Holo Spring 3 Kitsune visits Bigman80

I feel what Oli is trying to get across is that the newer R2R's have been designed to sound good, no grain, grit quite linear, open and airy treble although contrived in my book. They don't really do anything wrong at all. That's the point it a quality all rounder.

Let's face it the majority of dac buyers these days are all under 30 for their bedroom posh headphone set ups's so anything that eases the pain of naim style presentation is a welcome bonus imho

My suggestion would be the Parasound has a big encompassing sound with life like mid range presence and texture and a ease to the sound, whilst not lacking in dynamics, not as polished or as open as Holo units or a low a noice floor (I'm not talking staging here) or fleshing the sound out like the Holo's do.

THis leads me to my next observation, one which is shared by quite a few industry stalwarts and new comers.

Lets talk R2R for the moment, this is Nothing new in any form what so ever, the one main difference with the older R2R ladder dacs was the use of internal over sampling as opposed to a NOS dac which would just use the raw incoming data rate and play that track @ that same rate.

They gave a a far more relaxed sound, and an ease and flow to the music which at the dawn and 10 years past the inception of CD a big step forward from that thin, brittle, scratchy piss poor sound when they were first released in 1982. Arh the antidote I hear you say, well for a lot of folks it was no question, like listneing to a Quad/ meridian system after 10 years of having music thrown at you via the sailsbury one true way.

So it was a different sound, more likeable and you could use the term NOS with gay abandonment and it made you feel good. Still plenty of TRUE NOS devices around today, however they are all just a slightly different twist on the original concept.

So whats the big kick for R2R's now? well Delta sigma can sound superb with the right thought out design, no question they have better linearity (in the main) don't suffer from accurate "DSP itus" to get those ladders in perfect sync for that linearity alignment, generally they have higher S/N ratios and lower THD+ALi etc.

Whoa, thats measurments again (lol) ok, the the very point. my suggestion here is its the difference? what really are you mad? (some possile feel that I'm sure)

Ok, this is 'A change is as good as a rest' syndrome", lets talk Ketchup or Salad cream or corn flakes or even Marmite. If you have been using the main brands for a long time its your goto known preferred item. If you were at Pete's Emporium for a slap up fish 'n' chip supper and there was no Heinz, No Sarsons or Crown Tartar sauce, your face would probably drop 2 miles in disgust and begrudging you would splosh (just love that word lol) far less ketchup on your food. As already in your mind its going to taste wrong EXPECTATION BIAS.

The same for audio, like TT owners for 30 years or more; nothing is better that is there choice and preferred format pointless trying turning to TT's owners, they need to come to that conclusion on their own.

So back to the R2R thing, is it better or just different? does it give you a taste of the partial audio heaven you wish for, or I just need a change?

I've been listening to ladder dac's for pretty much 30 years and it’s really my choice of real music reproduction, others will prefer different equipment for their own reasons. Now maybe because the Big W's aren’t NOS dac's and have life, drive and articulation way more realistic that pretty much most NOS dac's whilst retaining a great many of the NOS style of presentation possibly.

There's something in that chassis that imbibes music imho. Recently I had the opportunity to purchase one of the most highly regarded dac's on the planet, so I took it. Its an ultra R2R  with 8 ladders, mega trick dsp, more modules than you can shake a stick at plus a power supply I could almost live oh and a 33fs clock.

How did sound quite spectacular in pretty much every area you name, noise floor vanishingly low, detail monumental, linearity check dam good, sound stage to make crazy rich asians juice their silkies. Stage depth rather deep and then some, absolutely ZERO edges what so ever. Even dcs which is called around these parts digital with the corners knocked off was made to sound very ordinary even when in an absolute clown’s mega system. Its wonda bar. However, its uber fi taken to the max plus a sprinkling of high end BS.

Pretty much does everything at a pinnacle that most other manufacturers aspire to, except for one small ever so tiny problem, its  quite soulless and matter -of-factness to the nth degree, so it went. Funded a new project (well more test gear lol)

Have been working on two dac designs, one with AKM 4499's now the newer (available version) plus an R2R both are shaping up to be quite special, its horses for courses.

However I will say one thing, when you listen to ANY piece of audio and it just sounds so intrinsically right, there's no going back.

So if you wish for a contrived, well engineered artifical sounding zero roughness dac, then Holo's, Denifrips (Save the T MK II), Metomes etc The Schiits are a little different they have drive and bounce but are a touch rough (easily cured), however they groove. Plenty more R2R's arriving daily it seems. So whatever your poisition  DO listen to more than two dac's and DON'T be put off by influenceners trowling on the best reference dac to go with my blah, blah headphones its all just pie in the sky until YOUR ears tell you what is really happening.

Here endeth the lesson, audio psalm chapter two, book3 subsection 45 page 387 (bottom left had side)

You've been a great audience I'm here all week take care and good night.