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HOLO Audio MAY DAC


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On 1/1/2020 at 7:30 AM, louisxiawei said:

Some subjective listening impressions:

 

To better check any difference MAY could possibly bring compared to my previous DAC8, I applied the same HQplayer settings on MAY as on DAC8 DSD, so only DSD512 part. I will check the R2R or DSD1024 bit later on. MAY just has more fun to explore, needs take some time I'm afraid.

 

In general, I find MAY's sounding is very neutral, transparent and resolving. By comparison, I think DAC8 is obviously warmer while MAY is obviously calmer. This "clam" is not related to "not musical" or "thin" sounding, maybe I should say more neutral. 

 

- I'm quite picky about solo piano tone and will always test the piano track first on any new dac. So I played some good DSD piano recording from Challenge Classics label and I think MAY offers equally satisfactions as DAC8. I personally judge the performance of piano playback as an indication of sound tuned to be authentic. 

 

- You might be worried about this "calmness" of MAY might have some trade off like the mid range will not be soothing or musical. But it is not the case. I picked some tracks from some female singers who have edgy or airy voice like Kate Melua, Stacey Kent, Kat Edmonson. The vocal part is musical and pleasing with good density yet the instrumental part is being more neutral and transparent. 

 

- The thing I'm struggling/uncertain to judge now is about the bass. At first listen, I think DAC8 has more punchy and bouncy bass but then I notice that I prefer some other tracks' bass on MAY. For example, I prefer DAC8's more juicy bass when playing Coldplay's album. When playing some Daft Punk's tracks, then I think the bass on MAY is just about right and I can hear more bass details. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to conclude MAY offers better quality bass rather than quantity. I'm also not sure whether the warm/clam tune may have an effect on bass or not. Need more time to check.

 

As you can see in my system, I'm also a Spectral Audio fan. So you might somehow speculate my taste as natural, neutral, transparency, fast. If you want to ask me which one of these two DACs possesses more similar character to Spectral gear. I'm quite sure it's MAY. 

 

 

Thanks for great review! The rest of your system looks fantastic! Hope you will post your experience with R2R listening as well.  Thanks.

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