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

[The Black Adder]

sure, I meant streaming files which is, I suppose a form of download. Each to his own as you say.

Ah... righto. Terminology eh... lol

Streaming is cool when it works well. The Pi thingie is interesting me though I must admit.

What will happen to CD though?... In a way it seems a shame for it to just vanish like Cassettes etc did.

[The Black Adder]

Looks cool, Marco.

Do you know what the little microswitch is for on the dac?

[NRG]

Have you seen the price of some of those 24bit downloads Jo Shared file stuff on HDD etc are not always what you think your getting either. Some stuff purporting to be 24bit or DSD or even 16 bit are in fact far lower bit rates. When you buy the physical stuff you can be sure what your getting

Indeed, there's been a couple of threads over on PFM about HiRes files it seems some are not really HiRes at all!

[r100]

Marco - having got interested in FBA, but not yet done anything about it, I came accross this thread.

I have read large chunks of it but find very little detail about what is involved in the way data is handled that makes this system in anyway better than any other.

The number of acronyms means I have to keep going and finding out what is being talked about.
As I see it the Rassperry Pi is a small computer to which you have attached external drives by cat5 cable (your music library) how is this streaming?

I can not see any hard drive on the Pi (got me at it now) does it store its operating system on a flash drive and what is the operating system?

The on board DAC looks tiny, are you just taking the analogue output from this to your amp?
What type of data is the DAC working with and what is the interface (transfer method) USB bus?

The more I look at FBA the less I want to dip my toe in, seems there is so much happening I don't know which way to jump, eg DSD/1bit, kernel streaming etc.

I have an old desk top computer sat with iTunes and about 500 gig of lossles music on it. Its not wired into my system at the moment and rather than bother with it I was looking to build a state of the art FBA system. Like all things audio, it would seem there are many roads to choose from and no consensus on which is best.
The argument over which interface software or library software to use seems to me to be a sideline and has little to do with sound quality and is more about convenience and personal preference. The whole subject is complex and hard to keep pace with in my opinion and detracts from enjoying the music.

Still on the fence.

The price of a Raspi with a DAC on it is around 100$. You can add a HD (USB) or a NAS (network) to put your library on. The Ethernet cable is to connect the Raspi to your network. The DAC is usually connected to the Raspi via I2S. The RCA out from the DAC goes into your volume control / amp. Not much risk involved IMO.

[mikmas]

I enjoy music in whatever form it's delivered - I also take photos and have done for along as I've been collecting music.

People tell me that both of my pursuits can now be taken care of by immersing myself in the cloud and bunging it all there and if I really want a physical copy storage is cheap as chips and I can take my pick. I have been doing both for some time now and both have let me down badly more times than I care to mention. Ever tried accessing a file from 't web when the servers, farms or whatever are 'closed for maintenance'? - or tried recovering files from a hard drive or a ripped CD that has inexplicably given up the ghost with no warning? - or tried accessing a file in a format that your latest OS upgrade decided not to support?

Of course you have - we all have !!!

I have every photo I took on real film (positive or negative) stored in books and boxes that I can look at or print at will and I have LPs that I bought decades ago that I can play whenever I want - a power cut notwithstanding

Digital is fine and I have no problem with it and I have embraced computers willingly since I first bought a Sinclair ZX81 and tried to get it to display a ping pong game - but to pretend that it is an unfailing 'problem-free' nirvana and 'the only possible way forward' is sticking your head in the sand big time ..... the future of technology is never as certain as we may think (and I've lived through too many 'next big things' to think otherwise...)

[walpurgis]

Nice summary Mike. I agree with what you've said.

[tubehunter]

Looks cool, Marco.

Do you know what the little microswitch is for on the dac?

HAT EEPROM Write Enable

[Marco]

Hi Dunc,

How do I get Spotify to work? Can you give me a bell, mate? Either that, or PM me

Marco.

[struth]

HAT EEPROM Write Enable

Well, thats cleared that up

[r100]

Just a few pic-choors of the FBA set-up, chez Marco (not that computer audio looks like much)....

....


Marco.

Marco, you hava a Mac ? Nice. Try the Terminal, come on