…
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Spring 3 KTE w/o preamp module in the queue
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The price of my Burson Conductor 3XR just went up. It’s an even better amp and power section in that. Maybe it’s time to sell!
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Hope mine comes earlier than yours! lol kidding
I got w/ preamp mainly for future proofing and resale value. Plus I am curious how good it really is…
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Got my shipping notice today. 11 days from order 
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So this is totally selfish and silly, but I ended up buying an Exogal Comet Plus, so now I kinda want to see it included in the comparison whenever that happens, lol.
Also, I’m definitely excited to hear from you all who bought the Holo Spring 3 when they arrive! I hope you love it!
EDIT: Linking to the Holo Spring 3 thread since posts got moved over there:
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This Spring 3 has been damn impressive so far to me. Really enjoying it!
And just an FYI for those interested in the Spring 3 w/ preamp…
There is no bypass option, but I was told that setting it to 94 will do the same thing.
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Soon Schiit should come out with new analog boards for YGGY2…hard to beat this at the price considering its always used in comparisons with the higher cost dacs…
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Be interesting to see if the price point remains the same for new units, also what the upgrade will cost.
I saw a yggy earlier today and thought about it. I have not heard one but I would like to very much.
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From what Jason recently posted the YGGY 2’s are waiting on motherboards and analog boards to ship again…its been a long wait time.
Also Mike and his partner Dave have each picked an analog board and will see if both of these are offered as well as the original ?
Price ? Have no idea.
Alex
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Hmmm we’ll see, that could be arranged lol, been really busy lately but working on it
Also nice grab on the people here who bought a spring 3, hopefully you all are enjoying it
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Going to be able to get a spring 3 kte in to borrow, will end up including that and seeing how it holds up to the may kte as well (at least from memory), should be interesting
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Sorry on not updating things from when I really initially wrote all this stuff, other aspects of my life have been pretty busy since I started this thread (all kinda hit unpredictably)
Regarding the 5k ish and under comparison range, I’ll try to get to it in the next few months, but I’m not really sure when I’ll have free time (also still have to demo some things again beforehand). Honestly I don’t really know if I want to do it that badly since I don’t really have a reason to, I’m just less interested in dacs in that range so I’m less interested in just writing something for the hell of it. But I’ll try to get to it lol, just won’t be a first priority.
More setup updates (although I’ve had this for many months now), I honestly feel like I should have moved further up the digital source chain more early, I grabbed a Antipodes K50 and it’s easily overhauled the pacific and totaldac, easily worth it’s price, really irritated I didn’t go for it earlier since if it was this drastic with these dacs I bet it would have been similar for others I sold off. I was surprised it was this large of a difference when I thought I already had a pretty good digital backbone, but I guess not lol
I guess if I had to note some standouts compared to my other previous digital setups (like the totaldac ddc + ideon reclocker or the dcs network bridge)
- Blacker background
- Surprisingly more control especially in the bass
- More resolution and nuance
- Improved spatial recreation
- Step forward for dynamics
- More tonal density and richness, was not expecting this
- A bit less relaxed than normal
- Much more texture
- Just more convincing overall
Basically things are much more involving and realistic, things jump out at me more, it’s easier to visualize everything, easier to basically fool yourself and to me that’s pretty much a win here so far
It’s unusual how lively things are now, but also relaxed at the same time in a sense, not sure how it’s able to do that
Further cable upgrades continued to help the setup overall, really honestly pondering how I can take this further (without having to sell my house lol). Just really nothing to complain about. I will say I am eyeing that new lampizator that just came out, just to see what it does. But I am debating if I really should or not and stick with the pacific. But it’s real tempting lol
Just somewhat enjoying things without thinking about it too much, going through various types of music, some suiting the equipment, some absolutely not, so haven’t been paying too much attention to audio in general, just enjoying what I have I guess. Far too easy to get caught up in the cycle lol
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What music in particular gave you this ot these Holy Shit moments ?? I would think at this level the source material would be very very important in the listening experience here. Such a subjective influence.
If you can identify what particular song, version, format etc then we out here can try this same source with lesser cost dacs and see how it goes…
:>)
Hmmm, if I had to narrow down by genre, it would likely happen most in orchestral, avant-garde jazz, IDM, prog rock, ambient, and industrial sometimes. Ah and anything piano as well. But a wide range overall, I generally listen to whatever as long as it’s interesting to me, outside of modern country and something that’s just pure vocalist or whatever. I do listen to some absolute garbage (in terms of production quality) which will not really showcase much difference, but I’d say that within my library most material improved enough/showcased enough of difference between the dacs to make them worthwhile to pick up. Wouldn’t be worthwhile to grab any of these if they didn’t show themselves on the majority of my library
I mean sure, although if you are going to make those comparisons, the best way to do that is with music the listener knows the best, since that’s going to be the easiest to actually compare there (the more you are emotionally involved in the track, the more you will notice difference between things)
Uhhhhh I don’t really have any go to test tracks per se, so some albums I’ve been listening to recently that has given me those true wow moments on my system might be:
Hilary Hahn- Elgar: Violin Concerto/Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending (2004 SACD, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → Stella HP → Mysphere 3.1)
Takeshi Inomata & Sound Limited - Sounds of Sound L.T.D. (1972 Redbook, K50 AES → D1-Reclocker-mk2 → D1-Direct → D1-Drivers mk2 → DC44B G Tune II → Susvara)
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds (1980 Redbook, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → Studio T → Utopia)
JPEGMAFIA - LP! (Bandcamp 24/96, K50 AES → D1-Reclocker-mk2 → D1-Direct → D1-Drivers mk2 → AIC-10 → 1266)
Darkside - Spiral (Bandcamp 24/96, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → 3ES Elite → Shang Sr.)
Lump - Animal (Bandcamp 24/44.1, K50 AES → D1-Reclocker-mk2 → D1-Direct → D1-Drivers mk2 → Demone → Susvara )
Einstürzende Neubauten - ½ Mensch (2006 Redbook, Wavedream Sig Bal → XP-32 → Egoista 845 MK2 → 1266)
Oneohtrix Point Never - Magic Oneohtrix Point Never (Bandcamp 24/96, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → Stella HP → Mysphere 3.1)
Portico Quartet - Portico Quartet (2011 Redbook, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → 2x E3 hybrid DC → ADX5k)
These New Puritans - Field of Reeds (2013 Redbook, K50 USB → 3R Master Blackstar USB → Pacific → Stella HP → Mysphere 3.1)
Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 (2011 Redbook, K50 AES → D1-Reclocker-mk2 → D1-Direct → D1-Drivers mk2 → AIC-10 → Utopia)
(I’m absolutely not supposed to do this as a mod, but if anyone wants these or other albums “to test”, pm)
Although this is moreso just scrolling through my past listening history in the past week or so and picking out things that I remember having an awesome session with rather than anything cherry picked to showcase difference, since I’m listening to this stuff to enjoy music, not really to listen to the system lol
This entire whole experiment for myself was mainly based off daily driver usage, going through thousands and thousands of albums (yes I’m one of those terrible people with playlists of 100k tracks (ish, depends on how many foobar or my streamers feel like taking before they crash) and I skip through it until I find an album I want to listen to at the moment), so all these dacs went though most types of music out there. I did test on the same albums when I got in the mood, but going back and forth between all the dacs with the same album was not the majority type of listening (was over a year of listening/making notes, so still got ample time doing that though). But most was just chilling and listening to stuff I really wanted to listen to, and that’s the true test of any setup, if it can actually leave you satisfied in daily use. A good setup will make everything better, not just the overly good music, but most things in between as well. These are not marginal changes either with most music, it’s fairly significant, some as much as swapping a headphone might offer at times, it can be painfully apparent what gear is at play at this point. No diminishing returns hitting here lol, although YMMV of course : )
As is everything else in this hobby of course, which is why trying a wide variety and generalizing my experiences was the approach, so things wouldn’t be favored due to specific albums
Basically, if these dacs weren’t impressing me daily with most of my music, I wouldn’t own them. If I put something in holy shit, it will give me that wow moment with the majority of what I put through it. If it was only in oh shit it would give me those moments around 1/3 what I put through it or less. If it was in nice shit, it would sometimes give me those wow moments but only in cherry picked tracks in very specific situations (at least in comparison to the other dacs at play)
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Thanks, a very nice and thoughtful reply!
Its much appreciated.
Alex
“Merry Christmas!”…
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One day you will own the MSB Select II. That will be your end game until the Select III comes out…
Yeah so the select 2 has been the best I’ve heard, but it’s also a super substantial investment. I could go for one if I sold off all my other dacs, but I don’t know if I would want to do that. I think at my current level of setups, I can’t really justify it, I don’t think I would really be getting the benefits that has to offer especially in a headphone setup. I would first need to entirely revamp my 2ch which would also be incredibly expensive. Do I think I would still hear the difference and find it an upgrade in my current setups? Actually probably yes, but would that difference be worth the cost in my case? Probably not.
There’s other dacs that are at or above the select 2 as well, but I’ve purposely prevented myself from listening to anything above so I don’t have to think about that lol
And also, I still am not fully behind putting all of my eggs in one basket, I still like some variety and multiple chain options, but that way of thinking has definitely been changing more toward a few solid chains rather than a larger amount of lesser ones. I still need to sell off more stuff, but it’s extra hard when you have stuff already since you can listen to it which makes it really hard to let go of lol
I’ve seen a few used select ii pop up and it is something I could swing right now if I really wanted to, but it would honestly require that I change everything and revamp everything else, which I’m really not ready to do (and wouldn’t be able to afford doing after buying a select ii lol, at least for a few years)
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Decided to remove my old comparison to be rewritten at some point (moreso just adjust formatting and switch around some rankings rather than redo the actual listening, a bit too late for that lol), but instead did the promised pt2 for the 5k new and below (somewhat). It’s a fair bit shorter this time though lol
Still tweaking the comparisons a bit, but I think for the most part it represents what I feel at the current moment
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This was really good
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