Dac Upgrade

I love my R200i. Not looking to upgrade. Got it recapped last year.

Has a good amount of power for my ATC speakers. A neutral sound. Good soundstage, takes control of the music. Good instrument separation. 

Tony at Coherent Systems UK has lots of Dacs he has ordered and listened to. He gives very good advice on Dac options.

Santa Girl gave me a Holo May for Christmas.  Heavy little beast and took some re-working/arranging of the rack to set it all up but yikes!, is it ever clear.  Have a Hegel H390 and was previously relying on its internal DAC.  It was good, very good, but the system always seemed like it wasn't letting the Sopra 2's deliver to the their capability.  That is no longer a concern, so I further the recs for the Holo May.  However, I will admit I didn't listen to anything else so other than the Hegel's internal DAC, or the Ayre CD player's internal DAC, I don't have a comparative point of ref.

I have the Holo May KTE, it is sublime.

I would skip the KTE upgrade unless you have really good stuff to go with it.

Check out the GoldenSound review of it on YT, everything he says about it is true.

The integrated amp appears to be a good match for the speakers. However, they are not very sensitive and are rated @ 4 ohm. It would seem that an increase in amplifier power or perhaps bi-amping would really make them sing. If there is an extra amplifier hanging around and a few extra cables not being used, hook it up and give it a whirl.