Yeah man definitely! My local dealer is also going to have me demo the XI AUDIO Sagra DAC - so it will be a 3 way throwdown. I can do a headphone comparison but my main use case is my 2.0 stereo setup (Pass Labs XA30.8 powering Magico A1 speakers) - so plenty of resolution
OK so my dealer was unable to acquire the Sagra dac. However, my Spring 3 KTE w/ Preamp module arrived and I had the weekend to get my initial first impressions compared to my Spring 1 L2.
Auralic Aries streamer (with linear PSU) over AES > DAC > mPre > XA30.8 > Magico A1
I want to say the Spring 1 L2 was hands down one of the best DAC's I've had in my system beating Chord Qutest,MiniMax,Vega and others I can't think of currently in the $1k-$2k price range very convincingly. I would wager if you find one used under $1.5k you struck a bargain. I would say it's very possible depending on speakers/headphones (low-mid hifi things) that you would barely notice much of a difference between the Spring 1 and Spring 3, however with my Magico's it was a nice step up over the original spring. These things just seem to have no limit for the detail and resolution they can provide.
The first thing that struck me even when the KTE was ice cold was the clarity increased a good 20-25% (hard to quantify lol) - but I knew right away my very first thought was, this sounds clearer. Tonally they are very similar when using the same preamp (W4S mPRE) I had. I wouldn't say there was a huge jump in sound stage or imaging, but just that things cleaned up and sounded that little bit closer to being there in the space with live music.
The real difference I noticed was when I removed the preamp from the equation and just used the KTE preamp. Now I know my preamp was a 'weak' point at only $1100, but it's fully balanced and did a good job for the money spent. I've never been one to justify spending a ton of money on preamps, they had a job - volume control. This has me rethinking that
I don't know if it was the implementation of the their preamp into the DAC, but let me tell you- this was the real game changer for me.
The music eased, relaxed, was more organic and natural sounding - the sound stage added height, depth and width. Vocals just sounded that much more life like and real. I would say a slight thinning of the bass, but that bass is now more refined/accurate.. Now my bookshelfs despite being in a small room aren't the final say in bass, don't get me wrong they do a great enough job - but these aren't full range speakers to begin with.
So despite my love for the Spring 1, this updated version 3 KTE just hits all the right notes for me and will be staying in my system for a long time.
