First Impressions Caiman Seg with Rpi 2 and HiFiBerry Digi

[AJSki2fly]

Well on Saturday the Caimab Seg arrived with Dorada on several members advise I opted for the Dorado as well. So it was duly connected up, initially to the Mac by optical and I used Audirvana to play some known tracks, wow quite impressive even though I was only running at 192kHz. I then hooked up my Meridian 508 CD player using optical to the Seg, I put on several cds and was able to just switch between optical and analogue from the CD player and yes the SEG is better, difficult to describe but in simple language more realistic. Bearing in mind that Meridian did all that was possible with the 508 with 24bit and over sampling at the time of its design it is quite impressive that the SEG betters it. Also the SEG had hardly had any time to settle down and burn in.

Next was to choose a piece of music that I had as MP3, AiF, standard CD, mofi CD and FLAC and compare each played through the SEG. I chose Supertramp - Crime of the Century. Comparison were done playing MP3 and Aif, straight from iTunes, then Audirvana, and then FLAC. So the result here was Audvirana was a definite improvement over iTunes whether MP3 or AIF, and FLAC beat them all, the FLAC is 192kHz.

The CD experience was interesting the standard CD analogue playback was lowest in SQ, then the Mofi played analogue, the best rendition was the Mofi through the SEG. The standard CD played through the SEG was close to the analogue MOFI rendition. Comparing the Mofi CD played through the SEG to the purchased hi-res FLAC files it was a close run thing but I would say the FLAC had slightly more detail. One that is clear from this is the Caiman SEG does an excellent job.

Yesterday the RaspberryPi with HiFiBerry Digi arrived, purchased from Sherwood(Geoff), I took this route as it enable me to get going within my budget. I did look at higher spec DACs but I can always upgrade later.

So after a bit of faffing around I had the RPI up and running and connected with Volumio but I could not for the life of me connect to my NAS drive, Volumio just kept reporting CIFS errors. So after 2 hours of frustration searching the net and trying SSH commands in terminal, I was still unable to mount the NAS. Then by luck I came across a discussion thread on a forum where a user had the same issue, he had solved it by entering into the NAS connection options in Volumio “vers=1.0”, and just like magic it immediately connected. To say I was pleased was an understatement.

Apparently the issues is likely to be a bug in Volumio 2 not parsing the unix parameters correctly, so this is worth noting, it was also suggested to try “vers=2.0”.

First impressions of Rpi and HiFiBerry Digi are rather good, certainly as good as CD and better with Hi-Res input. I have done some straight comparisons between Audvirana and Volumio playing the same files and I have come to this conclusion at present. Using Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie FLAC 24bit 96kHz if in Audirvana in preferences you go above the original sample rate then this pushes the rendering and crackles can occur. However by keeping to the same 96kHz and taking care on the upsampling can produce a very good rendition. I would say that with optimised settings Audvirana produces a better rendition than Volumio. However I am very impressed with Volumio as it rarely glitches on playback. Also I have set up several free FLAC level radio stations and this morning I listen to a good 2 hours of Jazz, most impressive very natural sounding. I have noticed that the rendering has become slightly warmer I’ve the last day, so this confirms the burn in recommended by Stan.

So to sum up I am rather pleased with the end result, it all sound rather nice. I just need to re-rip some CDs as FLAC or Apple Lossless using XLD to do a better job.

Finally I would like to thank all the members here who gave me advice on how to get going. I would like to especially thank Geoff(Sherwood) he was most helpful and Ken that I got up and running and enjoyed the experience. Also a big thanks to Stan who gave me several options and answered several questions, which may have seemed a bit daft to him, a great service.

[struth]

now try audirvana out to the rpi. it will be better.

[AJSki2fly]

now try audirvana out to the rpi. it will be better.

I think that is what I have done I have selected UPnP Volumio as Audio Device.

Or do you mean to connect the Mac straight to the Rpi with USB?

[struth]

I think that is what I have done I have selected UPnP Volumio as Audio Device.

Or do you mean to connect the Mac straight to the Rpi with USB?

no, ok then you should be ok.. the way you described i thought yo were playing out of pc only or out of volumio only..:)

[Sherwood]

I think from our conversation that you have already done what Grant is suggesting: connecting to the Rpi/Hifiberry DIGI through AV by selecting it as the audio output under the AV menu.

Just as an aside, you will find that Audivarna can "cast" to many devices. My LG tvs are smart TVs and show up as PnP options under AV. Very useful to be able to stream to Tidal in the bedroom and listen to some late night chill out music.


Geoff

[struth]

I think from our conversation that you have already done what Grant is suggesting: connecting to the Rpi/Hifiberry DIGI through AV by selecting it as the audio output under the AV menu.

Just as an aside, you will find that Audivarna can "cast" to many devices. My LG tvs are smart TVs and show up as PnP options under AV. Very useful to be able to stream to Tidal in the bedroom and listen to some late night chill out music.


Geoff

yes, although you would probably be best with the av remote on ipad which is quite decent, and faster than my program at displaying covers

[AJSki2fly]

I think from our conversation that you have already done what Grant is suggesting: connecting to the Rpi/Hifiberry DIGI through AV by selecting it as the audio output under the AV menu.

Just as an aside, you will find that Audivarna can "cast" to many devices. My LG tvs are smart TVs and show up as PnP options under AV. Very useful to be able to stream to Tidal in the bedroom and listen to some late night chill out music.


Geoff

Yes I have just tried it to our Panasonic plasma, which is hooked up to a Yamaha AV surround sound reliever and amazingly it just works, very cool.


yes, although you would probably be best with the av remote on iPad which is quite decent, and faster than my program at displaying covers

Yes I have the apps on my iPad for both Audirvana and Volumio, makes it easy to control what going on.

[AJSki2fly]

I have had my set for a several days and I thought I would give my thoughts for those thinking of doing similar.

1. I am quite amazed at the general high SQ from this set up, and I do realise that it could probably be improved o with a better Spdif DAC, but that can wait. It has re-kindled my interest in listening to music from a digital source, I had generally given up unless from hi-quality CDs and using high quality CD player.

2. SQ from hi-res FLAC is very good nearing analogue, and in the best cases difficult to hear a difference to a good hi quality vinyl played on my system, well for my ears anyway. That is quite statement to make I know as I love vinyl.

3. I having been using Audvirvana and Volumio, Audirvana I find can produce better SQ, especially if you tweak the DSD and over-sampling setting until you max out for the capability of your PC/MAC. Having said that Volumio 2 is also very good and is simple to use and has some great features, such as web radio stations.

4. I have added hi-res Radio to Volumio a and these are well worth trying out, and its free, BBC can be found at https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/127134-high-quality-320kbps-streams-for-all-bbc-radio-stations/ and others at http://radiobit.50webs.com just right click on the link for the one you want to get the url link for the radio station, then copy and paste into Volumio.

5. Finally there is some very expensive digital gear out there, and my solution which was recommended to me by others is IMO and extremely good VFM one. It goes to show you do not need to spend thousands to get a very good result sometimes.

6. I am trialing Tidal for 3 months in Audvirana and find it has a good mix and catalogue, I will probably keep it going. If necessary and I want to purchase I can use Qobuz, 7Digital, or HighResAudio to get what I want. I find Tidal excellent to listen to new music before purchasing and also for casual listening to playlists and genres. I have tried Spotify previously but have found it disappointing. I will continue to use iTunes to store music at ALAC(ripped CDs and copies of higher downloads) for general out and about listening, this is mainly as I have Apple gear, but I will be killing the Apple Music Sub, which I do not use much anyway, the £9.99/mnth can go towards the Tidal sub, much better VFM IMO.

So if you are thinking of going down the digital streaming route then dip your toe in with a RaspberryPi and a suitable DAC to connect to your amp be it digitally or RCA connected, or if you want a very good result from the start you won't go far wrong with a Caiman SEG. Try Volumio to start and if you like the result and want better then trial Audirvana.

[Pepperamip]

Hi Adrian, good write up on this. I'm in a very similar position to you except I have the digione you was considering but I am minus the Dorado (at the moment at least but I will be buying it at some stage)

I also want a dual linear psu for the pi and my minix u1 so this should also improve things slightly and remove one more plug from my system.

I only introduced the digione into my system late last night so no serious listening done as yet for me but what I did hear sounded mightily impressive. Just gotta sort Tidal out now and I'll be ready for a serious comparison test.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Adrian, good write up on this. I'm in a very similar position to you except I have the digione you was considering but I am minus the Dorado (at the moment at least but I will be buying it at some stage)

I also want a dual linear psu for the pi and my minix u1 so this should also improve things slightly and remove one more plug from my system.

I only introduced the digione into my system late last night so no serious listening done as yet for me but what I did hear sounded mightily impressive. Just gotta sort Tidal out now and I'll be ready for a serious comparison test.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

Hi Paul,

I think you will possibly become addicted to it, I know I am. The DigiOne I believe is a pretty good player so you should get a very good result. Are you running Volumio on the DigiOne? I would give this a go if not, also trial Audirvana if you can, and then you will get 3 months free trial of Tidal and Qobuz. If you decide you do not like Audirvana and want to use Tidal or Qobuz you can upgrade Volumio on MyVolumio to a subscription monthly or yearly and then it embeds Volumio and or Qobuz, it not too expensive considering what you get.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

Adrian

PS I notice we have a similar set up, I to have a Tisbury passive pre-amp, and feed Valve Amps, I also considered Klipsch speakers but ended up with the Impluse H2 Horns.

[Pepperamip]

I've been listening to my volumio'd digione since Sat night and to say I'm underwhelmed at the moment is a understatement.

Inititally I thought it might be switching from Spotify to Tidal. When it was just my CCA I had both running and for some reason preferred what was being produced from Spotify over Tidal (which I am now listening to through BubbleUpnp)

However even just playing flacs directly off a hard drive isn't giving me what I was expecting (which is at least as good as the CCA was) To my ears the soundstage is more closed in and the separation of instruments isn't as obvious.

I bought my digione player second hand so assumed it was burnt in but possibly it isn't (the seller did say it was in a second system and was barely used but I took that with a pinch of salt being the untrusting soul i am)

Also, in using the Caiman Seg's coax input for the 1st time should I expect this to require a period of burn in?

I am using an old Cambridge Audio digital coax but it seems well made to me oh and the digione is being powered off a cheap wall wart (soon to be changed)

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[StanleyB]

If I may make a suggestion: try the Dorado and the SEG-30 firmware with the SEG. That combination is unbeatable in terms of opening up the soundstage. You should hear the difference within a minute or so. So no lengthy burn in required as an initial response. The usual money back guarantee applies if the product doesn't do as I just described, untrusting soul or not.

[Pepperamip]

Stan, I will be purchasing a Dorado without fail but thought I would start from source and work my way down.

My trust issues mainly lie with fleabay then the good people of AoS

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[hidalgo]

I am using an old Cambridge Audio digital coax but it seems well made to me oh and the digione is being powered off a cheap wall wart (soon to be changed)

The DigiOne is sensitive to the RPi power supply quality, so I would definitely try changing that. I use the digital coax cable that Stan sells and have never looked further.

I also found that the SEG-7 firmware sounded best in the first mode with the DigiOne (Mode-0 = S/PDIF clock signal) when I was running that version. I'm now using the Dorado with SEG-30 firmware and I like mode-3.

[Pepperamip]

The DigiOne is sensitive to the RPi power supply quality, so I would definitely try changing that. I use the digital coax cable that Stan sells and have never looked further.

I also found that the SEG-7 firmware sounded best in the first mode with the DigiOne (Mode-0 = S/PDIF clock signal) when I was running that version. I'm now using the Dorado with SEG-30 firmware and I like mode-3.

Didn't even consider the Seg modes, in fact I forgot all about them! Thanks for reminding me, I'll give this a go tonight. I'll also be doing some A/B testing between the CCA and Digione with identical tracks and see where I get with that too.

[Pepperamip]

I was wrong about the digione v CCA.

I did the a/b testing with identical tracks played through both sources one after the other and no additional changes with my system made in between. The digione is far more revealing in almost every aspect. Wider and deeper soundstage, clearer vocals, superior separation of instruments and just a more involving sound as a whole. I obviously jumped the gun with my initial impressions which is a little embarrassing I might add but that's hifi I suppose. These improvments were observed by all three of us listening at the time.

Roll on the arrival of the Dorado and Seg-30 Firmware.

[Sherwood]

I was wrong about the digione v CCA.

I did the a/b testing with identical tracks played through both sources one after the other and no additional changes with my system made in between. The digione is far more revealing in almost every aspect. Wider and deeper soundstage, clearer vocals, superior separation of instruments and just a more involving sound as a whole. I obviously jumped the gun with my initial impressions which is a little embarrassing I might add but that's hifi I suppose. These improvments were observed by all three of us listening at the time.

Roll on the arrival of the Dorado and Seg-30 Firmware.

I have the Digione and was very puzzled by your earlier observations. The Dorado further enhances the Digione performance with some of the deepest and most textured bass I have heard.

[Alp]

I was wrong about the digione v CCA.

I did the a/b testing with identical tracks played through both sources one after the other and no additional changes with my system made in between. The digione is far more revealing in almost every aspect. Wider and deeper soundstage, clearer vocals, superior separation of instruments and just a more involving sound as a whole. I obviously jumped the gun with my initial impressions which is a little embarrassing I might add but that's hifi I suppose. These improvments were observed by all three of us listening at the time.

Roll on the arrival of the Dorado and Seg-30 Firmware.

I have the DigiOne/SEG-30/Dorado and they sound excellent. I power my RPI3+ with a battery. I had used the USB output but recently bought a 12V-5V down converter (£5 on e-bay from China) so it is now powered from the 12V output of my battery. To my surprise it made a significant difference bringing more realism. I look forward to Stan's Dorado for the RPI...