Anyone tried TIDAL Connect with the Red? I’m using it more and more, and Roon less and less.
I have always been, a set it in place, hook it up, turn it on kinda guy. When I was the first person on my BBS to buy a VGA card(!) four friends came with me to buy it. We came home, I opened the PC, stuffed it in and hooked it up to my brand new technology V G A monitor. My buddy says “You don’t think you are going to jam it in, turn it on, and it works do you?” Why wouldn’t it I replied. It worked.
Manuals, bah. The first 25 pages of any Gryphon manual are about the founder. The first words of his biography: “And then the Earth cooled”. Bah. Each and every manual….
So when the Gryphon Commander and Apex came I just stuffed those suckers in place, wired them up thinking “I got this”. Wrong. So wrong. We got over it. Not only did I read the manuals but I actually looked at the words on the back of the preamp for the first time. Doh!
But my buddy @scotte1 is making me weep with all he has to deal with for a most likely unnecessary device.
It is nearly harshing my buzz.
(Pictures of Boobies)
(Blue Footed Boobies to be exact)
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I think I am suffering from this issue. “Dull” is as good a descriptor as any for the sound thus far - Dull with a sense of bloated bass.
How do I confirm this malady and cure it?
TIA
Send it back immediately and buy some good ice cream!
When I owned the May Placebo DAC listening to it made me want to do anything else.
I do not have the receptor for whatever it is other people like for that brand.
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Not quite ready to throw in the towel for dairy products (and “lactaid”) just yet, Al. LOL
I think I might have run into a known issue associated with “pre-emphasis”. If I can get that sorted, all just might be right with the world.
I appreciate your moral support though.
More to come…
Cheers
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Maybe it just needs a $600 fuse and a $12,000 power cable.
Did you think of that?
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I’ll add that sage advice to my trouble-shooting punch list.
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I felt like a Booby reading the Holo Red manual over and over again with a furrowed brow and a bit of a frustrated scowl.
That said, I was confident I could get it sorted with some determined effort given the camaraderie among the members of this singularly excellent forum.
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Well, the safe way in my case was not to play anything that is 44,1/16. but the Roon signal path you show above says 192k, so you should by safe here.
A quick check is to use USB for the moment, AES, or coax. A streamer should not alter the characteristics of a DAC this substantially. It will eliminate noise, distortion, whatever, i.e. provide better working conditions.
I have completely removed the Bridge from my DSD Mk1 and buried it together with other unused stuff. I‘m actually happy with the improvement I could grab here, especially via I2S compared USB.
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Got it connected at the tail end of last night. I’m just using a $10 optical cable to my Enyo DAC having all the RED switches off at the moment. Sounds very good. I just upgraded to the fancy 12th FPGA firmware, so can’t say if it’s the DAC or the streamer that’s so enjoyable. I think this is the most musical my theater room has sounded to date.
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You do not need a $12k cable, just get an AQ Dragon HC for one-half price and I guarantee the sound will not be dull. 
Seriously you need to get it at least three days of break in before judging it. If you have metal feet and sorbothane ring/sheet, put them under it. It improves my streamer by a large margin.
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I have nice power cables connected, but optical is such an under-appreciated audio cable. Save your money…geometry, metallurgy, etc.
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Thanks, “D”.
I’ll give it plenty of time, but you should know the initial downgrade in sound quantity is not subtle or incremental.
This is not something I believe you can chalk up to the influence of signal or power cables, the lack of sufficient physical isolation or a preference for a fuller or leaner sound.
Nevertheless, I remain hopeful.
More to come…
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That you are probably right! It is seldom that a break-in will reverse the initial impression. It is usually a confirmation from continuing improvement (The only exception with me was the SR Purple fuse, and the experience was simply weird).
Al’s sugguestion is more on point, save the money.
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@scotte1 do you have a way to do a good AB using your old streamer? That would be interesting for you to hear. Especially if everything else is the same besides the streamer. What’s your current DAC situation again?
Anyway, I’m tickled by Red! Again, I’m introducing several planned changes into the system at once. Might be comparing to my other streaming solution at some point in the near future to see if I can hear any difference. I wouldn’t expect a big change based on my understanding.
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Appreciate the inquiry…
Some additional system changes/context for you:
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I pulled the network Ethernet cable and Pink faun LAN Isolator from the PSA Bridge II Ethernet card that is inserted into the DS DAC; and plugged same into the Holo Red instead.
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I left the Bridge II in the DAC with nothing plugged into it. (Bridge II is my current “streamer”.)
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I removed one end of my RAL I2S cable from the output of my PSA DirectStream Memory Player (DMP) and plugged it into the Holo Red; and kept the other end of the RAL plugged into the I2S-1 input of the DAC.
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I removed the JK Richard’s “HDMI Shorting Plug” from the I2S-2 input of the DAC and inserted a Pink faun “Interlink” I2S cable b/t the DS and the DMP.
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I swapped out a Core Power Diamond Extreme power cable in between my PSA P10 Regenerator and my preamp with a PSA AC-12 power cable and repurposed the Core Power for use with the Holo Red (also plugged into the P10.
The only other changes are that JRiver Media Center and Roon are now “enabled” to work with the Holo Red “endpoint” instead of Bridge II.
Let me know what you think.
I am going to check the Roon and JRMC settings tonight to make sure nothing is turned on or off that should not be.
Regards.
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Just try a USB cable, doesn‘t have to be a fancy one.
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And it doesn’t sound to you even as good as the BII? 
That’s troubling.
OK, but why should I expect a better result as opposed to I2S?
I don’t have a USB Source, by the way.
Correct. It’s “bad”/different enough that I currently think there is a settings issue somewhere involving Holo Red and/or controllers.