Upgrade from DA2 dac to ?

[Levitator]

Agree Grasshopper - so how are you going to choose which one to keep (i.e. the best all rounder or a particular flavour has priority), or are you going to keep more than one flavour?

[Grasshopper]

I expect to keep a couple- the winner (if there is one) will eliminate digitalitis if that is a word.

I’d love a smooth/organic/engaging sound.

I could see keeping a pair of smooth Dacs, one that produces more detail and rocks the hi res well recorded music, and one that is possibly more listenable and really smooths out poor recordings.

[n_brio]

any one compared Holo Spring 3 to Denafrips? Is Denafrips Ventus 2 comparable to Holo Spring 3?

[dkorbal]

Originally Posted by n_brio

any one compared Holo Spring 3 to Denafrips? Is Denafrips Ventus 2 comparable to Holo Spring 3?

There are comparisons and reviews all over the internet. Here are a few good ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSPBX3W1heE&t=332s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHcfgQtlnP8
https://www.stereophile.com/content/...3-da-processor

The problem is, it's about synergy. You either research the best you can, buy and hope you get it right or do what Jason is doing buy multiple and try as many as you can in your system.

[OSAR]

+1 for the Holo Audio May KTE. It has 4 different modes so you can tune the sound to the style of DAC you like. I, like most others, prefer the No Oversampling Mode.

From the May Manual:
♬ No Oversampling Mode: Directly converts the original data. Since digital oversampling can cause time domain distortion such as ringing effects, NOS can avoid these problems.
Generally speaking, NOS has a significant impact on other performance indicators, but the May is designed to maintain good performance in NOS mode.

♬ Oversampling Mode:
♬♬ Super-sampling the PCM to a higher frequency PCM
♬♬ Oversampling the DSD to a higher frequency DSD
♬♬ Performing a digital to analog conversion.

♬ Oversampling PCM/Mode: Whether it is PCM input or DSD input, always oversample to PCM for digital analog conversion.

♬ Oversampling Direct Stream Digital Mode: Whether in PCM input or DSD input, super-sampling to DSD mode for digital analog conversion.