Ok.... I think I'm ready to share what I think about the Spring 3 vs Cyan 2. This is my subjective option.... But I still suggest anyone interested in the Cyan should probably just try it for themselves in their own setting.
As a reminder, I have my own dedicated listening room....only 11 foot wide, but 30 feet long. Speakers are about 10 ft away from the front wall, I'm another 10 ft away from that, and another 10 ft of space behind me.
I use acoustical treatment, and full convolution. I played around with some filters and modulators in Hqplayer, but primarily stuck to my favorites with the Spring. DSD256 Poly-sinc-gauss and Poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp with ASDM5EC-super.
At first, I thought the 2 DACs were virtually identical.... Which in and of itself is super impressive for the Cyan right off the bat. First thing I noticed a pinch cooler tonality, but it was very slight. Hard to describe, but it didn't come off as sounding more forward or anything like that.... Just ever so slightly cooler. The imaging and separation was very good, like really focused. That stood out to me as I listened, like it came off a tiny bit more focused then even the Spring.
Another thing I noticed, perhaps related to what I already mentioned about imaging was the vocals. There were certain vocal tracks that came off with just a pinch less dimension on the Cyan..... Like they were flatter sounding, but I'm talking a very small difference. Still very detailed, very focused....but the Springs vocals sounded a pinch more layered. Like I could pick up the separation of air, vocal cords and chest, a tiny bit easier on the Spring....giving it more dimension and convincingly realistic sound.
The only other real difference I'll mention was the attack, or bass weight. The Cyan had a little less punch then the Spring. The Springs bass stood out more during the playback of more complicated tracks. It never got lost in the mix. Now, the Spring output on XLR is 2.9 volts, and the Cyan 2.5 volts. Not sure if that's why....? Anyway, I did make sure I volume matched so....
Now, at this time.... Those few differences I noticed were not obvious on every track, only on some. And to me, if I could put a percentage on the difference.... I'd say no more then 2-3%. It was that small.
It wasn't until I had a chance to really crank the volume.... That these differences became a little bit bigger, and more apparent. I finally had the house to myself one day, and I had the volume up to about 85dB average, probably 90dB peeks. My speakers are known to sound best playing louder, so maybe that was a factor. But anyway, the Springs vocals and mid-range sounded even a little more realistic, and bass slam and weight just kept up with the volume.
At these volumes, the Cyan still sounded awesome.... Very impressive. But in my opinion, sounded just a little bit short of the Spring.
Now the ultimate question, is the Springs price worth it over the Cyan. That is a question only you and your budget can answer. For a DAC that is subjectively sounds 95% as good as the Spring 3 KTE, for less than half the price, for some people.... It's probably a no-brainer. For a Audiophile like myself, that admits he's missing a few brain cells.... I couldn't do without the Spring in my system.
