I actually have Cosmos Scaler now, to give input impedance of 100kOhm also
But the way I always treat this is that the DAC performance is likely even better than what I measure.
Personal preference always a factor. Even 10 people interpreting my measurements could reach 10 difference conclusions. Especially those that donāt care about measurements 
I tried to summarise in bold my thoughts about comparing to Cyan2ā¦
So it is quite simple - do you prefer <100kHz to >100kHz ?
The smoother warmer Cyan2 (earlier frequency response roll-off ??) was quite different to what I was used to with my RME ADI-2 (AKM).
In the end I sold my Cyan2 quite a while ago, due to personal preferences. Even if the measured performance is very good. And you have no questions about if it is ātrue DSD Directā. And USB input is isolated.
As I already wrote AH90 LAN input means you donāt have to worry about a USB isolator box.
I will be keeping AH90. The fast transient attacks are breathtaking. Which makes me quite interested to hear and measure a DAC200 if someone locally loans me one.
AH90 has best performance for the dollar (also subjective opinionā¦)
All the above is assuming you correctly update the firmware to the DSD Direct versionā¦ it does not ship with it.
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Get AH90 ! The money you save can be used to upgrade HQPlayer license in future 
Or for a nice weekend holiday.
I think the DAC correction further levels out some of the audible differences. (and over time more so as this develops)
But there will still be of course certain level of differences due to the hardware implementation that wonāt go away and it is not even reasonable to expect to happen. There are number of DAC hardware design decisions that play such a big role.
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AH90 has 9-15Vdc input so you can use your own PSU.
I wonder if some of the noise in A26 that I donāt see with AH90 is that linear PSU
I was using my Merging Anubis 12Vdc PSU for measurements. Its DC output is continuous with AC input earth.
Thanks you for your answer.
Will see if I will buy an AH90 and compare it to the Cyan 2. Good thing it is that the AH90 is a real and very good DSD direct DAC and does not cost a fortune.
@Jussi, is it right to assume that your Cyan 2 DAC correction, besides other stuff, correct for this roll off of the Cyan 2?
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7054-X arrived and is connected to the setup. I use Intona Premium USB cables with it (already had one and got another one second hand). It works great and thereās no dropouts with it when using between Holo Red and T+A DAC200. It sounds great but I havenāt done any critical listening yet.
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Iām considering going down the HQP rabbit holeā¦ perhaps with a MacMini M4 with probably 512GB base SSD and either 24/32/48/64GB RAMā¦ not sure which M4 this maybe a base or Pro - whatās the expected filter maximums? Assuming this is now a native Apple Silicon app.
NAA will likely be Holo RED tho a RPi4b might be an entry level option for USB DAC and Iām undecided on May KTE or Cyan 2 ā¦ as I understand it they both are DSD Direct capable. Interface will be I2S possibly or USB.
If the Cyan2 is quite close to the May KTE then maybe Iāll save some moneyā¦ Thoughts to anyone who has tried both?
If a preamp is needed like a Benchmark LA4 as I have one handy. Speakers will be a number of active options - Dynaudio BM5MkII / Quested VS2205 / Linkwitz LXmini/LX521.4MG nothing with DSP based crossovers.
Itās cool to have this choice!
For active speakers, also look at ATC audio, thatās what I have and I love it 
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Depends on what youāre expected output requirements are. Base model M4 can do DSD256 for many filters but nowhere near all. I think Pro should be able to do most of them, and Jussi confirmed that in a post yesterday.
If you prefer PCM even a basic M1 eats them all.
My M1 does a decent job of meeting my need , but I need to compromise a bit for some filters. I think the M4 Pro (lower level) would manage all of them and the higher model pro would be amazing, but it is a significant cost increase over the excellent value entry level M4
I have all the speakers already and a lot of dacs and oreās and streamers. This is mainly just for the HQP side of things and Direct DSD
That said I do love ATC speakers but no space now.
The DACs you mentioned from Holo, in this group at least, youāll find fans of running these by feeding them DSD. Other DACs, maybe PCM is the choice. But, of the Holo DACs yes, youāll want DSD and then, as @Michael_Harris pointed out, do you want no problem DSD256? Some DSD512? or No problem DSD512? and by āno problemā I mean running any combination you can throw at it plus DAC correction. You are probably very well in solid M4 Pro territory if you you plan to use a Mac @DSD512 or the heavier filters at DSD256.
My Intel + GPU build just hit its wall this year (had it for 2 years) when I got a DAC that could do DSD512 andā¦ now Iām out of cycles so I canāt run everything like I was able to do at DSD256.
Iām looking to upgradeā¦ maybe at end of year. Iāll build my own again and reuse some of the parts I already have.
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Pretty huge price jump from Cyan 2 to May, you have Spring 3 in the middle as well. Depends on how much you are ready to invest, if you can go for May, go for it. And yes all three use same kind of architecture being discrete DACs. You get increase in number of conversion elements etc as you move to higher models.
I would recommend to use USB for best performance.
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It is though good to try to decide what one wants to run in the end. Because the resource requirements jump exponentially for few configurations, and if those are not in the end the ones being used it may be a lot of money spent for no good use. It is good to āoverdoā the hardware a little bit, so that there is capacity left for future developments.
For example my living room T+A DAC 200 is being driven by i9-13900T + RTX2080 combination at DSD512 and it has plenty of processing margin left for future.
I havenāt tried both, but late last year I finally upgraded my venerable Spring 1 to a May and am very pleased with the result. Should have done it years ago. The Cyan2 has later tech than the Spring 1 so canāt really be compared, but the May continues to please. The greater detail had me listening closer at lower volumes, which led to my swapping the Doge 8 tube preamp for a Holo Serene. So beware of the upgrade urge. I think Iām done for the moment.
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Iām coming into a little inheritance money so price is really not so much of an issue ā¦ Iām not up for DcS territory but holo products I have always liked and while expensive for MiC itās certainly one of the leaders in this area. I have used the May KTE in a demo setup but not with DSD direct and HQP. Iām probably only up for 256 or at most 512 but one never knows what will sound good. R2R have always been a fan of with a couple of Soekris DAM 1021 boards and tried the Denafrips range too.
I would rather an M4pro Mac than a PC platform, and do have an M1 Mini I could use at first till maybe an M4 Max or ultra is available but could move roon from my i7-10700 32gb intel if that might have some gains for HQP over the currently avail M1
I am using this settings for DSD 256 with base model Mac Mini M4 and Mac correction file. Not tried all filters but I think most if not all of them will work properly.
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Thanks for confirming, there will be some which are too heavy , but that is a good test as it is just too heavy for my M1 mini and causes drop outs after a few seconds.
I take it that it doesnāt work if you switch to DSD512, Maybe even on UL
M4Pro 14C should perform like M1Max, so many things work at DSD512 (assuming using NAA for output to avoid DoP), but likely not DAC correction.
10700 probably performs roughly similarly. It is rather powerful for running just Roon if itās just for sending bit-perfect data into HQPlayer.