Interesting thread, guys. I've been intrigued by the Pi since recently hearing one as the main source at the Neat speakers room at October's Toronto audio show. The rep, a very nice fellow from the company's UK HQ, was very keen on it. It sounded excellent. And I must say it sounded quite a bit better than his previous source (PC and DAC) that I heard at the 2017 show, playing through the same speakers. The latter made the tweeter in the speakers (Iota Explorer) sound brittle and harsh, but all was sweet using the Pi. Pretty remarkable difference.
A few questions, if you don't mind (and pardon my lack of knowledge here; I'm starting where Oliver was a few weeks ago...
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What are the options for user interface? PC or Mac? Tablet?
Does it sound better than a simple PC --> DAC --> Preamp setup? Reason for this question is that I already have a couple of surplus laptops, and could easily buy a simple good quality DAC for reasonable money and be done with it...plug and play, basically. But if sound quality is superior, then I'd go for the Pi.
Speaking of preamps, mine only has unbalanced RCA inputs - how do I connect a Pi to this?
And speaking of sound quality, have any of the CD players you're comparing it to been modded in any way? i.e. discrete clock boards, op amps, etc.? I have a modded Teac VRDS-10 which had these upgrades done, and it sounds outstanding. It would be interesting to know a bit more about your CD players, just as a frame of reference.
Thanks, and regards,
Svend