SOLD: Holo Spring KTE L3

Super bummed about it but I just sold this!

Looking for a local sale of my immaculate Holo Spring KTE Level 3. Cosmetically and functionally it is in perfect condition. It's about 2 years old so it has the original USB input. You should be using I2S which I do for my music listening, but the USB input is also really good for TV and movies which is what I've used it for. I found no reason to desire buying the new USB input that was implemented earlier this year.

$2,000 + Shipping.

 

Honest question. How did you decide to buy the Venus when you were very very satisfied with the Pontus let alone the Ares before that? The Venus is over a $1600 difference. New toy syndrome? Perhaps you should have kept the Pontus for a blind test to see if you found any discernible differences. I really don't see how the 3rd up product could be such a higher caliber difference over the base product that Denafrips has offered.

 

But have you heard them side by side to question someone's desire to upgrade or imply that there's no discernible difference between these DACs?

 

The Pontus is a useful, and easily discernible, improvement over the Ares. That's based on auditioning/reviewing them in the same system, at the same time, back to back. Comparisons there were, as in all my more recent reviews, conducted in a blindish (hardware assisted blind, as opposed to formal DBT) manner.

The Spring DAC L3/KTE is, overall, better than either (with the exception that the Pontus does a slightly better job in OS mode with PCM content, but the Spring DAC beats the Pontus handily in both NOS PCM and DSD operation). I only mention this since it's in the original listing, so the seller has first-hand knowledge of the thing too.

Given the law of diminishing returns, while I'd expect the difference between the Venus and the Pontus to be smaller than that between the Pontus and the Ares, I'd still expect it to be audible without the need for audition-level listening. Which is generally how things work. Same is true of Gungnir vs. Yggdrasil etc.

And I'd be even more surprised, and very worried for DENAFRIPS/Vinshine Audio, if the Venus didn't show the Ares a clean pair of heels. Less expensive DACs certainly do.

 

Let's not forget I am trying to just sell my DAC here... But since you asked, I will try to brain dump my thoughts to address your question.

TL;DR I have a disease where I buy and sell gear every year or two to satisfy my boredom and it comes at the expense of really enjoying the music for the simple fact that it is music.

Spoiler: Brain dump here

My original plan was only to buy a Pontus and use it at my office with an Auralic Taurus MKII. I do almost all of my critical listening anymore at work with my Focal Clears. I never planned to sell the Holo and it was supposed to stay in my home stereo. After a few months of him-hawing I finally decided I should just move on from the Holo Spring and try the Venus. I am in the midst of a purge and I just sold my Taurus MKII today!! The Venus will now go in my home stereo and I am going to simplify my office headphone rig a bit by trying an Audio-GD R-28 for awhile. I was trying for 9 months to sell my Focal Electra 1028 Be2 speakers but I could not sell them, so in order to satisfy that itch I am purging my home stereo front-end as well. This includes the Holo Spring KTE L3.

I do not have a Pontus and I have never heard one. I have never heard a Venus either. I did hear an Ares and I liked it more than my Bifrost Multibit. The Bifrost Multibit left a very bad taste in my mouth because I ordered a new one and a few months later Schiit came out with a new USB input. In my haste to have the latest and greatest, I overpaid to send the thing back to them for a simple swap of the USB card. I found it to still be unsatisfactory, but that may have been more to do with the other components in my system. At any rate, that's not important here. I wanted to buy the Venus and keep the Holo Spring so I could do a deep comparison of them side-by-side, but I had to allocate funds to something else.

I am not interested in justifying my purchases, side-grades, up-grades, or down-grades by doing double blind listening tests and writing about them extensively for nothing more than internet points. I have a distinct appreciation for those who have done so, and one of those instances is what lead me to buy the Holo Spring 2 years ago. I've made an attempt at this in the past but it always ends up being a complete waste of time. At this point I am bored and I want to try something new. I don't care if a Venus is better, but I do not believe it could be worse. I do expect that it will be different.

Alvin hooked me up some time ago when he was starting to grow Vinshine and I bought one of his first Vinshine DAC R2R-REF amps based off of the early Soekris designs. This was an exceptionally skookum piece of equipment and I really liked its sound. Once Alvin picked up Denafrips and started to market them I again became very interested. We actually tried to pursue a deal for me to be a USA point of contact (distributor) for Denafrips products, but I unfortunately did not have the capital at the time to make that happen. I believe that ship has well sailed anyway since Denafrips continues to be quite successful without me. After I typed all that, I remembered even long before the DAC R2R-REF, I bought a Jay's Audio LPS from Alvin with great success.

With only some emails exchanged and my prior engagement with him as he developed the R2R-DAC REF and the Jay's LPS, I have grown to trust Alvin to seek out exceptional value in HiFi products and provide them with industry leading sales and service. I like to support that. I have represented a HiFi brand in the past and it is no picnic. I respect what Alvin is doing and I have an itch to try something more from Denafrips. Why wouldn't I get a Terminator? Its price point represents a conflict of value for me due to reasons I cannot get too far into.

 

OK.

 

Bump! I'm probably not replacing this with anything for awhile. I don't listen to music on my 2-channel system much anymore. I do most of my music listening on headphones at work. It's a bummer to leave this DAC sitting unused!