My system is improved by adding the Master 19 preamp between the Audio-gd DAC r2r7 and my new poweramp. The poweramp sounded already good directly connected to the DAC but the Master 19 improves the soundstage and bottom end very much. With some recordings I'm hearing things that I never heard before, including very expensive setups at audio shows. At the same time I have aquired one of the best headphone amps in this price range. Thanks Jos and Rob: I'm keeping this one!

HE1 arrived on Tuesday. After listening music for a few hours, I have to say it's amazing. With Master 3. More details, more energy, more bass, richer in everything. Spatial and accurate all the sounds and micro details are magical. I can't imagine how much better the sound could be with a top Audio-GD Dac and a top loudspeaker :-)

I am very satisfied with my new set! The HE1 is a significant improvement compared to. my other preamplifier that was a lot more expensive! Unprecedented sound quality.

Bij Magna HiFi de Audio-GD Master 3 en HE-1 gekocht en ik ben zeer tevreden met deze producten. Na sluitingstijd bij Jos thuis op kunnen halen wat op zich al een prima service is natuurlijk. Beide apparaten zijn super degelijk gebouwd en na het uitpakken en plaatsen kun je gerust even gaan zitten om je rug rust te gunnen :-) Wat een gewicht en wat een bouwkwaliteit. De degelijkheid spat er aan alle kanten vanaf. Ben je op zoek naar een high-end combinatie is dit denk ik de voordeligste keus. Verwacht geen overbodige knopjes of fancy displays want daar zijn ze niet van bij Audio-GD. Nee, muziek! Dat is waar het om draait en het lijkt nu al dat al mijn muziek een compleet andere en betere soundstage heeft. En dan moeten ze nog ingespeeld worden! De Master 3 heeft voldoende reserve om de meest kritische luidsprekers aan te sluiten. Al met al een zeer tevreden klant, deze set gaat niet meer weg.

The HE-1 sound was not good: Too much bass and not muddy dark sound. After two days leaving it turned on I did not understand what happened. The sound completely transformed in open transparent sound and tight bass. Really fantastic! Warm up time is now about 20 Minutes and then it sounds great! Very open and detailed with exzellent room and not harsh! Best preamp ever!

HE1 sounds since Friday and it’s such a pleasure ! The sound of my installation is now much beautiful as I have ever hoped… Thanks again for your advices and disponibility…

Audio-GD HE1 is a truly high-end audio preamplifier! I can't find enough terms of praise! I owned many preamplifiers that were even more expensive. At HE1 I like the neutrality the most (in the good sense), that is the realism of the natural, unchanged, uncolored sound. It is not about that sterile neutrality, it is simply about realism, about the sound that is very similar to the natural one, real. I like how fast it is without exaggerating, meaning the speed is exactly in the middle, neither below nor above, just like the real sound! It is dynamic and very transparent but not thin. It's just right! And above all it produces a 3D effect, the sound seems holographic, not artificially, on the contrary, natural, realistic. Probably the two channels are executed to the highest perfection, otherwise I can't explain why in terms of soundstage it humiliates the other preamplifiers ?! I compared it directly with other preamplifiers and they were the shortest comparisons. I had nothing to compare, HE1 is far superior from the first minute! (cold! .... I don't say what he does after he warms up!) Sounds good right after unpacking and zero burn-in! But after a run-in of a few hundred hours, I would really say that I am amazed at how it sounds! And the copy received, which is a new model 2020/2021, does not heat up as I read on the internet. On the contrary, just a little warm no matter how much it worked, even a few days continuously. As far as I understand, they fixed the problem of excessive heat in the old models (which they also wrote on the site) I do not find any negative points, nothing to criticize. Maybe the size ?! Is very large! When I received it I was amazed at how big it is! But the quality comes with a price! 5 stars are not enough for me! I would like to give it 10 stars! I highly recommend!

After initially being very happy with the sound straight out of the box, I found that it held back the macro dynamics a bit, and I lacked deep bass with body and sharpness. The resolution wasn't quite top notch either. But this turned out to change, quite drastically in fact, in the first month that the preamp was left up and running. Nowadays, I can't find anything to complain about (well yes, one little thing; se below): this is without a doubt the best preamp I've ever owned or even tried at home, and then I still had a preamp at home for test that cost about 15,000 euros when new! This says a lot about the sensational sound quality vs the price ratio you get with the HE1 -MK2 preamp. One result of this is, for example, that the preamp responds extremely clearly to cable changes - you immediately and very revealingly hear which cable has a higher or lower quality. Five stars all the way!! However, I have a small remark, which I include in the following: The front step's left button, on the right side of the display, has three functions: 1. Press it once, and a blue dot will appear, which determines whether you want the automatic shutdown of the display, or whether you want it to be always on. (One nitpick: it would have been nice to have two modes of brightness of the display, to switch between.) 2. Press it quickly twice, and you will get to the pre-volume function, which is intended to adapt signal sources with different output levels to achieve the same degree of volume. LEAVE THIS FEATURE, if you don't feel you have to use it, and deteriorate the sound! I feel that the sound is affected noticeably with this function - it gives a filter effect which is obvious, if you compare it with mode 9 (no pre-volume). Even when you compensate the db. However, feel free to try it and form your own opinion. 3. Press the button quickly three times, and you will enter the preamp's two gain modes: either 6 db or 16 db gain. This feature is very useful! I use the pre-stage with the 6 db mode and find no penalty between the two settings, either than obviously different gain. All in all: a wonderful preamp that is more than worth its asking price. And, you can buy with confidence: Jos and Magna Hifi gave me great service and a quick response to all my (many) questions.

The HE1 mk3 is preamp is one impressive, heavy beast! Even at lower volumes, the sound is lively. At higher volumes it remains solid as a rock. It's a beast with a sweet side. The extra gain options make this preamp even more versatile. Only the size (especially the depth) is not for everyone, you need 50-55cm depth.

Right from the start it showed amazing transparency, resolution and energy!After two days the sound smoothed out and became fuller but what I`ve found fascinating about the Audio-GD – HE1 MK3 preamp is the incredible ease with which it handles instruments and voices and how its micro and macro dynamic responsiveness. The holographic presentation of sound sources, depth layering and soundstage height were also enchanting. All in all - a fantastic preamp and it`s not even fully burned-in

For a long time I have read that Audio-gd R2R DACs are transparent, organic. I bought an R2R-11 direct from Audio-gd and I was surprised how great it sounds and with the build quality. Recently I bought an R8 MKII and some other Audio-gd gear from from Jos and Rob. I was impressed with the build and sound but I wanted to live with the DAC for some months before making a declaration. At this point, I can say I finally get it when people say these DACs are organic. I have several other midrange DACs (Oppo 205, Brooklyn DAC+, RME) to compare this one to. The R8 MKII is the only one which disappears all the time. It's transparent, I feel the music for the first time as natural without hearing the gear at all. The RME has come close at times, but only on certain recordings. The R8 MKII just disappears and it's the closest thing to a live performance I have heard out of my system. For the price, I am extremely satisfied with this DAC. I had a strange problem with noise over AES, coax, and optical which did not occur via I2S nor USB. I was unable to explain it sufficiently to Kingwa at Audio-gd so I reached out to Magna Hifi and Rob quickly recreated the issue. He contacted Kingwa on my behalf and I think only a week went by before I got new firmware which resolved the issue. I cannot imagine getting this level of service from another shop or DAC manufacturer. I have 4 Audio-gd components and I can recommend Audio-gd and Magna to any lover of music. Audio-gd gear is quirky but to me that is part of the charm. The build is industrial, reminiscent of 60s and 70s garage-fi but on a very high level of sound quality. I noticed that the LED displays of the R8 MKII, the DI-20, and Master 19 amp are all slightly different colors! This is annoying in a darkened room but in normal daylight it was not noticeable. Other than that, the dimensions of the gear and the brushed finished on the panels match well. Clearly, the R&D and manufacturing money has been focused on sound. Tank-like builds, heavy gear, you feel the quality as well as hear it. Jos and Rob are easy to work with, they're friendly and responsible and run a good business.

I'm very happy with my purchase, a HoloAudio – Spring 3 DAC KTE Kitsune (R2R – DSD1024). The DAC sounds just great and is very well built. The delivery also went smoothly and as planned. Magna Hifi personnel were very quick and helpful in responding to all of my questions. Their service is excellent. I will surely buy gear again from them. (Trustpilot review)

Sounds amazing could not be more pleased with Holo Spring 3. Thank you for your advice and help. If you can recommend anything I should do to improve my system please do.

"Breathtaking" finally digital music sounds real. I have strived to find a DAC that could bring some of the emotion, excitement of seeing live music, this DAC is achieving this, allows a real insight & appreciation of what the musicians are playing. running this from my Melco & this appears to be a great combination, very natural & musical with great depth & details. Many of my favourite recordings have shown just how much was missing from my previous DACS. Also, great service from Magna & Jos, highly recommend doing business with these guys.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to test the Holo Spring 3 DAC. This device has taken the music experience at my home up a notch.

I'm very happy with the product (Holo Spring 3 KTE) but even more so with Jos @ Magna Hifi. He have helped me a lot with coming to decision. I really recommend both this DAC as well purchasing from Magna!

First, communication, that spanned over 3 months since Jos wisely advised me to wait for the Spring 3 at my price point, was excellent, patient and friendly. Second, I'm very happy. At first I was a bit skeptical about DAC upgrade. My BB 1795 TEAC 501 always fed DSD 128 thanks to HQPlayer was quite enjoyable yet. n48 and higher rates capabilities were the rationals to upgrade but the upgrade goes far beyond being able to keep a favorite filter with n48 source or even going from 64 to 128 SDM output rate. I concur with comments such as : incredible precision and detail retrieval translating into remarkable density and stable image, firm and with presence even at the extreme left and right of the sound stage when relevant. However, there was a selling point I sold to myself that was not confirmed : I thought of playing PCM through the R2R and it turns out that every source, PCM & DSD, is better turned DSD 256 with 7EC modulator in HQPlayer. HQPlayer's author wrote in forums that anyway Spring's DSD is better than DSD Cyan and that cost would be in the same ball park whether or not the DAC was DSD only. Furthermore, it would be a pain when I send the sound of movies to the DAC if there was no PCM capability. So things are very well as they are and for serious music listening do not hesitate to convert on fly your PCM content into DSD 256 (no computer can do the EC modulators above 256 and 256 EC is better than 1024 with non EC). The Spring is excellent with every kind of music and I post just after listening to a Cowboy Junkies album but I found myself listening mainly to classical music since I got the Spring for reproduction in my room has never been so close to the real thing and I have attended several classical concerts these very days. Thank you, merci, Patrick

Upgraded from an Audio GD Reference 5.32 (modified) to the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE after testing my Ref 5.32 against the Audio-GD – R8 MK2, Holo Audio May KTE and Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE. Both Holo Audio DACs are more holographic and place instruments and voices better. The overall sound is just natural, spacious and engaging. The guys at Magna Hifi are very helpful and I visited their listening room twice. Great dac, great service, both highly recommended.

This DAC was a big step up from my streamer/dac Marantz ND8006 and boy you can really tell. Just a few hours in and it sounded great. I replaced the fuse with the SR purple fuse from Magna hifi and the impact on sound was unmistakable. Mind you it still hasn’t burned in yet. Just got about 50 hours or so. I cant wait to hear it fully burned in. Fantastic piece. I auditioned a Chord qutest before and the Spring 3 KTE R2R dac (in my set up at least) sounds way better. Glad I got it. Jos and Rob were both very helpful and patient with my questions:).

Great service and listening room. After testing several dacs against my own, I bought the Holo Audio Spring 3 KTE dac. Amazing sound.

I’m very happy with my new Holo Audio Spring 3. It sounds absolutely wonderful. The only problem is I'm staying up too late at night. I just want to keep listening :) Thank you again for your excellent service.

Thankyou Magna HiFi, I love the Holo, Spring 3 DAC!

Excellent service and personal follow up! The Spring3KTE is a wonderful DAC. It will stay for a long time. Detailed and natural sound. Precise soundstage.

I was nervous of buying from abroad (without an audition ) and having no dealers here in the UK but Jos ,after a few emails ,at Magna hifi assured me it was an easy and safe process. He was right ,it was just like buying online in uk . Service from Magna hifi was excellent. First impressions of HoloAudio spring dac level 3. It's heavy,very well built and looks superb with the copper buttons and side plates. Anybody who says that bits are bits and all dacs sound the same is wrong. There was a noticeable improvement in the sound of my streamer being played through this dac including sound stage and imaging. But it was when I used my little used (I now stream most of my music) and budget cd player as transport and the Spring 3 as a dac that the difference was massive . Doing a/b comparisons with the dac in the cd player and the Spring 3 the improvement was not subtle and sounded like a huge upgrade . The fact that I spent next 5 weeks listening to all my cds again and hearing things I've never heard before says it all . Streaming didn't get a look in. Any cons ? The remote ,which is also well made ,has copper buttons which rattle when you move it . I don't know why this irritates me but it does for some reason. Other that minor thing the Spring 3 is perfect as was service from Jos at Magna. 5 stars, if you can afford it buy it with confidence.

I have the Spring 3 KTE a little more than one week now. I am really impressed by the sound. I used another DAC in the 2000$ range bevor and the Spring 3 is better in every way. Great product. I could not be happier. The sound is really absolute natural and organic.