[trollbearpig]

Has anyone come from a Topping dac or similar to the May?? Can someone tell me it will be a massive jump ?? :'D I was hoping to find a used unit, but currently their are 3 WTB posts for the May and my patience is not great. Thinking to just pull the trigger on a new L2 unit.

Btw on converting an EU unit to North America here is Tims response from Kitsune for others who may be interested in the future:

Depends on the unit as many euro units are NOT dual voltage like North American units. So first verify this.
And if they are dual voltage, then the product page will explain how to open the unit and switch the voltage and also a fuse swap will be needed and can be referenced in the manual for values.

Please note when you buy a European unit, the customer support and warranty is with the original seller/dealer. So if the unit was sold by Magnahifi in Europe then you would need to contact them for support and warranty related claims if they do happen. If you prefer to deal with KitsuneHiFi in north America than it would be best to be sure to buy a north American HoloAudio product. Also be careful with buying from Europe as the import costs can be very high too.

 

[plumpudding2]

Has anyone come from a Topping dac or similar to the May?? Can someone tell me it will be a massive jump ?? :'D I was hoping to find a used unit, but currently their are 3 WTB posts for the May and my patience is not great. Thinking to just pull the trigger on a new L2 unit.

Btw on converting an EU unit to North America here is Tims response from Kitsune for others who may be interested in the future:

I came from an RME-ADI 2. Massive is always a personal matter, but I bought the May blind and knew I had made the right decision within minutes. Nothing wrong with the RME sound, everything is there and it's all very detailed except it doesn't make your foot tap.
The May adds naturalness and proper staging you didn't know you were missing. Add HQPlayer to take it to even greater heights.
I think it's genuinely the best value for money when it comes to summit-fi dacs, it competes with DCS dacs or the Mola Mola Tambaqui or the Chord Dave, which are all 2-3 times more expensive. Plus if you don't vibe with it Holo gear usually sells quickly on the used market with about a 20% haircut off the list price.

 

[genefruit]

I came from an RME-ADI 2. Massive is always a personal matter, but I bought the May blind and knew I had made the right decision within minutes. Nothing wrong with the RME sound, everything is there and it's all very detailed except it doesn't make your foot tap.
The May adds naturalness and proper staging you didn't know you were missing. Add HQPlayer to take it to even greater heights.
I think it's genuinely the best value for money when it comes to summit-fi dacs, it competes with DCS dacs or the Mola Mola Tambaqui or the Chord Dave, which are all 2-3 times more expensive. Plus if you don't vibe with it Holo gear usually sells quickly on the used market with about a 20% haircut off the list price.

To add to this, I think the May can be the perfect DAC for someone IF they're going to use HQPlayer. For me and my uses, I don't know of a DAC at any price point that provides what it does when combined with HQPlayer and optionally, PGGB.

 

[Conan1974]

Hi
Although i did not have or had Holo May dac, i had the Spring 3 dac in my system for a while - so just few days to test it.
Bought it second hand. With high hopes for a product of this reputation.

What i have found, in comparison to the dac, built in my Gato Audio DIA 250s amp.
Holo sound was a bit more open, but it was the kind of difference that i could level up, by making the Gato playing louder.
What was strange, the more was happening in the song, the more was the difference audible.
The moment the song was calming down it was coming to the point where the difference was gone.
My ears, but for me the Holo was not worth the money. Over hyped.
Somehow i do not believe that the May is much different.

Maybe i am bit to critical.

 

[genefruit]

Hi
Although i did not have or had Holo May dac, i had the Spring 3 dac in my system for a while - so just few days to test it.
Bought it second hand. With high hopes for a product of this reputation.

What i have found, in comparison to the dac, built in my Gato Audio DIA 250s amp.
Holo sound was a bit more open, but it was the kind of difference that i could level up, by making the Gato playing louder.
What was strange, the more was happening in the song, the more was the difference audible.
The moment the song was calming down it was coming to the point where the difference was gone.
My ears, but for me the Holo was not worth the money. Over hyped.
Somehow i do not believe that the May is much different.

Maybe i am bit to critical.

Did you use HQPlayer or PGGB upscaled files? NOS? or did you use the PCM/DSD OS settings. Without HQP or PGGB, you're only experiencing part of its capabilities.

 

[trollbearpig]

Not OP but how does one use HQP and DSD with the May ? I want to know if I need to alter my budget to take advantage of ( dsd/hqplayer ) which may impact my decision to buy new/used and kte/L2. Currently I'm using a BluOS Node Streamer and I have a Roon Server already setup with feeds into my Topping dac.

Can HQPlayer integrate with Roon nicely? I very much only want to use Roon as my music interface and a wireless streamer, plugging in a PC/Mac directly is not feasible for my setup.

 

[dudeX]

Has anyone come from a Topping dac or similar to the May?? Can someone tell me it will be a massive jump ?? :'D I was hoping to find a used unit, but currently their are 3 WTB posts for the May and my patience is not great. Thinking to just pull the trigger on a new L2 unit.

Btw on converting an EU unit to North America here is Tims response from Kitsune for others who may be interested in the future:

I upgraded from a 9 month old Topping D90SE to a Holo May KTE.
At the time I had a Topping A90 for the amp, and a Susvara which I bought used.
Here are some initial impressions after the first few hours, I’m not the kind of person that tries to burn in equipment at first before use:
1. There was a loss of detail in the low bass region. It came back better than before when I had about 100-150 hours on it but that stood out with a few tracks. But I also heard more sub bass brand new
2. Digital sheen was gone. If you listen to music passively on the topping stack you will find the experience fatiguing because there’s this treble glare and kind of flatness to the experience. Even if technicalities are impressive like instrument separation, clarity of details, it was a bit soulless.
3. Low res music found in games and consoles sounded more natural. They didn’t sound so harsh as they did on Topping.
4. Bright music wasn’t so fatiguing any more.
5. Brand new across the board there was a slight loss of resolution in that everything seemed a bit smoothed out. Detail came back eventually.
6. Soundstage seemed a bit wider and taller brand new. It felt like I could feel the shape of the room. My brain clicked on what’s holographic sound.
7. Imaging was noticeably better by a small margin, which got better over time.

At that point I was limited by the A90’s lack of dynamics and staging. It’s not powerful enough for Susvara. While I was getting that analog NOS sound with the May I know for a fact that the A90 was holding me back.

The Oor/Hypsos got me closer to the ideal.

 

[genefruit]

Can HQPlayer integrate with Roon nicely? I very much only want to use Roon as my music interface and a wireless streamer, plugging in a PC/Mac directly is not feasible for my setup.

Yes, it integrates with Roon and that's how I use it.

relevant links

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hqplayer-impressions-and-settings-rolling-thread.968141/
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/19715-hq-player

 

[Leto Dal]

May doesnt need HQPlayer imho it sounds better (to my ear) NOS, its more lush and organic analog sound with all the technicalities you may look for. You can add filters to further shape the sound but its not NEEDED. Some filters may add significant amount of digital glare and basically destroy the r2r signature.

Maybe its the resolution of your headphone, or the genre of music you are listening but May was one of the biggest upgrades to my chian with very obvious giant stage, analog lushness and beautiful layering.

 

[genefruit]

May doesnt need HQPlayer imho it sounds better (to my ear) NOS, its more lush and organic analog sound with all the technicalities you may look for. You can add filters to further shape the sound but its not NEEDED. Some filters may add significant amount of digital glare and basically destroy the r2r signature.

Maybe its the resolution of your headphone, or the genre of music you are listening but May was one of the biggest upgrades to my chian with very obvious giant stage, analog lushness and beautiful layering.

Revised hyperbole in prior post.

There are many NOS DACs out there, so the difference between May and the others isn't as wide as it is when using May with HQP and/or PGGB. If one isn't in the mood for the aspects of HQP, it can be simply not used and you have the wonderful May NOS to enjoy.

 

[Leto Dal]

Yep its totally up to the user and personal though its not needed to use HQP to get the "most" out of May. HQP doesnt upgrade the sonic perfomance, you just shape the sound to your liking with filters.

 

[dudeX]

Not OP but how does one use HQP and DSD with the May ? I want to know if I need to alter my budget to take advantage of ( dsd/hqplayer ) which may impact my decision to buy new/used and kte/L2. Currently I'm using a BluOS Node Streamer and I have a Roon Server already setup with feeds into my Topping dac.

Can HQPlayer integrate with Roon nicely? I very much only want to use Roon as my music interface and a wireless streamer, plugging in a PC/Mac directly is not feasible for my setup.

I can partially answer this: it’s all up to preference. You can use 1.5 MHz PCM upsampling to get thicker notes and detail but each filter seems like a trade of in something.

DSD512 with the right filters can sound very lifelike and amazing. It’s probably the thing to aim for. But my MacBookPro M1 can’t hang. So you should consider a high end windows or Linux PC if you want to maximize quality.

Another alternative is the expensive PGGB offline upscaler. Transform your FLACS and CDs into 768 kHz or 1.5 MHz files and you will also get DSD like quality from your PCM files.

The May loves super high resolution files. It’s not bad playing sound natively, but you will notice over time that there is a thinness and lack of weight without oversampling.

Hqplayer integrated well with Roon but that’s all I know. I don’t use Roon since I listen to music in a different way.

 

[genefruit]

Yep its totally up to the user and personal though its not needed to use HQP to get the "most" out of May. HQP doesnt upgrade the sonic perfomance, you just shape the sound to your liking with filters.

but it also provides convolution and EQ capabilities and more. Regardless, we both like the May and use it different ways. A fine reflection of how great it is.

 

[trollbearpig]

May doesnt need HQPlayer imho it sounds better (to my ear) NOS, its more lush and organic analog sound with all the technicalities you may look for. You can add filters to further shape the sound but its not NEEDED. Some filters may add significant amount of digital glare and basically destroy the r2r signature.

Maybe its the resolution of your headphone, or the genre of music you are listening but May was one of the biggest upgrades to my chian with very obvious giant stage, analog lushness and beautiful layering.

Thanks! Yeah me and you have very similar setups with 300b tube amps and Susvara. So I'm already experiencing this huge stage, but something about the presentation feels off with the Topping dac, like their is a huge stage and open sound but yet still a flatness in the depth. I'm hoping a May will resolve that, as I do think the Topping is potentially holding me back, but it's a massive jump in price so some assurances always feel good lol, appreciate it

 

[plumpudding2]

May doesnt need HQPlayer imho it sounds better (to my ear) NOS, its more lush and organic analog sound with all the technicalities you may look for. You can add filters to further shape the sound but its not NEEDED. Some filters may add significant amount of digital glare and basically destroy the r2r signature.

Maybe its the resolution of your headphone, or the genre of music you are listening but May was one of the biggest upgrades to my chian with very obvious giant stage, analog lushness and beautiful layering.

In the HQPlayer thread I posted how I found that the polynomial-1 or polynomial-2 filters retain the NOS sound very well but with added clarity. Maybe something to try!