'Analog Dinosaur' succumbs to the joys of FBA : enter Raspberry Pi 2/IQ-Audio DAC+!!

[User211]

Anyone tried using a PI 2 with an A2DP dongle and streaming from a Bluetooth laptop?
A) This is possible and there are a few walk throughs on the web. However if you expect zero latency walk away.

If you can get that functionality on a pre-configured SD card then you have something unique on the market. A second or two's latency doesn't bother me - not trying to sync with TV sound (my Samsung has a latency compensator anyway) or anything.

I was just fishing for more info I actually found a couple of posts Googling the other night on other sites.

I'm going to have to buy one if only to play with it Not interested in the amp or DAC, but may buy the DAC just to see how good it really is.

[Desmo]

I'm going to have to buy one if only to play with it Not interested in the amp or DAC, but may buy the DAC just to see how good it really is.

Yes I think a few people are looking to have a play. I really don't need another DAC (I already have 3), but I'm getting interested in this as a project.

[mikmas]

Great informative post from Gordon - especially the details of the hardware/software volume set up (even if still a little confusing...) Good to see that I was right about the existence of an on-chip analogue gain.

Would be interesting to see what other designers do with this TI DAC chip and the possibilities it offers using it's onboard amplification with the brakes off .........

[NRG]

Nice one, Neal. How are you getting on now things have had a chance to bed in?

Marco.

I'm still experimenting Marco but it sounds quite good in the office.

The reason I'm getting all excited about the RPi concept is it's so simple now to swap over an SD card an boot into a completely different solution.

For instance I've just downloaded and installed SqueezePlug-Max2Play. While Volumio looks good its no use if you are a long time SB user with a number of players around the house and you wish to keep them.

With Squeezeplug-Max2Play on the RPi it can run the LMS server s/w and at the same time act as a squeezebox player (using SqueezeLite) plus I can point our Kitchen based SB Radio at it and also my Office SB MKII…It supports Airplay from the Mac and LMS has a plugin for Spotify and iPlayer etc. So functionality wise its sorted.

What I'm hoping for now is sound quality that at least equals my current heavily modded SBMKII, I suspect this will be achieved with the IQaudio DAC+ board and possibly a linear PSU. If this is indeed the case I can free up some real-estate as the RPi is heck of a lot smaller than my re-housed SB, Bushmaster MKII and battery pack!

[r100]

Hi All, just remembered that there is a ready built solution with a high end DAC and a Raspberry all packaged into a nice aluminum box... The price is pretty steep though but it is a very good DAC.. here it is

http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/appare...ac-p-9009.html

[montesquieu]

I'm getting very confused by all this.

Most people have DACs already. In most cases, rather good ones. And in any event, most digital sounds the same, so any DAC will only be as good as its preamp functionality (I'm been down this route before of voltage output ... people start of thinking its wonderful, amazing lovely sound right from a circuit board ... then after some months they add a transformer to match impedance... or a sold state buffer ... or a tube output stage to make it sound better).

Surely the market here is in the streaming part of the device - the interface between files stored on a network, and output of AES/EBU, SPDIF, or USB output to a DAC? Squeezebox area of the market?

What if I don't need or want an integrated DAC?

[WAD62]

Ah, sounds like it's recognising WIFI networks but not connecting properly. Dongle makers have a nasty habit of changing chipsets between different hardware versions of the same product. Does using "lsusb -v" at the command line give any clue what chipset your dongle actually has, and what driver is being loaded? The command "lsmod | grep 81*" should give the answer the second question. You say you have a .tz driver, what exaclty is that file and where was that taken from?

If you only want to use Squeezelite player, do you have particular reason not to use the picoreplayer?

Hi Chris, I think your prognosis is pretty close...my reason for trying the Squeezeplug/Max2play distro was the potential of setting it all up without the hassle of a monitor, and but for the WiFi issue all else seemed well...time to drag the monitor to the Pi

[Desmo]

I'm getting very confused by all this.

Most people have DACs already. In most cases, rather good ones.

....

Surely the market here is in the streaming part of the device - the interface between files stored on a network, and output of AES/EBU, SPDIF, or USB output to a DAC? Squeezebox area of the market?

What if I don't need or want an integrated DAC?

And indeed I already use a Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 device which is a combined streamer/DAC - there are many other such devices out there. I think the unique feature here is price/performance rather than something inherently new.

As I said elsewhere on this thread, I already have 3 DACs (and a couple of streamers if it comes to that), this just sounds like an interesting project to me. Nothing wrong with that.

[Krisbee]

Hi Chris, I think your prognosis is pretty close...my reason for trying the Squeezeplug/Max2play distro was the potential of setting it all up without the hassle of a monitor, and but for the WiFi issue all else seemed well...time to drag the monitor to the Pi

Have you tried picoreplayer? Otherwise, if you can connect via ethernet cable and get to the RPI command line via SSH, there should be no need to attach it to a monitor etc just yet.

[WAD62]

Have you tried picoreplayer? Otherwise, if you can connect to your RPi via SSH, there should be no need to attach it to a monitor etc just yet.

Not yet...and R.E. putty, fair point well made...