Holo Audio May DAC

2nd day impressions: 
Not sure if it was a little more burn-in, some better recordings, or some premium ganja that was on hand, but the May DAC sounded TREMENDOUS last night.  Listened to some Miles Davis "In a Silent Way", some Radiohead "Paranoid Android", some Sacred Spirit tribal music -- it all sounded incredible.  Massive wraparound soundstage, rich thick tone, capturing all the air in the recordings.  Totally engaging.

I decided to try a reference-level R2R DAC instead of my Qutest, which is the only DAC I’ve ever owned. I also didn’t want to spend more than I needed to. I chose the May based on the stereophile and stereotimes reviews. Both experienced reviewers were blown away. Terminator was similarly esteemed, though. Between the Terminator and the May, I like the design of the May better. One of the distinctions between the Terminator and May seemed to be the anti-jitter tech in the May. That was part of my decision as well. I can’t imagine you could go wrong with either. Unless you have bad OCD, I can’t imagine either choice would lead to serious regrets.

Just got my May Level 2 yesterday.  Plugged it into my Torus TOT Max conditioner.  Currently streaming ROON from my remote laptop through wifi to mesh endpoint then via ethernet to my HifiBerry Digi + outputting via coax to the May in NOS mode.  Mfr recommends 500 hours of burn-in.  It sounded great right away, though, and I'll be running it constantly for the next week or two.  Initial impression compared to my Chord Qutest is smoother sound, extremely large soundstage with huge center images, no loss of detail but maybe some loss of crispness at the edges.  Bill Evans' piano on Classic Trio 1959-1961 sounded a little harsher at loud volume but also bigger/fuller than Chord.  Almost everything else I played great through and through.

I just A/B'd my Level 2 May DAC (fully broken in, in NOS mode, with balanced outputs) w/ my Chord Qutest (with Teddy Pardo LPS and unbalanced outputs) just prior to listing the Qutest for sale.  They both sounded amazing (extremely quiet, excellent speed), but the biggest difference between them that I could tell was that the Qutest was more crisp-sounding, with less "air" or reverb/decay.  The May let the reverb linger for much longer, which to me makes it feel more "real" or "live" in recordings that emphasize this.  However, the Qutest had such a clean crisp sound to it, and some/many might prefer that, especially for more synthetic music. Otherwise, I'd say the May's overall sound was a little fuller/warmer/richer which made the Qutest sound a little quieter, volume-wise.  Can't go wrong with either, but the May won me over for good. 

@cudfoo - if your usb cable does not have the standard 5v line going through it, the may dac will not see it. I had to pass up a fancy usb cable that was designed without it (because it does not help sound quality).

Hi all, 
I posted in this thread a while ago after purchasing my level 2 may.  It was a good step up from the qutest and I enjoyed it for awhile.  But it really is not the greatest dac out there, even at its price.  I went to a wells audio cipher tube dac (much more realistic sounding - you could say analog or natural too).  $5k retail, made in California.  Now I’m running a lampizator Atlantic trp, also a tube dac, about $8k with volume control made in Poland.  Takes everything up several notches.  Holo May is a great and flexible dac, but it can’t match a well designed tube output stage.  R2R is not the most important spec for a dac, I have found out.

@luisma - I personally think that’s a misconception about tubes, that’s it’s just for ‘tube flavor’ and electrically inferior to transistors in all important ways.  Plenty of designers use tube output stages these days and some only tubes.  MHDT, lampizator, wells audio, wavlength audio, audio research, line magnetic, primaluna, totaldac, line magnetic, jolida, nagra, audio note…

@nquery - I never upsampled anything though my holo may.  So you may be right that’s where the may excels.