A Mini Digital Bake Off (digione v usb audio)

[Pepperamip]

My brother came over last night and with him brought a kindle fire loaded with usb audio player and an otg usb cable to go between the tablet and my caiman seg.

My digital set up right now is using BubbleuPnP to play tidal through Volumio on my rpi/digione.

He was pretty confident it would outdo the digione as i am only currently getting 44.1khz due to rpi/volumio limitations (need to decide which piece of hardware im going to use to run Audirvarna on but i will save that conversation for another day. It will at the very least be trialled at some point)

We loaded up some familiar tracks on both devices and did some back to back tests flicking the input of the seg from usb to coaxial and back again.

It was very close run thing at first i think we both needed to get into the comparing frame of mind but we soon came to the conclusion that digione seemed to have a deeper and wider soundstage. Seperation was more apparent through the digione and it just seemed more textured and 3 dimensional if that makes sense. Bass seemed more controlled too and possibly a little deeper. The differences were by no means night and day but it was there and obvious.

Got a bit worried there for a minute thought my digione was about to be undone by a cheap player with a clever android app. The digione is staying for now!




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[Jimbo]

Surprised the Kindle set up came close to be honest.

[Sherwood]

Surprised the Kindle set up came close to be honest.

I don't think you have set up your RPi/Digione correctly. It is capable of superb performance and should blow the Kindle away.

Geoff

[Pepperamip]

Geoff i think youve got used to using av with the digione if you pull that and use it up against a usb player with the usb playing 96kh and the digione playing 44.1 its not as massive a difference as you might think.

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[Sherwood]

Geoff i think youve got used to using av with the digione if you pull that and use it up against a usb player with the usb playing 96kh and the digione playing 44.1 its not as massive a difference as you might think.

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Paul,

it is true that AV further improves on the RPI/Digione performance but I ran the latter without AV for about 16 months. Even without AV the Digione sounds very smooth and detailed with an extremely low "noise floor". It was a big improvement on my previous set up (Hifiberry DIGI+) which was already very good.

Geoff

[Pepperamip]

Geoff i agree, as the night wore on the differences became more apparent and for me the initial assessment of it being fairly close definately changed and not just for odd track.

It was an easy test to set up just helps to confirm Im on the right track and not all things digital are equal.



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[Silent]

I'd be interested to see/hear the results of a test between rpi/digione and google chromecast audio (both using Tidal)

[Sherwood]

I'd be interested to see/hear the results of a test between rpi/digione and google chromecast audio (both using Tidal)

I have both (2 Chromecasts in fact) and a Premium Tidal subscription. The Chromecast is very good (using the optical out connection) and amazing vfm. However, it falls far short of the Rpi/Digione.

This is true in terms of every aspect of performance.

Geoff

[Silent]

I have both (2 Chromecasts in fact) and a Premium Tidal subscription. The Chromecast is very good (using the optical out connection) and amazing vfm. However, it falls far short of the Rpi/Digione.

This is true in terms of every aspect of performance.

Geoff

I was unimpressed with the rpi even when using lossless files but I think could be due to the DAC I have for it: Kuman PIFI Digi DAC+ HIFI DAC Audio Sound Card Module I2S interface for Raspberry pi 3 2 Model B B+ Digital Audio Card Pinboard V2.0 Board SC08 (SC07+Acrylic Case) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DD94D..._Y-czCbWD70JDQ

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[struth]

tis a digi board not a dac. what dit you put it into?