Holo Audio Spring (Kitsune version)

Have to echo 4hannons here. I have researched this until my brain is fried. Everything in this class boils down to individual taste I believe (if you can listen to them somewhere). The Kitsune level 3 is the unit I decided on but haven't pulled the trigger yet. The Soekris seems very interesting for the price.

I owned the L3 Kitsune Holo Spring DAC for a short while. When I got it a few months ago, it was fully broken in, with some 400+ hours. At the time, I also had a ExaSound E12 that has been my daily DAC for the last couple of years. 

I was really disappointed with Spring. It was like "meh".... really kind of boring and uninvolving compared to what I was getting from the ExaSound. Note that I only tried the USB input, and I decided not to buy the seemingly necessary Singxer SU-1 ( and hearing that the power supply needs to upgraded) and HDMI cable.

I have since upgraded to an exsSound E32, and love it! It's quite a bit better than my previous E12 it replaced, thanks to a generous trade-in from ExaSound. It's  fantastic DAC that makes my digital music (Tidal, Roon, HQPlayer, Music HD) sound real, natural, involving, etc. 

BTW, I power it via a 12v SLA battery all the time. No need for fancy power supplies unless you feel the need to spend another $400 to $800.

A ton of people love the L3 Spring. I wasn't one of them...

1markr, not sure I understand the point of your rant. Could you elaborate?

No rant.... just offering up my opinion, and nothing else, in answer to the OPs question, about comparing other DACs to the Spring DAC.

As I stated, in my system, to my ears, the ExaSound DACs are much more musical, involving, and fun to listen to vs the Spring.  I tried. Didn't float my boat. YMMV. 

Glad you found something you like.

1markr, that's a valid comparison actually, delta-sigma dac vs NOS. I'm surprised you didn't enjoy the Holo, as technologically it seems to be great.  DId you try it in balanced or single ended mode? I'm wondering may be if it was an impedance mismatch/gain issue.  The Exasound seems nice, but again, at that pricepoint my mind's set on the T+A, as I've heard it and liked it a lot. 

Also the Soekris dacs seem to be good alternatives, but their higher end dacs aren't out yet though.

Tried the Denafrips Ares R2R DAC which I thought sounded really nice, especially for the price, basically about the cost of 3 of the BB1704UK original R2R ICs :-) if one can find the originals anymore.

The Denafrips had some user interface deficiencies though  - like 1mm LED indicators and Gray silkscreen on a Black faceplate.

Good Listening

Peter

@nitewulf ... just single ended; my system doesn't support balanced mode. It seems most people highly prefer the HDMI input of the L3 Spring DAC which I did not try. My comparo was only USB.

The T+A was also on my list, but since I was able to trade in my E12, I went with the E32 instead. Exasound has developed a custom ASIO driver for Mac OS X, so it's nice not to have to use DOP to get DSD, rather I get native DSD because of the ASIO driver, up to DSD256. I don't have the hardware to support DSD512 anyways.

Can anyone recommend a preamp, monitor controller or such with any of the Denafrips products? I have the Ares, will use it with active studio monitors once I find something decent with a buffer.