This is the official thread for the Holo Audio May DAC
This thread is for discussion and reviews.
- R2R
- Dual Mono DAC circuits
- 3798-4998 USD
Kitsune Hi-Fi Link
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Just a forum member so I donât get to watch videos like this from @ZeosPantera early. I guess we really do all hear differently. Or hear what we want to hear.
When I upgraded from my Border Patrol SE DAC to the Lampizator Amber 3. I literally experienced vertigo at one point while standing up from my chair because the sound stage was so immersive that I felt as if I was losing my balance and falling off a stage.
I will say that the same Amber 3 DAC when I use it to feed into my BHC/SB to an HD600 I never felt the same drastic difference, a lot of subtlety but none of the wow factor I get with my stereo setup. I wonât draw conclusions for anyone else, for me however I believe that the way to truly experience what a DAC can do is with a good stereo.
The other thing with comparison, is that I do a lot better comparing sounds and signatures when Iâve lived with something for a good while and I know its âfeelâ not just the sound it makes. Thereâs a tangibility that comes with intimate familiarization with the sound of a chain. Then when I introduce a new component into the chain things become a lot more obvious.
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Thanks to this video I will probably never worry about dacs again and thatâs a fucking win.
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Am wondering why this overpriced behemoth is under official DACâs?
Wasnât made my a mod
Just going to throw this out thereâŚif you pair a high end dac with a shitty $200 amp that is soulless and test using shit headphones, of course you wonât notice a difference. Just sayingâŚ
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Dacs are basicaly the last thing you should worry about. The shit in the 1-200 tier is very good now. Upgrade cans to hifi, then amp, then give a different dac a try. Propper AB it and see if you hear a difference. If not, you have now saved on what is the most expensive part of high end headphone systems. If you do, well now you know and you have a new toy to play with.
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He did use stelia. And 789 has never been claimed to rob stage (probabaly the most loved thing about the may). Its just aggressive as fuck. Plus he did put it on the qes reference for the last half the video
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The qes reference amp has an output impedance of like 540âŚhardly reference material and they have actually been recalled due to output impedance and firmware issues.
The thx amps imo are pretty awful. They donât properly re-create space and they are tonally flawed in the treble.
I canât speak for the Stellia as I havent heard one, but Iâd think it is pretty obvious that the Stellia would be irrelevant considering the amp.
When it comes to higher tier gear, synergy can make or break the performanceâŚive experienced that first hand and it is so often overlooked by many in the hobby.
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Well, itâs a DAC. You may think itâs too expensive, but itâs still a DAC.
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I think the problem was his MoGOmi XLR cables. They sound like cheap knock offs of MoGAmi cables. Clearly he needs to buy proper cables and do it again.
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He also didnât have $10,000 audiophile rocks in his setup, lol.
Yeah, those are a real thing and the worst example of snake oil I can think of.
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Iâm just going to leave this here:
1 reviewer = Alex on Autos + Redline reviews
1 reviewer = Chris Harris + OG Top Gear
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I agree completely Using lower mid Fi amp and headphones to evaluate a high end DAC is likeâŚ
âŚtrying to look at a microbe using a cheap and poorly resolving microscope.
OrâŚputting low quality tires from Bobâs Discount Tire Warehouse and then wondering why your Ferrari wonât accelerate and corner like everybody says.
OrâŚtrying to win the Olympic 100 yard dash wearing Keds with Velcro.
I could go onâŚ
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I still think the test between 3 different dacs was still relevant and perfectly acceptable - regardless of amp/headphone.
Yes there are differences there between those 3 dacs, but maybe not as drastic as some would describe.
From my own limited dac testing I can hear differences between them, but they do really make the smallest change in the chain and if blindfolded and separated by time I probably wouldnât be able to notice the difference.
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Old German Zeos disagrees.
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So owning the lower tier version of the DAC I have to say this review leaves me a bit shocked⌠For how poorly itâs done. But given this DAC I can say I will agree with Zeos on the following.
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If you have headphones and an amp that canât appreciate the detail (and the amp has to have impedance matching + power drive the headphones properly) the DAC will sound just like anything else. I bought my Spring 2 for my Diana Phi, I donât think I own other headphones that can really appreciate them detail wise at this time (LCD 24âs havenât made it home yet so that is likely going to resolve well enough).
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If you have a ladder DAC that hasnât had a day to clock synchronize and warm up will sound a bit off.
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Spring 2 has a degraded performance on the SE output compared to the balanced, given what I know I can make the likely assumption the May has the same issue.
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If youâre buying this DAC, youâre not running it at 44.1kHz or 48kHz sampling rates. Iâll admit, turning it down that low I can could hear the DAC not performing well (on the Spring 2). Youâre not buying a DAC like this unless your files are up to snuff.
Iâll admit, I love my Spring 2 but the Spring 2 and May DACs are not for people who donât care about signal chain synergy. Is $4500 a lot for a DAC? Yes it is. But itâs only going to make sense for those who will appreciate something like it, and Zeos here⌠doesnât care emphatically.
Is the May DAC on my radar? Yes actually, but I canât justify the size of it over the Spring 2. Until the two channel setup comes I canât consider it due to the size. Before I get a May DAC Iâm definitely making a stand alone music server (yes, a Pi2-AES to a Qnap should be plenty if someone is interested).
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The thx amps imo are pretty awful. They donât properly re-create space and they are tonally flawed in the treble.
Tell me about it. Just sterile sounding, shallow depth that leads to a flat presentation, and mids lacking body. This was readily apparent when I reviewed the Focal Radiance recently (mids stripped bare of any body, thin upper mids, overly sharp leading edge of notes). I keep the 789 in my stack because (1) it looks good sitting underneath the CTH and (2) it serves a reminder what not to buy in the future (the fad that is the feed-forward feedback amp).
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Piggy-backing hereâŚas one in current possession of a Holo Spring 2 Level 2 it really takes some high-end headphones/speakers to tease out why itâs priced the way it is. Even with originally $1600 cans like the HiFiMan Edition X V2, there were differences over my other mid-fi dacs, but not differences that justify the cost, IMO. That was until HE1000V2 and LCD-24 showed up (with a Diana Phi arriving soon). Thatâs where the improvements in detail retrieval and spatial re-creation revealed themselves. From I scientistâs perspective, I appreciate what Z was trying to do with using identical amps and headphones heâs familiar with (which are mostly <$2K). Controlling as many variables as possible is often necessary when doing experimentsâŚbut itâs not always possible, itâs actually not always appropriate, and it depends on the quality of the materials available to conduct the experiment. This last bit is where Z completely faceplanted in that review.
Another pointâŚand Iâve said this in other places around the forum and am thinking I need to collect it all into some sort of âmanifestoâ haha - the âgreat measurements means great soundâ thinking in this hobby is making it increasingly difficult to learn and understand things about this hobby. Itâs also a poor excuse for âscienceâ or even âengineering.â Human sensory data - ie paying close attention to things with our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or fingers (be REALLY careful when and where you apply those last three, please) - has always been and will continue to be critical to the process of science and understanding the results of that process. In the audio context, telling people that they canât trust their ears and justifying that position with âscienceâ is not only rude, itâs ignorant of what science is and how it works. Yes, biases and logical fallacies are a thing and are challenges to overcome, and thatâs true in all aspects of life. But that doesnât mean we canât go about listening to things in ways in which we can trust the results.
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