[bflat]

Good to know.
I'm going to wait until my Roon trial expires to try Audirvana or I might just go for Roon, but I really should compare. I've already had to download the "Desktop" trial for Hi-Fi playback because I don't use Google Chrome, so I'm good with that, thanks. I haven't had the chance to use Roon +Tidal yet, what do I have to do to, select something to play via Tidal, and it will play via Roon? I'm asking because I won't have the time to try until later tonight.

Keep in mind that Roon versus Audirvana is an apples to oranges comparison. Roon includes cloud storage for all of your music plus streaming at native bitrates. If you need cloud storage and streaming, then it's a no brainer - go with Roon because Audirvana does not have that capability. If you are only look for a music player and you will use Tidal for your streaming, then Roon is complete overkill imho since it costs $120 per year or $500 lifetime.

 

[joseph69]

Keep in mind that Roon versus Audirvana is an apples to oranges comparison. Roon includes cloud storage for all of your music plus streaming at native bitrates. If you need cloud storage and streaming, then it's a no brainer - go with Roon because Audirvana does not have that capability. If you are only look for a music player and you will use Tidal for your streaming, then Roon is complete overkill imho since it costs $120 per year or $500 lifetime.

Thank you for the advice. I'm pretty set on purchasing Roon after the trial...I just didn't want to jump the gun and mention it, though.

 

[Energy]

Anyone tried up-sampling to DSD256 and DSD512? I tried and got some stuttering. Both with onboard USB and Singxer SU-1 via I2S.

PCM files (any) upsampled to DSD native format sounds the best on the Holo Audio Spring. Much better sounding than playing PCM native at any rate for a matter of fact.

The issue regarding the stutter is due to your computer not being fast enough since DSD encoding is very CPU intensive. There wouldn't be stutter if the program is able to utilize more CPU cores during it's DSD encoding process. Unfortunately programs like J.River Media Center does not offer multicore rendering or CUDA offload (uses help from the GPU). Due of that reason, HQPlayer would be a better choice as it offers these two features. Check my thread for more information: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,111561.msg771031.html#msg771031

Unfortunately for me I have already bought J.River Media Center so I cannot fathom to pay again for another program. Fortunately for me my computer is fast enough to play DSD512 (8xDSD) smoothly on J.River even when using a single core.

All mid-range computers from 2014 onward should be able to have smooth playback on J.River Media Center. Earlier computers (2013 and below) can too if they switch over to HQPlayer and utilize the multicore rendering feature.

If people are playing PCM natively or upsampling to 384KHz, give DSD encoding a try on the Holo Audio Spring and watch your mouth will drop.





If your computer cannot play 8xDSD (DSD512) without stuttering, try the less intensive ones like 4xDSD (DSD256) or 2xDSD (DSD128). Make sure to update your firmware to the v2.20 for DSD512 support.

To my own personal findings:
Playing PCM through DSD Native sounds too good to be true.
Playing PCM through DSD over DoP sounds great.
Playing PCM natively sounds good.

And no. I'm really not blowing it out of proportions. Try it for yourself and thank me later.
The level of improvements will strongly depend on your gear (headphones, D/A converter, amplifier, transporter, etc).

You're welcome.

Cheers,
Thanh

 

[bflat]

You can achieve DSD conversion by selecting OS DSD on the Holo DAC.

 

[arnaud]

You can achieve DSD conversion by selecting OS DSD on the Holo DAC.

Yes, was wondering the same. Haven't tried software based conversion but am using onboard option sometimes

 

[astrostar59]

Yes, was wondering the same. Haven't tried software based conversion but am using onboard option sometimes

Do you think the Holo is surpassing your TotalDAC Six using the onboard DSD conversion? I heard the Holo on the HeadAmp Stand at Can-Jam. It seemed like a very nice sounding DAC and at this price amazing value IMO.

 

[jjk43]

I know this is a longshot...can anyone compare the KTE Holo with the LKS MH DA-004?
Thanks, regards

 

[alphanumerix1]

I know this is a longshot...can anyone compare the KTE Holo with the LKS MH DA-004?
Thanks, regards

This.

 

[EElegances]

Energy, you are claiming upsampling to DSD sounds better than NOS on Holo? Better, how? Or maybe I misunderstand the comparison. Previous reviews I've seen said that NOS sounds best. Thanks!

 

[Benny-x]

Windows found the driver automatically or Windows finally has USB Audio Class 2 support. If this keeps up, I may stay with Windows LOL!

Windows new driver support and auto detect is better, but in the new Windows 10 update it did get USB Audio Class 2 support. Weird, eh?

My DAC need drivers, but still had a spotty connection. Frequently needed rebooting and then several times rebooting to get a good handshake and stable settings on the PC.

But after the USB Audio Class 2 support a couple months back, all stable now and power cycle on the DAC gets a stable connection.

Strange times.

 

[bflat]

Windows new driver support and auto detect is better, but in the new Windows 10 update it did get USB Audio Class 2 support. Weird, eh?

My DAC need drivers, but still had a spotty connection. Frequently needed rebooting and then several times rebooting to get a good handshake and stable settings on the PC.

But after the USB Audio Class 2 support a couple months back, all stable now and power cycle on the DAC gets a stable connection.

Strange times.

I actually went back to the custom XMOS ASIO driver instead of Windows USB Class 2. Using JRiver, I find the ASIO driver to sound slightly more full/richer. I am a total noob in Windows audio but the difference sounded similar to what I experienced using a bit perfect player (Audirvana) instead of iTunes when I had my Mac.

 

[Benny-x]

I actually went back to the custom XMOS ASIO driver instead of Windows USB Class 2. Using JRiver, I find the ASIO driver to sound slightly more full/richer. I am a total noob in Windows audio but the difference sounded similar to what I experienced using a bit perfect player (Audirvana) instead of iTunes when I had my Mac.

To tell the truth, I also believe this is the case~
Though having a common compliance standard is nice, it doesn't mean that standard is going to sound best. I'm also still using my DAC's ASIO driver, I just found that after the USB Class 2 enabling update, the DAC retained a more stable handshake than before.

 

[Energy]

Energy, you are claiming upsampling to DSD sounds better than NOS on Holo? Better, how? Or maybe I misunderstand the comparison. Previous reviews I've seen said that NOS sounds best. Thanks!

No. I am not claiming the Holo Audio Spring sounds better without NOS. If anything, I agree with everyone else that it sounds best without hardware upsampling (in NOS mode).
What I'm saying is that in order to get the best sound quality from the Spring, you should have it set to NOS followed by using a software like HQPlayer to upsample all of your music files to DSD.

The software takes your music files (PCM), encodes it to DSD, then sends it to the DAC.
Because of this, instead of using the PCM R2R Ladder on the DAC, it ends up using the DSD R2R Ladder instead.
By using the DSD R2R Ladder instead of the PCM one, the music ends up sounding SIGNIFICANTLY better. Like day and night almost. To me it's like going from Apple earbuds to custom molded IEM's

But don't forget. Using the DSD R2R Ladder on the Holo Audio Spring isn't where all the benefits come from. Utilizing the superior oversampling and modular setting on HQPlayer plays another huge part.

Both JRiver Media Center and HQPlayer has DSD Encoding available and comes with a free trial so you should give it a shot. Thank me later.
Have your settings set to the ones I provided below.

Holo Audio Control Panel Settings:


JRiver Media Center Settings:

Note: if music stutters while playing 8xDSD then your CPU is bottleneck. Try 4xDSD (DSD256) instead.

HQPlayer Settings:

Note: If music stutters while playing then set the Modulator to DSD7 256+fs bit rate (/Limit) to 44.1k x256 (under SDM Defaults)

 

[bflat]

Both JRiver Media Center and HQPlayer has DSD Encoding available and comes with a free trial so you should give it a shot. Thank me later.
Have your settings set to the ones I provided below.

JRiver Media Center Settings:

Note: if music stutters while playing 8xDSD then your CPU is bottleneck. Try 4xDSD (DSD256) instead.

I'm curious to try this. I am using the ASIO driver that I downloaded for the Singxer SU-1, but I can only get DOP to work and not native with JRiver. If I try to use native, I get an error saying I don't have the right driver. Is there another ASIO driver?

 

[Energy]

I'm curious to try this. I am using the ASIO driver that I downloaded for the Singxer SU-1, but I can only get DOP to work and not native with JRiver. If I try to use native, I get an error saying I don't have the right driver. Is there another ASIO driver?

You will need Windows in order to encode native DSD.

If you have not updated your Singxer SU-1 to v2.20 yet, do it now. It's needed to support DSD512.
Uninstall all previous ASIO drivers and try this one : https://kitsunehifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/HoloAudio_DriverSetup_v3.40.0_Win10.zip

What I sent works for Windows 10 and is the XMOS Signed Drivers version 3.40.0
You should have practically the same settings as mine once you're in JRiver or HQPlayer as I also use Windows 10.