Topping and Holo Audio have collaborated to bring the Centaurus—their newest R2R DAC—to market at a price tag of $999 USD... but is using Holo Audio's notoriously accurate R2R implementation enough to make Centaurus an R2R DAC people should consider purchasing? Join GoldenSound as he breaks it down.
Want to discuss this video? Start a discussion about it on our forum by clicking "Start Discussion" below!
Have you tested the Centaurus since a number of firmware updates? I no longer hear the distortion when playing 44.1 kHz tracks and was wondering if this was my imagination or if they did fix this.
I have the centaurus and when it was connected to my A70 I would get occasional, very occasional artifacts. I have since moved it to my pure tube amp and given it some time while I re-arrange my listening setup and it’s nothing but butter.
*I just rewatched the video and remembered that it was a NOS issue. I have just let it be and went to check the setting’s and it was set to “best”. Which in my book is glorious. I lack the enthusiasm to test different setting’s at this point because I have my chain ($4k chain at current prices) next to a couch that you can only relax on and all but fall asleep. But those 30+ minutes that I am awake are absolute gold. When I get my tungsten and move back to my listening room with a recliner and can stay awake I may want to tweak the setting’s, however short of the desire to inform others of setting’s I may not use…. I really don’t see the point. Set to “best” it’s a pure dream on any headphone I have deemed worthy of time on my dragon and centaurus. When it works well why tear it apart and find the weak points? I have Nothing that sounds like this combo does and I love it.
**ok I just spent some time on the first 15 second’s and followed up with the first minute of this track
And I really can’t tell much difference between NOS OS and Best. I was hoping to force myself into a spot of “holy crap this is jitter”, because my entire reason for spending countless thousands in this hobby, mosly in mid-fi, is to learn what someone means when they say this or that. And I’m NOT trying to defend my purchase, rather my philosophy. I’ll just buy something else if I need to, but I don’t see a reason.
I truly want to experience jitter, because I don’t know what it is. Like what does soundstage mean until you hear the Zeus? What is warm until you hear the Fidelio X3?
Can someone tell me how to pinpoint jitter?
Anyways, the chain I was just on. Pixel 8 via USB-C → Centaurus → Dragon IHA-1 → ATH70x Refine. I truly can’t hear anything other than slight volume changes. I even tricked myself into thinking I heard jitter only to realize it was on Best instead of OS x16. I have no idea if my unit is updated.
Maybe my meat melon doesn’t know how to hear these thing’s, I am almost 45 but I do know that my knee jerk reactions are the most reliable.
I don’t think you can do that without test equipment. How would you know how much jitter is occurring?
A usb connection does not contain a clock (the clock is inside the dac) so not much you can do with usb connection.
Coax and optical contain a clock so maybe using 100 feet of crappy cable would cause abnormal jitter, but again how would you know without test equipment?