Holo Serene vs Denafrips Athena (anyone compared these preamps?)

I have an Athena on the way from Vinshine. I'll report back.

Athena has become the ‘heart’ of my audio system.  Feeds a Hyperion and a Mystere PA11.  I’ve three or four sets of speakers I roll thru w/either amp.  It’s definitely a ‘quality’ piece of audio gear.  The other night, playing vinyl and using the Mystere feeding my ProAc 1sc, I came close to that ‘forever sound’.  Transparent, musical, open, deep, spacious.  The kind of session you don’t want to stop, as each slab of licorice made me wonder why I’d spent so much, time, effort, and money on digital playback.  And, I really enjoy digital!  Some of the recordings were just sublime.  That’s hard to do in digital, that feeling of really listening to something special, rare even.  It’s what makes the hobby so much fun, vs chasing snipes in the grass.  This thru a modest vinyl setup, nothing extraordinary, just well sorted.  I wish Athena had another rca input or two, but would be hesitant to give up the numerous balanced connections.  I wish the 4th, optimized balanced input, didn’t over ride, disable, the other inputs.  The things a beast.  The remote is as solid as the unit itself.  The matching power amps, if Hyperion is an indication, bring a powerful, richly textured, confident, smooth, deeply musical ‘body’ to both digital and vinyl playback.  Music has color and texture, deep tones, and rhythmic drive.  Not as see thru transparent as your SET, valve amps, but very good depth, a spacious warmth, tonal color and body that shows off good recordings but doesn’t shred your ears, ever.  It may take a bit of time for the Denafrips to show its best, it’s a seductress not a dazzler.  Built for the long run, it can rock, or unravel.  It may teach you what ‘breakin’ is all about, be patient.  When it all ‘opens up’, it is very, very, good.  It’s got its own sound and it is seductive, it doesn’t hit you over the head with the ‘hey look at me’, but it will thump you and get the bod a boppin.  Look forward to hearing how you set her up.  Good luck…

@regismc   Have you compared the Athena to the Serene or Kinki EX-P27 by any chance?

dkerr, sorry no.  In fact I just swapped Athena for her little sister Hestia.  Using both the balanced and rca outs to bi-amp my Pro-Ac 1sc, fed by the Rotel Tribute CD player.

Tried something a bit different, using Hyperion only on the ‘tweets’, and the 6CA7 Mystere PA11 off the 8ohm taps on the mods and am just floored by the big phat juicy soundstage I’m getting playing ‘a gift to pops’, the wonderful world of Louis Armstrong all stars.  Superb music and sound.

I got a pr. of Audio Envy’s newest speaker cables.  SP 11’s I think, so while breaking them in I’m ‘toying’ about.  The little Hyperion up high, the tubes down low is really open and super clear.  Richly textured, great piano, vocals and brass, huge sounding.  I suppose Athena would ‘open and separate’ even more, but this is ridiculus good sound from the little ProAcs. The Rel T9 may need some fine tuning but this is really filling up a big room.  The little Hestia sounds excellent.  Even works with the same remote.  Riveting.  Track down that cd, or stream it.  Good stuff.

I’m sure the May and Kinki r top notch.  Would love to hear both.  Athena is a beast and may outclass what any of my speakers are capable of.  The Denafrips preamps ‘don’t do gain’, but they do add body.  Perhaps more than the other two, but I get the sense that speaker matching will be critical.  I do think they pass what they r fed.  They don’t homogenize your music, they have their own gestalt.  I’ve yet to hear one of their dacs, or any ‘ladder’ dac for that matter.  

Just a note Re. AB test, May KTE DAC balanced vs. unbalanced output. All cables ultra-premium Clarity Cable including ca. $2500/pr "Natural" (DAC to preamp) balanced and unbalanced cables.

Preamp: Atma-Sphere fully balanced differential MP-3.3 current model with stock Chinese tubes (Hexfred rectifier) the best preamp I have had at home by huge margin (ca. 2 clear steps beyond my good DIY 5842 tube preamp with Magnequest output transformers which outperformed a good commercial 300B preamp and good commercial 6SN7 preamp.)

MP-3.3 unbalanced output > Pass designed 140W AB stereo amp > AudioKinesis Gina main speaker parallel wired with discrete high-impedance Space Generator reverberant field speakers. Two kilowatt sub amps in Dr. David Greisinger’s phase quad tuning > four AK Tall Subs in distributed array.  Large, symmetrical lightly treated moderately lively room.

Both balanced and unbalanced output of the May KTE simultaneously drove two MP-3.3 inputs, allowing instant switching. I estimate the balanced connection ca. 20% better. In this specific application it was no contest, balanced was absolutely better throughout, esp. quieter, blacker silence, more explosive, natural, etc.

Someone borrows my regular balanced input mono blocks: $5200/pr Atma-Sphere new patented class D GaN which outperform my backup amp by huge margin. I must presume my regular amps would magnify the difference in my AB test.

Prior to hearing MP-3.3 I discounted the cost to performance ratio for balanced connections; no more!

MP-3.3 user manual states input is more sensitivie to cable quality than its output. I generally suffer very little noise/RF problems.