HoloAudio STREAMER is out now


I've read lots of discussions about streamers, especially about how to get value for less than several thousand $$'s. The typical responses include Bluesound, Innuous, iFi, Raspberry Pi, Cambridge, and probably a couple others I'm missing. 

People LOVE the Holo Audio DAC's -- the May, the Spring, e.g. 

Now they have a streamer. It's less than $1k. I wonder if anyone has it or has compared it?

 

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@thyname I got a few headphone amps and kept 2.

Matrix Mini Pro 3 - this one is almost like a portable DAC/amp. At least it is easy to move to various room in the house or backyard. It also sounds pretty good, as do most $1000 DACs. That reminds me I need to help a friend set his mini up.

Benchmark BHA-1 - A bit too fatiguing so sold it. I loved the look of it though. This amp maybe nice with the Musetec oo5 DAC I have. I never tried them together.

Benchmark HPA4 - a great headphone amp and a great 2-channel preamp. I sold it by mistake, but I no longer needed the headphone amp part because I ONLY use RAAL SR1a and CA-1a phones. I ended up buying the Benchmark LA4 preamp to replace the HPA4. Though I made money on the sale of the HPA4. The HPA4 + old Meze Empy is great, not RAAL SR1A great but great in a headphones kind of way. The RAAL SR1a is a level beyond headphones.

Schitt Jotenhuim R + Sony SCD-1 SACD player - I have this in my second office room. I also have a Topping top end DAC hooked up to it. THis is used for the RAAL SR1a and CA-1a.

RAAL VM-1a - this is an incredible tube headphone amp solely made for the SR1a and CA-1a. I cannot imagine anything better than these 2 phones with the VM-1a. I use a neutral DAC with this amp, the Benchmark DAC3B. It is not as good with the smoother sounding Musetec 005 DAC.

I am building a Livingroom system and it has to sound as good or better than the VM-1a and the SR1a combo. Not an easy task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks interesting because it supports NAA and therefore HQ Player. Not many streamers have that support. It also has Ethernet or USB to I2S conversion and output to a DAC with I2S inputs. It looks well built and all for about $800. Sounds enticing. If it only had Optical (not Toslink) inputs, it would kill the OpticalRendu and be an undisputed champ. Oh. It also supports Qobuz via Roon. So I would be all set. No need for a screen on the streamer. It’s on the other side of my listening room. Besides I look at the Roon Remote on my phone. No need for a streamer screen and the added cost and noise. 

@kingbarbuda, could you kindly explain the difference between toslink and optical?  I just assumed they were the same.  Thanks.

@doni I am not fully knowledgeable regarding all the technicalities and differences. Someone else here may be better at explaining them. But I will give it a shot. 
Toslink is a unque optical protocol invented by Toshiba. 
Toslink cables are usually of shorter length than what optical cables can be. 
There may be bandwidth differences between Toslink and optical. 
I believe related to the above, there are differences in how the Toslink and optical signals are processed. Others should comment on this. 
I hope that is somewhat helpful.