HOLO Audio MAY DAC

[Savolax]

50 minutes ago, Diavolo said:

I'm only on month two with my May KTE and I'm in love. 😁 Best sounding dac I've ever heard.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Not to take any enjoyment from you but I tried May L2 and Audio GD R7HE home for two weeks. Decided to go on with the latter. 

I felt it was a little more easier for my ears with headphones and especially with music that is not necessarily mastered "audiophile style". Another local enthusiast seemed to prefer more of May though.

 

I am not sure if this was the best thread to post but if someone is thinking of investing big money in to a DAC, what my point is, is not "buy R7HE instead" but if possible I would strongly recommend home audition with few dacs same time. Flexible dealers might make it happen if asked.

Gives more perspective and in my case, if I just had bought May blindly I might not have been 100% satisfied. Both are great DAC's though and I would say it was only a slight specific flavor in sound that mattered the most.

[Savolax]

30 minutes ago, Diavolo said:

Oh no worries. It's hard to try everything. I know I was kind of sold after the professional reviews came out and was a bit smitten looking at the insides. I rolled the dice mostly on how positive reviews are of holo dacs are in general. I just always wanted to try an R2R without giving up superb measurements. The May just pushed all my buttons. 

Yeah I know and understand. I for myself actually had to contact my bank to make this simultaneous home demo happen as the biggest challenge was money 😁

There has also been lots of positive towards Rockna dac. The "cheaper" one is somewhere close to May price range but for that DAC there seemed to be some delays to obtain one upon purchasing so had to leave that one out of the picture. I feel happy with R7HE though I recognized technical performance of May.

I'll leave with this off-topic now.

[Savolax]

22 minutes ago, Khalondir said:

Is there any benefit in using the I2S input instead of usb in holo may? Thinking if the d/d denafrips gaia can bring some gain along with the holo audio may dac.

 

server > usb > denafrips gaia > I2S > Holo May

When I tried May, my observation was that using USB input to Singxer SU-1 DDC (with SOtM sCLK-EX mod) and 12V DC input with Farad3 instead of stock power supply, it was greatly superior to May's USB input where as my USB source was standard ATX powered PC with JCAT USB XE card powered with Farad3 5V.

I heard the same improvement using I2S input of Audio GD R7HE dac too. The main improvements in my experience were more grandiose sound stage and more natural, less grainy sound.

 

I have had similar experience with other dacs too using the same "extra devices" in the audio setup only using AES input instead of I2S but with I2S (where applicable) I felt the difference was slightly greater in favor to I2S input.

Based on this experience and all the vast amount of subjective experience on this forums which have lead me to these "crazy upgrades", I would not be surprised if you preferred the sound more with Gaia in the audio setup.

 

That being said even though I have not tried Gaia.

 

Maybe on some "science based" forums you and I might get attacked with "hard science" against this but I think you are in correct place asking about it 😉

I would recommend to try out if possible rather than denying the chance. 

 

 

[Savolax]

Yeah, can't argue against the facts mentioned albeit the gear spaghetti I preferred more. And with my lower lever knowledge I won't even try to guess what or why would it make better that way.