Schiit Bifrost 2/64 vs. Holo Audio Spring 3 -- brief listening notes

The "naturalness" difference

I just got a good deal from an excellent seller on the Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC. I have been listening for about a day — back and forth -- comparing my current DAC, the Schiit Bifrost 2/64 to the Spring. To reduce added variables from my tube gear, I’m using only very quiet and neutral solid state gear (a Hypex based amp) along with my streamer and Ascend Acoustics towers (RAAL tweeters). Subs are all off.

What I’m finding is that DAC differences are subtle and not subtle. Herein lies the game.

Here are a few things I’m noticing and why subjective preference is so important:

Tonality: Schiit supersaturates cf. to Spring

Schiit is good with a lot of detail but it’s a bit super-saturated. In other words, instruments are there in the mix at about 110% strength; this means you can’t miss them, but they are a bit "foisted upon you." With the Spring, they are just there.

Subjectively, the Schiit could really delight someone who wants that extroverted, vocals-forward sound. Instruments sound really good on both, in other words, they sound like the instruments they are. They’re honest.

That said, something interesting happens where (for me) the Spring pulls ahead.

Viz., comparing alto sax and voice: with the Schiit, there is a point at which the instrument/voice hits a note and just "freezes" on it. It doesn’t stop in time, obviously, but it resonates in a way that wipes out the detail making up the note. Some might call this a "nasally" quality -- it sound more generically "nasal" than the voice or instrument it is. The details of the originating source are lost.

With the Spring, th at same note hit by the sax is reedy, breathy; one hears the physical forces pushing the note through the horn into being; with the voice, one hears the chest, vocal cords, mouth.

This sounds subtle -- and I had to pay very close attention to notice this. But I heard it repeatedly.

What is not subtle is the accumulative effect of these details, because they all create an overall "natural" quality. In other words, when one relaxes attention and just tries to hear the sound "as if you just walked into the room" what you hear is just present, as one would just come upon it and notice it. With the Spring, because there is no point at which the DAC "fakes" the note (and gets a bit nasally or, if you will, "robotic") one remains in flow with the music.

Soundstage:

This is something I’m still sussing out, but for the moment, I hear a wider, deeper, and more spacious soundstage. The Schiit clusters things a bit toward the center (not too badly but it’s obvious). This is in musical keeping with the slight super-saturation of the tonality.

I hope to add comments as I hear more, but this purchase has lead me further along in my understanding of what a DAC does, and how that suits what I’m looking for. I also understand why the less expensive DAC, the Schiit, could easily be just as good for someone looking for attributes it provides which the Holo does not. To my ear, those attributes represent a "less advanced" kind of aesthetics, but that is my subjective attitude.