@nquery I have the Pass Labs XA25 which is single ended aswell, but honestly, it's sounds beyond superb to me. No chip dac I've heard has what the May has. Also, I ditched HQplayer, as it didn't do anything for me, personally, but that's just me. At the moment I control the volume with Roon and derive just as much pleasure, naturalness, uncanny realism, and all the micro/macro detail I've ever heard in 25 years.
Now my new Legacy Whisper XDS speakers are arriving in late July and they come with the newly upgraded Wavelet 2 ( It's bespoke premium preamp, 4 way dsp active crossover, it handles room/speaker correction, and has a built-in DAC (which I'll only be using via its USB input for "Tribe Virtual DJ", an Oculus VR app that I'm addicted to 😁, which should suffice for EDM genre music I mix), the May will be going balanced into the Wavelet 2, but then back to single-ended to the XA25. I never thought I'd be a Bluegrass fanatic, but the way the May handles acoustic instruments is nothing short of amazing and has me listening anything acoustic.
Good luck with your changes and I hope you gain an improvement.
Now my new Legacy Whisper XDS speakers are arriving in late July and they come with the newly upgraded Wavelet 2 ( It's bespoke premium preamp, 4 way dsp active crossover, it handles room/speaker correction, and has a built-in DAC (which I'll only be using via its USB input for "Tribe Virtual DJ", an Oculus VR app that I'm addicted to 😁, which should suffice for EDM genre music I mix), the May will be going balanced into the Wavelet 2, but then back to single-ended to the XA25. I never thought I'd be a Bluegrass fanatic, but the way the May handles acoustic instruments is nothing short of amazing and has me listening anything acoustic.
Good luck with your changes and I hope you gain an improvement.