schiit. i agre that the chord dave is simply a grossly overpriced piece of equipment. that stands alone though. i also do not like the directstream. i wonder how this compares to the ayre codex at $500 less or the ayre qx-5 twenty at $10,000 more. i find those to be outstanding dacs now but they are not for everyone. they are in fact ess driven delta/sigma dacs. there is a lot to choose but if you up the money, perhaps even if you don't i now gather there is better than this. r2r nos is imo the best sound. however to get that sound in all of it's glory i feel you are looking at the msb select unfortunately. otherwise there many dacs you can compare this too assuming one wil appreciate sigma/delta. as there are no other affordable r2r nos dacs that i know of. other than this and the schiit. you are going to take a big jump in price and probably sq to get a vastly better r2r nos dac. i need a very compact reference level dac for a cramped system but it is stil reference level. it pretty much does not exist. if i could fit a full size component there would be many choices at all price ranges. even though this particular system is reference level it is not at the level of the system that employs the msb select dac. i do not have the room and that level of dac would outpace the rest of this system. i figure this is a good alternative to the schiit for a r2r nos dac in that price range. unfortunately now i know it is not what i am looking for. ijn that regard i do appreciate this review to bring me to this conclusion. even if i will not be buying one. If anyone knows of a high end very compact footprint delta/sigma dac i would appreciate to hear about it. otherwise the ayre codex remains. in that regard as i mentioned i wonder how it would fair against the holo. however usually those that prefer r2r simply hate delta/sigma. i know i am not going to get a r2r of high end in a quarter rack component though. this is actually small enough but it is not the ticket for me per this review. which i am very thankful for.

Thanks for this Torq. It would be a great benifit if you did other official "reviews" since you've had so much experience with so many DACs. At least for the YGGY, if nothing else.