OK, here’s my reconstituted system with Holo May DAC reinstalled. @jussi_laako has been enormously supportive as I’ve battled with HQ player installation, which according to the many websites I’ve looked at officially makes me a nerd, because you have to be pretty technical to understand it and I’ve got the technical knowledge of an ostrich.
I recently bought a Gryphon Integrated amplifier to deal with the impedance of my speakers, and besides the difficulty of lumping it around that’s been a success. So the issue I had was whether to keep the May DAC or use the internal DAC of the Gryphon. I also had the option of using the Gryphon DAC with or without HQ player and the May DAC with or without HQ player or with native oversampling. Roon and HQ player are being run on a Mac Mini elsewhere on my network (in a cupboard next to my switch), my hi-fi is connected to the network using fibre optic cable. The rather excellent
Innuos Pulsar can be used in its native mode or as an endpoint for either Roon or HQ player, the latter using Roon as a Controller.
They say (whoever “they“ are) that the May and other R2R DACs have a pretty analog sound. They have to be very good to be any good at all, a bit like direct drive turntables (see image below). They are also apparently better with DSD than with PCM because native DSD through an R2R DAC is effectively an analog signal.
So I was comparing good analog recordings with streaming and probably the most critical one was this:
This is a tremendously spacious recording and on the vinyl the strings are almost tangible. Streaming PCM to DSD through the May gave the same amount of air, the strings were possibly a little bit more “in your face“. Using the Gryphon DAC upscaled to its 32/384 PCM limit, it just didn’t seem to have the same spaciousness, although the strings were perhaps a little easier on the ear.
The Gryphon DAC dates from 2016 and is based on en ESS9018 chip. I could happily live with it.
God bless Mark Sears. I hope he’s continuing to recover from his horrific motorcycle accident. I was thinking of him as I was installing his analogue cables, which are pure silver. I use a Neotech USB cable, which they make with their proprietary UPOCC silver.
Hi Günther
Weiterhin viel Spaß damit. Ich bin absoluter ATC Fan und habe im Mai sogar das Werk im Rahmen eines England Urlaubs besucht.
LG Rüdiger
Translation
Hi Günther
I hope you continue to enjoy it. I am an absolute ATC fan and even visited the factory in May as part of a holiday in England.
LG Rüdiger
Hi Rüdiger,
Sehr cool. Ich kenn nur das Video von der Besichtigung von der Homepage. Sehr spannend und etwas überraschend. Ebenfalls weiterhin viel Spaß mit den Schätzen.
Grüße
Günter
Translation
Hi Rüdiger,
Very cool. I only know the video of the tour from the homepage. Very exciting and somewhat surprising. Have fun with the treasures, too.
I upgraded my system with a Keces P6 LPSU. It provides power for the Sonos Port and Intel Nuc11 Core i7. To my surprise, the sound is a bit cleaner now, so it will stay. It provides enough power even on DSD512 upscale.
All components list:
Keces P6 (lpsu)
Intel NUC 11 i7 (Roon ROCK)
Topping E70 Velvet (Roon to Sonos link, sounds better and more stable than native streaming using Sonos protocol)
Yes I have to start doing this.
I don’t have an iPhone though… but I do have a Umik mic and Rew software from my AVR installation, I guess I can produce something similar and make some filters in Roon?
Sorry for off-topic!
There are many software solutions but it’s more work with REW. There’s also the HAF route, who design a filter for you. Anyway, many existing threads on DSP and convolution filters
Recently added a dedicated balanced mains unit to my system from Factor One of Plymouth, UK. Why didnt I do this years ago? Dan at Factor One only uses the finest components and all the units are personally hand built to order. The unit you see in the picture is standard component size with a weight of 22kgs or 48lbs for our friends over the pond. It’s probably the best bit of kit I’ve ever bought and certainly improves the overall sound quality of my system which now comprises the following:-
Avondale NCC300 Power Amp
Avondale Graduation One PreAmp & Power Supply
Holo Audio May KTE Dac
Holo Audio May KTE Power Supply
PMC Fact 12 Speakers
Factor One Balanced Power BMU-2500
Sonore UltraRendu Streamer
Audiophonics Linear Power Supply 7v
Chord English Electric 8 Switch
Audiophonics Linear Power Supply 5v
Mac Mini M1 (Roon Core & HQPlayer)
iPad Pro 12.9" (Roon Remote)
iPhone 13 Pro 6.1" (Roon Remote)
Russ Andrews Power Cables & Power Blocks
Factor One Carbon Screened Power Cables
Chord Epic Interconnects
Chord Epic Speaker Cable
Atacama Evoque Bamboo Racks
Ha, it was you. Sorry.
I went the headphone route, and I wanted to replace my active speakers with passives. Now I have a Aqua LinQ, Chord Dave, and Riviera AIC amp, with Audio Note speakers. What a journey
I did consider running a spur from the main fuse box to a dedicated 3000va transformer which would have been located in the fuse board cupboard, but decided to go with the BMU from Factor One. Similar costs too. The noise floor has definitely been reduced and certainly no DC anywhere👍
