[FooFighter]

@GoldenOne
Do you think Red will work as a kind of digital switch allowing to concert formats like e.g being connected via I2S to Holo Audio Spring or May and playing whatever PI software sources like Roon or Tidal Connect but also allowing to play Apple Music from my IPhone connected via USB in?

 

[GoldenSound]

@GoldenOne
Do you think Red will work as a kind of digital switch allowing to concert formats like e.g being connected via I2S to Holo Audio Spring or May and playing whatever PI software sources like Roon or Tidal Connect but also allowing to play Apple Music from my IPhone connected via USB in?

Yes, any DDC will work for this purpose.
DDCs take the incoming data, usually via USB but sometimes via other methods like SPDIF input, and output over whatever connection options they have.

The software itself doesn't actually affect things, it's all PCM data regardless, the different connections are just different protocols for transferring it

 

[mfgillia]

Will wait for the reviews to come out as I've been looking for a decent streamers for a while now and this would fit well with my current stack (appearance wise atleast !)

Just to clarify... bright red is going to match your currrent stack appearance? I'm leaning towards getting this too but would much prefer a color that's a bit more subdued.

 

[koso]

Just to clarify... bright red is going to match your currrent stack appearance? I'm leaning towards getting this too but would much prefer a color that's a bit more subdued.

I would like to see other color option too. Preferably black, silver would work well too. But I am affraid that no other color option would be possible this time. It's called Red, it's red, and it's probably going to stay that way, because other colors besides red aren't red enough

 

[FooFighter]

Just to clarify... bright red is going to match your currrent stack appearance? I'm leaning towards getting this too but would much prefer a color that's a bit more subdued.

It's a Streamer so it could possibly disappear behind all other devices unless using the USB in

 

[mfgillia]

I would like to see other colour option too. Preferably black, silver would work well too. But I am affraid that no other color option would be possible this time. It's called Red, it's red, and it's probably going to stay that way, because other colors besides red aren't red enough

Yep, they do seem pretty committed to the idea of marketing this around the color "Red" to literally stand out from the crowd - for better and for worse.

 

[FooFighter]

It's of course a matter of taste in the end.
Reminds me a bit of the approach of the Ifi Diablo portable amp

 

[roderickvd]

Can you pls explain?
There's no "Qobuz-Connect" solution AFAIK.
Only way would be
a) to provide a Qobuz Client API in the Red firmware
b) only provide an UPNP service and needing an additional 3rd party app like Mconnect to stream Qobuz

This also caught my eye. Maybe it’s an official Google Cast target? That would have been surprising and surely in the marketing materials if it were…

Using AirPlay doesn’t count.

I am skeptical but if there really is support for native Deezer Connect then this is going to be high on my list.

Or maybe they are referring to the digital conversion capability, inserting your phone and controlling from the app?

I don’t know.

 

[FooFighter]

This also caught my eye. Maybe it’s an official Google Cast target? That would have been surprising and surely in the marketing materials if it were…

Using AirPlay doesn’t count.

I am skeptical but if there really is support for native Deezer Connect then this is going to be high on my list.

Or maybe they are referring to the digital conversion capability, inserting your phone and controlling from the app?

I don’t know.

Yep, the preferred way would be a real streaming management software with streaming API of the different providers built-in.
Other Streamer manufacturers like Bluesound, Auralic, etc are providing such software for their streamers.
That'll be awesome!

 

[GoldenSound]

I'll try out the official red OS image shortly. But for Qobuz/Deezer/Anything else, if you're concerned about compatibility, just put RopieeeXL on it. It supports literally everything with almost no setup/config needed

 

[roderickvd]

RopieeeXL doesn’t support Qobuz or Deezer other than through AirPlay. No one does yet.

 

[GoldenSound]

RopieeeXL doesn’t support Qobuz or Deezer other than through AirPlay. No one does yet.

That would mean Qobuz/Deezer don't have actual UPNP/DNLA casting support. Something they need to address

 

[roderickvd]

I don’t agree with such a fundamental statement.

First, they support Google Cast, so it’s not like they are isolated. But Google only hands out the required server certificates to corporates — none of those open source derivatives have one and I would be surprised if Holo got one. The protocol is inherently secure because it requires root certificate validation, so cannot be provided by an open source alternative either unless Google would hand a license key to the community.

Second, Spotify doesn’t support UPnP/DLNA either but has its own Connect protocol. This was reverse engineered by the librespot project, which is packaged with all those audio distributions. Some of which offer it as a paid extra, none of which contribute back to librespot by the way.

Deezer has its own Connect protocol but it has no open source client yet. I am working on it.

 

[FooFighter]

Gosh, I need to dive into those dedicated PI solutions.
I got following response from Magnahifi:
"...The Red is using a Pi Core module (Not a raspberry pi but same CPU).

It works with e.g. Moode Audio. You can use Qobuz, Tidal with Moode.
...
Other options are Ropieee (roonbridge and airplay) or picore/LMS which we like a lot."

What I am wondering about in general is: does Holo Audio officially allow to just use alternative boot images and why should I even use them if the stock image is offering streaming support for all mentioned services? (Which we still need to find out)
@GoldenOne please report back about this demoed Red Boot image.
This should answer such questions about stock software content

 

[GoldenSound]

What I am wondering about in general is: does Holo Audio officially allow to just use alternative boot images and why should I even use them if the stock image is offering streaming support for all mentioned services? (Which we still need to find out)

Yeah, it's just got a micro-SD slot on the back and you can replace the stock OS on it with anything you like.
If the stock OS does everything you need then there's no need to. But having the flexibility to use any pi OS is great.

RopieeeXL is from the same developer that did the streaming software for Mola Mola
Volumio is quite popular and can work as a music server too.

But yeah, you can use anything you like, or stick with stock