[mitch751]

I did compare Wandla, Spring and May ... Wandla is clearly better than Spring. May is better than Wandla (with original SMPS), but it is neck to neck with Wandla + Hypsos.

 

[LoveKnight]

Well. I did forget to mention that I heard the full combo from two brands. Wandla + Oor + Hysos vs Holo May + Bliss. To me Holo > Ferrum. Ferrum sounded good but Holo sounds more musical than Ferrum to my ears.

 

[Patu]

I did compare Wandla, Spring and May ... Wandla is clearly better than Spring. May is better than Wandla (with original SMPS), but it is neck to neck with Wandla + Hypsos.

How did you compare them? Was it Spring 3 or older Spring? There’s two very different approaches to a DAC design in question. Sigma delta vs NOS R2R. Holo products benefit greatly from external oversampling with something like HQPlayer. Did you use one? Since May and Spring 3 should be very close to each other, it sounds strange that Wandla is clearly better than Spring but tie with May. But I guess I’ll need to borrow one Wandla from my dealer some day to check it out.

 

[greyforest]

Well. I did forget to mention that I heard the full combo from two brands. Wandla + Oor + Hysos vs Holo May + Bliss. To me Holo > Ferrum. Ferrum sounded good but Holo sounds more musical than Ferrum to my ears.

oor is really a hit or miss. if you tried wandla with bilss they would be a good match

 

[FooFighter]

oor is really a hit or miss. if you tried wandla with bilss they would be a good match

Why not Oor plus Holo?
That's my preferred combo

 

[FooFighter]

Guys, I have a new Wandla on pre-order but decided to stick with my current Oor-Spring combo and go for a Cayin N30LE
If anyone is interested in a really good deal in EU for a new Wandla pls PM me

 

[gonzfi]

Has anyone paired the Wandla with a Burson Soloist 3XGT? And as a curveball how about with a C9 using its pre amp function? I currently have these two amps along with a Fiio K9 Pro as the dac. Same ESS chips (or two in the case or the K9 Pro) but I suspect the Ferrum will raise things up a few notches.

 

[greyforest]

Has anyone paired the Wandla with a Burson Soloist 3XGT? And as a curveball how about with a C9 using its pre amp function? I currently have these two amps along with a Fiio K9 Pro as the dac. Same ESS chips (or two in the case or the K9 Pro) but I suspect the Ferrum will raise things up a few notches.

i have had 3xgt for quite sometime, in a matter of fact i think i open boxed the first 3xgt on headfi. however i would say with v6 opamp, 3xgt would not be a good match. as 3xgt smears details and that would make wandla‘s effort to reconstruct time domain detial pointless...as for c9, same more or less. you need a fast amp to bring out the best of wandla

 

[JGreen08]

Have any of you tried the Holo Bliss with the Wandla? I was initially going to go with a full Ferrum stack. However, it looks like UPS may have lost the Oor and Hypsos. That got me thinking about other possible amps for the Wandla since it just arrived today. So I’ve got a dac, but no amp. In case it matters, I’ll be using the Solitaire T and Focal Clear as my headphones.

 

[Tom75]

I did compare Wandla, Spring and May ... Wandla is clearly better than Spring. May is better than Wandla (with original SMPS), but it is neck to neck with Wandla + Hypsos.

How would you describe "better"?

 

[Vozbujdenie]

Guys, I have a new Wandla on pre-order but decided to stick with my current Oor-Spring combo and go for a Cayin N30LE
If anyone is interested in a really good deal in EU for a new Wandla pls PM me

I currently have oor+cayin n8ii+ Elite. I know that cayin n7 that you have ,on ss is similar to n8ii. Did you try to use it as a source to oor? And if yes , how big the difference would be if I decide to upgrade it with desktop dac such as wandla or spring. Thank you

 

[FooFighter]

I currently have oor+cayin n8ii+ Elite. I know that cayin n7 that you have ,on ss is similar to n8ii. Did you try to use it as a source to oor? And if yes , how big the difference would be if I decide to upgrade it with desktop dac such as wandla or spring. Thank you

Good question.
I've tried N7 as a source to Oor, Sp3k as a source to Oor.
Both also as a source to Topping A70pro.
But actually that was more about a setup for my bedside for DCA Stealth and ZMF VC as I cannot use Elite in bed next to my wife
So haven't spent much time demoing Elite for that reason in that constellation.
I think such good DAPs as a source is a good start and many would be happy as a final setup.
Each DAP will give its own coloration/tuning into the target Amp.
I think I actually preferred Sp3k as a source as it was more neutral for Elite.
N7 is more colored with a little more bass and upper frequency elevation.
I am finding N7 transients generally a bit softer/rounder Maybe due to the 1-bit DSD coloration compared to other DACs.
Spring 3 to my ears still has an edge in terms of resolution, holografy with more accurate and tight transients compared to N7.

With all that said
- I ended up using both closed backs occasionally out of my DAPs for bedside listening without additional amping and found that quite enjoyable with less footprint and easier usage and stopped trying to A-B every detail.
- Oor-Spring-Elite is still my favorite main listening setup
- I found Elite to be generally very adaptive and forgiving with different sources with my smallest track skipping rates of all headphones so I think you can be happy with many combinations

Am curious myself how my incoming N30LE will sound with my Overears.

 

[Vozbujdenie]

Good question.
I've tried N7 as a source to Oor, Sp3k as a source to Oor.
Both also as a source to Topping A70pro.
But actually that was more about a setup for my bedside for DCA Stealth and ZMF VC as I cannot use Elite in bed next to my wife
So haven't spent much time demoing Elite for that reason in that constellation.
I think such good DAPs as a source is a good start and many would be happy as a final setup.
Each DAP will give its own coloration/tuning into the target Amp.
I think I actually preferred Sp3k as a source as it was more neutral for Elite.
N7 is more colored with a little more bass and upper frequency elevation.
I am finding N7 transients generally a bit softer/rounder Maybe due to the 1-bit DSD coloration compared to other DACs.
Spring 3 to my ears still has an edge in terms of resolution, holografy with more accurate and tight transients compared to N7.

With all that said
- I ended up using both closed backs occasionally out of my DAPs for bedside listening without additional amping and found that quite enjoyable with less footprint and easier usage and stopped trying to A-B every detail.
- Oor-Spring-Elite is still my favorite main listening setup
- I found Elite to be generally very adaptive and forgiving with different sources with my smallest track skipping rates of all headphones so I think you can be happy with many combinations

Am curious myself how my incoming N30LE will sound with my Overears.

Thank you for such a detailed response. Last quick question for you. If we do not take specific headphones and talk about a dacs,do you think that upgrade from dap to stationary dac would be a huge step up in terms of SQ(from n8ii to wandla/spring) .

 

[FooFighter]

Thank you for such a detailed response. Last quick question for you. If we do not take specific headphones and talk about a dacs,do you think that upgrade from dap to stationary dac would be a huge step up in terms of SQ(from n8ii to wandla/spring) .

Generally I think that upper tier Desktop gear will outperform TOTL DAPs on a measuring perspective but for the subjective impression it's not that black white imho.
Synergy is key more than any spec sheets can tell and certain combinations can sound better for you out of your DAP than out of an expensive desktop stack.
That's why people own several DAPs to complement different IEMs and also why people start building a specific system around a specific headphone like Susvara or Phi TC.
I for myself haven't heard the N8II yet but will get N30LE soon and am curious too about synergy and redundancy (or not) with my desktop gear.

 

[Vozbujdenie]

Generally I think that upper tier Desktop gear will outperform TOTL DAPs on a measuring perspective but for the subjective impression it's not that black white imho.
Synergy is key more than any spec sheets can tell and certain combinations can sound better for you out of your DAP than out of an expensive desktop stack.
That's why people own several DAPs to complement different IEMs and also why people start building a specific system around a specific headphone like Susvara or Phi TC.
I for myself haven't heard the N8II yet but will get N30LE soon and am curious too about synergy and redundancy (or not) with my desktop gear.

Thank you