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

[Marco]

Dedicated Mac / PC app
It is also possible to connect to the Spotify services with a dedicated application which runs on your Mac / PC. With this app, it is possible to set the bandwidth parameters. It also seems to have more options. If you are using a Mac and you are running a Pi + Volumio installed, you can stream any audio from it to the DAC on your Pi (I hope that makes sense ) You can get the app from https://www.spotify.com/uk/download

Attachment 14253

Way, hey - at bloody last!!!!

If you'd told me in the first place to go to the main Spotify page, and click on a downward pointing arrow, on the R/H side of the screen (next to my name), which subsequently releases a drop-down menu, where I can then adjust the settings, one of which is 'Music Quality', then I could've done that hours ago!! LOL

Anyway, I've now set the 'Music Quality' to maximum, and it does sound notably better - so thanks for that. We got there in the end, my friend

Marco.

[r100]

i did (I think) but obviously wasn't clear enough

I am curious about the way you attenuate the volume on your setup. How does the DAC on your Pi attenuate it ? There is a setting called "Hardware" attenuation in Volumio but on my setup it doesn't work. That is why I put a physical volume control in front of the amp. (It is actually just a Alps potentiometer). Maybe your Pi/DAC has that option ??

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I like the "not good for couch potatoes"

[Marco]

Not to worry, we're there now. You certainly did very well considering I presume that English isn't your first language?

I have to thank you, Rupert, for your help and patience in solving the matter for me. Not many folk would've gone to such trouble, so bravo!

Your kindness won't be forgotten...

Marco.

[struth]

I realize all these hardware options are easy to set up, whatever combination is used - if you have the spare dosh that is.

I am more interested in what is a good set up for SQ as this varies so much depending on who you talk to. I was just trying to get my head round what Marco was getting out of this hardware set up that impressed him so much. I like the idea of the integral DAC and no moving parts on the Pi for instance.

I can get my outdated PC in the next room to display images on my TV via an HDMI cable and sound via USB on my system DAC, I even have a USB linked sensor attached to my TV so I can use a PC remote control (£5 off the bay) this just looks like a TV remote and I can flick through itunes using it from the sofa. This works quite well but I was thinking of taking it to the next level and using hardware dedicated to Audio reproduction, and maybe a wifi tablet to browse the selections. Oh, and get rid of itunes in favour of Jriver.

CAD produce Audio PC's that have been tailored for SQ. They have their Windows operating system hacked to remove a hundred and twenty odd background routines, so the machine can consentrate all resources to the task in hand, they advocate no additional application software be loaded, other than to run the audio, not even web access and do all this through a seperate networked machine. They use SS hard drives in the PC and external devices for the Library. The list goes on but you can see they are building a platform to suit the end use. Their gear is a bit rich for me, a dedicated USB lead is £800, but the principles they apply can be adopted.

Thanks for the offer Rich, I may pick over your knowledge of the various bits of software at some point if thats all right, many of the names that crop up mean nothing to me, I see them quoted a lot but have no idea what they do.

I use my old vista laptops as music bases with external mini hard dri es usb connected . I take it out currently using a usb spdif or usb tos unit.. on main system i have 2. a beresford async1 for spidif and a sabre for mini tos. they go out to different dacs to give me a choice. if you switch most things off on the pc it is pretty quiet tbh and sounds very good. i have jriver and foobar...the latter is free and my preference actually. no need for it to cost much

[r100]

Their gear is a bit rich for me, a dedicated USB lead is £800, but the principles they apply can be adopted.

I am 99.9999% certain that a £800 USB cable is a rip off. You don't need it. Same with extremely costly "audiophile" Ethernet cables. It's snake oil. And besides, part of the fun with the Raspi / DAC combinations is that they are very cheap. I would do some DAC swaps, but not invest in "audiophile" USB cables.

[Marco]

I am more interested in what is a good set up for SQ as this varies so much depending on who you talk to. I was just trying to get my head round what Marco was getting out of this hardware set up that impressed him so much. I like the idea of the integral DAC and no moving parts on the Pi for instance.

Well that's one significant advantage, Ken, especially when the sound quality of the DAC concerned is phenomenally good, and as cheap as chips! Did you miss the bit where I said that, for £32 it competes with, and in some areas outperforms, my superb and highly-modified Sony DAS-R1, which cost about £2500?

The IQ-Audio Pi-DAC+, contained inside the Pi unit, is brand new technology and 32-bit, offering (bit-perfect) extremely high resolution, which is greater in that respect than the capability of Red Book CD. Therefore, when streaming the appropriate hi-res files, the sound quality is in a different league compared with what CD can do - even CDs played to a very high sonic standard, on the Sony.

Check out the spec: http://iqaudio.com/?page_id=454

The other major advantage is no moving parts of a CD transport mechanism, and the inevitable errors the process of reading a disc introduces, no matter how accurate the laser mechanism and associated parts. Ultimately, you simply don't need that physical interface to access the digital music information that is contained on a CD.

Furthermore, with the best recorded high-res music files, the Pi gets *very* close indeed to the performance of my T/T, which you heard and were very impressed with at Nebo, and that's cost me around £5k...

Therefore, given that the Pi (£40 for the unit itself and £32 for the DAC), at a total cost (excluding the wherewithal to use it) of £72, is competing with a £5k CDP (approx £2.5k for the CDP, and the same for the DAC), and a £5k turntable, what else can I do to stress just *how good* this Pi is??



Has the penny finally dropped now, mate?

Marco.

[Qwin]

Yeh, I get the picture Marco

As for "The thing I don't understand is how can Ken post here if he doesn't have a Wi-Fi network??"

You dont actually need wi-fi for internet access, I have the former but not the latter.

How I do this is a deep, deep secret.

[r100]

Just wanted to post a pic of my little Pi running into the A717. As you see it is hooked up to the router via Ethernet and to the Amp via RCA / Cinch connectors. Power is supplied from a permanently charging 5v/2A power pack I got for less than 20$.

IMG_5228.jpg


I had posted a thread here too

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...049#post631049

[Marco]

Yeh, I get the picture Marco

Excellent... I was beginning to think that I was speaking a foreign language!

As for "The thing I don't understand is how can Ken post here if he doesn't have a Wi-Fi network??"

You dont actually need wi-fi for internet access, I have the former but not the latter.

How I do this is a deep, deep secret...

Ah I see... Say no more, bad boy!

Marco.

[Marco]

Hi Roops,

i did (I think) but obviously wasn't clear enough

TBH, the Spotify software should make it a damn sight more obvious where the settings control panel is! And instead of it being accessed via a silly little arrow next to your name, should be prominently situated on a proper sized tab, on the main page.

I am curious about the way you attenuate the volume on your setup. How does the DAC on your Pi attenuate it ? There is a setting called "Hardware" attenuation in Volumio but on my setup it doesn't work. That is why I put a physical volume control in front of the amp. (It is actually just a Alps potentiometer). Maybe your Pi/DAC has that option ??

Nope, I'm not attenuating the Pi itself; I'm attenuating the volume of the Spotify music stream, by using a combination of Volumio and the sound contol mechanism on the Mac. Remember the little speaker icon you told me to ALT-click on yesterday, in order to stream Spotify from the Mac to the Pi?

It sounds better, set to about 70%, and then I use the Volumio web interface as a 'master volume' control, as it were. If I set the Mac volume to 100%, the sound becomes too saturated/overblown/loud and aggressive.

I hope that makes sense? I can't attenuate the sound level, leaving the Pi to my power amp, when streaming files from my hard-drives, other than by reducing the volume, via the Volumio web interface.

However, apparently you can attenuate the Pi and/or the partnering DAC by using some other form of software. See this discussion about it on Hi-Fi Wigwam: http://www.hifiwigwam.com/showthread...r-Raspberry-Pi

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I like the "not good for couch potatoes"

I know... I giggled at that yesterday!

Marco.