I expect that by now you appreciate just how besotted I am with the Cyan 2's sound. This little DAC won't play favorites. From classical to electronica, from country to opera, from rock to rap, if the recording is good it will give you more intensity and raw energy without ever going shrill, glassy or nasty. Let me wrap up with a word on synergy. I initially listened to the Holo with my Triode Lab 2A3 integrated. Although the contributions of the DAC were obvious, this amp has such a strong personality that in the end the combination still sounded like triodes. It wasn't until I spent time with the far more neutral and transparent Enleum that I really took the measure of what the Cyan 2 was up to. It takes a bit of time to adapt to such clean, undistorted and revealing sound but once you've made the transition, it's impossible to go back(wards).

I unfortunately can't comment on how the Cyan 2 compares to the Laiv Harmony which I've not heard. I simply hope that someone will soon do that comparison since these two are red-hot DACs at the moment. When it comes to my $1'800 Denafrips Pontus II, the cheaper Holo unfortunately overshadowed it in almost every possible aspect except for mollycoddling or 'enhancing' poor recordings with warmth to become more listenable. The Denafrips is more forgiving. That's obviously something to consider when not every record is stellar. On quality recordings not just the 1% audiophile-only picks, the Cyan 2 was the superior performer across the board; for significantly less.

Here sub $2K means an actual retail price of $1'198!

Despite my personal reservations on how it implements automatic source selection which doesn't really fit with how I consume my music, the Holo Cyan 2 fully deserves our Blue Moon award given how far it moves music reproduction forward at its price. Considering just how good this little DAC sounds under such tight budgetary constraints, I can't wait to discover what Holo can do when cost isn't the same object!