Holo Audio May DAC

I think that Jeff Zhou’s comments are true in general, but the May (and likely Spring 3) are in fact ideal candidates for digital volume control under the right conditions. The May has a very high SNR which allows for a lot of extra headroom when doing digital attenuation. It also has a very low output impedance for driving an amplifier. But you need the proper dsp setup using HQPlayer or similar with a high upsampling rate + noise shaper and ideally an amplifier that’s not too hot (lower gain) so you can minimize attenuation. In my case, the pre-in input on my amp has a 10gb attenuator built in so I can play within the top 20db. And I am using HQP to upsample to 1536 PCM with proper noise shaper into the May and thus already doing headroom attenuation - adding an extra variable 5/10 db’s doesn’t hurt whatsoever. To my ears, this sounds better than the Alps volume control on my amp (via regular line-in). But again, this only works well under the right conditions. eg. this was something that was simply not even remotely possible with my Lampizator tube dac. See this thread/post from Jussi of HQPlayer - https://community.roonlabs.com/t/death-of-the-pre-amp-and-hqplayer-digital-gain/18992/17

Holo Audio May DAC Ordered.

Anyone using the IC ‘s and top USB cables offered on their web page?

@nquery
Thx for sharing your experience, seems to make sense the difference is only subtile. Could you maybe comment more on the "less forgiving nature" of the May dac. Are you also using it with lesser quality sources like Netflix/Youtube etc?

I think that Jeff Zhou’s comments are true in general, but the May (and likely Spring 3) are in fact ideal candidates for digital volume control under the right conditions.

I don’t have any experience with that other than putting a Topping Pre90 with stepped attenuator in my desktop setup between my Merason Frerot Dac and Heed Elixir integrated amp with Alps Blue Velvet volume control. The level of dynamics that you are missing with either using the digital volume control in Roon or using the Alps volume control is very noticeable in my setup, especially because I listen at low volumes a lot it that system. I always thought this was mainly due to the Fletcher–Munson curve, but volume controls have a big impact as well. GoldenSound made an interesting video on his channel as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD2Fj1tTu8Y

@dvdboulet

very interesting about that analog pre-amp volume control as an option on the Spring 3. I’m curious why they don’t offer a similar optional upgrade for the May? After all, if someone wants "their best" DAC, but also wants this feature, why make it only available on a lesser-model (if I understand the hierarchy of their somewhat confusing line of products). I totally get and agree with not providing a digital-volume control.

I think they don’t offer that on the May because that is a no compromise piece and therefore also focussed on a different crowd. From the reaction of Nquery you can already tell that the difference between SE and Balanced is very small. Maybe the separated power supply design will have a bigger influence on sound than the second Ladder Dac. Depends also on how revealing your system is in the end. It is actually quite common for companies to make a flag ship product and than trickle down that tech also to a lower priced product, to also serve a different part of the market. They assume that most customers that will buy a May Dac already own a very nice preamp and would rather see them buying the Serene preamp as well. So different customers/different markets I guess. It is the early adopters and flagship product customers that usually pay the biggest part of the development cost.

In the end I will probably go with the Serene preamp instead of the Spring 3 with volume control in my system. I want to keep the flexibility to use a different DAC and digital front-end for lesser quality sources like cable set top box, Apple TV (Netflix/Youtube), etc. I will probably use the new Bluesound Node for that purpose over its eArc HDMI port. Maybe will upgrade to the matching Spring 3 dac for HiFi streaming purposes only, when they start to pop up at the second hand market next year. Although the Spring 3 comes with the optional preamp/volume control, it does not have any analogue inputs.

Anyone compare this to Lumin X1, dCS bartok, MSB Discrete or other in similar class?  This DAC is being pumped up as some "giant killer" but I want to see a detailed report of a giant being killed, or how it falls short.

@nquery, very nice write up vs Lampi Amber 3.

@eugene81 Herb Reichert in a recent column/review, listened to the dCS Bartok and compared it to the May DAC.  His conclusion was that the Bartok beat out the May, but only by a small margin (my words, not his).  I am not sure if this comparison is yet available online as only I read it in the print mag (Sterophile) within the last month or two.  
Keep in mind that the Bartok costs 3X the May DAC.  For me this is too much to upgrade to to make only a marginal difference.  At my age I doubt I would fully appreciate the improvements, and $10K more is a large price to pay for that.