[Tboooe]

Got everything wired up and burning in for the past 7 hours.  I will sit down and give it a listen after dinner.
 
One observation....I was surprised to feel that the top of the Spring gets a little warm, particularly on the right side (facing the unit).  Every DAC/CDP I have ever owned never felt even remotely warm to the touch.  I know this isnt a defect.  I was just merely surprised especially since I plan to put my SU-1 on top of the Spring.  To play it safe, I put the SU-1 off to the left side of the Spring where it is cool to the touch.
 
I am more curious why the Spring produces so much heat, esp compared to other units I have owned.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  Got everything wired up and burning in for the past 7 hours.  I will sit down and give it a listen after dinner.
 
One observation....I was surprised to feel that the top of the Spring gets a little warm, particularly on the right side (facing the unit).  Every DAC/CDP I have ever owned never felt even remotely warm to the touch.  I know this isnt a defect.  I was just merely surprised especially since I plan to put my SU-1 on top of the Spring.  To play it safe, I put the SU-1 off to the left side of the Spring where it is cool to the touch.
 
I am more curious why the Spring produces so much heat, esp compared to other units I have owned.

You should try Cayin's TOTL DAC... talk about warm, more like hot like a heatsink.

 

[bimmer100]

  Got everything wired up and burning in for the past 7 hours.  I will sit down and give it a listen after dinner.
 
One observation....I was surprised to feel that the top of the Spring gets a little warm, particularly on the right side (facing the unit).  Every DAC/CDP I have ever owned never felt even remotely warm to the touch.  I know this isnt a defect.  I was just merely surprised especially since I plan to put my SU-1 on top of the Spring.  To play it safe, I put the SU-1 off to the left side of the Spring where it is cool to the touch.
 
I am more curious why the Spring produces so much heat, esp compared to other units I have owned.

The spring is a class A dac and has some components that get warm. thats totally OK, and the SU1 is OK on either side. After 24hours of full warmup it will get "warmer" 
so don't worry. It's completely normal and actually a good thing once it gets up to temp. the whole chassis acts as an excellent heat sink. 

 

[inthere]

You should try Cayin's TOTL DAC... talk about warm, more like hot like a heatsink.

If you're talking about the iDAC 6 I totally agree-I have one and you can fry an egg on top of that thing.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

If you're talking about the iDAC 6 I totally agree-I have one and you can fry an egg on top of that thing.

I used these industrial rubber pads/stands/vibration control footings on them. Left them on playing when I left for work to get them nice and toasty before listening in and came home to a house that smelled like burnt rubber. Absolutely had a panic moment looking for failing electronic/appliance in the house or worse, only to find the DAC cooking the rubber footings - which were fresh made as well so it already emitted a smell at room temp. 

 

 

[rudra]

I use a laptop cooler underneath my Class A tube headphone amp. YMMV

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

A company would never sell a piece of electronic that required supplemental/external fans. You can elevate it with a grill or mesh style stand so there's an air path but cooling fans are totally unnecessary unless something has failed.

I use a laptop cooler underneath my Class A tube headphone amp. YMMV

 

[rudra]

The amp used to come with a 100 mm cooling fan. Too noisy . So i got rid of them and used the laptop cooler. 

 

[mscott58]

A company would never sell a piece of electronic that required supplemental/external fans. You can elevate it with a grill or mesh style stand so there's an air path but cooling fans are totally unnecessary unless something has failed.

 
Unless you put your amp in an enclosed space without the suggested clearance. For instance my desktop stack is on top of a part of my desk (duh!) which has a back, so it doesn't get any natural airflow from behind. To help make up for this I have two external fans that are very quiet, and I run them at lower-speed so they are even quieter. Do I definitely need the fans? Probably not, but it doesn't hurt and it makes me feel better at least. Cheers 

 

[hifi25nl]

An information. How XMOS USB interface is powered? Internal or from cable?

 

[Tboooe]

I've been letting the Spring play PCM non stop in NOS mode via SPDIF from my SU-1 over the last 48 hours.  I did this so I could do an exact comparison against my current DAC, the Luxman D-06.  My initial feeling is that the Spring is definitely more detailed than my Luxman.  I am hearing more and more detail in the music that I did not notice before.  The music is also more defined.  Its tough to explain but its like drawing with a sharp pencil versus a dull one.  Everything is sharper and more precise.  Its like the notes are not as blurred.  Whats interesting is that even though the Spring is clearly more detailed than my Luxman, it isnt fatiguing or bright sounding.  It actually quite relaxing sounding which i know sounds like a contradiction.  
 
Next I am going to try the I2S input as well as burn in the DSD R2R ladder.
 
More to come.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

What is the power consumption difference between on and standby? Also what other benefits are there besides power saving by going on standby?

Interesting observance. Didn't hear much of an upgrade from my Breeze U8 with crystek upgraded clocks utilizing aes connection to the Spring lvl3 and then upgrading to the Singxer SU1 via i2s hdmi. Sold the SU1 and keeping the U8 until something along a compact aoip comes along with i2s out in a small footprint.

 

[Tboooe]

What is the power consumption difference between on and standby? Also what other benefits are there besides power saving by going on standby?

Interesting observance. Didn't hear much of an upgrade from my Breeze U8 with crystek upgraded clocks utilizing aes connection to the Spring lvl3 and then upgrading to the Singxer SU1 via i2s hdmi. Sold the SU1 and keeping the U8 until something along a compact aoip comes along with i2s out in a small footprint.

Going from full power to standby reduced power consumption by 1-2W in my system.  That doesnt seem right....
 
As for the SU-1, I need to have something like that in my system because I normally convert everything to DSD256.  I also do not want to use the USB input of the Spring, though I should probably compare it to the SU-1.
 
BTW, I agree with you...it would be great to have a aoip device with various outputs like AES, SPDIF, I2S.  

 

[Energy]

That's the thing about oversampling and delta-sigma switch DAC's. When you make the leap over to R2R Ladder you gain detail, clarity, sound stage, pronounced bass, realistic transients, instrument timbre, and decay. However that white noise that was once equipped to every aspect of sound is no longer there once you NOS it. There's no guessing, filters, switch noise, etc. What you end up with is something incredibly analog and reminds you of vinyl. Being able to go sharp but without fatigue. That's why NOS/R2R is so great. It's not just treble that can fatigue a person. When you switch over to the Spring you realize it's every sonic detail yet now it no longer feels force. It's so natural to the ears. It only gets better. I switched from the Spring to Pavane and gained a little more sweetness. 
 
Do give I2S a try. You'll bypass the receiver thus improving jitter and digital noise further.

 

[joseph69]

    I also do not want to use the USB input of the Spring, though I should probably compare it to the SU-1.
 
BTW, I agree with you...it would be great to have a aoip device with various outputs like AES, SPDIF, I2S.  

I would like to hear your impressions between i2s (Singxer) and direct USB to the Spring.
 
I'm highly considering purchasing the Sonore microRendu/Uptone LPS-1 and going AoIP with JRiver because of course after I posted I had no noise issues with the USB connection, I started getting drop outs from time to time. I'm also going to revisit the SU1 as I feel I should have spent more time with it.
 
Does anyone here use JRiver>microRendu>SU1>Spring in their chain?