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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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. 

For DAC owners that seek a Swiss army knife for streaming/DDC this seems a great value proposition. After digging in I've learned the USB and clock implementations are inferior to those included in my DAC so scratching from my list. And the streamer search continues.