Yes, that’s exactly what i was asking and same experience coming from bf2.
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After coming from the BF2, listening to the Spring 3 KTE over the weekend, I’ve found some music a little brighter now. Not sure if I’m just used to a warmer and not so detailed dac or if the Spring being 30 days old and unknown amount of time on it, if it’s still settling in. Curious anyones thoughts who have owned the Spring.
For what it’s worth, I got a May level 2 the week before last, and I initially found that it made things unpleasantly bright and fatiguing. After running it for about 150 hours or so, that is no longer the case.
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I’ve found that I’ve had to turn the volume down to compensate for the brightness that wasn’t there with the bf2, but neither was the detail or openness in the bf2.
When I got my Holo May Kitsune a month or so back, I asked Tim about the break-in period, and it was a LOT. So before I even plugged it into my system, I just plugged it into the wall and turned it on and left it like that for about 3 weeks. When I DID plug it into my system in place of a DAVE and M Scaler, it sounded like magic. Perfect with my tube headphone amps! What an amazing DAC!
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I was told that you’ve got to be actually running a signal through it, so I’ve been leaving music on at night when I go to sleep. Also, initially, it was so hot - almost too hot for me to be able to hold my hand against it. Now it’s just pleasantly warm like a fresh muffin.
Hi Phil - I’ve found that both when I just had it turned on outside the system, and now that it’s hooked up, that heat will vary. Sometimes pleasantly warm like you’ve described, and sometimes I won’t put my hand on it for more than a few seconds. Not burning hot, but ‘unpleasantly’ hot! I don’t know what it’s doing inside that causes that fluctuation, but it’s no real bother, and the DAC doesn’t seem to mind!
I’m not an EE but nothing in a dac strikes me as changing enough to create a large change in generated heat.
When it’s playing it might use more power but if it was me I’d verify that it’s normal to have different temps.
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I’m with you - it doesn’t make a great deal of sense. It’s true though - it was roasting hot - as hot as any of my amplifiers, but now it’s just warm like the skin of a lover.
Dunno r2r is a completely different topology than an off the shelf delta sigma implementation. Break in seems to be a highly controversial topic. In transducers/speakers most reviewers will admit to limited improvements in break in but most electronics are about the same (exception of tubes). It’s possible that some it is a persons brain adjusting or even very nuanced changes over time that don’t appear in primary measurements. Resolve the local reviewers rarely talk about break in.
Also trying running it in NOS if you’re finding it “bright”
I’m confused by your post.
My post was talking about large changes in case temperature.
I haven’t said anything about break-in or how sound might change over time.
I don’t understand how the concept of ‘break-in’ can be even remotely controversial, though I understand that it is. I’ve never bought one piece of high-end audio gear (besides cables, etc) that did not require at least some break-in to make a huge difference.
I’ve had headphones and speakers that I would have returned right away if they continued sounding like they did out of the box - flat, no bass, no texture, harsh trebles, poor midrange; but after a few weeks, these change and it all starts coming together, and these are not limited improvements - these are night-and-day differences. I’ve noticed similar changes in tube preamps. What are smaller differences (to me, anyway) are changes in cables, cords, etc - I would possibly buy a ‘placebo’ or brain-adjustment in these case, though I would not deny break-in changes either. I totally agree that running in NOS mode will tame the brightness down - I always run it that way and have had no issues with exciteable treble and everything sounds just right to me!
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Thanks for a well-worded, rational post.
It’s one of the toxic oddities of audio that some of us have to defend our belief in commonsense perceptual stuff, including:
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Burn-in is real. I’ve heard its effects many times. No, I can’t explain exactly why it works. And no, it’s not fully explainable by “brain burn-in,” which burn-in deniers often pose as the “true” explanation of the phenomenon: when I burn in a headphone, for example, I listen to it briefly but attentively at the start of burn-in, then a minute or two now & then just to check that signal is still running through. Finally when burn-in is complete, I do more intensive listening, comparing that to what I first heard. So if I’m experiencing brain burn-in, it starts well after actual burn-in has occurred (they’re not synonymous)
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Different cables sound different: I don’t know why this is so. I can’t explain why it’s even possible this is true. But I do hear differences–they’re pretty small, but come on now, my system was painstakingly set up to reveal small differences…
These arguments generally begin with someone saying neither phenomenon is possible & that it’s ludicrous to claim either is real. The conversation degenerates from there.
I actually avoid talking about this stuff much of the time. I’m not into fighting with people. But what I hear, is what I hear.
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Thank you, Pharmaboy, that’s so kind of you to say! I also like talking to people, not arguing or fighting, and I usually learn a lot that way as well by hearing different points of view. I am always willing to be corrected if I have an incorrect assumption about something. I think I can understand how that would work for headphones and speakers, as they have mechanical things producing the sound and I can see how they might be a bit stiff to start with and become more flexible (good thing!) with more use. I’m an idiot when it comes to electronics, so I can’t say much about cables and wiring - I’ll take everybody else’s words for that!
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Brightness has gone away for me but the urge to go to the May has not. Looks like shipping has increased…
Holo Spring 3 KTE w/ preamp
The Spring is my first entry to the hi-end “low-tier” DAC world. It sounds great, it’s well-built, it looks good, and is an overall excellent product that I could without a doubt recommend.
I’m going to skip the sound portion here in this write-up as I don’t think it will be helpful when I have no DAC of a similar tier to compare to. Instead, I’ll discuss why you would want to spend a good amount of money on a DAC.
Ok, I’ll touch on sound briefly. Compared to the RME DAC, it is pretty much a night and day difference. You get actual staging, organic timbre, more resolution, and a generally more life-like rendition of music. Moving up in the DAC world has honestly been one of the most revelatory experiences in my audio journey. DACs are interesting indeed.
Someone a while back had asked about what DACs “sound” like. After thinking about it, I had a hard time coming up with any sort of explanation or description. But why is that? How come people generally have a hard time describing “DAC sounds”?
I think the reason is that we think that a DAC will “change” our headphones tonally such as making it brighter, smoother, punchier, whatever. I mean c’mon…these hi-end DACs are usually humongous and will likely have a psychological effect one way or another. Although you can likely tell the differences by comparing DACs within the same tier, looking at the bigger picture they don’t really change how our headphones sound (like how an amp or a different headphone would be able to). If you look at it from a different angle, DACs seem to be about information and presentation (how the music is being played back and presented to you). Once I thought of it this way, it became much easier to digest the differences, at least for me.
The person that asked this question mentioned he cooks a lot. So, I was thinking an analogy would be an effective way of answering this question. This is what I came up with…
A similar analogy would be plate presentation. If the plate or dish doesn’t look good to you then you’ll probably won’t enjoy your meal as much as you had originally thought. You can look at it as headphones = different dishes, amps = quality of ingredients, and DAC = presentation of food. All are equally important and contribute to a satisfying meal.
The DAC is what holds everything together. If you find that perfect recipe of a certain dish (headphones) and work on it until perfection is achieved and presentation (DAC) is presentable, then what’s next? That would be the quality of ingredients (AMP). If you start out with quality ingredients without the prerequisite of proper practice and execution, you’ll likely waste money.
So why Holo Spring? I would answer this question by looking at synergy and usage (features). If you’re new to the hi-end DAC world I don’t think you can go wrong with any DAC of the same calibre, and I’m confident you’ll at least be happy with the Spring unless it somehow has horrible synergy with your headphones.
Hopefully the analogy and points above made sense, and that it was helpful to at least one person. Just remember that choosing a DAC is but one tactic, and that each component in an audio chain is a tactic meant to contribute to the overall strategy.
Oops! Forgot to mention how good the preamp on the Spring is…it does its job and is transparent through and through. I’d recommend it even if you don’t think you’ll need it. I know there are many situations where DACs output a lot of power making it frustrating to adjust volume on the amp (especially those of us who use high efficiency headphones like Focal). I lowered mine and noticed no change in sound quality but it was only until I set it below 50(ish) that it started to sound a bit thin.
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Have you used it in a stereo set up as well or strictly headphones?
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I used it on my monitors at near-field listening on the desk. But my primary use is for headphones.
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Did you find any noticeable difference in how it performed with monitors versus headphones?
Hmm, nothing noticeable I would say. But it’s also worth noting that I don’t spend nearly as much time on monitors as I do with headphones (and my room acoustics is 
).
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