Anyone have experience with it? Comparisons to other DACs?
Look around with the search feature.
I did. There are some comments but it’s relatively sparse.
I think db_cooper and phil_b are the people to ping. I know some one to ping. I can’t speak directly because I have th Spring 2 and have no idea what the amp sounds like. Feedback is genuinely positive and if I were to redo what I have done and how I got there, Cyan would been the play to make instead of the THX amp I got and then added the Bifrost 2.
I don’t think Holo makes DACs with significant impact but the sound stage is wide on the Spring 2, lots of detail, very engaging. It is more analytical and a sacrifice on the natural sound for something that sounds more fun. I’m assuming the Cyan is just a little less performance than the Spring 2.
Thanks, the amp in it doesn’t matter to me as I’ll be using dedicated amps. I’m just curious how it sounds in comparison to its peers like the Soekris 1541/2541, Bifrost 2, Gungnir, Ares, Pontus.
At that level, synergy is a big factor. Amp and load pairing is going to matter.
My DAC experience is $200 and under some old 10~15 year old DACs and then the Holo Cyan and the Lampizator Amber 3, so there’s a kinds of a big gap in the middle I sort of skipped over.
I’d say the Holo is Clean, not antiseptic clean very true to timbre (when in NOS mode). I’d say it’s a little sweet for lack of a better word to use, it’s not warm, on the contrary if anything it is probably a little brighter than the Geshelli Enog 2 I was using for my HP amp before I got it. It’s a LOT more detailed and revealing than that and it’s very easy to pick instruments apart but when I say sweet I mean there’s a sense of tonality that’s the opposite of acerbic. So the brightness is not actual high end focus but just a lot of detail I wasn’t getting before. The vocals aren’t as good as the Lampizator Amber 3 but that’s not a fair comparison just trying to show you the range it’s got. It’s a great DAC in the vocal range especially the female voice and it maintains detail and clarity up the frequency as well as down frequency. Overall it’s just a good fun DAC that can slam with the right amp and it seems to have the DNA of the Holo family’s R2R albeit with a less sophistication and focus on the power side of things than the other Holo offerings.
I got an included amp with it but it was a waste, it’s really crappy compared to the LP too thin and lifeless and I don’t use it, but I figured there would be better resale value with the amp if I ever wanted to part with it. You can save yourself some money doing without it.
It’s a very gorgeous looking DAC, just insanely well built, no skimping anywhere. The USB is pretty good but I get a better sound from it going I2S ou from my DDC reclocker. Something that the up market Holo DACS apparently do better. (better USB implementation or some type of noise reduction for USB, not clear but the May is supposed to do something like that.
The only negative I’d give it is that the volume is just too slow to go up and down. I switch it from my powered monitors to my HP amp both RCA and XLR out and I have to compensate for the differences in output and I have to turn the volume knob 5 or 6 complete revolutions to get from 85 to a 50. The remote is easier but since I use it on my desk, I don’t use the remote. But given the fact that unlike the Ares II and the Bitfrost 2, this thing can be a very good preamp and I needed a DAC with a preamp.
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Yeah I get that. Pretty soon I’ll have 6 HP amps, probably 3 2ch amps and a plethora of cans and speakers so it could be in a multitude of systems. I’m sure it will sound good with at least a few combos I have available to me. Just trying to triangulate its strengths and weaknesses relative to the r2r/multibit competition.
Just some real music experience. The Eurythmics track, I love to Listen to Beethoven. There’s a portion of the song where Annie Lennox is recorded on left/center/right different in different tracks of the recording. There’s one line she says, “I was dreaming like a Texas girl” whispered into the right channel. With the LP > Eikons in the chain… it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because it sounds as if she’s whispering right into my ear. It’s the level of lifelike timbre in the female voice that’s really hard to describe. It just feels real.
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