The Pi bake off

[Floyddroid]

Not for me i'm afraid. I heard one a few weeks back and it didn't impress me at all.

Proof it really happened:





Actually I wasn't surprised at the quality of the Pi-Q as I decided a while ago Marco has a good pair of ears

We didn't get to hear much on the Pi-Q really as we spent so much time messing around with network configs, wondering why it stopped working when it seemed fine etc.

Comparing the Pi-Q to the Lampizator is completely unfair WRT price, and in comparison the Pi-Q offers quite a different presentation. It is relatively 2D and the sound seemed to stay in the same plane as the speakers. That said the sound was good I thought - clean, no obvious issues, enjoyable, detailed. The Lampi 7 sounds like more signal is getting through to the speakers even at similar volume levels but I really noticed this trait when comparing the level 7 to the level 4, so it seems to be a particular trait of the 7, which also excels with it's spatial presentation (3Dness).

As most people know a good 3D presentation is typical of valve output stage DACs, and I'd like to hear the Pi-Q running through a cheap Chi-Fi valve buffer (maybe a foo'd one with some quality replacement parts would be interesting) just to see what could be achieved in that area.

That said for £70 the Pi-Q is a bargain. I think it is only really for people who don't mind messing around with computers, though. Exploring all its capabilities may prove to be time consuming and frustrating, but some will enjoy the challenge I am sure. If your that type, buy one.

Oh Steve that track with the mega-bass - Boral Kibil - Wake Up. After you left I cranked it to see how far it would go and I was surprised how much further it did go without issues. I stood in front of the bass panel and looked down and I haven't seen bass panel excursion that marked before. They were literally going crazy.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Apogees, Steve. Intense is the right word they aren't an easy listening speaker. They are a "sit there in awe" speaker. For easy background listening they most definitely are not.

BTW I believe the bass panels are broadly equivalent to three 12 inch woofers per speaker, not 3 18 inch ones.

Plan is to play with the Pi-Q a bit more round at Steve's in the near future. Steve has some very nice kit so I'm keen to hear it

[NRG]

I think we should be a bit more cautious before dismissing the RPi and DAC completley, there are quite a few s/w settings that can alter the sound presentation quite dramatically and without knowing what settings where used its very difficult to make comparisons.