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Thread: lap top v raspberry pi

  1. #61
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

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    I'm tony.

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    Is there any sonic advantage?

    My USB DAC in the TQ Claymore is really well isolated, Colin Wonfor is particularly concerned with power supplies and isolation.

    The method Stan outlined is what I used for years.

    I tend to switch everything off at night for safety-so would have to fire everything up when playing.

    I used i tunes for years untill Gary ghosted my collection and coverted it for Fubar on my other laptop.

    Definitely falls into the category of "first world problems"!!!

  2. #62
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: South Wales

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    Quote Originally Posted by wee tee cee View Post
    Is there any sonic advantage?
    Can't answer that as I haven't tried it personally, you would like to think there would be as the laptop wouldn't be directly feeding the DAC. Laptops in my experience were always the worst thing to use for file based audio, being the hardest to 'quieten' down electrically - and a headless server the easiest/best. This gives you a simple and clean end point for Roon.

    Just offering up easy solutions for the Pi, which is what I thought you wanted?
    "People will hear what you tell them to hear" - Thomas Edison

  3. #63
    Join Date: Feb 2011

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    Thanks Tim.

    Just wondered if anyone was willing to say a pi sounded better than a lap top from experience.

    Otherwise I will stick with what I have.

  4. #64
    Join Date: Feb 2011

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    Well that's the six million dollar question, but I can answer from the experience of hearing a good Pi setup.

    If you were to take a standard laptop and match it against a properly configured Pi with a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) board like a HiFiBerry, then most definitely yes. A good power supply takes it even further. It's why people do it, if it wasn't worth the sonic boost, then nobody would

    Of course you could ring every last drop out of a laptop and you might come close, but you'd spend a lot of money on extras and need to be comfortable editing the registry. But from my experience, it still won't be as good sonically or from a value perspective.

    But then Pi folk are mental apparently - but aren't all geeks (me included)
    "People will hear what you tell them to hear" - Thomas Edison

  5. #65
    Join Date: Feb 2011

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    Tim,
    Our hobby to get the best sound in our listening room falls into geek status...I dont have a problem-take great pleasure from it to be honest.

    The digital side of things is my delivery system-looking to get the best out of it bang for buck.

    I love listening to music-greatly appreciate all the help ive had from members.

    Lap tops vary-my dell was electrically noisy,the acer better again, my sons mac pro incrementally better but not a grand better....hence my pi enquiries!

  6. #66
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Notts

    Posts: 2,741
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wee tee cee View Post
    Thanks Tim.

    Just wondered if anyone was willing to say a pi sounded better than a lap top from experience.

    Otherwise I will stick with what I have.
    Yes, much better. From my personal experience. It is also much cheaper than having to tie up a pc for audio. My desktop pc is in my home office and my notebook is wherever I happen to be working at the time. My listening room is on the first floor in a double bedroom.

    Geoff

  7. #67
    Join Date: Feb 2011

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    Quote Originally Posted by wee tee cee View Post
    ....hence my pi enquiries!
    Well I reckon just asking the question is the first step, there are oodles of options now, more everyday which are aimed at novice users. A wee bit of research, which although time consuming, could help identify the setup most suited to your needs. I'm sure you'd get help with whatever you choose, if you did decide to take the plunge.

    You could do a lot worse than having a peruse through The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel he's tried pretty much all the well known options.

    Give it a go I say, you know you want too . . . and us mental buggers will help prevent you from falling off the cliff
    "People will hear what you tell them to hear" - Thomas Edison

  8. #68
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Newcastle UK

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    I'm Rich.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim View Post
    Well that's the six million dollar question, but I can answer from the experience of hearing a good Pi setup.

    If you were to take a standard laptop and match it against a properly configured Pi with a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) board like a HiFiBerry, then most definitely yes. A good power supply takes it even further. It's why people do it, if it wasn't worth the sonic boost, then nobody would

    Of course you could ring every last drop out of a laptop and you might come close, but you'd spend a lot of money on extras and need to be comfortable editing the registry. But from my experience, it still won't be as good sonically or from a value perspective.

    But then Pi folk are mental apparently - but aren't all geeks (me included)
    They are.... Completely hatstand.

    I'd rather shove wasps up me bum than spend another minute of precious existence faffing around with that nonsense.

    One of these days... I'm going to cut you into little pieces.

  9. #69
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tim View Post
    I think those of us who consider tinkering with computers enjoyable and feel very comfortable doing it, forget that actually if it's something you aren't comfortable with, it's not as easy as we think it is.

    I used to use Linux all the time, I'm rusty now and to be honest I can't be arsed. I just want to play music these days.
    Quite. I have a unix administrator's certificate in the cupboard (from somewhere around 1991 but doubt it's changed much).

    A decent USB-SPDIF receiver will have galvanic isolation for the USB connection and probably reclocking of the signal as well - better than any on-board gizmo for a Pi. The effects of this should be measurable. This means any PC-related noise is essentially irrelevant and no need for fancy linear PSUs.

    The richness and robustness of the Mac or PC desktop interface available from the likes of JRiver or any of the other mainsteam Mac/PC apps is superior to anything you get from a browser-based interface (which is all you get from a Pi), while browser applications are available as well on the PC/Mac should you want/need them. I use a 9-year old Macbook with a solid state hard drive and its maximum RAM capacity, which runs a recent OS and indeed in performance is to me largely indistinguishable from the main far more modern Macbook I use on a daiy basis. It's controllable from iPhone and iPad apps as well if I need it to be. (Though I generally don't bother).

    Streaming remains an inferior way of interacting with music in my view (I much prefer vinyl where I can read the sleeve and not have to faff with pushing buttons on screen - I work in IT and spend my life in front of a screen, so it's the last thing I want to do in my leisure hours) but it's there, it's simple and all you really need is a USB-SPDIF interface and a DAC, or just a USB DAC. So it's pretty much there (plug and play - this plus a spotify account) and no need to worry about software versions, burning boot disks and faffing about with settings - set your wifi connection, plug the cable in and go.

    I had two RPis - one with a DAC board and the other with SPDIF - and it all just seemed like a pointless faff. If you enjoy the buggering about that's fine, it's a hobby after all, but there's precisely nothing about it that's superior to what you can do with a Mac (or indeed, a PC), and a good USB-SPDIF interface+DAC. The Pi may be a *cheaper* way of getting results but it's still a computer, just a very small and limited one, any notion of its superiority is just delusional.

  10. #70
    Join Date: May 2016

    Location: Notts

    Posts: 2,741
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by montesquieu View Post
    Quite. I have a unix administrator's certificate in the cupboard (from somewhere around 1991 but doubt it's changed much).

    A decent USB-SPDIF receiver will have galvanic isolation for the USB connection and probably reclocking of the signal as well - better than any on-board gizmo for a Pi. The effects of this should be measurable. This means any PC-related noise is essentially irrelevant and no need for fancy linear PSUs.

    The richness and robustness of the Mac or PC desktop interface available from the likes of JRiver or any of the other mainsteam Mac/PC apps is superior to anything you get from a browser-based interface (which is all you get from a Pi), while browser applications are available as well on the PC/Mac should you want/need them. I use a 9-year old Macbook with a solid state hard drive and its maximum RAM capacity, which runs a recent OS and indeed in performance is to me largely indistinguishable from the main far more modern Macbook I use on a daiy basis. It's controllable from iPhone and iPad apps as well if I need it to be. (Though I generally don't bother).

    Streaming remains an inferior way of interacting with music in my view (I much prefer vinyl where I can read the sleeve and not have to faff with pushing buttons on screen - I work in IT and spend my life in front of a screen, so it's the last thing I want to do in my leisure hours) but it's there, it's simple and all you really need is a USB-SPDIF interface and a DAC, or just a USB DAC. So it's pretty much there (plug and play - this plus a spotify account) and no need to worry about software versions, burning boot disks and faffing about with settings - set your wifi connection, plug the cable in and go.

    I had two RPis - one with a DAC board and the other with SPDIF - and it all just seemed like a pointless faff. If you enjoy the buggering about that's fine, it's a hobby after all, but there's precisely nothing about it that's superior to what you can do with a Mac (or indeed, a PC), and a good USB-SPDIF interface+DAC. The Pi may be a *cheaper* way of getting results but it's still a computer, just a very small and limited one, any notion of its superiority is just delusional.
    I'm sorry but once again you are just plain wrong on this. Please see the specs for this board and refer to the section on compatibility. I have this device and speak from first hand experience of both pc/mac solutions and pi solutions.

    https://allo.com/sparky/digione.html

    Geoff

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