Well thatâs the thing thoughâŚthey can easily have Amir do the measurements for them and translate his comments to Chinese. He IS the Topping/SMSL testing lab and he has also been part of their social blog/advertising in China. Ever wonder why Topping is the most bestest equipment according to him? Ever wonder why he doesnât own any?
I donât think it is because there are some threads in ASR that only featured L7âs measurement data, not Amirâs. Back when I still browse in the Chinese web, I would also see some Chinese audio product measurement done by that lab that never got through to the international market. But then, Iâm not defending any parties here. Iâm just telling you who they are.
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Maybe theyâre not Amir but theyâre probably good friends. Seen this before?
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Yeah, theyâre definitely people with the same belief.
Yes, this is what i was referencing before
So Sagra vs Holo spring 2? Spill the beansâŚ
Literally having a studio recording engineer confirm some things right now.
do you have any first takes / impressions on the two or if there an issue with the Sagra?
Causally looking at a Sagra + Formula S + powerman stack now but not sure I want to part with my Holo Spring KTE as I do so enjoy itâs sound.
The problem is that the form s is internally single ended (any models you see with XLR on the back arenât actually balanced, they drop the negative pin basically making it equivalent to single ended in), so you would need to run the kte single ended, which would result in a quality drop (since the Holo sound better balanced)
Sorry if this sounds stupid:
But on the abyss website they have a formula S with XLR inputs. I understand itâs not a balanced amp per say but if Iâm using balanced inputs canât I use the XLR outuputs on the spring kte?
I would assume the issue is with the Spring KTE RCA outputs and that you want to use XLR outs but that the amp being fully balanced or single ended wouldnât really matter.
So you can, but the xlr inputs on the formula are not transformer based or actively convert bal to se, all they do is drop the negative pin on the xlr, ignoring half the dac, just like using single ended would. If you wanted to preserve more quality you could use a balanced to single ended transformer like an ampsandsound black box, but that will add coloration
You want to have it run fully balanced through the chain due to how itâs designed. It has a ladder for the positive and negative for each channel, if you run it single ended, you now only use 1/2 the dac. You really want to have an internally balanced amp or one that has transformers or active bal to se conversion on the input to more effectively preserve the sound quality when moving so se. Simply dropping the pin will basically only treat it as single ended out of the dac, only using 1/2. With transformers or active conversion at least you are getting the full quality from the dac coming in, and then that is being converted to single ended, reducing quality loss compared to just dropping a pin
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Thanks Mon youâre professing knowledge on the daily!
Itâs just one of those things where I wish the formula was balanced so you could use dacs like a yggy or spring/may to their full potential lol. There are other excellent dacs for it though as well so itâs not like thereâs a lack of options for it either
Not to get to much in the weeds then but the Soloist 3XP is advertised as balanced. But then Iâll see things like discrete power supply and perfect channel balance. Wondering if this they are using marketing terminology and the amp is not truly balanced in the way you describe to take advantage of the Spring.
Pretty sure the burson is truly balanced from what I know, but I havenât taken a look at it (and Iâm also not an amp designer either). Typically if a manufacturer tells you itâs balanced, itâs not going to be a lie (most of the time). The psu type and channel balance arenât marketing terms and would not have to do with being balanced or not
I can say strictly for the Diana Phi, the Sagra tonally just pairs PERFECT. The Spring 2 is great and overall I think pairs better with many headphones over my Sagra (both fantastic, detailed, etcâŚ).Just the bass grip and control and how weighted the Sagra is with Abyss makes it great choice. As M0N has mentioned, the single ended performance of the Sagra is also superior to the Spring DACs. The synergy of the GS-X Mini with the Sagra is WONDERFUL!
With the Spring 2 + GS-X Mini on the DPhi, itâs pretty much like an ADD like response with âsquirrelâ. You can focus more on details like people sitting in a live performance than the music some times. The Sagra plays to the strenghts and focues less on the micro details (where Abyss excels). The brightness is toned down with the Sagra â Mini vs Spring 2 â Mini. I have to say if youâre setting at your computer⌠size, tone, bass grip, that the Sagra is the ideal choice with the Diana Phi.
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Btw, invert a lot of my previous comment @rmsanger and thatâs what happens with the Final D8000 Pro on the Spring 2 â GS-X Mini.
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Here is the response I got from Burson on the soloist in case anybody cares:
Hi
Thank you for your support and question. It is rare that customer is aware of the technical difference between truly balanced design and half balanced design. Most customer is not aware of such issue.
The Soloist is always our flagship headphone amp that design to achieve our ideals. It is not only a true balanced designed thought out but also a directly couple design without any capacitor or transformer for maximal dynamic performance. For that reason customer who needs to convert that XLR output to RCA output needs apply an external transformer adaptor (see info via our user manual): https://www.bursonaudio.com/downloads/
The Soloist not only having the best volume control chip in the market but also a fully balanced, fully discrete directly coupling circuit pure Class-A headphone amp. That is why it sounds so good and been so popular in the market right now.
I donât think there is any design that comes near to this level of performance in the market right now.
Thank you again for your kind support for Burson Audio.
Please keep us posted with your feedback and questions.
Warm regards
Dennis
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I reached out the Flux Labs regarding their new Volot product on if it is fully balanced or Single ended amp. They responded:
Volotâs circuitry is not balanced, it contains two amplification channels. But at the same time, the amplifier is dual mono, that is, it contains two separate power supplies. It should also be noted that the balanced inputs are based on an active differential line receiver and are capable of fully working with a balanced signal.
A follow up post said:
"Itâs pretty simple. Dual mono means two separate mono amps each with its own power supply. The only difference between a dual mono amp and true mono amps is that the former are in the same chassis while the latter are in separate chassis. This is different from the traditional amplifier where you have two mono amps that share the same power supply.
A balanced differential amplifier contains four separate mono amps - two for each channel (one for the plus and one for the minus). Each channel pair cancels out the noise of each other (the noise thatâs picked up on the positive and negative signal wires). Thatâs the main benefit."
With that said will the Volot have the same problem pairing with Holo Spring Dac that the Formula S has? Itâs not fully balanced but dual mono so not sure if that has the same drawbacks.