🔷 Holo Audio May

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories [Official] DACs
81

I’m not disagreeing with you or bashing Z, I’m just making a broader point that whether or not a person finds a reviewer’s opinions helpful is going to depend on whether or not you share that reviewer’s tastes, especially when it comes to a subjective thing like sound. I’m not saying he’s wrong either, I think I said that specifically.

82

I think you take my comment as a negative connotation. That somebody that specializes in less expensive or entry level gear is inferior.

My point is simply to define his lane express the value that he provides and identify him reviewing a Holo May Dac is clearly out of his lane.

None of this is derogatory towards him or say that most of his reviews aren’t “right”.

Just trying to clarify my point.

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83

I was generalizing about this thread, which is now just a drama thread. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was critiquing just your comments.

84

What’s the saying? Even a broken clock is right twice a day? See that’s the thing, it’s not about being right or being wrong. It’s about being consistent and accurate. Two things he wasn’t in this particular… can’t bring myself to call it a review so I’ll go with YouTube confirmation bias algorithm fodder.

85

But if you feel that why then why did you even watch the review? That’s my real point, this is a rant drama thread about Zeos now, which there are already threads for that. There are so few people that have heard and will ever hear the Holo and this thread hasn’t been about those experiences.

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86

Yup

Neither was his review

This thread will most likely get moved and remade into something different so actual helpful information can be found here in the future, but for now it’s prob going to be another rant thread

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87

Real estate agent’s sell real estate for a living, actors act and entertain for a living…How come no one understands Youtube reviewers are a hybrid of both with a passion for what their channel’s all about :man_shrugging:

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88

You should rename the thread, Rant About Zeos 2: Electric Boogaloo

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89

because i was hoping for a real review? “well why did you watch it then” is an awfully weak excuse . i gained a lot of knowledge with this review. not about the actual product because he didnt mention the product in any specific way whatsoever he just rambled for 40 mins about i dont even know what. i learned that he isnt in this hobby to keep going up the ladder or to help anyone get up that ladder. he is here to sling cheap IEMs and headphones that most other reviewers dont like and sometimes they happen to be good almost by chance at this point. thats fine but i had to watch the video to find that out once and for all. stop discouraging people who disagree with you from watching his videos . learning about the reviewer is almost more important than any single product.

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90

What I meant was that is just sounded like you hated his reviews before you even watched this one. If that’s the case, then why did you watch? If not, I guess this review made you dislike him as a reviewer.

91

Don’t watch it and rant about it seems to me the same as not hear Susvara but claim that they can’t have better this or that than gl2k because I have those.

I watched it because I was curious and I remember Z doing reviews with some of his added value, being it opinion or the way he does present it.

I guess I still hoped he can do it old way and even if he thinks it is not worthy, do it with some dignity without calling people who have one of those fool or stupid.

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92

I don’t see what people’s reasons for watching the review have to do with their resulting opinions about the review. It literally doesn’t matter.

93

I watched the “review”, and this thread is about as on topic as the ramble in the video.

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94

true, but i think its a valid conversation. no one has any of these dacs but we do have the reviews and we are talking about the validity of the review and how it shows the thought process of Z himself. its important even if it isnt “about the dac”

95

I mean there are a fair amount of people who do, but you most likely wouldn’t find them watching a z review

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96

Two credible reviews have been posted in this thread if you’re looking for a more insightful take. In my opinion both Hans and Ron from NRD do a great job of providing a deep overview of the Holo May performance and what specifically makes it “special”. Now whether you believe that a $5k dac is pointless or not worth it that is your take.

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97

It would be great to hear a positive opinion or a resource that might shut people up.
Without meaning it in a bad way.

I mean, if you want to disagree with Z, it would be great to hear someone who has heard the opposite.
With open and professional words.
Then we wouldn’t have such unnecessary discussions that mainly concern Z person.
At the end of the day, it’s about a product, not about a person, which could still be done off topic.

Don’t get me wrong, but we’ve been reading almost nothing but the same rubbish for days.
It’s Z’s opinion, okay you can/should/shouldn’t accept it.

You can’t or don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to.
I know I won’t.
Even though it would look nice with a Meze Emphrian, which I will never own.
For personal reasons it is too much money for me.

I also understand various opinions Z would have this and that.which is certainly true somewhere.
I also wrote something about it that I didn’t like from my point of view.
But don’t forget that Z is only human and goes to the toilet normally like the rest of us.

I only know what the Holo May says on the data sheet and can’t form an opinion if I haven’t heard it yet.
In the end it ends with the passion that one has more and the other less.whether one listens more, better, further is up to everyone.
I would try not to question Z after all the criticism, but rather the manufacturer.what was he thinking?
Is it a xy circuit or one made of gold, and so on?

I really don’t mean any offence, people. It would be nice if a bit of peace returned.:v::innocent::v::innocent::v::innocent:

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98

Question is, what is Z’s opinion?
I watched the thing and the only statement about the device was “not enough features”

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99
  1. Don’t say you don’t mean offense right after saying something that can be grokked as biased and antagonistic.
  2. It was donated piece of gear from the Patreon for Zeos to evaluate. Whomever is the actual owner, I’m sorry if that review went differently as planned because I do appreciate the Spring 2 L2 A LOT and can only image what a dual mono block design could sound like with that tech!
  3. If you’re going complain how people are responding to a thread… do add to fuel to the fire.

Now there is some value I will answer in case people have grokked why Holo Audio R2R is so amazing IS the circuit design. Ladder DACs are notorious for poorer measurements due cost of the number of precision resistors needed, changes in resistance with temperature over time, and that’s all without factoring in any circuitry upstream for interfaces, clocking, power cleaning, noise squelching, any internal relocking (if it exists).

The core tech of Holo Audio R2R DACs is that the balanced outputs benefit from a core tech of ladders handling the signal and inverted signal, literally each channel has 2 ladder DACs handling each side. But wait, it gets better, to get one of the highest (if not THE highest) discrete R2R measurements out there by actually compensating the outputs with some crazy circuitry I haven’t fully dived into. The precision components + crazy engineering is amazing and honestly from a tech perspective only Schiit in the over $3k DACs can show of comparable engineering (that comes to mind). The core ladder DAC tech is in the:

  • Cyan
  • Spring 2
  • May

The Spring 2 and the May are the most similar with the most core technology shared between the two. The main difference is that the Spring 2 has a smaller power supply and the design is not fully isolated for channels. The reason why the May is 2x more is:

  1. Discrete beefy and cleaner power supply
  2. Each channel is treated as a mono block design, which for some of the expensive internal audio transformers just doubles them.
  3. Larger board layout and I can’t remember but maybe even separate input signal processing per channel once split from the incoming interface. Don’t quote me on that last part but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Sound signatures of the May according to Herb from Stereophile are pretty close to the Spring 2 but just a tiny bit more resolving and pretty close in sound signature. I know there are some people in the forum that have actually heard both to comment a bit more. Regardless, I hope that answers the question on the cost, precision components + the engineering is the only compensated R2R DAC (I think) on the market.

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100

I will admit, having volume buttons on a remote that don’t adjust volume is a bit maddening. Personally I got over it after a little bit and realized I wouldn’t have a DAC like that only to reduce resolution on the DAC itself.

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