Holo Audio Red Streamer

[CT007]

ASIO

I don't use ASIO. I've heard it's actually not all it's cracked up to be, as far as perfectionist audio goes. But, there could be cases where ASIO is a better choice, or the only choice.

I don't mess around with streaming or any of the stuff you have to manually configure. I just plug & play with USB, into my DAC. Boom, done.

This thing needs a serious manual overall, covering all use cases in-depth. I feel bad for you guys who have to deal with hardware like this, if not using the basic USB DDC. :/

 

[rocky500]

I don't use ASIO. I've heard it's actually not all it's cracked up to be, as far as perfectionist audio goes. But, there could be cases where ASIO is a better choice, or the only choice.

I don't mess around with streaming or any of the stuff you have to manually configure. I just plug & play with USB, into my DAC. Boom, done.

This thing needs a serious manual overall, covering all use cases in-depth. I feel bad for you guys who have to deal with hardware like this, if not using the basic USB DDC. :/

HeHeHe ....... it's not too bad, really.

Just install the Holo Audio driver.
Plug in your Holo Red with a USB cable to your PC.
Start up your player software (Jriver, Foobar etc) and go to the audio options and select the HoloAudio ASIO driver.
With some software you may want to change some other audio options. Like with JRiver I also selected "Bitstreaming: YES (DSD)"

That should be it and now you can just play all your favourite music.

eg. With JRiver & Foobar I can have a playlist mix of all the different audio rates in a row made up of 44.1, 96 .... etc, SACD, DSD 64/128/256 and they all play and the correct info and correct playback of the files comes up on my Dac.

The ASIO driver is done by Thesycon, so it is very mature and stable.

 

[NEXTLEVEL5]

I'm thinking about ordering a red streamer. Has anyone compared this to the pi2aes from a couple of years ago?

 

[Clemmaster]

I've been testing the USB redirector and found something interesting:
When the Red is powered on and used as a streamer, plugging in the USB input will make the USB-DDC available simultaneously. The Red then can do both streamer->USB and USB in -> DDC at the same time. Of course, the DDC output won't be available to the streamer in this case, only USB output.

Unplugging the USB in will make the DDC available to the streamer again (it takes ~5 seconds for Roon to see the streamer/DDC channel again).

Rebooting the Red with the USB in connected will disable the streamer and it will output to the DDC.

I haven't been able to get the USB input to pass to the USB output, however. Even when it's configured as follows:

Did anyone manage to have it pass the USB in through to USB out?

 

[loonar92]

Hello, can any Denafrips Pontus 2 owners chime in on Red's performance as a DDC compared to the likes of DI20 and Denafrips Iris?

 

[Mikis76]

@Jake2
I´ll be glad to give my impressions with and without the DI20HE, I have been really busy for few days because of work so I haven´t had a chanse to compare. I´ll get back to you when I can really listen, I know it is going to be difficult to find the differences with my gear, not so ultra sensitive and resolutive, more focused to enjoyment of the music.

 

[SunRa Fan]

I received my Holo Red two days ago. I already packed my Zen Stream... This is a great little unit. Well actually it's bigger than I thought and much heavier. Built like a tank, like many has said before. It also plays much nicer together with my Spring 3 when used as HQP NAA. With Red in place, HQP doesn't lose the DAC connection as easily as it did with Zen Stream. I had to carefully turn on the equipment in correct order to make the DAC visible for HQP when I used ZS. With Red, there's no such problems. Also it sounds great, small but noticeable improvement over ZS.

I have a zen stream. Is the difference in sound night and day or subtle?

 

[SunRa Fan]

Will picore player run on the Red? I’d love to have a super high quality LMS server/player?

 

[dcpillai]

I've been testing the USB redirector and found something interesting:
When the Red is powered on and used as a streamer, plugging in the USB input will make the USB-DDC available simultaneously. The Red then can do both streamer->USB and USB in -> DDC at the same time. Of course, the DDC output won't be available to the streamer in this case, only USB output.

Unplugging the USB in will make the DDC available to the streamer again (it takes ~5 seconds for Roon to see the streamer/DDC channel again).

Rebooting the Red with the USB in connected will disable the streamer and it will output to the DDC.

I haven't been able to get the USB input to pass to the USB output, however. Even when it's configured as follows:


Did anyone manage to have it pass the USB in through to USB out?

The dealer for Malaysia came to my home to demo the Red. I had a particular use case ie laptop USB into the Red and USB out into my Holo May. We just could not get it to work. A call was placed to the master distributor in Hong Kong, and it transpires (after much laughter at ourselves) that the Red will not work when it is USB to USB. So now I am running it USB in to Coax, and it sounds great.

 

[Mikis76]

I was just wonderin that if both USB in and out could be used at the same time, there is my ansver Thank you dcpillai.
Few people have asked / are comming from Zen Stream, like me. Both are digital transports so in theory there shouldn´t be any difference in SQ but there is. The Red has darker background (I have used Zen Stream with iPower X PS) and Red is a bit more precise / there is more "attack"...I don´t know how to put it in words. The differences are still quite minimal, not night and day. Zen Stream has it´s own player/software so one doesn´t have to use any "extra" software. Red is just plug and play, on and off. It WORKS compared to Zen Stream that had some "issues". I use Zen Stream nowadays in my bedroom modest setup, thinking taking it to my office at work but now that I got it kinda working I dare not to touch or move it
Build quality wise the Red wins hands down, not even comparable.

 

[Patu]

I have a zen stream. Is the difference in sound night and day or subtle?

No, it never is night and day on this level. Zen Stream is very good and punches above its weight. To me Red has a bit more open/holographic, refined and smooth sound signature.

 

[Mikis76]

I would´t call the Red smoother Mine is still quite new so there must be some sharp edges still, burning it in. But it is not like comparing velvet and silk

 

[Mikis76]

One thing that I have noticed that is new, every other track has this "digital tick" in it that hasn´t been there before. Not every song but lets say every 5 to 7 songs. It sounds like when vinyl has dust on it and it makes this "cracling" noise Not continuously, just one "tick" or "cracle". English is not my first language so it is quite hard to explain what I´m hearing
EDIT: Another "thing" that I have noticed, if I play tracks from Spotify first and stop the playback and go to BubbleUPnP and add a album to playlist / press play there is no audio. The timer just blinks in "now playing" and nothing happens. Then I just reboot the Red from the "app" and start over with BubbleUPnP and everything is back to normal.

 

[Patu]

I would´t call the Red smoother Mine is still quite new so there must be some sharp edges still, burning it in. But it is not like comparing velvet and silk

Neither one sounds sharp by any means. There’s just this extra layer of refinement with Red. It’s difficult to describe.

The ”tick” you describe, I had it also when I tested i2s connection between Red and Spring 3. With USB there’s zero ticks or any other anomalities whatsoever.

 

[Mikis76]

You are correct, not sharp in any way. I´m running the Red USB out to DI-20HE and from there trough HDMI / I²S to R27. I must try the I²S out directly from Red when I have more time. Glad to hear I´m not the only one that hears "things" or "ticks"