HOLO Audio MAY DAC

[GoldenOne]

17 hours ago, Hensema said:

@GoldenOne Have you measured the linearity of both the May L2 and May KTE? I’m wondering what the difference is because of the hand picked ladders from the KTE version.

Not side by side no, I had my L2 before I got my analyzer unfortunately

[Extreme_Boky]

According to Joe of Wildism Audio, L3 (KTE) vs. L2:  only 3 parts are different (2 caps, fuse and mains wiring links between IEC connector and PS PCB) + the DAC PCBs covers... which is something everyone forgets...

 

There's also one less contact resistance point: the mains wiring (which is nice and shiny in L3 - I think it might be silver plated) is soldered to the PS PCB. 

 

That's everything listed (above). Both L2 and L3 (KTE) have selected DAC PCBs, for best linearity.

[Extreme_Boky]

Just to make things interesting again.... I wonder if there's anyone who'd like to play with USB cards/modules... This would be possible and easily achievable in case that:

 

1. You know how to desolder thru-hole components - the capacitors in this case, from a multilayer PCB without causing any damage

2. You kept the original USB module, when you decided to install & use the latest USB module, i.e. -> you have a spare module to play with

or

3. You want to play with the latest module, and you are willing to get a second one sent - so that there's still a spare module around.

 

I have modified the original USB module with great results. May is already an exceptional and very versatile DAC. The modified USB module brings even more space and top extension and an extremely nice, pleasing sound with a great sense of depth - the same as the best of vinyl played on a capable system. 

 

The capacitors I used are obsolete, but they can be bought on eBay... however, they do cost a lot. Alternatives are available... the sound will change a lot depending on the values/types used. 

 

[James Stephens]

On 2/11/2023 at 8:42 AM, James Stephens said:

 

Very interested to hear how you make out with the Red.

 

I haven't touched my system in 2 years but I have one on order to experiment with as an NAA to potentially replace my Aries G2.1. 

 

Not going to purchase HQPlayer Desktop just yet though ... 😉

 

James

 

"The rabbit hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping ..."

 

 

Holo Audio Red in place now as an NAA (arrived in a little under 5 weeks) and I am running HQPlayer on an M1 Mac Mini (16GB).

 

I went almost 2 years without making any change to my system whatsoever .. I’m sure glad I did though because HQPlayer has taken things up a notch.  

 

Qn - The Red has the Gen 2.1 USB Card as I understand it and my KTE is still on the 2.0 Card …. Is there more reason now for me to be thinking about upgrading the card in the May?

 

Thanks.

[mavwong]

Finally my stacks arrive. Don’t like the bulk don’t like the heat. But the sound - Heaven!

[xllms]

On 7/30/2023 at 8:37 PM, mavwong said:

Finally my stacks arrive. Don’t like the bulk don’t like the heat. But the sound - Heaven!

Enjoy! Glad to see another fellow Singaporean having this gem. 😊

[Kalpesh]

I wonder how many of you are back (forth ? maybe it's a swing) to PCM for PCM sources since the inception of Sinc Long ?

though I'm computer limited to 768 I prefer it over any SDM upsampling I can do, which excludes Sinc Long, so I can't and won't conclude PCM>SDM.
Maybe a quite flat in room response is of influence but in comparison, I insist, in comparison, SDM upsampling I can do has hints of distorsion and dryness with my May

[Miska]

On 8/13/2023 at 10:27 AM, Kalpesh said:

though I'm computer limited to 768 I prefer it over any SDM upsampling I can do, which excludes Sinc Long, so I can't and won't conclude PCM>SDM.

 

Since you are not limited by sample rate family, you can do same with less load by using sinc-Ll filter.

 

[Kalpesh]

22 hours ago, Miska said:

 

Since you are not limited by sample rate family, you can do same with less load by using sinc-Ll filter.

 

Thank you Jussi, I confirm I can push to 1536 with sinc Ll

[skipspence]

3 hours ago, Kalpesh said:

can push to 1536 with sinc Ll

Do you have sample rate family enabled/disabled/greyed with sinc Ll? 

I cannot do nothing with occasional pauses at 48 rate family 1536, though 44,1at 1411 goes flawlessly.. 

[Kalpesh]

22 hours ago, skipspence said:

Do you have sample rate family enabled/disabled/greyed with sinc Ll? 

I cannot do nothing with occasional pauses at 48 rate family 1536, though 44,1at 1411 goes flawlessly.. 

 

[Iceaero]

Well, sad day here. While I was out lightning struck close by and caused some electrical event. My May, which was on—and my amplifier, which was off—appear to be casualties.  Oddly not much else in the house was affected at all. My computer didn’t even restart. Fried two of my neighbors cable modems.

 

Certainly disappointed in the Furman power strip…even if I didn’t think it was That strong of a protection, this also didn’t seem to be that strong of an event if other, seemingly more sensitive, electronics were unaffected.  The ‘protection’ light on the strip is now unlit at least, so it does reflect something occurring.

 

Anyway, I just want to see if there’s anything else I can do to confirm the May is dead…

 

The red light turns on, and the unit gets warm, but will not power on. 
 

I’ll of course reach out to Tim, but maybe I’m missing something to try?

[lsantista]

Hi,  sorry to hear that, good luck!

Interesting that the red light still works and the unit get warm. I had events like that way in the past, without audiphile gear, and the units affect didnt lit or work at all, nada!

 

Can I ask if your house electricity board or at least the outlets with your gear had a ground connection?

 

[Iceaero]

23 minutes ago, lsantista said:

Hi,  sorry to hear that, good luck!

Interesting that the red light still works and the unit get warm. I had events like that way in the past, without audiphile gear, and the units affect didnt lit or work at all, nada!

 

Can I ask if your house electricity board or at least the outlets with your gear had a ground connection?

 

Thanks, and yes, a bit odd.  For example, the 50A breaker for our car charger was tripped even though nothing was connected to that circuit!  Yet no other breakers tripped. 
 

Lightning can do crazy things, but clearly wasn’t a direct hit or anything. 
 

Regardless, I’ve checked in the past and the outlet’s ground is correct. 
 

The Yamaha’s protection circuit is engaged and the error lights indicate either an over-current event or an amp voltage error.  When I override that it re-engages—I think the amp section is fried. And given that the amp was off when it happened (and I believe that is an internal physical disconnect), the amp being between the May, my AVR, and subwoofer probably caused this issue. The AVR and SUB are fine…

[barrows]

It is important to understand that there is nothing available that can completely protect electronic equipment from lightning strikes.  Consider that lightning is powerful enough to travel through the air for miles!  No surge protection device can be made which will protect from all the vagaries of lightning strikes.  Note that homeowners insurance will often provide some compensation for electronics which are damaged/destroyed by lightning.

The only way to insure that powerful lightning strikes do no damage is to unplug your gear during powerful lightning events, and when you are away from home for any period of time.

[taipan254]

basic suggestion - but perhaps swap the fuse and see if it starts up?

[Iceaero]

On 9/10/2023 at 7:17 PM, taipan254 said:

basic suggestion - but perhaps swap the fuse and see if it starts up?

Still waiting to hear back from Holo Audio/Kitsune....

 

But I would assume that the standby circuit (red light) would not turn on if the fuse was shot...regardless, I tested the fuse with a multimeter and it's showing continuity. 

[1laraz]

Did anyone try the newest drivers v.5.57? 

[JeroenD]

Hello all, I am investigating if I could upgrade the digital part of my system this winter time. A few questions abou this:
1. Does anybody at this forum have experience with using a computer USB card (I use the Jcat EX) and improving the USB input siganl of the Holo May by using a better clock (oscilator) at the USB card?
2. Anybody experience in switching on or off the PLL depanding of the quality of the USB signal?
3. Does anybody have experience impriving the clocking inside the Holo May? Unfortiantly the Holo May does not have an external clock input. But what I did read it is also better to have the clock close to the microprocessor or device that needs this clock.
4. Anybody experience with a I2S PC card with a very good clock (for example the Pink Faun bridge with good PF clock) to supply the audio signal and clock signal to the Holo May. Would this improve audio quality compared to using the USB input?
Thanks for your response!

[1laraz]

4 minutes ago, JeroenD said:

 A few questions abou this:

As for 1., I am using the external USB reclocker Innuos PhoenixUSB between the streaming PC (Soundaware D2) and the May. Surprisingly, by upgrading the external power supply for the USB output of D2 there was a further positive impact on the sound. Even having the PhoenixUSB in-between!

After all of this there was no need for PLL at all, which only worsened the sound.

[JeroenD]

That Innuos PhoenixUSB is not a cheap device. So with this reclocker inbetween streamer PC and Holo May it sounded better than with just your streamer PC and it sounded better when PLL in the Holo was switched off.
Was is the diffrenrece with reclocker added and PLL off very clear? A good power supply is always a good idea.

[SwissBear]

10 hours ago, JeroenD said:

1. Does anybody at this forum have experience with using a computer USB card (I use the Jcat EX) and improving the USB input siganl of the Holo May by using a better clock (oscilator) at the USB card?
2. Anybody experience in switching on or off the PLL depanding of the quality of the USB signal?
3. Does anybody have experience impriving the clocking inside the Holo May? Unfortiantly the Holo May does not have an external clock input. But what I did read it is also better to have the clock close to the microprocessor or device that needs this clock.
4. Anybody experience with a I2S PC card with a very good clock (for example the Pink Faun bridge with good PF clock) to supply the audio signal and clock signal to the Holo May. Would this improve audio quality compared to using the USB input?

 

Hello,

1. You did not mention which upsampling strategy you use before feeding the May. Are you using HQPlayer ?

In case not, a first step to upgrade the digital part of your system could be to try upsampling you digital flow to DSD256 or better.

In case yes, a good idea might be to try Jussi's NAA architecture. He has clever recommendations in this field, either Up boards or Filtlet computers. The important part here is to put your efforts into choosing as good and noiseless LPSU to power this NAA.

2. I doubt that the PLL has any influence on the USB input. USB is an asynchronous data flow and will be clocked with the internal clock of the DAC, PLL being ON or OFF. If I understand correctly, the PLL function is to resynchronise a externally clocked data flow (SP/DIF, AES/EBU or I2S) to the internal clock of the DAC. 

4. I have extensively tested external solutions like this, with very good clocks. I did not reach any better results than with the USB input. May be a little more of transparency, but with less 'engagement', due to the jitter pb.

You could refer to this post of Jussi which summarises the situation: 

 

[1laraz]

8 hours ago, JeroenD said:

That Innuos PhoenixUSB is not a cheap device. So with this reclocker inbetween streamer PC and Holo May it sounded better than with just your streamer PC and it sounded better when PLL in the Holo was switched off.
Was is the diffrenrece with reclocker added and PLL off very clear? A good power supply is always a good idea.

You can also try ifi micro iUSB3.0 which has a better performance-to-cost ratio. The difference with an added reclocker is not dramatic of course, but quite obvious. 

[flkin]

On 11/28/2023 at 3:21 AM, JeroenD said:

Hello all, I am investigating if I could upgrade the digital part of my system this winter time. A few questions abou this:
1. Does anybody at this forum have experience with using a computer USB card (I use the Jcat EX) and improving the USB input siganl of the Holo May by using a better clock (oscilator) at the USB card?
2. Anybody experience in switching on or off the PLL depanding of the quality of the USB signal?
3. Does anybody have experience impriving the clocking inside the Holo May? Unfortiantly the Holo May does not have an external clock input. But what I did read it is also better to have the clock close to the microprocessor or device that needs this clock.
4. Anybody experience with a I2S PC card with a very good clock (for example the Pink Faun bridge with good PF clock) to supply the audio signal and clock signal to the Holo May. Would this improve audio quality compared to using the USB input?
Thanks for your response!

 

1. I don't have a Holo May but I was using a Pink Faun USB card with a basic Connor Winfield OCXO clock for a while. Then I upgraded to a Pink Faun Ultra OCXO clock. The upgrade was a clear improvement in natural sound and imaging. A further big improvement came when I added a good external power supply - a custom, double regulated Paul Hynes. Was like a component upgrade and more.

4. I heard PF's I2S card alongside their USB card playing to PF's own designed DAC (not for sale) containing a Burr Brown 1795 playing to a max of 192kHz and liked what I heard. I suppose it depends on the DAC too but it was my preferred sound on that day.

[JeroenD]

On 11/28/2023 at 8:07 AM, SwissBear said:

 

Hello,

1. You did not mention which upsampling strategy you use before feeding the May. Are you using HQPlayer ?

In case not, a first step to upgrade the digital part of your system could be to try upsampling you digital flow to DSD256 or better.

In case yes, a good idea might be to try Jussi's NAA architecture. He has clever recommendations in this field, either Up boards or Filtlet computers. The important part here is to put your efforts into choosing as good and noiseless LPSU to power this NAA.

2. I doubt that the PLL has any influence on the USB input. USB is an asynchronous data flow and will be clocked with the internal clock of the DAC, PLL being ON or OFF. If I understand correctly, the PLL function is to resynchronise a externally clocked data flow (SP/DIF, AES/EBU or I2S) to the internal clock of the DAC. 

4. I have extensively tested external solutions like this, with very good clocks. I did not reach any better results than with the USB input. May be a little more of transparency, but with less 'engagement', due to the jitter pb.

You could refer to this post of Jussi which summarises the situation: 

 

Hello, and thanks for your replay!
1. I am using HQplayer and am able to upsample to 1.5 Mhz PCM or DSD512.
At the moment I am using 2 different LPSU's (HDPLEX + Sbooster) for my streamer.
2. You are right, PLL should not have any impact on the digital audio signal received via USB.
4. Thanks for your feedback. It looks like using I2S will not deliver better results than using USB.
But I do read feedback from others, based on my recent post, that you can achieve better audio quality when improving the clocking of the USB signal fed into the DAC. It is very interesting to understand why this quality improvement is achieved. I did read the feedback on this from Miska about improved clocking of the digital signal before the DA conversion takes place (link you added to your post). How Miska describes it does not match with feedback from multiple reactions based on my recent post. Interesting if we can come up with an explanation how this is possible.