Holo Audio May KTE vs DCS Rossini Player / Clock

I own both a Holo KTE May DAC and a dCS Bartok with Apex.Though I like the Holo May the Bartok is far superior.It produces higher resolution and more defined musical quality especially with delicate classical musical passages. I added the Rossini clock which added even broader, fuller, more detailed, open and effortless sound quality. The sound stage appeared wider, more defined and unrestrained.All these provided a neutral as well as non-colored or cluttered sound stage and what appeared to produce endlessly seamless sound experience.

Mike

I had the Holo May KTE for around a month. Great build quality and functionality but there was something incredibly irritating about that DAC for me. Same reaction I get when I listen to Chord Dacs... It was layered and textured, and more or less smooth, I wouldn't say warm by any stretch-more clinical. Issue for me was it was NOT musical at all to my ear, and quite honestly I think alot of the folks lauding it haven't really taken the time to listen, or audition truly musical DACs. 

To each their own but that DAC was cold to me and not musical. Listen to an Audio Note DAC, or a Wavelength Audio DAC, or MSB or Total DAC, thats musical. I think this DAC is widely being mischaracterized as something it is not. 

@jc51373  as you say, to each their own. I read a lot about the unit before buying it and most chatter was overwhelmingly positive. Perhaps there was some synergy issue with your system, but obviously that’s speculation that can’t really be confirmed one way or another at this point. 
As a small aside, I moved from it to a dCS Rossini Player/DAC with Master Clock, and I still think that the May Dac was a special component that most people would enjoy.

@rooze I read alot about it too, which is why I purchased it (at the right price)..But the proof is in the pudding at they say, put my ear on it and just didn't sound like music. Definitely not a system issue, I have had a bunch of dacs in here as of late, all sound decent, not like the May though. 

Have you listened to Audio Note, or Total Dac in your own system? Heck even the Border Patrol DAC sounds better than the May.. If not give it a whirl you will see what I am referring to. 

@jc51373 I reached the same conclusion as you. I daily drive playback designs and emm labs and got interested in May due to many people talking about how great May is and how amazing it sounds for the price. I put my ears on them (not once, not twice but three times) and each time came away disappointed. Not worth the price IMO.