Luis Cesar Saiz

Bravo for the articles ! My hopes are if i.e. Trinnov will take the route of the likes of Roon. Once Roon facilitated the Roon Rock and let people to use their own Intel Nuc, Roon has been very successful. Trinnov is mainly a software solution, so if they implement a i.e. 16 channel solution to run in whatever Intel Nuc it will be best solution in the market for room correction and processing Atmos (and other av formats). The intel NUC will need an HDMI input (from your bluray player/computer/streaming device) and a HDMI audio output to your A/V processor/receiver (so you will need to switch off all processing on your A/V) and other digital outputs if you want to run several DACs ... (OktoDac, exasound...) Of course the intel nuc will need a mic input to run the measurements. But hope are hopes,... isn't they? (Trinnov are you reading :D ) pd: I many times switch off all Audyssey and other processing in my AV 8802A because many films with good music in their OST sound better and more dynamic this all bullsh*t off... only a moderate EQ and my W/P Wilsons shine :D

What does mean this screen when you open the MIDI properties on a Mac? (MacOS Catalina) If I choose a sampling rate over 44,1Khz, like for example 1,536 since the Spring3 KTE does not have an oversampling chip, what it is happening here? The Spring screen shows 1,536 all the time... is the USB driver doing the oversampling via software?? Or is doing nothing?? Of course Not using HQP in this example, just being curious :D Regards

Ok Ok, I fixed the issue, it was a room problem...😅 After trying several oversampling filters recommended by Miska, I found nothing could help the soft hi-hats cymbals etc. So I took my mic and measured the analog and digital sound using the same songs. And I found some weird excess in bass frequencies with the digital side, specially one at 54hz and a few others frequencies, not much (1 to 3 db at most), not boomy-roomy but enough to blurry things in mids and some highs Maybe the Spring 3 KTE is outputting much more energy in the mid to low end than my analog rig. Fortunately I have a pair of bass traps, a Vicoustic cylinders bass traps that you can adapt to frequency, so I move up the inside cylinder to absorb the excess, and it worked, so now I have a very good balance and I can hear hi hats and cymbals properly. Happy :D Tip: next time I bought something remember to measure the room :D PD: Thanks Miska anyway for your help and explanations.

OK, I'll do it

Thank you for the explanation, I'll try to compensate via EQ this -3db, especially in the frequency range where cymbals take more part, because the roll-off with cymbals is very noticeable.

Woa!! I did not realize it was so huge then,.... I dunno if you have tried May KTE and if it affects the same way in the highs or are better portrayed. I'll get your recommendation and this weekend I'll play PCM via HQP with this rates Cheers

Hi Miska, thank you for your answer. I did my critical listening via my CD player, via coax with a Kimber D-60 illuminati cable to the Spring3KTE. So PCM 44,1Khz/16bit. PLL activated in The Spring. I compared same tracks with my vinyl rig, and there were a huge difference with highs among other things (fully expressed in my analog rig, but I think it is not fair to do comparisons here because only the cartridge, a Lyra Etna SL, cost 3 times more than the Spring) I went sometimes back and forth to compare some tracks to the USB input but I did not appreciate any significative difference. (The settings I used was the recommended by Goldensound in his review of Spring 3KTE). But again I did use de HQP a few times. I'll check your recommended settings to see if there is any difference here. Thanks Again the most weird thing is if the sound level of the song is high in level, the Spring awakes his highs, like the Black album from Metallica I did mentioned,... dunno why... Cheers

Hello there, as mentioned before, I bought a new Spring3 KTE a few weeks ago. The burn-in goes as total 100hours with 75hours the Tellurium Burning CD and 25hours of listening done in several different days (5 hours each session aprox). My comments here are mainly from CD as source, (but I did not hear anything different from USB and my MAC either playing Tidal or HQP files) I want to be brief… if that’s possible :D I listen to 60’s blues rock, 70’s blues rock, hard rock and proto metal bands, (AC/DC, Aerosmith, Dylan, Hendrix, Doors, Beatles, Stones,Zeppelin, Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd…) 80’s hard rock & heavy metal, some 90’s rock/metal bands…some 70’s-80s funk, some 80-90’s electronica, some Jazz (classic and modern), some hip-hop, and some classical (mainly opera and big orchestrations). And for recent bands a lot of Stoner, Doom, heavy psychedelic, heavy blues, Prog,.. The sound of the Spring 3 is very rich, fun and engaging, without zero fatigue (and I mean after 5-6 hours of continuous listening is zero fatigue !!), Bass extension is correct and do not tend to be overwhelmed like other DACs (in my book this is good), mid bass is rich and beautiful, midrange algo beautiful, maybe too thick warm, I’d say Neutral Warm ++ :D, not neutral warm that many people say it is… anyway sweet tonality and mid highs and highs are fine. BUT BUT BUT !!! :D There is like a fastidious recessed top end, shy I’d say, especially noticeable with drum cymbals, it is like someone put a door of -6db/-12db on some frequencies, and cymbals sounds very low in level, and somewhat disconnected from the rest of the drum kit. (I play drums ….) Also noticeable but less is the room reverb or room ambience… there is less less here too. I noticed too, that sometimes if the music recorded signal is very loud, the cymbals are correctly present , for example Metallica Black Album, and Metallica albums are known for being recorded too loud and with a lot of compression. Mostly the “thing” I have to claim to Holo Audio is the cymbals interpretation and some highs People who bought the Spring 3 KTE. Have you experimented the same? Do you think is going to improve this with more burn in time? And if someone experience both MAY KTE and SPRING 3KTE I’d like to see your comments here. Worth jumping onto a MAY KTE? Sometimes if the record or track has a very busy rich bass, the rich midrange is going to be too much rich and sometimes get congested or busy. Mostly this happens on modern records. Take OM album God is Good as an example. Anyway This effect is less noticeable in general terms. I don’t know if the maths and audio algorithms are in a FPGA programmable chip and Holo Audio can revisit this and put a new map of conversion on some frequencies… hopefully addressable via a firmware … Generally speaking I’d say put some +6/+9/+12 db more into the highs and 1-2 less db into mid bass. I think Holo is somewhat equalizing the sound looking for a rich tonality, emphasized rich mid bass, and somewhat recessed top end for a fun and enjoyable listening. A listening that I enjoy !!!!a lot!!! but with some caveats.

Spring 3 KTE is "in da house" :D since a few weeks ago. Burn-in period with a Tellurium Burning CD and wav files extracted from this CD, around 60 hours of burning (with 15 hours aprox in 3 different sessions of listening to music). Relaxed and enjoyable presentation... some doubts arise though... no sure if it is because of lack of burn-in or because it is its sound... and need a May KTE... Anyway always my feet start to dance with every song played via usb or CD., which is a very good thing.

Hello there !!. I'm mostly a vinyl player, but I want to return to my CD collection and listen to Qobuz too (streaming from PC or Phone) . I'm going to purchase the Spring 3 level 3 and I have a ton of CDs that I want to play them with my current CD player (A Panasonic UB9000 4K/BluRay player). Which method is "best" to use it as a transport. - Coax output to coax input on SP3 - HDMI (audio out) to i2s on SP3 (since the Spring can accommodate different pin-out ... but not sure if it works as is as simple as I put it here... :D ) - Buy a Coax to USB converter or a streamer that accept coax input... My CD collection is ripped onto a USB hard disk connected to the Pana, so I will do some comparisons... :D On a proper and modern CD Transport, any of you has experience on Jay's Audio CDT2 or Project's CD Box RS2 T or PS Audio, both i2s, I haven't seen any transport with USB out... or any other transport recommendation. (I have no longer my Mark Levinson 39 so... ) Best Luis

Thanks to every body, I'll try to listen some of the DACS you mentioned also I'll try to listen to DCS Debussy.

I really and absolutelly agree !. The important is not whatever DAC chip is using a product, the question is everything else on the circuits, components, etc. Ten years + ago when I bought my Mark Levinson 39, some few products could deliver good musicallity, like Mark Levinson, Wadia, Krell, Theta or Naim. I could listen a two years ago at a show at Madrid a DCS Puccini, I was very interested because is like my levinson, it can play Discs and also serve as a DAC, and also have a preamp (I bought my ARC REf 5 only a few months ago)... but it did not surprise me in any way, not like my ML did 10 years ago. (and also the cost is very high, I pay 9000 euros for ML, DCS asks 18.000 euros or near, thats a lot!) What DACs do you think in your oppinion deliver more musicality?

Hello: I'm newbie on this forum. First I would like to say hello everybody interested in high quality audio, and good music. My question is how perform a old good DAC/CD versus a new good DAC/CD. I have an Mark Levinson nº39 in perfect contidion that I use as DAC most of the time. (files in FLAC served by my SB) I also have a Oppo 93. I mostly listen to CD or flac files ripped, I dont have high resolution files by now. The sound compared between ML 39 and Oppo93. Wins ML39 by a great margin. Have anyone compared in CD quality files with old (but very good or reference DACs) with new DACs I'm not sure if I have to sell the ML or not. Thanks !