Edit: 7 months have passed and I can confirm my impression. The May got better and better and now can award it a Gold Medal for its outstanding sonics, especially when used a high-quality balanced connection!

R2R is the way to go! I have sold my Chord dacs and went with the Denefrips. I have achieved wonderful sound now and not looking back!

I love seeing this kind of limitless high end equipment. Thank you for showing this, even if many of us will only get to see it in someone else's system.

Hi... one comment on burn-in. I bought a Holo May KTE and got it a few days before Christmas. It is my personal experience that 500 hours is not sufficient for burn-in. At least in my experience, it took 900-1000 hours before the soundstage, imaging, and tone really opened up started sounding truly beautiful and startlingly lifelike. Up until this point, I would get a day or two where it would seem to take a big improvement, and then there would be a regression in the soundstage, tone, and sound quality. There was a lot of ups and down for me, and then starting around 900 hours or so, everything really started gel in an incredible way. The transformation at this point has not been subtle. I can only say, whatever sound your hear and impressions you have of the Holo May KTE when listening at less than 900-1000 hours is only a facsimile of what it will sound like when it breaks in. You have to grind through the hours to get the payoff though. In my case, 39 days of 24x7 play. It seems insane to require that much, and YMMV, but this has been my experience with the KTE edition with all of the upgraded caps and fuses in them. When fully burned in, it is a truly magical and beautiful sounding source with realism that is startling and a beautiful, natural tone. Also, don’t skimp on the USB cable if USB is the source. I’m running a Shunyata Sigma USB, and it is worth every penny.

One thing for sure. Holo DACs are insanely clean and precise in regards of their inside built. Pure DAC porn. Color of their board, order of parts, insane. Really.

just copped the holo audio cyan r2r DSD version DAC . IM so damm happy and impress by it ! so GOOD :)

Very nice piece of Hi-fi ! In the world of improvment i have considered buying a dedicated streamer, in place of my Macbook pro/audirvana. What a huge difference when listening to a AURALIC Aries G2 (feeding a RME dac adi 2 FS). I also tried a dragonfly red (works fine with the auralic) and the same huge difference occured vs Mac/Audirvana. So this experience convinced me that the digital part handling the internet signal feeding a dac has a big influence on the dac performance.

Thank You Sir. Ordered mine today, so excited, you helped push it over the line so you may want to avoid my wife for a while! Welcome to the digital dark side (not bought vinyl since the 80s). Cheers mate 😀

No deviation! You got to love that! Thanks for your video. I learned a lot from it. My friend is always stressing about digital to analog conversion. I got a ways to go, but it’s something that I definitely would like to have someday.

I bought the Holo Audio Spring KTE DAC a few years ago when it was first released. It is hooked up to my Auralic Aries streamer via a AES connection. There is no way I’m going back to any delta sigma DAC after listening to this R/2R DAC in NOS mode. The only criticism I have is that the manufacturer should not have included any OS modes at all to save on the expense and complexity of the circuitry. Let me recommend the Auralic Aries streamer. What makes this streamer so great is that you can also connect an external Blu-ray/DVD/CD drive vis USB and beat any CD player on the market(with the Holo DAC).

A great review. I ordered my Holo May KTE last week to replace my Chord Hugo TT which is also a great DAC. I was just so impressed with the attention to detail and the dual mono design for both DAC and PS. It's going to sound great eventually in my system which uses Naim amplification and PMC speakers. I can't wait for January delivery!

Based on all the positive review, impressive demo's and impressive specs and build quality of this Dac, I predict it is a "legend" in the making. Audiophiles will look back and remember when this Dac came out to well and truly shake up the Dac marketplace.

Great video also I did notice a difference when I switched from a sigma Delta DAC to the Schiit Modi multibit R2R dac a couple years ago. I'm getting more of a warmer analog sound from the modi that's very pleasing especially for under $300 made in USA. My high-res DSD files are very limited anyway keep up the good work.

What a nice machine! Now I have something to dream about having. Someday, who knows...

This digital glare comes from that linear power supply, which is much slower than switching power supplies (that are also noisier). Also, it comes from these compensatory tolerance circuits, which delay the signal (Hegel first introduced compensation to achieve purity of extremely low distortion, but people were not impressed - a lot of HD30 are being sold at around $2000 used in spite of its -150dB numbers).

New Record Day did the best honest test of this premium DAC …spin 💿..good old red book ! Feeding hi res and great audio signals is great …but can it’s awesome computational power do magic with a good 💿

I am listening at time index "23:33 " into the video and the sound is very nice through my somewhat respectable steelseries arctis 7 headphones (for Zoom meeting): I do not own this particular album, but I am pleasantly surprised by the dynamic, the rich bass, accurate and natural sounding highs, very fluid sound - very vinyl-like sound. I personally own a PS Audio DSD Sr., which is considered very close to vinyl, but I must admit that this Holo Audio DAC seems closer to vinyl. Really impressive and enjoyable to listen to.

Waiting for the comment: "Euro 5000 and doesn't even do MQA" ;) Great stuff and video Guido, thank you for sharing

Hey guys, is it just me, but isn't watching this channel the best diversion from the pandemic!

Nice review , I got over a dozen dacs in tje last year on me channel and the Burson 3x performace is mind blowing #

Ladder DACs also comes in chip version (eg TDA1741, BB1704, etc), but they are no longer made because they are more expensive to manufacture than delta sigma chip DACs. IMO, ladder DACs do sound better everything else being equal.

AK4137 is not a DAC, it's an ASRC (Asynchronous Sample Rate converter). This does up sampling when not in NOS mode. The discrete ladder DAC is always used for both NOS or up sampled audio.

Sacd:s would sound stellar. I have a Burr brown dac in My 1200 dollar cd player..and it already sounds fantastic! I got it for 50🤣👌🏻 Compare it to the built in Mac dac with a dragonfly blk external dac!

Very nice ! I'm jealous :) Skip windows entirely for an innuos streamer with it's linear power supply. Soooo much better ❤️

I ve the old version and it's really good also and a more better price (1700 euros). As said the sound is more analogic and the music have incredible presence and femenine voices are wonderful. A very good opción to upgrade your music equipment .

Mine should be here next week curious how it will compare to the Venus II I currently have

Fortunately I have cloth ears, I agree it's a beautifully crafted product, with a beautifully crafted story line :) crazy price though really, I'm delighted with my £200 smsl DAC or my old TDA1541 based Arcam DAC. All good fun though if you can appreciate the difference... Rhodium plated IEC and audiophile grade fuses etc. Sigh :) love your videos though, love your passion :)

Would love a comparison between this and the tiny DACs built into headphone jack to USBC adapters that cost about £5

Just wanted to thank you for your Ricable, Italian made interconnect recommendation…Replacing all I/C’s, HDMI, USB and speaker wires. Reasonable prices for holographic soundstaging!

You have to try the Sonnet Morpheus dac.

Awesome details about the Dac really appreciate it. May I ask what amp did you use and did you use a pre-amp?

Great timing i need a new dac for My MacBook How nice too see something chinese that keeps its promise. So Much shit on eBay...

Thanks for your great review! Based on your review and 7-month update, I have decided to order a May KTE. I do have a couple of questions for you...1) Is it true that May can get hot (really warm) if kept on for extended period of time? 2) Where do you think it performs best: a) headphone or speaker system. I have a very high-res rig but don't want to spend a ton for a dCS/MSB type DACs at the moment. Thanks again!

You are buying direct but not really getting a "direct" price. Denafrips does the same thing..They are pricey for how much their margins are cheap. I am sure it sounds great though. It has rav reviews. I just wish they were cheaper and passed on the savings more to the wester customer. You can get some really nice European dacs for this price level.

After seeing the Zeos review, I'm interested in seeing other reviewers do similar testing. People are giving him crap but I don't see anyone else even attempting those sort of comparisons...I'm not buying the hype surrounding this unit. It is beautiful looking, however.

The msy dac is very good jut the Bricasti M3 with streamer board avpctuslly sounds a bit more cohesive And real the KTE some may like a bit better but all the trickle down technologies they learned in Pro Mastering studios really paid off and using the differential balanced XLRs is great I highly recommend using the uptone audio Ethernet switch it truly is a plus.

I hear that under the non-oversampling (NOS) mode, May's predecessor Spring 2 will also play hi-res files directly including HQPlayer-upsampled 1.536M PCM and DSD1024 files, but none of them sounds as good or as natural as the CD quality (44.1Khz) files without upsampling. Would you compare the sound quality of hi-res files played directly under NOS vs. under the OS mode (AKM chip used) ? I also assme that native DSD files played directly under NOS do not sound as good as those played under OS mode? This is very important as I wonder if it is worth investing in a new R2R DAC in addition to the AK4499 DAC I already own.

Hi, Thanks for your review. Ron with NRD reviewed this model and loves what it can do with time alignment and detail. Silver definitely needs time to burn in as well as the unit. What preamp are you using. That can be a big factor too, but either way I'm sure yours will be phenomenal and you may have to give it a Gold 🪙. How are software updates handled? Have you followed up on if the volume function on the remote will be added in an update or why it was left out? Some may want to bypass their preamp to use.

I have the Holo Spring with level 3 Kitsune upgrades. I did a comparison to my other DAC's, Denafrips Ares series 1, SMSL M400 and Musical Paradise MP DP MK3 Deluxe with ESS9038Pro, Mundorf cap, Femto clocks and RCA tubes upgrade. After listening to Holo, SMSL and Ares I went back to the MP, which to my ears is the best. The Holo has an edgy sound, a bit accentuated at the top and bottom and it's a dry sound. The SMSL is smooth top to bottom and lacks the pizazz of the other DAC's, but it is a very nice unit. The Ares is not as dry as the Holo, has as big of a soundstage and is a bit more even top to bottom. The Ares signature is closest to the MP, but the MP just has a more holographic highly detail sound that's more engaging. The MP has tubes so I suppose that is the main difference in the depth of soundstage. The Holo is the least engaging of the three to my ears.

What specific aspects get your ‘gold’ ratting, over the the units overall ‘silver’ rating?

I can hear bell tolls in the background mate! reminds me so bad of my years in Italy when I was younger! Where are you from (aside from your accent)?

Gold metal list?

Not sure whether I should upgrade my questyle CMA 12 master dac (that is build in ) to the Holo may dac 🧐 perhaps I wouldn't even here a difference

Great review! You helped sell me on this DAC. Also, I love the sound of the church bells in the background at 11:24. My Holo May is arriving soon! I can’t wait to try it out. Also I’m getting a tube pre amp to pair with it, the Atma-Sphere Mp-3, which is supposed to be really killer and punch way above its weight class for its price, just like the Holo May does. So I think they should make the perfect pairing. For headphones, I am looking at the WooAudio Wa-33 and the Abyss-1266 Phi TC to pair with the Holo May for desktop headphone listening.

I was seriously considering this, but went for the Jays DAC2 Signature at £2998 to go with my Jay's audio CDT3 Mk2. They are amazing. The May DAC may be a little better. An 'end game' DAC may be the Aries Cerat Helene at over £11k.

Hi....simply enjoy it!!!

I have the same DAC but with level 2 upgrade instead. Very impressive looking DAC but audibly not even comparable to my old Lavry DA924, if I could have heard it beforehand I would’ve never bought a DAC sounding like this.

The Best Dac.....is No Dac....😉

that additional feedback network causes slowness and time domain smearing. the only way forward in R2R is high precision resistors.

Does the May DAC sound better than your Technic turntable?

How did you connect your oppo (which one) via HDMI I2S to the DAC? Any converter in between? I have a Oppo BDP-105EU,would it pass-through DSD via HDMI with I2S format? Tkx

your wife must love you, best speakers and now this....lol

May I know this flagship dac is using which streamer ? And what cables are u connecting for best sq ? Cheers.

Hey dear Anadioalog I planned to make and high-end system but I have aquestion: is it possible do it without any cd-play but reproducing cds dvds audio etc. with a pc cabled to an dac directly this kind of solution can canes a problem out?

I don't like how it looks but the sound seems pretty good!

What you think of CHORD products?

What CD transport are you using with this DAC in order to make the best of I2S ?

OCC silver does not necessarily sound better than high purity copper. Most times, silver wire sounds too bright and detailed detracting from the music. I doubt Kitsune actually designed the caps that replaced the Vishay caps. They’re probably using a higher grade using off the shelf cap from another manufacturer.

¿Puedes recomendarme un multireproductor de CD, y SACD? Gracias por tu canal. Me encanta y aprendo mucho contigo. Gracias desde Madrid.

Thanks for the review. I found it very well done. You mentioned that the Holo May DAC plays DSD files. Can you clarify if it will process signals from a SACD player as I have read that signals from a SACD cannot be processed by any other equipment as it is copy protected. Pardon the ignorance on my part and thanks in advance.

VST SYNTH AND EQ PLUG-IN WORKING GREAT ? or just a color sound ?

Is it made in China or elsewhere?

Seams to be simular to my T+A 2000r streamer, very clear and transparent sound. If I would seeking for an upgrade I would prefer Lampizator DAC's

Very nice review! Bravo! :-) Just one question regarding I2S connection. From what I know I2S is not a common HDMI input/output, but it is a dedicated connection for dac and streamers (without a fixed/recognized industrial standard). How did you succeed to connect your Oppo player to the Holo DAC by means of the I2S? Do you need to setup pinout configuration of the Oppo and/or the dac? I'am asking because I have an oppo based SACD/bluray digital player (Primare BD32) and is not possible to connect by HDMI out (the secondary audio HDMI out, like for common oppo player) to the I2S input of my current DAC (a Topping D90). Thank you in advance. Alessandro

What I mean is, how much better is it?

What about managing headroom for intersample clipping? Only few companies address this big issue in DACs. Most popular music is recorded to loud and according to my Lyngdorf TDAI many of them are overloaded 3dB or more. Typical DAC ignore this cliped samples which brings distortions.

Hi. Could you please remind us what did you use as a source for the SACD reading and what output did you use? As far as I understand, you used the I2S input so, does it mean you used an universal player like an Oppo? In other case, just the PS Audio can deliver I2S signal in their SACD transports. Thanks a lot.

Questo era 2 anni fa... nel frattempo, ne hai reovato uno migliore?

Just a question, the DSD via R2R conversion is a new feature of this version of Holo DAC? Because I remember in the old version was done by AK chips (correct me if I'm wrong)?

Do you know if the Sony XA-5400ES will output a DSD signal from the HDMI connector to the May?

No Roon ethernet to I2S bridge available, this makes it impossible to hook up May Dac with the best quality and most direct way. Won't consider to buy May until I can find such device (in one piece, not chained by different devices from different vendors).

Which USB cable are you running from the MacBook Pro to the DAC? I wonder if you need to upgrade your USB cable to experience the full potential of the DAC and award the DAC the gold standard. I’d recommend trying the Curious Cable USB, they may still offer a full money back guarantee if you don’t like it.

Thanks for the review, very in depth and interesting. May I ask you which is your digital source capable of read BD-Audio, SACD and have an I2S output ? Thanks

Anybody compared Holo May to Terminator Plus ?

6N is 6 nines as in 99.9999%

Hello Guido: I have just ordered a Holo KTE May DAC. In your opinion, would the SingXer (KTE version) SU-2 USB to i2s Converter provide improved PC audio playback compared to connecting the PC laptop to the May DAC USB input as you have elected to do? I also plan to connect my OPPO 203 HDMI audio output to one of the May DAC i2s inputs with the use of a (from China via ebay) HDMI to i2s converter box like you utilize. Is there a special setup / adjustment to the May DAC that needs to be made for this i2s connection to function properly as yours does for playback of SACDs and other Hi Res files thru the OPPO? Many thanks, Jimmy G. Latham

Did you connect Oppo blu-ray/sacd player via I2s with ordinary hdmi cable??

An award winning dac without the very basic function - Polarity. Just a joke.

Nice review thank you. But Why do you tilt your head to the back ?

I'm curious if the oversampling done here is the same as what something like the Chord Hugo M Scaler does (it seems like it is), and if so, why is the Hugo Scaler so revered (and obviously utilized if you have it), while the oversampling option in the Holo is recommended to be disengaged.

Has your Oppo had an I2S modification to the HDMI output? This looks a better design for the money compared to the top Denafrips models from China.

Is there a phase inversion button?

Can you connect the PS audio sacd transport Has I2S to Holo Audio?

I suggest that you reconsider playing music on your channel because I'm on a cell phone and the sound is not stunning. I'm sure it sounds a hell of a lot better in your listening room. I'm not trying to downplay the sound quality because I really can't tell what your music system sounds like. It's very rare that any of the other audio channels play music because of this factor. All I know is that it plays and not much more other than your description which is the most important part of consideration in a purchase. I will assume that they offer a trial period and refund. The absolute sound just reviewed and $72,000 Swiss DAC. And the reviewer says it sounds like analog. It had better for that price.

My friend, for that money I'd get a Benchmark or Brooklyn DAC.

Do you compare the Holo May with your Oppo and what is the verdict?

Wow, nice part but way too expensive for me. But thanks for the link for the European market. Unfortunately a few months too late. I needed XLR outputs for my Lake People G111 headphone amp. There would also be something for my wallet. Too bad. But as always, a really good video. Many thanks. That stays on my screen. Greetings from Germany

Does it have any latency?

I am not doubting you are getting better sound but the amount of $$$ people are throwing at DAC's nowadays seems a little crazy and could be spent more effectively (IMO) on other parts of the sound chain. For example: music streamer and power source. Right here is where the sound might be most easily improved. For example switching from a MacBook laptop to an iMac or mac mini for your music streamer will greatly change sound performance as I've found with my own experimentation. Obviously there are even better sources than a computer (but surprisingly this is what a lot of people use). Second, for that analog sound why not considering investing in a high end preamplifier? A really good preamp can do wonders for sound stage and can be chosen to suit ones preference. For example, pre-amp with tubes for less harsh digital sound. A general strategy: if you want to invest your $$$ don't spend it on the DAC (this also applies to other sources like TT) but put it into a more fundamental piece of equipment such as a top of the line integrated amplifier or even better integrated preamp/amplifier. I am not saying every DAC is created equally but I think a DAC in the $500-1000 range with a carefully thought out sound chain can sound amazing.

Get rid off your Macbook pro, that was I used to use with a Singrex 6 and Holo Spring! I did not realise how shitty that sound until I tried a Allo digione signature with their linear power supply, and Volumio software(best sounding). When I used Macbook pro, I have tried all kinds of playback software: HQ player, Amarra, Pure Music, Audirvana and more, Audirvana sounded bright but lots of details, I barely use it. Amarra sounded best without upsampling. After I bought a Allo digione signature to try out, I cannot go back to Macbook anymore! and Allo digione is sooo cheap.

What is the op-amps it uses? When you power mode switch on can you change the voltage output should be able to from 3 to 1 volts ppv, have you tried it at 1 volts don't go to 3v if you haven't got a valve amplifier. How are you connecting it up through a preamp or straight to a power amp.

If anyone wants to get me one, I'll gladly accept. :)

Goid ladder dacs need not be expensive, as Denafrips has demonstrated.

The price is too high to my wallet... and for a DAC 😞

I heard about this one!

R to R???

Stay analog!! Use your money on a good turntable/pickup instead!!

Serious question. What did you have before, and what is the difference?

my dac in my 30 year old Japanese pionner pd91cd player sounds better than my rega dac .

May too Expensive, mass can get entry r2r with musician draco. Better than ares2 and has i2s hdmi.