HoloAudio STREAMER is out now

Perhaps I am missing something here. What could a reviewer tell someone that exceeds what they can hear on their own? 

Simple:

1) the reviewers often simply omit the “compared to what?” Part

2) Unless you fully trust the reviewer, you would never know their intentions and the story behind what prompted the review. I hope you can read between the lines 

@thyname 

But, there is no such thing as “evidence “ from other folks. The only evidence that matters is you, trying it in your system.

I have to disagree. I read movie reviews, restaurant reviews, automotive reviews. My tastes are unique, but they are not completely idiosyncratic. I am not a solipsist.
If someone reviews the Holo Red and compares it to something else which is better than my Node 2i, it may contain information applicable to my tastes. Hans Beekhuysen would be a review to whom I would pay keen attention.

@lalitk  My comment about Red punching above it's price point is a hypothesis based on the fact that my audiophile friend -- who has a streaming set up that is far, far better than my Node 2i -- has replaced his setup with the Holo Red. My argument is simply that if his *previous* streamer is better than my Node, and the Red is better than his previous streamer, then it's likely that the Red is better than my Node. Make sense?

@charles1dad  The "amazing" comment had to do with the Red on a different system. It is hard for me to gauge how good the Red would be in my system. What would another reviewer bring? Additional data where the Red is assessed with a different system. You're familiar, I'm sure, with audio reviews of equipment which discuss how a speaker (e.g.) sounds with amp A, B, C and with source A, B. Etc. This process helps to triangulate what is common to the equipment under review under changing circumstances. Were I to read a review of the Red with other speakers and, especially, in comparison to better streamers than my Node 2i, that would help me triangulate whether the Red would be a lateral move from my Node or whether it is likely a streamer that punches above its weight class (and, thus above my Node 2i). 

@hilde45 

Got it. Each one of us has our own method for assessing audio products of interest. No doubt you have determined which approach is most effective for yourself. I hope you are able to hear the Holo Red in your audio system soon. It seems a promising component.

Charles

@charles1dad For me -- as a philosopher who thinks about aesthetics and questions of subjective taste -- the question is especially interesting.

If everyone had their own unique taste, then there would be no reason to converse about it. There would be as much reason to talk about how a speaker sounds as talk about what that slight twinge below my left knee feels like. It would be indescribable.

But we do talk about it -- we do compare, argue, agree, and influence one another. We have a crude vocabulary for acoustic experiences, but it does work for us. The reviewers who understand this are very popular because they know how to connect with a variety of listeners.

This ability to communicate across the divide of our subjective experiences means that there is something like inter-subjectivity (or even objectivity, properly qualified) which permits conversation about audio. Those conversations are built not off our differences, but upon what we share: a biology, a culture, a physics, and a language.

My Node 2 died a few months ago. I don’t stream much but I like the fact it is a DDC along with streamer and can output I2S. Thinking I might order one soon. Would love to hear some more personal impressions of it but might just bite the bullet.