View Full Version : Guess what I'll be doing this bank holiday weekend ... in fact I've started already
montesquieu
30-04-2015, 14:14
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x440/montesquieu61/RPI-1_zpskc7wnmyn.jpg (http://s1181.photobucket.com/user/montesquieu61/media/RPI-1_zpskc7wnmyn.jpg.html)
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x440/montesquieu61/RPI-2_zpsl8degaqo.jpg (http://s1181.photobucket.com/user/montesquieu61/media/RPI-2_zpsl8degaqo.jpg.html)
Using HifiBerry Digi+ board for SPDIF out to the Audio Note DAC.
Final shot for scale:
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x440/montesquieu61/RPI-3.pg_zpspptpozwc.jpg (http://s1181.photobucket.com/user/montesquieu61/media/RPI-3.pg_zpspptpozwc.jpg.html)
Blimey, that is tiny. Be careful you don't accidentally swallow it.
Will be interesting to know what you think, Tom. Plus, if you struggle with the set-up in any way, there are plenty of folks here to help :)
Marco.
Tom, did you go for the isolated (transformer) Digi board or the standard?
Wakefield Turntables
30-04-2015, 19:15
I want your STA100. :D
I've also went for the edimax dongle.
What you powering it with? I've got heaps of various Android chargers around the place and going to use one of them to get me up and running.
archiesdad
30-04-2015, 20:45
Unfortunately I don't work in a bank so I'll just need to go in for a days hard graft, some folk get more days off than they should, that is until I get some more too.
montesquieu
30-04-2015, 21:33
Unfortunately I don't work in a bank so I'll just need to go in for a days hard graft, some folk get more days off than they should, that is until I get some more too.
Well under £100 for this lot. PSU for now is a well overspecified (in terms of current) switch mode type, I'll do something fancier later most likely.
I've just hit my first bump in that my NAS does't have a suitable media server installed, means flashing some new firmware. My technical guru (proper German D.Ingenieur :) ) is in Berlin for the weekend so I won't see him till Tuesday (dammit).
I went for the transformer digi board as I've found transformer isolation a major plus in the digital domain - one of the main reasons the Audio Note kit works so well (I'm currently running a CDT2/II transport and Audio Note kit DAC upgraded to 4.1x spec. I'm even thinking of it as a first mod, putting an Audio Note transformer coil in. But first things first.
Ali Tait
01-05-2015, 04:42
Unfortunately I don't work in a bank so I'll just need to go in for a days hard graft, some folk get more days off than they should, that is until I get some more too.
Aye, I'm working the weekend and Monday too. :-(
tubehunter
01-05-2015, 06:07
Well under £100 for this lot. PSU for now is a well overspecified (in terms of current) switch mode type, I'll do something fancier later most likely.
I've just hit my first bump in that my NAS does't have a suitable media server installed, means flashing some new firmware. My technical guru (proper German D.Ingenieur :) ) is in Berlin for the weekend so I won't see him till Tuesday (dammit).
I went for the transformer digi board as I've found transformer isolation a major plus in the digital domain - one of the main reasons the Audio Note kit works so well (I'm currently running a CDT2/II transport and Audio Note kit DAC upgraded to 4.1x spec. I'm even thinking of it as a first mod, putting an Audio Note transformer coil in. But first things first.
Your NAS doesn't need any software installing on it.
The Pi only needs to be configured to see a shared drive/folder/directory on the Nas were your audio files are stored.
On Monday, I'll be having a beer or three with friends and former collegues at a CAMRA beer festival being hosted in my local recreation ground. :cool:
Being retired, every day is a holiday for me! :lol:
If it's a nice day we'll be going out for a run in the car to the country (possibly to Snowdonia), where we will explore around a few charming little towns, such as Bedgellert: http://www.beddgelerttourism.com/Guide-Snowdonia/
Then probably have a relaxing lunch in one of our favourite haunts: http://www.pyg.co.uk/index.htm
It's great having such beautiful places almost on your doorstep! :cool:
Marco.
I'll be doing what I always do :lol:
Playing with yer doobries? :D
Marco.
Hell, no! ... thank God. :eyebrows::lol:
walpurgis
01-05-2015, 23:25
I may be persuading a lady friend to do that for me. :D
montesquieu
01-05-2015, 23:29
Your NAS doesn't need any software installing on it.
The Pi only needs to be configured to see a shared drive/folder/directory on the Nas were your audio files are stored.
Hi Duncan that's really interesting - do you mean I can install something like Volumio on the SD card and off we go?
I may be persuading a lady friend to do that for me. :D
Which massage parlour does she work for? ;)
Marco.
walpurgis
01-05-2015, 23:41
Which massage parlour does she work for? ;)
Marco.
No massage parlour. She visits the elderly and helps out with 'stiffs'. :)
tubehunter
02-05-2015, 06:35
Hi Duncan that's really interesting - do you mean I can install something like Volumio on the SD card and off we go?
Yes that's correct.
I find Volumio the most stable closely followed by Runeaudio then Moode.
No massage parlour. She visits the elderly and helps out with 'stiffs'. :)
Ah, I've seen French films like that... :eyebrows:
Marco.
Hi montesquieu,
Apologies for going off topic but your pm thing is at capacity. I saw that you used to have a m2tech young dac and it sounds like you've replaced with some audionote kit. I've been thinking about doing the same myself as I've already built my own speakers and I'm building some ncore monoblocks at the moment. How easy are the kits to build and have you had any luck with the usb option?
montesquieu
07-05-2015, 22:01
Hi montesquieu,
Apologies for going off topic but your pm thing is at capacity. I saw that you used to have a m2tech young dac and it sounds like you've replaced with some audionote kit. I've been thinking about doing the same myself as I've already built my own speakers and I'm building some ncore monoblocks at the moment. How easy are the kits to build and have you had any luck with the usb option?
I didn't build the DAC myself (all the work was done by professionals) but I'm delighted with the sound .. the kit as I got it was roughly 3.1x spec (the 2.1x kit plus some extra blackgates and fancy resistors added around the place and the super-hiB transformers from the 3.1x spec). I later had fancier core material from the 4.1 swapped out at the transformers and the top end I/V transformers swapped in for the standard ones, at the same time I added some extra switchable inputs (I have four - one with a FET buffer, one RCA/SPDIF, one AES/EBU XLR, and one with a USB receiver board. The Musiland USB board worked fine with several PCs I tried it with but they never brought out a functioning Mac driver, which made it pretty much useless to me as I had been planning to use it with a Mac mini. Unless I can get it to work with the RPi then I think it's essentialy redundant. Though easily swapped out now I have everything else in place in terms of switches, additional regulators etc. (If I can be bothered).
The Young is a good DAC in terms of its ability with detail, but it's far behind the Audio Note when it comes to naturalness and musicality. There's a lot of nonsense (in my view) talked about DACs. All the focus is on the digital bells and whistles. Fun for techies maybe but the critical thing about a DAC is what it outputs to the preamp - opamps just don't cut it in my view compared to a proper tube output stage, tube rectified. The AN DACs from the 2.1x upwards are all transformer output, essentially Audio Note preamp stages in their own right. What £10 opamp can match that?
Cheers for the reply very interesting. Audionote are a strange one, the uk offices are literally down the road from me in Hove. I nearly bought their speaker kit but it was eye watering compared with the IPL acoustic ones and I thought there was a good chance the ipl speakers would end up just being a fun project so I didn't want to spend too much. Thing is they sound much better than my monitor audio speakers so I don't know how the audionote ones would have turned out. I've never listened to anything tube so maybe now is the time to try out some kit not sure how i go about that... I did wonder about buying a tube preamp to feed the young into when I had real listener fatigue problems but since building the new speakers the fatigue problem isn't such an issue.
g.
Young owner here.
Found that it REALLY benefits from a good linear power supply and (even bigger improvement) swapping out the horrible Caxon DC decoupling cap with a better one with much lower impedance and higher ripple current.
The stock cap was strangling the sound of the dac, swapping it out opened the dac right up.
I looked at upgrading my Dac a couple of years ago so took it to a local dealer to compare with others.
My modded Young sounded better in terms of musicality and boogie to a Naim Dac at the dealers, which (to me) was a bit flat and harsh sounding in comparison. The Youngs control in the bass and mid and detail was noticeable better than the Naim.
He got a bit embarrassed as he thought he had a sale, but did the Naim dealer thing by sticking a XPS power supply on his Dac, (3.5K) and even then it was more "different" than better.
Only Dac I've heard that I preferred to my Young was a Longdog valve output stage Dac, but there wasn't much in it and the difference was only really heard with Nick's new five grand preamp!
Was MAYBE going to go down the DSD Dac route...but decided it's not worth it as 24/96 done right is more than good enough.
So no plans to ever upgrade my Dac, short of a lottery win where I might pick up some DCS gear!
orbscure
09-05-2015, 08:37
Young owner here. Found that it REALLY benefits from a good linear power supply and (even bigger improvement) swapping out the horrible Caxon DC decoupling cap with a better one with much lower impedance and higher ripple current. The stock cap was strangling the sound of the dac, swapping it out opened the dac right up.
Sorry for the drift here chaps, but where did you get this mod done Gaz? I'd be very interested in getting mine done too :)
Pete
Aww Pete ya big copycat...
The Young, the Densen and now the mods! ;)
Local electronics guy did it for me mate, Tirna electronics based in Scottish Borders.
They were doing all the Beresford Dac mods back in the day.
I'll dig out the details and send you a PM.
It's a particular cap you need, requires taking the board out the Young and some intricate surface mounting soldering.
So definitely a job for the Pro's.
orbscure
09-05-2015, 12:54
Cheers Gaz...
337alant
10-05-2015, 14:20
Young owner here.
Found that it REALLY benefits from a good linear power supply and (even bigger improvement) swapping out the horrible Caxon DC decoupling cap with a better one with much lower impedance and higher ripple current.
The stock cap was strangling the sound of the dac, swapping it out opened the dac right up.
+1 for that Gaz
Built my own Power supply and replaced the de-coupling cap serious upgrade to my Young Dac haven't found a replacement that sounds better yet?
Alan
montesquieu
10-05-2015, 14:30
+1 for that Gaz
Built my own Power supply and replaced the de-coupling cap serious upgrade to my Young Dac haven't found a replacement that sounds better yet?
Alan
Yes I did all that too and there's no doubt the Young benefits from a linear PSU.. I'm not knocking the Young (it's a formidable bit of kit) but I actually replaced it with a humble Audio Note DAC 0.1x (which has both tube output and USB input), which while not as full-feaured as the Young in the digital stakes sounded far more natural to my ears. That was a narrow win ... by contrast, my current AN DAC is a no-contest (as you'd expect it to be given the price differential).
I didn't mention actually I did buy a linear power supply for my m2tech:-
http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76_77&products_id=392
it did make a massive difference and for the moment I'm just enjoying my system as I just built some ncore power amps and it's been a big upgrade. I looked around at audionote builds and saw some interesting threads about a dac called dddac:-
http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread.php?88548-Very-good-sounding-Dac-kit
so i may build this, or may be the soekris dam dac.
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