HOLO Audio MAY DAC

[Hiker]

Tim just came through with an invoice for a Holo May KTE dac,..I had re-ordered ,... Tim was very apologetic however this was a technical issues as mentioned by another member ..

 

[Hiker]

I should also point out Tim mentioned last night he’s facing some hostile potential customers over this Microsoft program screw up he worked tirelessly to figure out , he did . ,..After reading that I’m glad that I kept my patients and never had a single complaint,....

[lpost]

‘Microsoft program screw up‘

 

which one? They are so frequent. I know most of the world was impacted the past few days by an update that broke much of the authentication to cloud services but this has been rolled back 

[Hiker]

3 hours ago, lpost said:

‘Microsoft program screw up‘

 

which one? They are so frequent. I know most of the world was impacted the past few days by an update that broke much of the authentication to cloud services but this has been rolled back 

I don’t use Microsoft ,  Tim said there were weeks of unread emails ,..

[lpost]

59 minutes ago, Hiker said:

I don’t use Microsoft ,  Tim said there were weeks of unread emails ,..

That's quite a feat to use nothing Microsoft. Everyone has some connection as you found out with the problems on Tim's site.

[Hiker]

1 hour ago, lpost said:

That's quite a feat to use nothing Microsoft. Everyone has some connection as you found out with the problems on Tim's site.

Well what I understand is that Tim wasn’t getting emails because of the issues with Microsoft , he explained it to me exactly what the problem was , I didn’t go into details, it has nothing to do what I use.

[lpost]

Still cold from DHL but she's in the house!

 

[kimgg]

1 hour ago, lpost said:

Still cold from DHL but she's in the house!

 

 

Cool rack! All DIY?

[lpost]

55 minutes ago, kimgg said:

 

Cool rack! All DIY?

Thanks. Yes and it’s all recycled wood from other projects, the crate the Pink Faun shipped in, etc. i bought a couple IKEA butcher blocks years ago.

[kimgg]

2 hours ago, lpost said:

Thanks. Yes and it’s all recycled wood from other projects, the crate the Pink Faun shipped in, etc. i bought a couple IKEA butcher blocks years ago.

Very cool! 

[lpost]

Wow, you guys that have the May certainly weren't exaggerating what this device is capable of. I had no idea what I was missing with a modded Directstream DAC and only 13 hours in.

[Johndubya]

I'm anxious to hear what's improved over the Directstream, besides looks (both inside and out)!

[lpost]

My only other 'real' DAC has been the PS Audio Directstream for the past 3 years. In the last few months I owned it I replaced the transformers and analog power supply. Both opened my ears to better sound but both pale in comparison to the first few hours with the May DAC. No contest.

 

Initial thoughts and feelings. A natural sound that well sounds real to my brain. Dynamics are improved significantly. Decay is silly good, the DS has zero in comparison. Trailing notes or ambient space reflections seems to go on in a very natural way fading as they would in real life.

 

There is an increased feeling of ease despite the increase in dynamics as if the energy is delivered in time much more precisely vs. the DS. Time domain goodness. It just feels right. I don't want to gush too much as I expect there will be some dark break in days to come but I'm confident we'll come through those based on what I've heard already.

[Hiker]

22 minutes ago, lpost said:

My only other 'real' DAC has been the PS Audio Directstream for the past 3 years. In the last few months I owned it I replaced the transformers and analog power supply. Both opened my ears to better sound but both pale in comparison to the first few hours with the May DAC. No contest.

 

Initial thoughts and feelings. A natural sound that well sounds real to my brain. Dynamics are improved significantly. Decay is silly good, the DS has zero in comparison. Trailing notes or ambient space reflections seems to go on in a very natural way fading as they would in real life.

 

There is an increased feeling of ease despite the increase in dynamics as if the energy is delivered in time much more precisely vs. the DS. Time domain goodness. It just feels right. I don't want to gush too much as I expect there will be some dark break in days to come but I'm confident we'll come through those based on what I've heard already.

Exciting observations, 

[wahoospiff]

Anyone notice that the return policy on the May seems to have changed? On March 8 when I emailed a query to the company, I thought the return policy was a 15% restocking fee if unit returned plus return shipping. Now I see "Spring /May Dac L1/L2 + (Kitsune Tuned edition) and Cyan Dac PCM or DSD model or all Holoaudio products, Transformers, Isolation Transformers, (SPECIAL ORDER items) CANNOT BE CANCELLED OR RETURNED once payment has been made. (48hour grace period after payment has been made cancellation can be made ONLY DURING THIS TIME)" on the KitsuneHifi website. Is it all sales final now? Reselling probably the way to go anyway but I haven't seen a return policy like this before for direct sales.

[Diavolo]

Same policy I agreed to 

3 minutes ago, wahoospiff said:

Anyone notice that the return policy on the May seems to have changed? On March 8 when I emailed a query to the company, I thought the return policy was a 15% restocking fee if unit returned plus return shipping. Now I see "Spring /May Dac L1/L2 + (Kitsune Tuned edition) and Cyan Dac PCM or DSD model or all Holoaudio products, Transformers, Isolation Transformers, (SPECIAL ORDER items) CANNOT BE CANCELLED OR RETURNED once payment has been made. (48hour grace period after payment has been made cancellation can be made ONLY DURING THIS TIME)" on the KitsuneHifi website. Is it all sales final now? Reselling probably the way to go anyway but I haven't seen a return policy like this before for direct sales.

It's the same policy in place that I agreed to months ago with the May KTE DAC and again recently with the Serene KTE Preamplifier.   I've never seen a 15% restock fee or any return policy,  Tim told me no when I ask months ago.  Maybe this is specific to Holo Products only, but when you buy the dac the conditions are listed in the order with 48hours to cancel your order if you change your mind or don't agree. 

[scintilla]

This actually makes a lot of sense for these two companies, which are both tiny.  I'm sure that Tim has to pay for each device when he orders it from Holo and thus once the customer orders and pays the money to Tim it flows to Holo for the build within a short window.  These small companies don't have a lot of slush and appear to be operating on just-in-time inventory management.  I think it wouldn't be practical for Tim to have to refund $5000+ out of operating capital and hold inventory for resale.  Particularly because customers in this space would be demanding a discount for a re-stocked item even if it was essentially new.  A bespoke product is one that you better know that you want and be secure in your decision or you shouldn't be looking in the first place.

[Quadman]

Does anyone happen to know the value of those large grey rectangular vishay capacitors, found near the front of the middle input board?

 

I just bought a used L2 may, it already has a audiophile fuse installed.  Hopefully I'll get by the weekend.  It should be broken in already so a few hours warm up and I can compare to my T+A dac8DSD streaming DSD512 from HQ Player. The T+A at 512 is a special dac so very interested in this.  What sold me on the may was all the very positive listening impressions and reviews talking about how real and natural this dac sounds and the massive separate PSU which is much more advanced and capable than the in chassis T+A.  All of my audio experience I have found the better the PSU, the better the sound.

 

I would expect down the road I'll replace those grey vishays with a much more capable capacitor, similar to what the KTE version does.  Then I'll be 90% to the KTE version.

[lpost]

Did you grab the one on Usaudiomart for just a couple hours yesterday?

 

I've got 110 hours playtime on my KTE and the treble has become quite harsh bordering on unlistenable. Did anyone else experience a marked bad period like this during break in?

[GoldenOne]

5 minutes ago, lpost said:

Did you grab the one on Usaudiomart for just a couple hours yesterday?

 

I've got 110 hours playtime on my KTE and the treble has become quite harsh bordering on unlistenable. Did anyone else experience a marked bad period like this during break in?

That's definitely unusual/unexpected. 

 

Do you have an audio interface/adc you could use to do a couple basic measurements just to see if there is something wrong? 

[lpost]

Nope, I don't have any ADC or other measurement tools.

[fds]

1 hour ago, Quadman said:

It should be broken in already so a few hours warm up and I can compare to my T+A dac8DSD streaming DSD512 from HQ Player. The T+A at 512 is a special dac so very interested in this.

Please Quadman let us know about your results ... Being a DAC8DSD owner myself I am particularly interested in your findings. Thanks in advance for keeping us informed!

[fds]

Actually since the DAC8DSD power supply efforts seem not to be sooo much over the top ... even using an internal one ... I am surprised even more that it does sound so good. In this respect, the May looks much more advanced. Dual mono, external PSU. Would be cool if you could test both at DSD512 and maybe even direct to power amp with software volume control e.g. by HQPlayer @Quadman ... Anyhow any feedback will be highly appreciated. :-)

[lpost]

1 hour ago, Quadman said:

streaming DSD512 from HQ Player.

Be sure to try 768k PCM and 1.5M if your source will do it. I find DSD to be quite rolled off with the May compared to the same track PCM.

 

1.5M at 16 bits sounded a little less fleshed out to me preferring 768k at 20 bits a fair bit more. I believe this is solely based on the USB port being used.

[Miska]

34 minutes ago, lpost said:

1.5M at 16 bits sounded a little less fleshed out to me preferring 768k at 20 bits a fair bit more. I believe this is solely based on the USB port being used.

 

Which noise shaper did you use? There shouldn't be notable difference between 16- and 20-bit at 1.5M, or even at 768k.