Congrats! Your first impressions are similar to mine. Wait until you get a few hundred hours in!
1 Like
I just received mine today as well. It was kind of a surprise because I never received an email but did receive a text from DHL saying I had a delivery due today.
I’ll be hooking it up tomorrow and report on it in a few days. It will going head to head with my Bryston BDA-3.
3 Likes
Same here. Also still waiting for Kitsune to get back to me answering question within 10 days 5 weeks ago. 
1 Like
Even working through the break-in period, I am just mesmerized by the sound reproduction with the Spring 3 KTE.
Listening to the Rolling Stones DSF file of “Your 2000 light years from home” is reproduced in a stunning clarity and with musical detail which is lock solidly imaged.
Even with the DSD Sr. DAC, I have never fully appreciate it the wonderful dreaming representation of that song until now. Charlie Watts kick drum coming so crisp and clear and real in the center of the image is terrific.
I’m eager to get home to listen more again tonight. I’ve had the system running continuously for the past couple of days. He system should be just beyond the 100 hour mark.
It’s interesting as I find myself unable to walk away from the system at night to go to bed and the listening sessions have gone 4-5-6 hours at a time.
6 Likes
Nice.
Just curious if you also got the preamp module in your unit?
I didn’t because there was no need for an extra 6db of gain.
A DAC usually has excessive gain and will never get into turntables again. Seemed silly to add it to the signal path and have to chop down the gain even further.
I was sharing with another member privately that I build a lot of gear. DIY is a kick and imbibed in it since age 12. Just added a DIY balanced ladder attenuator which sits between the Spring 3 DAC and my DIY Pass Labs Aleph30.
Holo is remiss not having a passive pre module. How hard can it be to not add the active components to the pre module, but keep the ladder? Or option for a zero gain buffer?
1 Like
LOL! I’ve been having the same problem. A couple of times realized is was past midnight and I had to pull myself away from the music.
Regarding your waiting for a reply from Tim at Kitsune, I’ve had to ping him a couple of times to respond to questions before I bought the Spring3. Once I had it, he seemed to respond more readily. Yesterday morning I emailed him a question (a followup to a previous series of emails), and he responded at 2:30am!
1 Like
Another interesting aspect of the Spring 3 KTE how incredibly articulate but also vivid the sound picture. I find myself holding a crisper mental image of the presentation long after a listen than with prior quality DAC’s.
Live performances or recordings that were made in a live studio setting are especially remarkable. Across the different genres, jazz or rock or classical really have a sense of immediacy and presence.
At $3278 dollars delivered price it is an exceptional value.
With regards to not so well mixed or mastered CDs I’m also impressed. Two CDs I just really love to listen to but suffer under the usual ills of the red book/CD format are: Hole’s “Live through this” and Deep Purple’s “perfect strangers“. I use these are the two discs as a reference for how well a DAC can process “less than great red book”. The DSD Sr does a fabulous job in this regard. Ironically so does the Spring 3. The difference between the two seems to come down to being able to play the DSD Sr at concert level volume or with the spring a lower volume with a lot more articulation and less smoothing. In neither case is there they’re traditional CD harshness.
2 Likes
Has anyone tried using a different I2S setting with the PSA PST other than I2S-ALT-2?
1 Like
This thread was boiling over with activity. Looks like the enthusiasm for the Spring 3 KTE has ebbed quite a bit.
Well, it is PS Audio’s forum and most people here don’t have a Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC….
Speaking for myself and a couple others on head-fi, the silence comes from satisfaction. I don’t have any qualms, questions, or desire to look at alternatives, so not much discussion to be had. At least for me, the focus has now shifted to making sure the rest of my (modest) system can match the capabilities of the Spring. Right now, that’s upgrading cables, vmax’s emi/rfi tweaks, upgrading my source, software and power supplies.
Oh, and uh…enjoying lots of music.
2 Likes
Audiogon forum is similar, last post was
Dec-15. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/holo-audio-spring-3-dac?highlight=“Spring%2B3”
Agree!! Still the wave of buying frenzy following the Stereophile review seems to have dissipated.
Initially wanted a DSD MkII, but couldn’t wait 6 months for a component I wasn’t sure I could afford. (Price not yet released)
Oh, almost forgot I ordered a purple fuse for the Spring that should arrive soon. Boom, there we go, Spring tweak discussion. I bet the break in period will suck.
1 Like
Just crossing the 300 hr mark for break-in. After going kind of sideways maybe retrenching a bit after 120 hours, the DAC is seriously starting to stretch out.
I just finished listening to Neil Young’s Decade album in 24/192 Flac. The song “Soldier” has such beautiful reproduction of his vocal cords and the ringing and decay of the acoustic guitar strumming on “After the Gold Rush” was pretty special.
There is a crisp clarity without being bright which is quite engaging, Still enjoying listening in NOS mode, and have not yet tried oversampling with HQPlayer. I never thought an R2R DAC could be this good, devoid of the filtering required with a DeltaSigma DAC.
3 Likes
How did the Purple fuse work out in your Holo?
No regrets, and it’s on my tweak list for other/future components as well. I think I had an acme cryo cfc in there before, and the purple does everything that does at the same level or better, but the main takeaways are better tonality & much better reverb.
This may not be incredibly helpful, but I’ve tried the following fuses across multiple components, and the purple upgrade in the spring 3 had the biggest impact of any fuse swap for me so far
-Aucharm silver/gold w/ red body
-Hifi Tuning Silverstar
-Hifi Tuning Supreme
-Acme CFC Cryo
-Create Audio Deluxe
2 Likes
I thought the special fuse provided with the Spring 3 KTE was supposed to be top notch?
1 Like
Pretty sure the fuse used in the KTE is this. I use one of those in my HDPlex and it’s decent, but I imagine the main costs of the KTE are the transformer, USB module and capacitors.
Can you share the exact fuse spec so I’m sure to purchase the correct fuse for the Spring DAC3?
Thank you!