I should provide an update after another 10 days of testing the May alongside my Lampizator Amber 3. In straight head-to-head comparisons there are pros and cons to each. But where the May has shined for me is with HQPlayer upsampling and digital volume control. It’s extremely low noise floor certainly allows for a lot more flexibility and tuning in this regard and obviates my desire for a better analog volume control/pre-amp in between DAC and amp. But the Lampizator is absolutely no slouch at all and I would still like to hear the new Baltic 3.
One other factor is that my amp is single ended and after some reading and talking to others about the Holo architecture and such, I am convinced that I am not getting the most out of the Holo May. The May actually only uses the output of one side of the R2R ladder for RCA outs, and Jeff Zhu even says the balanced outputs sound better. To this end, I have ordered a quality balanced to SE transformer, the Black Box from AmpsandSound. It is basically designed for this exact problem with many current DACs and the recently updated version Justin is sending me has an additional stepped attenuator to dial in the excess gain. Will update with my observations once it’s in the chain this week.
One other factor is that my amp is single ended and after some reading and talking to others about the Holo architecture and such, I am convinced that I am not getting the most out of the Holo May. The May actually only uses the output of one side of the R2R ladder for RCA outs, and Jeff Zhu even says the balanced outputs sound better. To this end, I have ordered a quality balanced to SE transformer, the Black Box from AmpsandSound. It is basically designed for this exact problem with many current DACs and the recently updated version Justin is sending me has an additional stepped attenuator to dial in the excess gain. Will update with my observations once it’s in the chain this week.
