Vinyl wrap!
Looks fine to me. Or just stand it on it’s edge and put some stick on pads and place in the behind your gear.
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Thanks for the write up. I’ve also been looking at the red. I’m wondering if it can replace my Aries G2, which is 4X the cost.
I know! The Lumin I’ve been using I bought for USD 3500 and now is over 4k!
Lucky, you got it quick. Great to hear such detailed impressions. Mine is ordered but it will be awhile before it arrives, 4 - 6 weeks. Could you shed some light on setting it up, how did that go?
Which Lumin?
T2 which is now the T3 with some “upgrades” and a price increase. Still and ESS based unit which sounds nothing like Ted’s DAC’s.
Pulled the trigger this morning:
Looking forward to receiving a shipping authorization and hearing from others regarding their experiences with the HoloAudio Red DDC/Streamer…
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How does it compare to your previous Ethernet Streaming approach?
TIA.
may need 2, one streamer, one dac
Yeah I have the T2. It’s a very very good streamer plus DAC.
Of course the Holo plus the DSD Mk2 will shine much better considering that I found the combination with the Mk1 similar to the Lumin.
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The Lumin U2 Mini looks very interesting.
Previous network audio paths with Sonore Siganture Rendu SE Optical;
Optical → Sonore Signature Rendu SE Optical USB → Holo Audio May KTE
Optical → Clocked EtherREGEN → Sonore opticalModule Deluxe → Signature Rendu SE Optical USB → Holo Audio KTE May
Optical → Sonore opticalModule Deluxe → Clocked EtherREGEN → Signature Rendu SE Optical → Holo Audio May KTE
Currently tried network audio paths with Holo Audio Red;
Optical → Sonore opticalModule Deluxe → Holo Audio Red USB → Holo Audio May KTE
Optical → Clocked EtherREGEN → Holo Audio Red USB → Holo Audio May KTE
My SonicTransporter i9 optical is connected via its own optical cable.
I do not have a direct ethernet cable for networked audio, so I can’t judge how the Red would sound with a direct ethernet connection.
I prefer all paths that include the Clocked EtherREGEN, unfortunately it will only pass 1.4 MHz PCM flawlessly, 1.5 MHz PCM sounds wonderful, but hiccups every 20 seconds.
The Sonore opticalModule Deluxe ( and the first gen opticalModule ) will pass 1.4/1.5 MHz PCM flawlessly.
I am only using the Red as NAA via USB, I can’t comment on I2S or use as a DDC.
I need to listen a lot more to determine if it is better, the same or just different regarding sound quality.
That being said, I am currently very pleased with what I’m hearing.
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Looking forward to more observations; thank you.
You say ESS unit like that is a bad thing.
No it’s not if implemented correctly but still doesn’t sound like Ted’s DACs. I’ve owned multiple ESS based units.
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My Gryphon Ethos is ESS based. ESS Sabre ES9038Pro to be exact.
It seems nice.
And I am a huge fan of Teds work. I am going to pass on the MK2 DAC but I look forward to the TSS!
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Yep. My Lumin T2 has dual ES9038PRO’s. Fabulous.
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One thing I’ve noticed about the Holo that’s kinda annoying: If I’m running from Roon and put the album on pause for more than say five minutes, when you hit Play again, after a while it’ll stop and say that “the file is loading too slowly”.
It’s almost as if it plays what’s left over in the buffer and then because of some miscommunication between Roon and Holo, the buffer doesn’t get filled again.
It’s an annoyance, but I guess I can live with it.
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Thanks for pointing that out and bumping this thread. Been eyeing Red as a change, but nothing’s broken.
Sounds like a linux network-stack connection timeout issue - probably tweekable via command line (don’t ask me what the tweak is), but more likely Roon ought to fix via keepalive packets, or auto restarting the connection or some such.
Has anyone tried a Holo Red in squeezelite mode with LMS?
(n.b. purely out of interest, I’m not in the market for one, even though it looks splendid 
)