Holo Audio Spring (Kitsune version)

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.