HOLO Audio MAY DAC

[Heckyman]

Hi Matt, 

 

Yes, NOS mode on the May and PCM upsampling only, never got serious with DSD processing.

 

For Spotify and internet streaming, I upsample in MacOS Audio Midi, for Qobuz I use Audirvana at the native rate (cannot be bothered tweaking the Sox settings) and HQ Player for local files (PCM upsampling).

 

It all sounds pretty good and I do listen to a lot of lossy streams; my choices are thus dictated by convenience as much as anything else. If I really wanted to max out the quality of a favourite album, I would buy the CD/download and use HQ player with the network off and sit in the sweet spot, but I'm also fine with Spotify/WiFi and slobbing on the sofa with my phone...

 

 

[philippe0]

I just received my Holo May KTE a week ago.

Wow !

My PS Audio Directstream Dac is for sale.

[Hiker]

I have had my Holo May KTE dac for a few weeks now , it’s certainly a good dac no question.,,.

Ive just experienced a nice jump in performance, actually that’s an understatement.

 
Having four different Ac power outlets to choose from , a standard household wall receptacle, a dedicated line direct from the panel , a Puritan Audio Ac conditioner and a Furutech TP-80 passive power distribution box .

 

The Ac power in my home I suspect is as noisy as anyone else’s anywhere else though using a Entech Ac noise meter plugged into the Puritan Ac conditioner that’s plugged into the standard household wall receptacle shows a remarkable meter reading of 0.00 and not a peep from the Entechs speaker however cleaned up Ac feeding your components doesn’t necessarily mean your going to get better sound quality at least with my experimenting . No question the Ac conditioner has a negative effect on the May whether it’s specific to this brand I can’t say .

 

Long story short , there is most definitely a jump in performance with the May dac plugged into the passive power distribution even with the Furutech plugged into the standard household wall receptacle .

The power conditioner definitely masked the true performance of the May ,.With the May plugged directly into the standard household wall receptacle there was a mild improvement over it plugged into the conditioner however the treble region was effected .
 

With the May plugged into the dedicated line was step up improvement over the standard household wall receptacle however going back and forth from the Furutech passive direct into the dedicated line with extended listening the Furutech passive is very much preferred.

I encourage anyone that’s interested to experiment with their May dac and of course your results could very well be different from my experience.

 

 

 

[MichaelHiFi]

Results will be different but it's great that you shared your experience. 

 

There are so many variables when swapping cables in and out. It's not just the cable for the May but cable for other associated equipment as well. Right now I have a Triode labs obsession plugged into the May. That cable is plugged into the Furutech GDX-D NCF (R) outlet that on a 10awg cryo'd dedicated line. But I've been swapping PC cables, Lessloss C-Marc, Furutech 4.1, and a Varastarr Signature all with small but detectable signatures. The Verastarr especially being a ribbon cable. But differences in my system are more notable on my integrated than on the May. Often I tried plugging into my AC regenerator too but again, too many variables. I need to leave things alone and just listen and it sounds amazing, even without my Sigao server running HQP.

 

 

[philippe0]

The system 

 

 

[Hiker]

1 hour ago, MichaelHiFi said:

Results will be different but it's great that you shared your experience. 

 

There are so many variables when swapping cables in and out. It's not just the cable for the May but cable for other associated equipment as well. Right now I have a Triode labs obsession plugged into the May. That cable is plugged into the Furutech GDX-D NCF (R) outlet that on a 10awg cryo'd dedicated line. But I've been swapping PC cables, Lessloss C-Marc, Furutech 4.1, and a Varastarr Signature all with small but detectable signatures. The Verastarr especially being a ribbon cable. But differences in my system are more notable on my integrated than on the May. Often I tried plugging into my AC regenerator too but again, too many variables. I need to leave things alone and just listen and it sounds amazing, even without my Sigao server running HQP.

 

 

Yep if all sounds good leave good enough alone , kick back and enjoy what you have though I’m so glad I did this , I now know where the bear shits in the woods ,..

[barrows]

5 hours ago, Hiker said:

I have had my Holo May KTE dac for a few weeks now , it’s certainly a good dac no question.,,.

Ive just experienced a nice jump in performance, actually that’s an understatement.

 
Having four different Ac power outlets to choose from , a standard household wall receptacle, a dedicated line direct from the panel , a Puritan Audio Ac conditioner and a Furutech TP-80 passive power distribution box .

 

The Ac power in my home I suspect is as noisy as anyone else’s anywhere else though using a Entech Ac noise meter plugged into the Puritan Ac conditioner that’s plugged into the standard household wall receptacle shows a remarkable meter reading of 0.00 and not a peep from the Entechs speaker however cleaned up Ac feeding your components doesn’t necessarily mean your going to get better sound quality at least with my experimenting . No question the Ac conditioner has a negative effect on the May whether it’s specific to this brand I can’t say .

 

Long story short , there is most definitely a jump in performance with the May dac plugged into the passive power distribution even with the Furutech plugged into the standard household wall receptacle .

The power conditioner definitely masked the true performance of the May ,.With the May plugged directly into the standard household wall receptacle there was a mild improvement over it plugged into the conditioner however the treble region was effected .
 

With the May plugged into the dedicated line was step up improvement over the standard household wall receptacle however going back and forth from the Furutech passive direct into the dedicated line with extended listening the Furutech passive is very much preferred.

I encourage anyone that’s interested to experiment with their May dac and of course your results could very well be different from my experience.

 

 

 

I am not surprised that you prefer the Furutech.  These Furutech units are passive, but they do use special materials which are able to absorb and diffuse quite a bit of RF energy from the mains, and the accomplish this without the use of any inductors or capacitors connected to the AC wiring-which can often cause sonic issues, even as they do manage to filter some noise.  It is also important to realize that everyone's AC power is different, and a given approach to power conditioning which works well in one person's home, amy not work so well in another.  But first, I often find that distributors which "do no harm", like the Furutech passive units, are often the best option, despite their lack of heavy filtering.

[Hiker]

38 minutes ago, barrows said:

I am not surprised that you prefer the Furutech.  These Furutech units are passive, but they do use special materials which are able to absorb and diffuse quite a bit of RF energy from the mains, and the accomplish this without the use of any inductors or capacitors connected to the AC wiring-which can often cause sonic issues, even as they do manage to filter some noise.  It is also important to realize that everyone's AC power is different, and a given approach to power conditioning which works well in one person's home, amy not work so well in another.  But first, I often find that distributors which "do no harm", like the Furutech passive units, are often the best option, despite their lack of heavy filtering.

We recently had some fairly major electrical up grades and up dates done to our 45 year old home though prior to work I swore I could hear a radio station playing over the Entech noise meters speaker , a audio dealer recommended the Puritan conditioner it helped though it’s going up for sale.

I borrowed the Furutech and I’m am absolutely thrilled with what it brought to the table and of course the better the recording the more spectacular everything sounds .

 

 

[Extreme_Boky]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

I am not surprised that you prefer the Furutech.  These Furutech units are passive, but they do use special materials which are able to absorb and diffuse quite a bit of RF energy from the mains, and the accomplish this without the use of any inductors or capacitors connected to the AC wiring-which can often cause sonic issues, even as they do manage to filter some noise.  It is also important to realize that everyone's AC power is different, and a given approach to power conditioning which works well in one person's home, amy not work so well in another.  But first, I often find that distributors which "do no harm", like the Furutech passive units, are often the best option, despite their lack of heavy filtering.

It appears the filter is a bog-standard EMI/RFI filter. It does use the inductors, MOV's and capacitors to filter out the noise. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong part numbers...???

 

https://www.hifinext.com/what-the-furutech-etp-80s-ncf-power-distributor-looks-like-from-the-inside/

 

Judging by the size of the inductor ring, and the number of turns, the attenuation range seem to be quite high up... in the MHz region.

[barrows]

51 minutes ago, Extreme_Boky said:

It appears the filter is a bog-standard EMI/RFI filter. It does use the inductors, MOV's and capacitors to filter out the noise. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong part numbers...???

 

https://www.hifinext.com/what-the-furutech-etp-80s-ncf-power-distributor-looks-like-from-the-inside/

 

Judging by the size of the inductor ring, and the number of turns, the attenuation range seem to be quite high up... in the MHz region.

You are right, my bad, looks like a pretty ordinary (likely well implemented) LC filter there.  I guess I was thinking of another Furutech product.

[ted_b]

Barrows, et al, would you put a passive filter device like this in front of my Topaz iso transformer?  Right now it's just a clean switch-free power strip into the Topaz. 

[barrows]

3 minutes ago, ted_b said:

Barrows, et al, would you put a passive filter device like this in front of my Topaz iso transformer?  Right now it's just a clean switch-free power strip into the Topaz. 

Ted, from my experience working at PS Audio, and taking part in measuring AC power at many different locations (including audio shows, and many employees' and customers' homes), I think it is really hard to suggest one possible "best" AC power solution, as the quality of AC power varies so much from location to location.

For example, here at my place I have a line transformer which serves only my home, and my modest home has not much going on making noise on the line-that is not to say it is perfectly clean, but I find best performance in my system is with the least intrusive filtering or "conditioning".  I use a Cardas Nautilus distribution strip which has no filtering, except for mild inductors on the ground lines, and then i use power cables of my construction which use a fully passive material (formerly known as "Dark Matter", now known as spacetime) which just absorbs/damps some RF energy without being a filter connected to the wiring.  But I have been places where full on AC regeneration (when implemented properly, with tons of current headroom) works best.  Unfortunately, my takeaway is that people have to experiment a lot in their own set up with many different approaches to find what works best with their particular AC power.

[ted_b]

Great points, Barrow.  Rethinking my question, there is no right answer unless you live here.  🙂  Thanks for responding.

[Elad Repooc]

21 minutes ago, barrows said:

I think it is really hard to suggest one possible "best" AC power solution, as the quality of AC power varies so much from location to location.

 

Refreshing to hear some honesty with respect to this topic. It is more complicated than most realize, and I suggest that folks take heed to this advice!

[Roasty]

hey guys

 

I just received my Holo May KTE. Tim at Kitsune was great to deal with, and got it shipped out earlier than planned. I was expecting it to  only arrive in another two to three weeks.

 

I'm on the 30.14 firmware so understand it is limited to 768pcm. but I have a problem which i was hoping you guys could help with. 

 

I'm using HQPlayer for upsampling. 
Direct PC to May via USB, i can get music playing at 768.

However, if i put a Denafrips Hermes in between (and then connect to May via i2s), the May shows it playing at half the sample rate 384khz. 

Roon shows hqplayer upsampling to 768, and the Denafrips Hermes 768 sample rate light is lit up. but May is showing 384Khz.

 

Any idea why that is so?

[Roasty]

On 1/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Flextreme said:

 

Thank you!

 

Ok, finally I am back up and running, the 3014 is working, 3012 no sound, no matter what I try.

 

To add to my (our) confusion during this firmware swap process, I did not notice my amps power supply cable had disconnected on its own after I swapped back to 3014 on my PC, it was loosely connected somehow. This sometimes happens because the PSU cable is extremely stiff, but it was crazy accidental in timing. Maybe I have an audiophile poltergeist here 🤣

 

So I was working 2 issues at the same time without me realizing. 

 

Too bad the 3012 does not work for me. I have a gut feeling my AMD is part of the problem.

 

I will be skipping ultra-high res upsample rates for now, the May is an glorious machine as it is. Love to extract everything out of it, but I am madly in love with its sound, and my set-up overall right now.

 

Again, thanks for your support and suggestions. You should know I have read and enjoyed your comments here and on head-fi on the May and those helped my motivation to invest in the May.

 

 

 

hey there

 

did you ever get 3012 to work with your AMD? 
I'm also experiencing the same issue with 3012 ie no sound at all.

[Heckyman]

3 hours ago, Roasty said:

 

I'm using HQPlayer for upsampling. 
Direct PC to May via USB, i can get music playing at 768.

However, if i put a Denafrips Hermes in between (and then connect to May via i2s), the May shows it playing at half the sample rate 384khz. 

Roon shows hqplayer upsampling to 768, and the Denafrips Hermes 768 sample rate light is lit up. but May is showing 384Khz.

 

Any idea why that is so?

 

Exactly the same issue here, no idea why. Has anyone managed 768 via i2s?

[Flextreme]

21 minutes ago, Roasty said:

 

hey there

 

did you ever get 3012 to work with your AMD? 
I'm also experiencing the same issue with 3012 ie no sound at all.

Nope.. tried everything, also firmware/driver updates and every known tweak  from AMD/Asus to resolve the Zen3's generally troublesome USB. Also tried and Asmedia 3.1USB PCIe-card. Nothing works so far. 

 

But I got to admit, with 3014, oversampled to 705/756k or DSD256x... it sounds glorious, I am super happy.

 

I also had huge issues running ASDM7EC at DSD256x on my AMD rig, constant drops. Luckily I found out by limiting HQP cpu affinity to 3 threads on 3 processors on the same CCX, not using SMT, ASDM7EC at DSD256x works fine most of the time (sometimes a HQP restart is required after listening for while). Combined with a quite masochistic 30 second play delay but to my ears delicious Syn-L filter: its soundstage is mesmerizingly holographic on my Susvara.

 

More information on how to run ASDM7EC at DSD256x on AMD: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/19715-hq-player/?do=findComment&comment=1131885

 

[Roasty]

Just now, Flextreme said:

Nope.. tried everything, also firmware/driver updates and every known tweak  from AMD/Asus to resolve the Zen3's generally troublesome USB. Also tried and Asmedia 3.1USB PCIe-card. Nothing works so far. 

 

But I got to admit, with 3014, oversampled to 705/756k or DSD256x... it sounds glorious, I am super happy.

 

I also had huge issues running ASDM7EC at DSD256x on my AMD rig, constant drops. Luckily I found out by limiting HQP cpu affinity to 3 threads on 3 processors on the same CCX, not using SMT, ASDM7EC at DSD256x works fine most of the time. Combined with a quite masochistic 30 second play delay but to my ears delicious Syn-L filter: its soundstage is mesmerizing holographic on my Susvara.

 

 

 

thanks for replying! i'm also using an AMD processer.. ok, so looks like i have to settle with 3014 for now.

 

i'm running:

pcm768, sincMX, LNS15

dsd256, asdm7ec, ext3

 

no issues with 256 and 7ec filters, thankfully. i can run asdm7 and dsd512, but i prefer the 7ec filter over the non-ec. have u tried ext3? i quite like it.

 

am also running with the Susvara. geez, the Holo May sounds really good even out of the box. will be comparing with my Rockna Wavelight after the May settles in.

[Flextreme]

2 minutes ago, Roasty said:

 

thanks for replying! i'm also using an AMD processer.. ok, so looks like i have to settle with 3014 for now.

 

i'm running:

pcm768, sincMX, LNS15

dsd256, asdm7ec, ext3

 

no issues with 256 and 7ec filters, thankfully. i can run asdm7 and dsd512, but i prefer the 7ec filter over the non-ec. have u tried ext3? i quite like it.

 

am also running with the Susvara. geez, the Holo May sounds really good even out of the box. will be comparing with my Rockna Wavelight after the May settles in.

 

 

Which AMD CPU and Motherboard are you using? Had a 5800x and now a 5900x on Asus Crosshair Hero VIII x570. 

 

Will check out your HQP setting suggestions for sure 👍

[Roasty]

1 minute ago, Flextreme said:

 

 

Which AMD CPU and Motherboard are you using? Had a 5800x and now a 5900x on Asus Crosshair Hero VIII x570. 

 

Will check out your HQP setting suggestions for sure 👍

 

am using 

AMD Ryzen 9 3900x with a Gigabyte X570 I Aorus Pro

 

this is actually my gaming/editing rig... now am thinking if i should build a dedicated intel HQplayer machine.

[Flextreme]

11 minutes ago, Roasty said:

 

am using 

AMD Ryzen 9 3900x with a Gigabyte X570 I Aorus Pro

 

this is actually my gaming/editing rig... now am thinking if i should build a dedicated intel HQplayer machine.

 

Same... Many times considered this, I had real FOMO of not being able to run 1512 PCM or high DSD rates. .

 

But decided against it, because I am not sure it will sound massively better and it seems not that convenient. Hopefully other HQplayer owners can chime in with their experience and possible the benefits of a intel based dedicated HQplayer machine.

[MrDerrick]

I have gotten 768 via I2S with a DDC, the Matrix Audio X SPDIF-2, running 3012 on the May.

USB into the Matrix, I2S out to the May.

[lpost]

On 6/1/2021 at 8:49 AM, MichaelHiFi said:

I'd barely know where to start but I'll say this. I've done countless cable comparison's. Countless. 

 

Last night I finally got a chance to make a USB comparison, but only locating 2 cables, a ~$250 dollar cable and a freebie still in plastic wrap. 

 

I had a Intona Ultimate USB cable that thankfully I purchased used and had used it with the May for 1500 hours. I decided to try the USB cable included with the May for a few days. I was unable to hear any difference whatsoever. I switched back to the Intona for a few days. No change. Sold it for a modest profit. My take away, the May doesn't need anything but a built to spec USB cable to shine.

 

Regarding 3014 vs 3012 firmwares and 1.5Mhz. You need an Intel USB port to get 1.5Mhz. If you run HQP I strongly recommend the UP gateway $200 Intel SoC computer. GoldenOne/GoldenSound has used another variant with Intel Cherry Trail chip to good effect too.  See recommended devices on Signalyst.com. 

 

I was not able to get my AMD machine to output beyond 768k.

[Roasty]

17 hours ago, Heckyman said:

 

Exactly the same issue here, no idea why. Has anyone managed 768 via i2s?

 

Can I find out which ddc you're using?