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

[r100]

Curious, but if it works for you its great ! On my system I could hear a degradation as soon as I started using either the Mac volume control or the one in the Spotify app or a combination of both as you seem to do. My DAC doesn't react to the Volumio web interface, its just on 100% all the time. But for casual listening it is more than fine.

There is some interesting info here about the i2s interface and the path the zeros and ones take to get converted into what we love best, beautiful sound.. I think that is part of the "secret" why the Pi/DAC combo sounds so good because it circumvents the usual interfaces (USB, Optical, etc.) and gets the data to the converter on a very short path (no cables either)

https://volumio.org/raspberry-pi-i2s...ounds-so-good/

[RichB]

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.

Ha, they sell an amp module! Begs to be done.

I'm gonna build one...

[JohnMcC]

Just read this whole thread with great interest. I'm already streaming from a netbook amd impressed with the convenience and sound quality. So how does this sound for a cheap second system? Hard drive into Raspberry pi and associated DAC, into a cheap T-Amp as a power amp, controlled from smartphone or tablet? And if this would work, any recommendations for which T-Amp? Could all be very compact and neatened up with a bit of decent casing.

[r100]

if you would like to build an amp, a good place to start would be www.diyaudio.com (t-amp, class-d amp section). eBay is awash with modules from 3$ to 300$. You'll need a power supply. There are also ready built ones like the SMSL's which are about 60$ and sound very good imho.

I got this one for 3$ (its gone up since). Hook up a computer PSU and it actually works.

And this one

[JohnMcC]

Thanks, but I was thinking that something like this www.amptastic.com or a cheaper T Amp might be the quickest and easiest way to a genuine hi fi mini set-up.

[brian2957]

The Amptastic Mini-1 is excellent for the money . That's what I'm using at the moment .

[JohnMcC]

So (because I have very little tech knowledge) would the Amptastic (or similar) work as the power amp to a Raspberry pi2/IQ? Does the output from the pi suit the Amptastic used as a power amp? Just wondering . . .

[r100]

yes, I'm quite sure it would. I used mine with the SMSL which is similar to the Amptastic.

Thanks, but I was thinking that something like this www.amptastic.com or a cheaper T Amp might be the quickest and easiest way to a genuine hi fi mini set-up.

yep, the Amptastic would most definitely be much better

[Marco]

Curious, but if it works for you its great ! On my system I could hear a degradation as soon as I started using either the Mac volume control or the one in the Spotify app or a combination of both as you seem to do. My DAC doesn't react to the Volumio web interface, its just on 100% all the time. But for casual listening it is more than fine.

No worries - whatever works, works!

The Mac volume control needs to be set at something, in order to hear any music on Spotify at all.

Therefore, when accessing Spotify, I simply use the Mac as a 'gain control', and once the level is set to a point that I consider as optimal (rather like adjusting the input signal level when making recordings using a tape deck with VU meters, so that the levels don't go into the red, thus saturating the signal). However, of course, in this instance there are no meters - I can only use my ears to judge things.

Of course it is also recording dependent, as some are louder than others. However, once the 'gain' is correct (to my ears), I use the Volumio web interface to control the 'master volume' of the music I'm listening to. If I bring a preamp into the equation it simply results in a loss of fidelity, so the connection is direct to my valve power amp, which fortunately is very sensitive.

As is outlined in the link you've supplied below, the beauty of the Pi is in its simplicity and very short signal paths, therefore my methodology is simply to maintain that simplicity (and signal integrity) throughout its application in my system.

There is some interesting info here about the i2s interface and the path the zeros and ones take to get converted into what we love best, beautiful sound.. I think that is part of the "secret" why the Pi/DAC combo sounds so good because it circumvents the usual interfaces (USB, Optical, etc.) and gets the data to the converter on a very short path (no cables either)

https://volumio.org/raspberry-pi-i2s...ounds-so-good/

Brilliant, and most interesting indeed!

That's precisely why I've kept its use in my system as simple as possible, and declined the use of an off-board DAC (and cables), as quite simply, I don't think you can better the Pi's combination with the hard-wired IQ-Audio DAC (certainly not without great difficulty and massive expense), so adding a 'fancy' off-board DAC, and resulting jitter, created as a by-product of employing the use of cables, is most likely going to be a waste of money, and thus a pointless exercise.

Marco.

[Qwin]

" https://volumio.org/raspberry-pi-i2s...ounds-so-good/

Brilliant, and most interesting indeed!"

Whats most interesting are the comments made after the article from users, especially Ralf.