Streamer Suggestions

[narabdela]

Yeah, they're not really opinions, but facts... On both accounts.

In your opinion.

[Bencat]

I would agree that streamers can and do sound different . The thing for me is that this difference is quite subtle and very quickly forgotten about after about an hours playing . I have found that the power supply made the largest difference and adding a good LPSU to power a Raspberry Pi 4 8gb brought its sound quality very close to many current and expensive streamers. Recently I was able to buy a used LIV Zen which is the streamer before Innous became Innous . They used Vortexbox as the Distro and this in turn uses Logitech Media Server which is Ideal as that matches all the players in my various systems . Using the the SMPS 12 V power supply and the the difference between the Pi with LPSU was just too close to be identified . Using a decent but not wildly expensive 12 V 5 Amp LPSU (£150) and the LIV Zen was quite clearly quieter with less background noise . This is what I currently use and it now has an 8 TB hard drive so lots of room for additional music . It is very steady and reliable and just works . I doubt very much unless I get a large lottery win that I will ever consider spending out more on a streamer . A new DAC , ah well thats different I find these very addictive and I am sure at some point I will but another .

[AJSki2fly]

Are they fact facts or alternative facts? I'm a big fan of the Raspberry Pi and have several of them. Unfortunately, even with a good audio board connected, they do not sound as good to my ears as a dedicated streamer. These days, the Pi situation means that they are not even that affordable.

I completely agree Geoff.

A RPI is a very good VFM solution, especially of you select a good HAT such a HiFiBerry Digi+ and feed a good DAC, I presume that with a good DAC card(£200-300) plugged into a RPI then very good results would be got as well. I did a small mod and feed power direclyt to the Digi+ from a linear PSU, no need to feed power to the RPI, it then gets power direct avoiding noisy circuit switching(don't know tech term) on the RPI board. The result is pretty good IMHO. I have toyed with and looked at various Streamers like a Novafidelity and Lumin D2, but just can't come to justifying the outlay for how much I would use it, at the moment anyway.

I listen with Volumio/Qobuz as have found Qobuz gives best SQ for streaming, one caveat this really depends on from what the streamed data file is sourced, and if it has been re-mixed, even some hi-res streams I do not like. I have done various comparisons, between SACDs and Hi-res data files, CDs and CD-res files and there are some differences, mainly depth of the soundstage and bass definition, but TBH it is not a huge difference although generally I prefer the SACD renditions, they just seem right.

I have read on other forums that replacing the Ethernet with fibre optic from the ADSL router to the RPI can make an improvement by removing noise, but them with the cable and Ethernet to digital converters at each end and 5v linear PSUs it all adds up to £200-300. Once again I find it hard to justify especially when I do not know how much noise is already coming with the streamed data anyway, that's before my router. We should be getting direct fibre optical later in the year, so it will be interest if that improves SQ much.

[Gazjam]

We should be getting direct fibre optical later in the year, so it will be interest if that improves SQ much.

Adrian,
you might be in for a nice upgrade there.

I was with Virgin, and changed to BT, which was full fiber into the Home.
Improvment all things streaming picture and sound quality via AppleTV.

Use YouTube and Apple Music a lot, and nice boost in sound quality there.


Be interested in how you get on when the time comes.

[AJSki2fly]

Adrian,
you might be in for a nice upgrade there.

I was with Virgin, and changed to BT, which was full fiber into the Home.
Improvment all things streaming picture and sound quality via AppleTV.

Use YouTube and Apple Music a lot, and nice boost in sound quality there.


Be interested in how you get on when the time comes.

That's what I hope, hopefully by early August, Jurassic Fibre (a bit of an oxymoron) installed it a couple of months ago in the street, but does not go live till mid July, we are on the list for it. Will be slightly cheaper than existing Vodafone.

A couple of blocks in hi-vis were wandering about last week, one of the telephone point is on the edge of front garden, I asked what they were up to? The answer was "We from Airband and are surveying for Fibre Optic install, contracted as part of government initiative in South West". I asked "Will you use the existing fibre optic Jurassic Coast install", reply "We will approach them but they will want lease fees, so Airband will just install their own in that case.". That will mean more road digging up and probable fibre optic redundancy in the near future, total utter madness. Bloody government could not organised a piss up in a brewing. The two chaps, ex BT, said it was like the Fibre Optic Wild West, companies springing up everywhere, getting government grants, doing installs and then not getting enough take up, especially where there are older or less affluent communities, and then they liquidate, but the directors have already made their money, some even start another FO venture. We are going to have some very pissed off people in our village if they have road and pavements dug up and second time.

[Gazjam]

Yup.

Its a nightmare, a nightmare with no Gov. oversight.

[MisterKevster]

+1 for the RPi solution!!

To be fair...this is my 1st foray into streaming. I'm playing locally stored files using MoOde, and not making use of any streaming services.
Connecting via usb to a Topping E30.....have to say I'm well impressed with results so far

What advantages may/would there be in adding a 'hat' to the Pi ?(It's an RPi4/4gb)

Would love to be educated on this ....

[Bencat]

I have used Raspberry Pi as my Media Server and as Players throughout my music systems . Logitech Media System has been the back bone since I bought a Squeezebox Touch many years ago . The only advantage of using a Digihat which has in most cases SPDIF / TOSLINK outputs is that you do not have to use USB as a connection . Lots of people say that USB is the best connection for music but in my experience this has never been the case . USB to sound good has to have a DCC in place to break the ground connection and stop noise being bled into the digital chain . USB can and does sound good if there is serious engineering gone in to both send and receive end . Innous are supposed to have done major work on their streamers fro the USB output which is great . Then that signal is sent to a DAC or other unit which may have a very cheap off the shelf USB input fitted and all the work done is wasted . SPDIF in paticular if using 75 ohm BNC output and input works very well but even using RCA coaxial it sounds good . This is what a Digihat gives you . Pi,s are wonderful things but they are incredibly cheap for what they do so they are not the quietest or most high spec of units . Using a Digi hat takes the internal i2s feed and then sends that out via the SPDIF/TOSLINK connections so it will already be quieter and less subject to CPU issues than sound from the Pi board . In my view the best Digihat for sound quality is Allo Digione Signature but that is a costly item and needs a dual power supply to work . The Allo Digione is great as well but if your DAC does not have BNC input then you will need to use an adapter at one end. Just Boom , HifiBerry both also offer Digihats and each of them while not being the very best will still offer an upgrade in sound quality against direct sound out of the Pi via USB .

[MisterKevster]

Thanks for the extensive reply.....you've got me thinkin' now!!
My reason for going to the Pi for audio in the first place....was the horrendous noise that my PC was introducing into the mix.
Only switching PC off altogether can I get rid of the audible puther.

The PC is part of my 'theatre' system. Video is HDMI'd to the TV. TV audio then sent to an AV amp, via both ARC and Toslink.
(selecting either of those makes no difference) Main L/R audio is then picked up at the AV preamp outputs...then sent to my system Preamp. So....system does heavy lifting for main L/R.....and AV amp does the rest.

I've tried to isolate the fault....and always have failed.
The only way to eliminate PC noise....is to switch PC OFF altogether.

The RPi/DAC combination works well....as long as PC remains OFF.

Is there a clever way of isolating PC from the rest of the system?
......Perhaps I should've started a new thread????