Some updated news about the BLISS…
due to supply chain delays and such… we are now looking at q1 2022. And pricing to be a little more than serene preamp. We will anounce more Info soon/early 2022
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Compares May Spring 2 & 3
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Now I’m just curious. Do you remember a track where it was obvious to hear and do you mind sharing it?
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Unfortunately not off the top of my head, I don’t have it anymore either, but I think it was most prominent to me on acoustic guitar and vocals where it could sometimes just get gritty and sharp for no reason, somewhat breaking coherency, didn’t observe that on some other dacs in that comparison. It wasn’t always prominent, but I did consistently get that sense from time to time. It was something more obvious in comparison than on its own
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@Draaly Heard you returned the spring. Curious what you thought about it since you had an yggy alongside it…
I dont havr time to do type up a propper break down this afternoon (if you want to VC just shoot me a PM and ill shoot you a discord link or somewhere i cam give you a rundown while dojng chores). Generaly speaking i think the spring 3 was better but there were some trade offs. Personaly, spring 3 being enough of a step up to actively upgrade from yggy was a chain dependant decision for me.
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Hello,
Would the Spring 3 Level 2 be too heavy for the Feliks Euforia?
I have the feeling that the Singxer Sda2 paired with the Su 2 via I2S on the Euforia together with the ZMF Auteur is reaching its limits.
Spring 3 doesn’t look bad technically.
Sponatan I had the ANK 2.1 Signature in mind or maybe a Soekris but no idea which one as R2R.
Cyan would still be an alternative but hardly available at the moment.
Sokeris stuff is going to be a fair bit smoother than spring 3 in my experience. Spring 3 is denser but sokeris stuff I tend to find excessively soft just TBH
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Too soft is not good either, the Euforia almost does it on its own.
The 2541 could be interesting, but I’m not really looking for something with an integrated amplifier.
And these filters also bother me a bit.
I have it in the Singxer and can’t switch it off.
And sometimes it’s too much for headphones that you always have to choose a softer filter that doesn’t always fit.
I’d rather have a pure R2R Dac without all the bells and whistles :-).
The Spring 3 at least seems to fulfil this on paper.
Just fwiw, If you are worried about softness, almost all NOS dacs are at least somewhat soft. Just something to keep in mind
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The HPA in the 2541 is an afterthought, and a meh performer. Just pretend it’s not there.
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Most all in ones are going to sacrifice one or the other, the Cyan, great DAC shit amp. The Burson Conductor, great amp, shit DAC.
There are good ones out there but they’re in the $4K or so used price range.
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question about the spring 3 preamp function - is there a way to bypass it as if it didn’t exist? or what would be the volume setting to be as closest to it? 100%? 50%?
Trying to figure out if it causes any harm to have it available if it’s connected to headphone amps that have their own volume control…
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It’s just a relay based passive pre-amp AFAIK, in which case all the relays are in the circuit when it’s at full volume, and not much else, I doubt it makes very much difference, but it depends a lot on how much of a purist you are. Absolute best case if it bypasses the pre entirely at full volume, you’d still have a relay in the circuit.
The primary issue with relay based volume controls is crosstalk, but it’s not really an issue on well designed units.
I very much doubt you’d hear the difference whether or not it has a bypass.
Whether it’s better to have it isn’t a simple answer, assuming it’s a high quality relay volume, and the amp has a conventional pot, you’re probably better off setting the amp pot into it’s sweet spot (usually ion the 1-2 o’clock position), and using the volume control on the Spring.
If the Amp has a better volume control than the spring, then you probably want the spring at Maximum, and to use the amps volume.
My DAC (not a spring) has a relay based volume control (albeit probably a better quality one than the one in the Spring), and I rarely defeat it when feeding the WA33, though most of that is because it’s convenient to change the preamp volume for very sensitive headphones.
The overall differences in setting volume on the amp vs the DAC are at best subtle, and I’d very much be in the camp of do what’s most convenient, rather than worrying about it.
Actually it’s nor entirely clear from the spring 3 description, but it might be an active preamp module, if it is, I would probably avoid it, but in some cases it could be a win.
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There is no bypass but setting it to 94 puts it at the same output as a regular spring with no preamp. Fwiw I’ve noticed little to no difference using the volume control on the spring. It was only when I got around below 50 did I start to notice a difference (for the worst).
It is convenient to have though because the spring output is quite hot. The amp I use mine with uses a stepped-attenuator so there are sweet spots to experiment with to get a nice volume setting.
Example: on the utopia and ie900 I have the volume set to 75 on the spring while on the d8kp I have it set to 77. So, it’ll depend what kind of volume architecture your amp uses and which one is “superior” b/w the DAC and amp, as polygonhell has already mentioned and elaborated.
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Its active. Changes max voltage from 4 and change to 6 and change IIRC
Yes, I actually already do that with the Singxer and it has never bothered me until now.
On the other hand, I don’t see why I should pay extra for an HPA that I don’t use.
And then better invest the money for a really upgradeable Dac.
With the Cyan, you could choose what I liked.
With the Spring 3 Level 2, I probably wouldn’t need the preamp either, but it’s nice to have.
Can you trust the video from Golden Sound on YouTube?
From what I’ve heard and seen, I didn’t think the Spring 3 Lv2 he presented was bad. (if it was Lv2)
It looks like it delivers good bass, which would definitely be good for the Euforia.
That’s a bit of its weakness as an amp in my opinion.
Yes I noticed after I originally posted, as I said I’d avoid it given that, unless there was some definitive need for it.
I personally wouldn’t even by the option as a front, to a poweramp for a 2Ch setup, because you really probably want to be spending more on the pre if you have a $3000 DAC than a $600 option on that DAC is going to give you.
But I haven’t heard it, so take everything I say with a sack of salt.
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I wouldn’t.
He’s the same person who started the whole May better than Chord Dave thing on head-fi.
And while I can see having a preference for the May over the Dave, it’s not in the same technical ballpark as the Dave.
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I think the Holo line is all very worthwhile, but they unfortunately fell victim to the hype train machine and the used pricing is just not worth while.
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