Holo Audio May DAC

Ha. I guess in that case "thank you!" instead...

I’d be curious, too, if anyone had heard this and the Rockna. Also, anyone compared this to the PS Audio direct stream?

I know I’m asking for the impossible with all these comparisons, but anyone that went from the Spring to the May, feel free to weigh in.

I’ve been seriously looking at the Spring and Pontus. Currently have a Teac NT-505 which was a nice step up from streaming on my integrated.

@cd45123 I'm still naïve in regards to the Holo products, but I've had the Directstream DAC in my system (posted on agon) twice for extended periods.  It just never worked for me.  My theory is that some people (and systems) are particularly sensitive to phase coherency and that something about the DSD's processing is influencing phase.  Whatever it is, that product sounds like it puts the music into a blender to my ears.  I was so happy to find a R2R dac (the Audio Mirror T3-SE) that eliminated whatever was happening and just sounded so much more natural to my ears.  Clearly other people with different ears and systems are having a *very* different experience with the DSD.  I'll note that I had a PS Audio PWD II for many years and loved it.  I downgraded back to it the two times I tried to move on to the DSD.

My theory is that some people (and systems) are particularly sensitive to phase coherency and that something about the DSD’s processing is influencing phase. Whatever it is, that product sounds like it puts the music into a blender to my ears. I was so happy to find a R2R dac (the Audio Mirror T3-SE) that eliminated whatever was happening and just sounded so much more natural to my ears.

When doing PCM (Redbook 14/44, 24/96, DXD)
Probably has something to do as Mojo Music states, that R2R Multibit conversion when done right is "Bit Perfect". Where DS (Delta Sigma converters) can only give a "facsimile" of it. But DS can do DSD, and now the some of the later discrete R2R Multibit dacs can too!!

MoJo Music.
"When a PCM file is played on a native DSD Delta Sigma single-bit converter, the single-bit DAC chip has to convert the PCM to DSD in real-time. This is one of the major reasons people claim DSD sounds better than PCM, when in fact, it is just that the chip in most modern Delta Sigma single-bit DACs do a poor job of decoding PCM."

Cheers George

Thanks George.  I was just reading about the Directstream and the designer was discussing how they paid special attention to phase preservation, so perhaps that's not the source of my issue.  Perhaps it is just as simple as being bit-perfect (although I haven't really had that issue with other non-bit-perfect dacs).