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

[Audio Advent]

Background music generally drives me nuts and (other than when I have my hair cut, where it's unavoidable) I leave or don't enter places that have it (I refuse to use the Co-Op for example because of the piped crap they play in the aisles). The curse of being a musician I guess - you just HAVE to pay attention, your mind is drawn to analyse what you hear, even if it's some far arsed bimbo widdling around her maximum range of four notes, to a backing track programmed by a brainless idiot. People just don't get the psychic damage done by exposure to random shit.

I am the same, but less so I imagine, but in the Co-op I find myself stopping under a speaker and pretend to be examining the produce until the tune finishes! They probably think I'm shop lifting.. We obviously have different taste in music though.. think last time I stopped under a co-op speaker it was for a Bjork track. I'm ok with background music but people shouldn't then expect me to give them my full attention and expect to see me shuffle about to find the stereo centre - a group conversation in a pub with music and I end up being alone in company, having lost the thread of the conversation. Radio is rarely background either for me, even if I don't necessarily like the track, I'm still listening to the production and instrumentation.

It would still be music as you choose to play it. Just that it's on a file list and a couple of clicks away. Just the same as having a 78 player to hand. Even if you did have it on a constant play mode, it should still be music you actually like and so you hopefully be surprised by the choice and then enjoy it with your full attention, not knowing what might come next. Continuous, random play is only one option of course, one that's not possible with any other type of system (unless you have a 5 CD midi system or someone's made a mix-tape for you).

[lovejoy]

A most unusual and refreshing attitude, so please keep us posted

Marco.

Thanks Marco,
I certainly will do that, although I see that the DAC boards are out of stock until at least the end of April, so I've got a wait . I'm very keen to try this though so I'm going to keep checking the website regularly for updates.

One thing I've moved to using along with Volumio recently that may be of interest to those using NAS drives and wanting control over the network is MinimServer which is a very nice, fast and compact piece of streaming software that seems to run on pretty much any platform. I've got it running the server on my Netgear NAS and as it runs a uPnp server I can then run a uPnp client on my phone, tablet, etc to control everything. This only came about because of when the BBC decided to change the way it packages its streams, MinimServer plays nicely with the new streams, so now I get 6Music at 320Kbps pretty solidly and that sounds great, but then I downloaded BubbleuPnp onto my Android phone and liked the speed and interface so I've stuck to using that rather than the Volumio web interface - So Volumio is still the player, but no longer has to deal with the music database side of things. It's all working very nicely.

A good power supply for the Pi certainly makes a difference too. I'm using a decent switcher at the moment, but I think a good linear PSU is on the shopping list.

[r100]

Et je vous en remercie

Malheureusement, aujourd'hui, ce n'est pas rien de spécial, seulement du poulet, dans une sauce au citron frais, avec du riz.

À bientôt, mon ami!

Marco.

Hé Hé, you speaking perfectli frensch my freend !! thad meel yoo hav jus' engolfed wasnt tooo bad at all i hoop ? it look very good on papar ! Im goin to have a schikken curry zis evening. Bi ze way, my auto corrector is going mad

[Marco]

Churz.

Languages are 'my thing'. I can write and speak in French pretty well. I speak a little German and Spanish, and am fluent in Italian, English and Glaswegian, lol!

Ok, I've just tried what you recommended, and with the Hardware interface disabled, and the volume full up on the Mac and on Volumio, all I can hear is the music very faintly coming out of the speakers, with the volume knob on my preamp turned up to the halfway point....

I've checked over all the connections, and everything is as it should be. Indeed, if I simply disconnect the interconnect leads from the Pi, and plug those ends of the cables instead into my CDP, music comes blaring out of the speakers, as it should! Therefore, clearly there is an issue at the Pi/Volumio end, with the hardware interface disabled.

So, something is wrong somewhere - perhaps Volumio and/or the Pi need to be configured differently, to create a higher output level, when the Hardware setting/interface in Volumio is disabled?

Marco.

[Marco]

I've just connected up the Pi the way it was before (with Hardware enabled), and all is well.

Suggestions, apart from hitting it with a hammer?

Marco.

[NRG]

I've decided to hold out for the IQAudio DAC+ for now. The RPi has been ordered and I'll use USB to an external DAC to get me started....should be fun!

[r100]

I've just connected up the Pi the way it was before (with Hardware enabled), and all is well.

Suggestions, apart from hitting it with a hammer?

Marco.

Thank's for trying ! I unfortunately don't have the same DAC you have so I cannot test it here. Maybe a kind AoS member who has the same DAC as you have could explain why it doesn't work with those settings.

Ru

[WAD62]

Thanks Marco,
I certainly will do that, although I see that the DAC boards are out of stock until at least the end of April, so I've got a wait . I'm very keen to try this though so I'm going to keep checking the website regularly for updates.

If you're talking about the IQaudio Pi-DAC+ board there are some re-manufactured boards available, and only black cases (matte or gloss), mine arrived yesterday, drop them an email;

Attachment 14283

...just waiting for an HDMI to DVI adapter before I boot it up, I'm using the Squeezeplug NOOB software, but I'll still probably need a monitor for initial configuration...should be interesting

[Rothchild]

Page 19 of the manual gives some useful information about the gain structure of the dac:

http://www.iqaudio.com/downloads/IQaudIO.pdf

The final setting will be a bit dependent on the input sensitivity of what you're plugging in to but it looks like the most sensible starting point is that:

PCM should be set to 86% (no gain, no attenuation)

Playback boost 0dB (0% I think?)

Playback is the interesting one, I think I'd start at 0dB and work the balance between the pi output and where the best bit of gain was on the amp input.



The software player (volumio) should have it's volume set where it's neither boosting or attenuating.

[Marco]

Hi Marc,

Is that post directed at me? If so, I'm sorry, but I really understand any of it. For example, what is PCM and how do you set it to 86%? And what is Playback boost and how do you adjust that?

A simple step-by-step guide, in layman's terms would be good.

Marco.