Sibbers
Earthling
Apparently Denafrips DACs are not NOS, which may actually be a good thing (depending on who you ask):
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62872-denafrips-dacs-might-not-actually-be-nos/
Funnily enough it was this that tipped my choice towards the Holo Spring 3, as it does really NOS. My logic was that if NOS was desirable then having the real thing would be most desirable, and something like HQPlayer would be able to feed a better version of OS anyway. I didn’t expect it to be that significant, but y'know...
Back in the real world having spent a bit of time with it (and HQP with all it's variations) I just prefer plain old NOS as it comes straight from the DAC - to me, it sounds more real and there is no sense that it is soft, rolled off or in some way a compromise. Sometimes tubes can give up a bit of detail (although they give an awful lot more back, so we’ll worth it in my experience) but this doesn’t feel like a trade off at all.
Last edited: