Holo Audio: one of the best dacs ever? J Atkinson, H Reichert, S Deckert, M Lavorgna, GoldenSound, D Abramson and the Stereophile reviewers think so. Stereophile A+ and POY 2020

That helps, and I believe you may understand my motivations as well. Unfortunately for the foreseeable future the La Voce will not be available new in any quantity. Im not personally familiar with the Project. Purchasing the KTE and the Jays means relying on internet chatter, which is fine. Just thought someone in this thread had actually made the comparison other than Al.

The Projectā€™s claim to fame is that it uses the new transport developed by Stream Unlimited a company made up of the CD engineers from Phillips. It is at this time the lowest priced unit on the market using this new drive unit. The other players using the new drive, like the new Aqua, start at $10k. Itā€™s a clamshell design unit with a much less substantial case and a cheap remote though reputed to sound great. Itā€™s I2S only works with their DACā€™s and doesnā€™t follow any of the four common standards. If you canā€™t find a new La Voce S3 the you can try to find a deal on the next unit up the La Scala. Al bought his PST during the sale and by that time his May had been gone for monthā€™s as he sold it to another forum member in the late Spring. He is using his Jayā€™s either via Coax or AES to the Gryphon. There was a used silver La Voce S3 for sale on Audiogon for a good price by a reputable seller who has been a member for 20+ years. Not anything in them to go wrong and if itā€™s not your cup of tea easier to sell with little to no loss. As to the purchasing based on internet chatter I kind of thought that was the point of us regular and long term members sharing our experiences with different products. Of the many users on this forum alone you have no one that doesnā€™t love their Jayā€™s and only one that didnā€™t like the May. Pretty large positive sample size to my way of thinking.

Not criticizing the chatter, just looking for more that entails a direct comparison. Looking for a red herring possibly. In the market for new product. Will also be looking at SimAudio, and others as well.

I too owned the DirectStream DAC for over 3 years and my 2 channel system has been stable for those 3 years as well other than adding the Matrix X-SPDIF 2. So I am not making some uninformed statements or statements that are unduly affected by other circumstances. I had not heard the May KTE before I ordered itā€¦I actually had not heard the DirectStream when I bought it. I was quite happy with the DirectStream but I am extremely happy that I took the chance on the May KTE.

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I wouldnā€™t worry too much on which is better, the PS Audio or May. Theyā€™re both very respectable units as both is loved by their owners very much. I tried the May with the PST, but my system is built around the DS and taking it out and putting something else in no matter how good may not work too well. The DS just has a fuller and more transparent sound in my system. That sound might have to do with my preference also. My friend who owns the May says he still prefers the May more. Maybe in his system, he could not ask for a better sound than the May. I think you can take either DAC and built a system you can be very satisfied with. Iā€™m no longer gonna say which is better, it really depends on the rest of your system and your preference.

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Was your connection between the May and the PST direct with your HDMI cable (Nordost I believe) or was the Matrix in the middle?

Direct with AQ Dragon HDM on the PST. With the EsotericN-03T, Nordost Valhalla 2 USB to Matrix then AQ Dragon HDMI to DAC.

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That did help as what I am looking for is clarity with a smidgen of warmth, which to my ear and in my system is what the PSA DSD brings to the table.

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This AP SACD is stunningly great through the May KTE!:

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Yep, another glorious sounding SACD on the May KTE:

Thatā€™s a really interesting observation. I never thought of the dsd as transparent when comparing it to higher end DACs. Donā€™t get me wrong, Iā€™m not denying what you saying, i just find it interesting how everyone experiences things differently. I guess thatā€™s part of what makes this hobby fun.

I had both the May and the DSD hooked up to my system. The Trinnov allows me to level match each source and Iā€™m able to quickly (within about two seconds) switch from one DAC to the other. The only downside to testing in this manner was that I have to use digital coax as the interconnect since it was the only one I could split into two different devices. Here is what I found.

  • when testing blind, where I donā€™t know which device is hooked to what input, the DACs sounded more similar than I thought. By ā€œsoundedā€ Iā€™m simply talking about tonally. Iā€™ve always been told how analog and warm the DSD sounds but when comparing it at least to the May I donā€™t find that to be true.

  • Even though I said they sounded similar there are some differences. The largest difference with the May I found was separation of instruments or maybe just objects in the soundstage. I also felt like very quiet sounds, for example like what I would call a brush stroke seemed to have more detail on the May. Pianos sound different between the two. The background seemed a lot blacker on the May, for example when listening to a drum solo those loud drum hits almost startled me. I noticed something similar when I had the MSB DAC last year.

A couple other things to note. The last time I ran this test was between thanksgiving and Christmas so im relying on what I remembered. I also was using the coax input on the May and in my opinion the USB input sounds a lot better with my Auralic Aries G.2 streamer.

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I agree with you in that I found the DSD and the May to be tonally in the same ballpark as is the Aqua. Thatā€™s the sound profile I find the most appealing so all three of the ones that I kept and have in regular use have a similar signature. What separates them is in the details and in reality their age and therefore the parts as there is almost 8 years difference in the age of the DSD and the May and six between the DSD and the La Voce S3. Parts have improved greatly over that time in the digital audio world.

@goblue I want to thank you for sharing your impressions of the May and the PSA DSD. I am not surprised to learn that the two are more similar than different, and from your explanation the May offers more detail in the upper frequencies as well as instrument placement within the sound stage. Personally, I donā€™t see this as a race, upon which there must be a winner, but a matter of taste and how each integrates into oneā€™s system. Having the DSD and PST I am curious as to how the May and the Jays CDT2 MkIII might compare. The FW upgrades offered on the DSD were a revelation, with the latest really bringing it into its own in my system. So once again, thank-you for sharing your impressions as they have been most helpful.

I have at least 1000 hours on the May KTE now and I must say it is a fantastic DAC especially when coupled with HQPlayer.

It easily as musical as my old DirectStream but has a much darker background and has more resolution, detail, and clarity. The sound stage is better too.

I realize the May KTE is not for everyone. I wanted a NOS DAC because I wanted to completely decouple as much filtering, noise shaping, dithering, etc., from the DAC as possible and instead rely on HQPlayer for that. The May KTE is great for me because it measures fantastically well yet is still rich and musical sounding. The noise floor is extremely low. HQPlayer is occasionally updated with new filters and noise shapers so It continues to improve. So, kind of like what I had with the DirectStream, I get updates that improve the sound quality of the May KTE.

I look forward to seeing (and hearing) what Ted comes out with. But, the bar, for me and my setup, has been set quite high!

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Wonder if PSA purchases some of their competitors products, to compare and contrast to, while devoping new products?

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Same comments 550 hrs into listening to the Holo Spring 3 KTE DAC. Instead of ā€œdarker backgroundā€ Iā€™d frame it as ā€œBlackerā€. Itā€™s just dead silent and very low level detail emerges.

My wife has been very tolerant, as Iā€™ve been listening nearly every night 6-midnight and canā€™t break myself away. Especially quality live recordings. NOS is just clean sounding. Live has an authenticity with this DAC over the DSD mk 1.

The DSD is no slouch and still in the upper ranks of great DACā€™s. It just needs a refresh which PS Audio is currently undertaking.

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Hopefully, the DSD II gets released before inflation takes off, and pushes out of reach of more audiophiles.

But is the difference ā€œhuge?ā€

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This has been a bit of a revelation of late for me (specific DAC in use aside): Great live recordings of my favorite work from popular and rock music artists often offer a whole new level of musical enjoyment.

Over the years, I have shied away from live recordings for some reason. Now, I actively search for well recorded/mastered/reviewed live performances. There is some really great stuff out there.

Case in point (but can be somewhat track dependent):

Love him or hate him (i.e., his voice),

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For this groupā€™s verbiage? Yes, it is huge.

Based on my use of words? No, not ā€œhugeā€. But, the difference is certainly significant and easily heard. To put it in perspective, the difference between the May KTE and DirectStream is at least as big as the difference between the DirectStream and Schiit Yggdrasil.

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