Holo Audio May DAC

Mine was expected in 5-6 weeks and it actually arrived a few days early. Can't say of that will be the same for you.

Greetings. This is a much delayed follow-up to my March 2021 post just after ordering a May KTE.  The unit was delivered on time in April in perfect condition.  The packaging was excellent.

The first surprise for me was the build quality. The materials, fit and finish, and overall appearance was much better than I had expected. I set it up and let it play in NOS mode with the intention of ignoring it for at least 500 hours.  Of course, I had to listen a little bit during the break in period.  Early on it sounded quite good but nothing to get excited about. At about 350 hours it was horrible. Bright, edgy, and difficult to even listen to. But by 500 hours it was really starting to open up and sound good. But it wasn’t until about 1,000 hours that it started to perform at its best.  I can honestly say that the sound improved at least as much in the second 500 hours as it did in the first!

After fully breaking in, which required 1,000 hours of use with shutdowns every 100 hours or so, the May KTE proved to be an amazing upgrade in my system. I listen exclusively in NOS mode.  I won’t use a lot of flowery language, but it’s fair to say that the May was a massive improvement over my Berkeley Alpha DAC series 2.  The performance is better in every way including soundstage width, height, depth, and resolution.  That said, the most striking improvement in my system was the low end.  The texture, impact, detail, weight, and realism of drums and both acoustic and electric bass are all remarkably better. 

My system includes a Wolf Aplha 3, May KTE, BAT VK-50SE feeding a Luxman M900u, Tekton Ulfberht w/Beryllium, and REL 212SE (2).  Nordost Tyr ICs and speaker cables. 

One of my biggest concerns in purchasing the May DAC was that I would have to put my preamp back in the system. The BAT is an excellent unit, but I was happy to simplify using the volume control on the Berkeley Alpha DAC. Well, that concern was unfounded.  The May plus the tubed VK-50SE is a fantastic match. Acoustic instruments, female vocals, piano are all relaxed and natural.  Rock and Roll rocks hard.  I’m simply enjoying listening to music more now than I ever have.

I would be remiss not to mention Jim Smith’s excellent setup guide, Get Better Sound.  I bought both the book and the DVDs last year, and implementing Jim’s set up philosophy has taken my system to an entirely different level. Jim’s decades of experience in hi-fi set up have led him to believe that the vast majority of audiophiles are only getting a small fraction of the performance their equipment is capable of because of poor set up. That was certainly the case for me. I bought a laser level and a laser measuring device and literally have the system set up to the millimeter.  Selecting the correct listening seat position was a key lesson (who knew?).  Anyway, this improved set up also allowed me to maximize the improvements the May brought to my system. 

In summary, the May KTE is greatly exceeding my expectations.  It is by far the best DAC I have owned in every way. I’ve been a diehard vinyl fan since the 70s, but the performance of my system now with Qobuz, Roon, Wolf Alpha 3, and May KTE is so satisfying that I feel no need for a turntable. I haven’t sold my record collection yet, but that may not be very far off in the future.  The May DAC is highly recommended. 

I've been living with the May KTE for over a month now....not quite broken in by some standards, but not cold out of the box.

Regarding the impact of the DAC to a system: At this level, rules of thumb should go out the window. If bits its bits, then there's one hell of a placebo, wish-fulfillment thing going on. A close, much-loved relative is in a position of some influence at a major, mega-buck audio company; he also has great ears, exquisite taste, and is both quite a snob, but understanding of the compromises he and others have had to make on the way to audiophile nirvana. He, owner of a top-line dCS DAC and peripherals, the overall system being in the half-a-million area, has been lost in a world of metaphor and metaphysical speculation about the nature of time, beauty, truth, and the challenge of audio engineering, vis a vis his few hours rapt in music translated by the May KTE; it was his uncharacteristically romantic comments which sold me on scraping the college fund for "just one more" expensive purchase.

I had been using the Bryston BDA 3.14, just over a grand less. The Bryston is a TAS best-buy choice in its $4195 range. Indeed, feeding Meze Elite, Abyss 1266TC, Susvara, and Grado GS3000e and PS500e (Grado continue to have their very own claim to live-music verisimilitude, for me, at any price), the chip-based Bryston was head and shoulders above the Schiit Gumby and Yggy, two sort-of R2R, deeply musical DACs. Resolution, groove, naturalness....the Bryston was by far the best I've had in my system (feeding Woo WA5-LE, Bryston BHA-1, or Schiit Mjolnir). 

The Holo May KTE is that much better, in all the ways which matters to me, than the Bryston. And I would be happy to have never heard it. I prefer NOT to be a connoisseur, or at least to think like one. But, with well-matched cans and amps, the May KTE is so friggin' full-bodied, deeply resolving, organic in its timbre and dynamics, I confidently say that, with this piece of bit-processing gear, a DAC can be as essential to the character and quality of an excellent system as a whole turntable/arm/cartridge/phono-stage.

The "veils lifted, hearing picks and oboe squeaks and spit and control-room farts, never heard those details before" thing doesn't suffice. It is qualitatively different, and subjectively Better, Betterer than other digital devices have ever been. plus all that detail. Strangely, mediocre recordings sound BETTER, not like better-resolved badness. Probably because the May KTE's most outstanding virtue, its GRIP, makes the "you are there, in 4D" element of music - the hardest to achieve, time being what it is, for the time being - stand out, so that there is more redemptive awareness available that music is a good thing, even if recorded in a misguided way. Not via classic euphony, but by seeming to access what is most worthy about music qua music.

To my ears. It really makes me happy. That's the bottom line. Still love the Bryston. I don't know if anything at 25K is necessarily better at all. I may never know. But this is a comfortable place to stay, maybe for good.

Anyone want the Bryston DAC and amp? Tell me, I'll place a proper ad. 

Coming up on four months with the May KTE. Absolute game changer. I’ve rotated a few different high end DACs through my headphone system… Susvara, Abyss 1266, Elite, A few different Grados. Amps: Woo WA5-LE, Bryston. and Schiit. The Holo, without exaggeration, was like taking a giant step up in a new turntable. Visceral, nuanced, precise, extended, groovy, weighty, fast, absurdly revealing. Not a single thing I can criticize on an absolute or relative level. I know that it’s job is to present the signal and get out of the way. But it’s just different, and not in a way that anyone could describe as colored, subtractive, artificially anything. It digs deeper into the music, effortlessly, than any unit I’ve heard, and I have been cursed to hear a number of DACs I could never afford. I’m not even curious about what yet another unit might do. That’s never happened before. 

@mortcola Like you I had tried many high-end dacs before settling on the May KTE.
It's been a year since I bought it and this is the DAC for me.
Have tried the following dac's, all for at least a week.
Dave, PS Audio Directstream, Doge 7, Orchid, dcs bartok, chord qutest.

Remember to use a good power chord with the dac