Popular Post ferenc Posted January 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 2, 2020 43 minutes ago, mevdinc said: What active speakers do you have? Quite a few: different PMC, Quested, Neumann, Presonus models. Plus in my home studio I am using a quality checking nearfield (passive) system: my own audio PC with Pink Faun USB Card and Audiolinux OS, Holo Spring 2 KTE DAC (sometimes a Merging Hapi A/D-D/A converter), Parasound P6 preamp, Audionet Amp I power amp, Marten Duke 2 speaker, Wireworld Gold Eclipse 8 speaker cable, the rest is Wireworld all Platinum cables, including USB. shahed99, asdf1000 and mevdinc 1 1 1 Link to comment
Miska Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 On 1/2/2020 at 8:41 PM, mevdinc said: That's what I did when I used DACs with no volume control but a good DAC with a decent pre section gives much better results than using software volume control. My current Musicbook has a very good analog volume control. I may just use it as a pre if I go for the MAY DAC. Well, technically properly done digital volume control is much better than anything you can achieve with analog. But how about something like this as pre? https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-la4-line-preamplifier StreamFidelity 1 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
MhtLion Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 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. louisxiawei 1 Link to comment
firedog Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Where is the May actually available? Or is it? I can't find it online. Main listening (small home office): Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments. Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three . Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup. Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. All absolute statements about audio are false Link to comment
Account Closed Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 1 hour ago, firedog said: Where is the May actually available? Or is it? I can't find it online. Contact Tim at Kitsune Audio directly on the site. Link to comment
mevdinc Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 On 1/6/2020 at 9:44 PM, Miska said: Well, technically properly done digital volume control is much better than anything you can achieve with analog. But how about something like this as pre? https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-la4-line-preamplifier Sure, I agree re digital volume. But I also need just one analog input for home cinema use so hence my preference for a good DAC with a decent pre and one analog input such as what I have now. Thanks for the pointer, Benchmark LA4 does indeed look like good. mevdinc.com (My autobiography) Recently sold my ATC EL 150 Actives! Link to comment
Popular Post Miska Posted January 7, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 7, 2020 54 minutes ago, mevdinc said: Sure, I agree re digital volume. But I also need just one analog input for home cinema use so hence my preference for a good DAC with a decent pre and one analog input such as what I have now. Thanks for the pointer, Benchmark LA4 does indeed look like good. I rather get a good pre and a good DAC, than try to bundle the two into some strange beast. My current pre in the listening room system has 8 inputs of which 3 are balanced. I would prefer to have 8 balanced inputs though. But for analog sources I have ADC since I want to have digital room correction also for such sources. So such sources go through the same digital playback chain as digital files/streams. For my headphone rig I'm planning to get a Benchmark HP4 when my budget permits... It is like LA4, but with great headphone amp. matthias and 4est 2 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
Popular Post louisxiawei Posted January 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 26, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 6:13 AM, MhtLion said: Thanks for great review! The rest of your system looks fantastic! Hope you will post your experience with R2R listening as well. Thanks. For R2R part, I applied the same filter as SDM: poly-sinc-xtr-lp, new dither: LNS15 and upsampled everything at 1.536M. The sound is very transparent, nothing warm or blur as many said R2R used to be. I believe it's a good and rare thing for a R2R dac? Frankly speaking, I personally think R2R part sound is a bit dull compared to SDM part when using HQplayer. Less holographic and organic. I don't have other R2R dacs to compare with it at the moment because I used to avoid purchasing ladder type dac. I would say DSD512 gives obviously more 3D airy sounding while DSD256 gives smoother, more density, more analogue sounding but less airy (This apply on both DAC8 and MAY) . From my observation of many "hiend" product marketing slogan or reviews. This "air" thingy is quite a critical index for a DAC to be valued. Unlike DAC8 gives "clean" and “wide" LPF options, I was informed by Jeff that MAY applies 45K LPF. So I believe 7th order modulator should fit MAY very well technically. At least it sounds good to me. I prefer ASDM7EC DSD256 over AMSDM7 512+fs DSD512 a lot when listening to vocal. I was a bit shocked when I hear a much better presence of vocal detail like spittle, lip smacking and saliva these kind of things. For orchestral, DSD512 is preferred. I also did my own trick/compromise and this may not suitable for others. For using Spectral gear, MIT/Spectral interconnects are compulsory and my MIT Oracle Matrix HD90.2 speaker panel has a 2C3D switch - when it's on, giving a more 3D holographic image. To be honest, I don't consider it as a serious function and prefer it to be off as it has its own limit and sounds a bit fake in some music genre. By comparison, DSD512's 3D effect is more natural than MIT's artificial 2C3D. But the 2C3D works well with ASDM7EC DSD256, offering smoother, more analogue yet providing 3D airy sounding similar to DSD512 until there are hardware can fulfill EC modulator at DSD512. StreamFidelity, MhtLion and shahed99 2 1 Software: Roon, Tidal, HQplayer HQplayer PC: i9 7980XE, Titan Xp, RTX 3090; i9 9900K, Titan V DAC: Holo Audio MAY L2, T+A DAC8 DSD, exasound e12, iFi micro iDSD BL USB tweaks: Intona, Uptone (ISO) regen, LPS-1, LPS-1.2, Sbooster Vbus2, Curious cables, SUPRA Certified HiSpeed USB cable NAA: Logic CL100 powered by Uptone JS-2 AMP: Spectral DMC 30SV, Spectral DMA 300RS Speaker: Magico S3 MKII Rack: HRS SXR signature Link to comment
StreamFidelity Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 18 minutes ago, louisxiawei said: Frankly speaking, I personally think R2R part sound is a bit dull compared to SDM part when using HQplayer. Less holographic and organic. I don't have other R2R dacs to compare with it at the moment because I used to avoid purchasing ladder type dac. I prefer ASDM7EC DSD256 over AMSDM7 512+fs DSD512 a lot when listening to vocal. I was a bit shocked when I hear a much better presence of vocal detail like spittle, lip smacking and saliva these kind of things. For orchestral, DSD512 is preferred. I have the Denafrips Terminator, before that the ARMATURE Asterion (Holo Spring) DAC, both are R2R-DACs. I prefer DSD for both. Actually a shame not to use the R2R, since this is only possible for PCM. Especially with the Terminator (PCM 1.536kHz). But what should I do? As with you, ASDM7EC DSD256 simply sounds more organic and give more Space. Grigg Audio Solutions Owner StreamFidelitys Setup: Sonus Faber Amati Futura | T+A M10 | T+A SDV 3100 HV | fis Audio PC & Server | GigaWatt PC4-EVO+ | JCAT OPTIMO S ATX | FARAD Super10 & Super3 | Keces P8 | Afterdark Buffalo Switch | fis Audio Cables | Solidsteel HJ-3 / HY-A Link to comment
clipper Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Hans Beekhuyzen - Holo Audio May Dac (Level 2): Link to comment
mevdinc Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Can anyone confirm this? It seems the volume buttons on the remote don't function! Does this mean Holo MAY does not offer volume control? mevdinc.com (My autobiography) Recently sold my ATC EL 150 Actives! Link to comment
normanlu Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 18 hours ago, mevdinc said: Can anyone confirm this? It seems the volume buttons on the remote don't function! Does this mean Holo MAY does not offer volume control? No volume control at all. Link to comment
tedwoods Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 The fact that he remains blissfully agnostic to HQP really ruins it for me... Link to comment
mevdinc Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 11 hours ago, normanlu said: No volume control at all. Thanks for the confirmation. That's a real shame and also a deal breaker for me. mevdinc.com (My autobiography) Recently sold my ATC EL 150 Actives! Link to comment
louisxiawei Posted February 12, 2020 Author Share Posted February 12, 2020 On 2/8/2020 at 3:23 AM, clipper said: Hans Beekhuyzen - Holo Audio May Dac (Level 2): I sense him discouraging the oversampling apporach. Quite a pity he has missed so much fun. 😏 Software: Roon, Tidal, HQplayer HQplayer PC: i9 7980XE, Titan Xp, RTX 3090; i9 9900K, Titan V DAC: Holo Audio MAY L2, T+A DAC8 DSD, exasound e12, iFi micro iDSD BL USB tweaks: Intona, Uptone (ISO) regen, LPS-1, LPS-1.2, Sbooster Vbus2, Curious cables, SUPRA Certified HiSpeed USB cable NAA: Logic CL100 powered by Uptone JS-2 AMP: Spectral DMC 30SV, Spectral DMA 300RS Speaker: Magico S3 MKII Rack: HRS SXR signature Link to comment
Popular Post digitaldufferme Posted May 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 2, 2020 Has anyone else purchased the May and would like to share listening impressions? I’m really curious whether there is a significant difference in sound profile between the Spring 2 and the May. Quite a premium in price so I’m wondering whether the already excellent Spring 2 & the law of diminishing returns makes the May not worth having other than for the enjoyment of having the best measuring R2R.. I can’t audition either so am having difficulties deciding between the Terminator, Spring 2 KTE or MAY L2. 1st world problems....🤭 BCRich and Exocer 2 Link to comment
Dacyanicky Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I am new to Holo DACs and have been looking at other r2r products. I was very impressed by Hans B.'s reaction in his review. I was considering a Terminator and want to compare that with offerings from Aqua,dcs and MSB. The Terminator is about the same price point and the others while more expensive would provide a upper bar of performance. Does the Holo May hold its own against any of these other products? Hopefully there will be reviews of these eventually or a way to compare them. It looks like Holo is a direct to consumer no dealers? Thanks Link to comment
LowOrbit Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Holo Audio are distributed in US by Kitsune Hifi and in Europe by Magna Hifi. Wildism are the main stockist in SE Asia. I can't comment on relative performance of the May against those other r2r DAC's, but it seems like a very well engineered device. Dacyanicky 1 Link to comment
Popular Post digitaldufferme Posted May 8, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 8, 2020 If it matters to you, there are measurements on both ASR (WolfX700) and SBAF forum (Atomicbob) using professional measuring equipment which have both found the Holo Audio L2 May to be the best measuring DAC using R2R technology ever and better than many DS DACs. Whether measurements are important to you and whether you feel they relate to sound quality is a personal opinion of course. I use measurements as an indication of good engineering competence and attention to design and manufacturing. Only your ears can can tell you whether something sounds better. One thing is for sure from my viewpoint, the audio manufacturers making R2R dacs who say this type of tech needs to measure badly vs DS based DACs by virtue of the basic design concept have been proved to have inadequate engineering skills. Holo Audio has shown them to be wrong purely from an engineering and design viewpoint. This has nothing to do with your listening pleasure which is an entirely subjective aspect and what you (I hope) pay for. I don't think you can go wrong from all the happy users of the Terminator but I wanted to support the engineering persistence of Jeff Zhu the designer who has been working on the May for more than 4 years with such beautifully precise results. Superdad, Diavolo, spin33 and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment
Popular Post Miska Posted May 8, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 8, 2020 And with some DSP help you can boost these R2R's to even better performance (20+ dB distortion improvements at low levels)... Diavolo and digitaldufferme 1 1 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
GoldenOne Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 I've now got a may on order and it should be here mid-june (went for the wildism L2). Planning to connect it directly to the AHB2 and use Roon/HQPlayer volume control rather than a preamp given as I'll only need a few dB of volume control. Only thing I'm considering now is what the ideal input is. I know the original spring had some issues with its USB, but supposedly the later revisions of spring 2 and now the may are much better. Not to mention the May buffers and reclocks all digital inputs, so I'm not entirely sure if using I2S etc is going to provide a benefit over USB anyway. Has anyone here tried multiple inputs and could comment? I'm torn between: - Keeping my pi3b endpoint and calling it a day - Getting an Sotm SMS200 Ultra and connecting the dac via USB - Getting a pi2AES and using the i2s output. I'm not sure if the may would actually benefit from the sms200 ultra given its FIFO buffering/reclocking anyway. Would someone more knowledgeable be able to shed some light on this area? I don't know if i'll be using HQPlayer with it or not. I use HQPlayer with my current ADI-2 DAC as I dislike its internal filters, but will have to play around with the may once it arrives. Diavolo 1 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
GoldenOne Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 On 5/8/2020 at 9:08 PM, Miska said: And with some DSP help you can boost these R2R's to even better performance (20+ dB distortion improvements at low levels)... What sort of DSP tweaks would you use with a dac like the May? https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
barrows Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 2 hours ago, GoldenOne said: I've now got a may on order and it should be here mid-june (went for the wildism L2). Planning to connect it directly to the AHB2 and use Roon/HQPlayer volume control rather than a preamp given as I'll only need a few dB of volume control. Only thing I'm considering now is what the ideal input is. I know the original spring had some issues with its USB, but supposedly the later revisions of spring 2 and now the may are much better. Not to mention the May buffers and reclocks all digital inputs, so I'm not entirely sure if using I2S etc is going to provide a benefit over USB anyway. Has anyone here tried multiple inputs and could comment? I'm torn between: - Keeping my pi3b endpoint and calling it a day - Getting an Sotm SMS200 Ultra and connecting the dac via USB - Getting a pi2AES and using the i2s output. I'm not sure if the may would actually benefit from the sms200 ultra given its FIFO buffering/reclocking anyway. Would someone more knowledgeable be able to shed some light on this area? I don't know if i'll be using HQPlayer with it or not. I use HQPlayer with my current ADI-2 DAC as I dislike its internal filters, but will have to play around with the may once it arrives. I know some people like I2S, but it is somewhat flawed in a technical sense vs. USB. The USB input on the May has been shown through jitter measurements to be very, very good. I would expect best performance using the USB input via a very, very good Renderer. Using a Renderer allows your (powerful one needed for HQP of course) computer to be located far from the audio system where things like electrical and RF interference and even fan noise will be of no concern. I work with Sonore, so of course you know my preference for Renderers! Regardless, you will want to use a Renderer which has the HQP NAA protocol available. SO/ROON/HQPe: DSD 512-Sonore opticalModuleDeluxe-Signature Rendu optical with Well Tempered Clock--DIY DSC-2 DAC with SC Pure Clock--DIY Purifi Amplifier-Focus Audio FS888 speakers-JL E 112 sub-Nordost Tyr USB, DIY EventHorizon AC cables, Iconoclast XLR & speaker cables, Synergistic Purple Fuses, Spacetime system clarifiers. ISOAcoustics Oreas footers. SONORE computer audio | opticalRendu | ultraRendu | microRendu | Signature Rendu SE | Accessories | Software | Link to comment
GoldenOne Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 1 hour ago, barrows said: I know some people like I2S, but it is somewhat flawed in a technical sense vs. USB. The USB input on the May has been shown through jitter measurements to be very, very good. I would expect best performance using the USB input via a very, very good Renderer. Using a Renderer allows your (powerful one needed for HQP of course) computer to be located far from the audio system where things like electrical and RF interference and even fan noise will be of no concern. I work with Sonore, so of course you know my preference for Renderers! Regardless, you will want to use a Renderer which has the HQP NAA protocol available. Yeah I think it was more a case of the original USB implementation wasn't great, and so people used I2S. But the main thing I'm curious about is the May's FIFO buffering+Reclocking solution. Because in theory that should mean that the digital source shouldn't matter, at least not unless the incoming jitter is horrendous and beyond what the PLL can handle. The spring didn't have that. Also the may no longer uses an LVDS chipset, but a custom 4 way circuit for the i2s inputs which isolates each line, so that could have an effect. I really don't know. Problem is unfortunately trying out different things here is incredibly expensive brightonjel 1 https://youtube.com/goldensound Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara Link to comment
Popular Post Miska Posted May 30, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 30, 2020 6 hours ago, GoldenOne said: What sort of DSP tweaks would you use with a dac like the May? Same as Spring 2, so if you use PCM mode, set DAC Bits 20 and use noise shaper like LNS15 at 1.5 MHz sampling rate. I personally stick to DSD256 output using ASDM7EC modulator. digitaldufferme and ferenc 1 1 Signalyst - Developer of HQPlayer Pulse & Fidelity - Software Defined Amplifiers Link to comment
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