Interesting. Thanks so much for the information.
I've been slowly working on a conspiracy theory that I prefer equipment with a 2nd harmonic distortion profile. You can read about Nelson Pass's experience with 2nd vs. 3rd dominate equipment. He designs both and says that a negative second harmonic creates the perception of slight warmth and 3-dimensionality while the 3rd creates the perception of increased detail and clarity. He even has designs where you can change the balance between two transistors to vary the distortion from 2nd to 3rd and listen to the change in presentation. I think it was his finding that about a third of audiophiles prefer each and 1/3 don't differentiate.
With a triode based output section, I believe my Audio Mirror presents a 2nd dominate profile and that the accompanying warmth and 3-dimensionality makes the music sound more natural and real on my system. Being a balanced design the Holo May eliminates all even harmonics, so it's 3rd dominant and indeed sounded very clean and detailed, but loses a touch of that warmth and dimensionality.
I tried to ask Ben at Mojo about his dac, but he wouldn't tell me what the distortion profile looks like. I tried looking at the layout, but was a bit confused about the op-amps and how the different OAs related to the single ended vs. balanced outputs. I guess he's just moved to a pure class A output section, so maybe once I see a picture of that I'll be able to tell if it's a fully balanced output stage or not.
I've been slowly working on a conspiracy theory that I prefer equipment with a 2nd harmonic distortion profile. You can read about Nelson Pass's experience with 2nd vs. 3rd dominate equipment. He designs both and says that a negative second harmonic creates the perception of slight warmth and 3-dimensionality while the 3rd creates the perception of increased detail and clarity. He even has designs where you can change the balance between two transistors to vary the distortion from 2nd to 3rd and listen to the change in presentation. I think it was his finding that about a third of audiophiles prefer each and 1/3 don't differentiate.
With a triode based output section, I believe my Audio Mirror presents a 2nd dominate profile and that the accompanying warmth and 3-dimensionality makes the music sound more natural and real on my system. Being a balanced design the Holo May eliminates all even harmonics, so it's 3rd dominant and indeed sounded very clean and detailed, but loses a touch of that warmth and dimensionality.
I tried to ask Ben at Mojo about his dac, but he wouldn't tell me what the distortion profile looks like. I tried looking at the layout, but was a bit confused about the op-amps and how the different OAs related to the single ended vs. balanced outputs. I guess he's just moved to a pure class A output section, so maybe once I see a picture of that I'll be able to tell if it's a fully balanced output stage or not.