I deeply regret NOT buying my Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE sooner! 
Unbelievable DAC and Iāve really come to appreciate the clean detailed sound of NOS non-over sampling DACās. Surprise how much information is lost in convoluted delta-sigma filters.
Canāt you still buy them?
I finally received mine a month ago. After the 500 hr break-in, holy cow this is great. Wished Iād have pulled the trigger a few months earlier.
Previously DAC was also a class A+ rated PS Audio DirectStream DAC, the Spring 3 KTE is just another notch. Live recordings like the Brown Trio for Jazz or Jeff Beck at the Hollywood Bowl are stunning in their realism.
My biggest headphone regret was buying the Drop Hifiman HE 5xx, by far.
I was trying to get a decent Hifiman planar on the cheap, which was perhaps my first mistake. They were also supposedly a nice contrast with the Senn HD 650/xx, which I still have. That part was true, if the contrast was between a headphone I wanted to listen to (the 650) and one I didnāt!
They did some things right, but were way too treble forward for my taste. I ended up giving them to my son, who also didnāt like them and sold them!
I ended up getting the Sundara, which is what I should have done in the first place. Lesson learned 
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What advice could you give me about dealing with frustration when a product doesnāt meet my expectations, despite careful planning and review?
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Hi MAENA_BRIAN. Welcome to your headphone forum!
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Those all seem like common steps of headphone enthusiast investigation when playing the head game, arenāt they?
- Read/watch the REVIEWS
- PLAN headphone purchase
- EXPECTATIONS not met
- Repeat
Perhaps dissipate frustration in favor of realizing each learning opportunity? Look at the hobby as an adventure in familiarizing oneās self with such a large variety of products available. Part of the journey might also be to find others that review products that share similar tastes and likes to match yours.
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Welcome.
This affects us all, and some things will inevitably disappoint. Iāve sold as much stuff as I currently own. Some approaches are:
- Buy used to minimize losses
- Visit audio shows to demo
- If in a larger city, visit local audio stores to demo
- Join a group that mails stuff from person-to-person for demos
- Buy from a store with low cost returns
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Itās just like buying vinyl pressings. Or dating. Regret is part of the journey. It highlights the wins.
One of my recent regrets was this: a QSA Red-Black outlet, which was $1550. Didnāt sound any better than my standard contractor outlet.
Luckily I could return itā¦
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Damn, just had to Google that wall socket and came by this:
Reading the product description is just like reading a hypnotic script: This is what you will hear, this is what you will experience, this is what to expect - The only thing missing is the hypnotic induction
Maybe I should mention that I am actually a certified hypnotist (not what I do for a living, but I have had an interest in hypnosis for the past 15 years - I use it on a regular basis to help the people I know, with whatever issues they might have like anxiety, fear of dentists, problems sleeping, issues with exams and tests etc.).
I think I will have the next one put on a pair of airline headphones and then Iāll give them the full QSA-experience 
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Wellā¦ for what itās worth, there are several audiophiles who I respect that have raved about QSA fuses, sockets and cables, and so it just didnāt work in my situation.
I am a strong advocate for power conditioning/cords, and do believe in that every single thing/tweak can have a significant impact; a bit hard to swallow spending $1500 (or up to $6k? 9k? for some of their sockets or fuses) on a duplex outlet, but yet there are many vacuum tubes, isolating platforms or cords that can easily cost as muchā¦
Itās inevitable mate. Barring first hand experience youāll definitely come across a product that doesnāt meet your expectations or standards. Always remember that glowing reviews and impressions are almost always written by people who have very positive experience on said product the experiences often came off in the form of hyperbole of some sort. I canāt stress how EASY it is to fall into hype train. Only advice I can give is to just move on and learn from this experience. If your only choice is to buy blind Iād suggest getting it second hand if possible and always be ready to be disappointed.
Golden rule for blind buying is to not spend more than you are willing to lose.
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Good day and Welcome, just my perspective and I will try not to give a lengthy comment even though this will be long. All of my comments are longš«
First you must know what you like to avoid disappointment. Iām certain you do unless you are completely new to this hobby.
Is it musical or analytical you prefer. This isnāt absolute as you can bend the needle to any degree
Next, you canāt get your hopes too high as any single product in your chain can change the entire presentation. Not certain what it is, but thatās how it goes. Some of us call it synergy.
After that itās pure luck unless you own a money tree.
Seems to be more present with stereo speakers, but as I mentioned previously which I am sure you did not get a chance to read is my experience with the susvara and the 109 pro. Both sounded alright until properly matched. I didnāt buy it so I had no expectations. Once it meets soulmate it will definitely click
In addition, nothing really checks all the boxes unless you do have a money tree. You need to isolate those things as well. I believe that goes hand in hand with understanding frequency response.
All I say is give it a chance, give everything you hate numerous chances. Donāt use it in the same audio chain you hated. But as products come in bring it back out and see what you think now.
Iāve tried products numerous times and after the 4th or 5th attempt I get the wow moment
I regret not fully comprehending this from the beginning, mostly everything in life is the opposite. You buy the best and you get the best, unfortunately audio doesnāt work that way at all. I think when searching for what I wanted and asking people here all these questions I thought there could be a definitive answer. There are some crowd pleasers, but those are outliers. Even though I was told thereās no answer I assumed that wasnāt possible.
So the reviews and careful planning is shot out the door unless this includes you hearing it yourself.
[adding my personal experience to the thread on generalā¦]
I totally understand the respect and love Audeze gets, but I have never been able to use their headphones because I am quite mid sensitive with their products for some reason. The LCD-5 fatigued me to the point I would get massive headaches and stomach convulsions 30 minutes into a listening.
I never thought I could experience that from an over ear headphone, but here we are.
Itās sad because I absolutely adore the build, comfort, and overall looks of the headphone.
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Wow! Thatās so weird! And amazing! Iāve never heard of such a device being able to do so much from one end of the spectrum to another.
From your stomach convulsions to my frisson and tears they pull out from within my core, there is some serious black magic about them that has me seriously perplexed on how they do it.
I bought the Hifiman HE-400i headphones based on great reviews and my interest in trying a planar magnetic headphone. They were a disappointment out of the box. The cable was very short and soon started to short out one of the drivers. Midrange frequencies such as acoustic piano were audibly distorted. I thought Iād get more bass than I had with my Sennheiser HD-600ās (which I still use daily), but nope.
After they gathered dust for a couple of years, I bought an inexpensive replacement cable and gave them to a family member who liked them a lot better than I did.
That is my only regretted headphone purchase.
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I dithered about ordering an item before the pandemic hit, thinking the months-long waiting list wasnāt worth it. Then, I broke down and ordered during the pandemic.
Iām still waiting. Iām still waiting. Iām still waiting.
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Happy cake day generic!
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Yeah, happy cake day buddy! @generic
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Yes indeed, Happy Cake Day! Youāre appreciated 
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I did commit the silly sin of buying on looks but the Snorry model I bought was all wrong for me. I couldnĀ“t get a proper seal, it was uncomfortable, pads were hard and sound was, uhmm not to my taste. Most embarrasing was that they published measurements and if I had looked more closely at them I sure wouldnĀ“t had purchased them. Sometimes you learn the hard way.
cheers Mike
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