[mscott58]

 
Well honestly, I am still running it in and listening once in a while when I have time (which sadly is not that often--about once a week--just too busy!).  I am hoping it will gain more depth and air.  It is very well balanced and nicely dynamic.  But I am extremely spoiled by the discrete output stage of my 10+ year old Hovland/Swenson prototype PCM1704 DAC (there are 5 power supplies in this thing).
 

 
 
For a production DAC with terrific innovations (compensated R2R ladders, discrete DSD handling), beautiful chassis, flexible inputs (I2S, yay!), and a hard to believe great price, the HOLO Spring should be on everyone's short list.
Its USB input is just average, and that is all I have been using so far (but with some prototype advance USB "fixers"), so I do plan to feed it this year with I2S from a board with really good clocks.   Not that I encourage modding, but I do think the Spring screams for a serious clock upgrade.  Bet a pair of Crystek CCHD-575s would take it from great to out-of-this-world.

Interesting thought Alex. How challenging a mod would that be I wonder? Cheers 

 

[leeg]

Yeah, I too wish the Spring would've had a clock in/clock out.  It'd would've been interesting to listen to diff. clocks.

 

[Bachstr]

Help me !!!
I have just bought​ one Holo Spring DAC level 2 (but I don't know it's correct or not). My connect: PC -->  Holo Spring DAC L2 --> RCA cable --> Cambridge CXA80 amp --> Aurum Altan VIII speaker. I've got a problem here.​ When I play a song (by JRiver v22 or Foobar2000), after some second, right channel is no sound any more​. I've tried (restart PC, turn off/on DAC, amp ...), but it just sound on left channel. Only I switch off all of them, and after one day, I play again, sound on both channels (stereo). After some second, the problem come back.
How do I resolve​ the problem?

 

[T Bone]

Start with the easy stuff first.  Take the RCA cables coming from the DAC and going into the amplifier - switch them on the amp.  So take the left output of the DAC and put it into the right input of the amplifier.  If the dead channel moves to the other side, you know the signal coming out of the DAC is the problem.

 

[Bachstr]

  Start with the easy stuff first.  Take the RCA cables coming from the DAC and going into the amplifier - switch them on the amp.  So take the left output of the DAC and put it into the right input of the amplifier.  If the dead channel moves to the other side, you know the signal coming out of the DAC is the problem.

​After about 1 minute them play both of channel, the left channel is no sound (dead channel was moved). But they still play good in 1 minute before have the problem.   

 

[Sherwood]

If you swap the cables, does the dead channel change sides?

 

[guymrob]

guymrob can step in to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe his mention of HQPlayer meant that he's doing the PCM or DSD whatever to DSD512 conversion that's been so hot in the forums since mid-summer 2016. With this, no one needs native DSD512 content or even DSD content, as HQPlayer and it's specialty algorithms are doing all the upsampling. 

So far the feedback on the jump to HQPlayer upsampled DSD512 has been pretty impressive from audio lovers of all walks, on the precious few DACs that can handle it. Something to think about and not your run of the mill, pointless upsampling. 

Converting PCM to DSD512 in PC requires hell a lot of processing power, while up-sampling DSD64 to DSD512 is less resources hungry. Please note that Holo Spring DAC also offer PCM to DSD256 conversion using its internal AK4137 SRC chip, this mode is called 'OS DSD'. If you up-sample DSD64 to DSD256, then choose 'OS' mode. HQPlayer allows fine tweaking of digital filters and up conversion selections. If you use HQPlayer, then set Holo Spring to 'NOS' mode.

 

[Sherwood]

The general consensus, which I can echo here, is that you should always use NOS mode.  I prefer to use HQP to upsample PCM and DSD separately, but if I didn't have it I'd still run the HOLO in NOS mode.  The AK4137 is absolutely capable of upsampling whatever you feed it, but it does a poor enough job that you're better off omitting it.

 

[guymrob]

The general consensus, which I can echo here, is that you should always use NOS mode.  I prefer to use HQP to upsample PCM and DSD separately, but if I didn't have it I'd still run the HOLO in NOS mode.  The AK4137 is absolutely capable of upsampling whatever you feed it, but it does a poor enough job that you're better off omitting it.

Have you compared subjectively to HQP vs AK4137? For me I've hard time telling the difference. I choose HQP because I've a lot options to play and tweak the sound I like. However, I find this DAC really shines when playback in its native sampling rate, i.e, NOS whether at 44.1k all the way 384k and from DSD64 to DSD256 without using HQP or AK4317.

Doing over or up-sampling somehow make the sound loses some of the edges whether it is from AK4137 or HQP. Eventually, I settled my playback without using any form over or up sampling!

 

[mscott58]

Recently added the SU-1 to the Holo Spring L3 (Kitsune) and am now running I2S into the Spring. Have had many days of it settling in now and I really like what it's done for the system. More to come later with more details and comparisons, but a thumbs-up at this point. Cheers 

 

[Bachstr]

If you swap the cables, does the dead channel change sides?

​Yes, It change. Now they still play good in 2 minutes (longer) before one channel is no sound.   

 

[joseph69]

  Yes, It change. Now they still play good in 2 minutes (longer) before one channel is no sound.   

So that means you have 1 bad interconnect.

 

[Bachstr]

So that means you have 1 bad interconnect.

Pls explain clearly. Now I use Inakustik NF-803 RCA interconnect

 

[guymrob]

Pls explain clearly. Now I use Inakustik NF-803 RCA interconnect

If you have tried all the interconnects, then it is likely the analogue output stage is having some problem. What are you using as input? USB or SPDIF?

 

[Tboooe]

 
 Not that I encourage modding, but I do think the Spring screams for a serious clock upgrade.  Bet a pair of Crystek CCHD-575s would take it from great to out-of-this-world.

Do you need a guinea pig?? I  am all for modding!  Or if you want to point me to which component needs replacing I can give it a whack!