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

[NRG]

Adding a battery to power the RPi makes a very worthwhile difference. I'm using the 5v out on the Ankara battery that also powers the BM MKII. I wanted to power just the USB SPDIF converter to see if that alone would make an improvement but the RPi won't recognise it so the whole lot got the battery treatment. I'm struggling to tell the difference now to my modded SB....

The SB is powered with dual ALSWR super regs and re clocked with an XO-3 Tent Audio clock plus a load of other circuit mods...I think I'll use the SB PSU to power the RPi and see how that sounds, at the moment I feel it's a little 'soft' and a touch over smooth in comparisons...it's a mighty close call though!

[Marco]

Interesting on the battery. I'll defo be giving that one a go.

Which one is a little soft and smooth, Neal?

Marco.

[Oldpinkman]

Interesting on the battery. I'll defo be giving that one a go.

Which one is a little soft and smooth, Neal?

Marco.

Just plug in that battery Marco - it'll be the best tenner you spent. It will lift performance shed-loads, and you can then go on a mission to find tiny incremental improvements from there. But that battery will take you a big leap

[NRG]

+1 to that!

Interesting on the battery. I'll defo be giving that one a go.

Which one is a little soft and smooth, Neal?

Marco.

The RPi Marco, it could be a slight difference in Volume, The difference is so small I really should level match just to eliminate the possibility.

Oh, I've just tried some different Ethernet cables, UTP 5e, STP 5e and 6a....I couldn't detect any difference, others may have more success....

[Qwin]

Macca - "Marco I know you are not a digital fanboy and I don't want to de-rail the discussion but so called 'high resolution' files are nothing of the sort. It's marketing-speak. They are no higher resolution that the redbook cds you own. If they sound better it is because they are different masters. That's all. I agree that alone is a good reason to have the facility to play them".

I'm not sure where you are going with this Macca or what you base this notion on?

As far as I am aware, from reading the high res info on music sites, Recording Studios work at higher resolution than Red book, a lot higher. The tracks are dumbed down to suit CD format.

As I understand it, some of the high res files available for sale are claimed to be studio resolution/exact copies, or reduced by degrees, hence different size files available for the same track. All the original digital masters are high resolution.

There are some inferior upscaled files doing the rounds, but generaly its true high res and that is what has got me interested in upgrading my FBA system, to be able to handle them.

It is said some of the studio quality files can take up to 4 hours to down load, depending on speed available, I hapened upon a thread where this was being discused as a problem and one guy had made four attempts at downloading before he managed to get a complete useable file.

This size is probably taking things too far for current computer hardware, even with multi terarbyte discs available at reasonable money.
Somewhere between Red book and this very high level will be a level that is compact enough but with a noticeable improvement in SQ.
Even 24bit 96kHz would be a step in the right direction.

[Marco]

The RPi Marco, it could be a slight difference in Volume, The difference is so small I really should level match just to eliminate the possibility.

That will defo be the case. The output of the Pi/IQ Audio DAC (claimed as being 2v) is definitely much lower than that of my Sony DAC, which was obvious the other day when I switched from using the former, just to see how I perceived the sound of my CDP, after many hours of using the Pi/IQ-Audio DAC.

I had to turn the sound down quite a bit, when listening to CD, compared with the Pi. Therefore, definitely level-match things before doing any direct comparisons, as otherwise the Pi will sound 'soft'.

Oh, I've just tried some different Ethernet cables, UTP 5e, STP 5e and 6a....I couldn't detect any difference, others may have more success....

No worries. Did you try the ones I recommended, shown here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1717289032...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

There seems to be something different about the construction of those particular cables, which explains why I'm hearing an indisputable sonic improvement with them

Marco.

[Marco]

As far as I am aware, from reading the high res info on music sites, Recording Studios work at higher resolution than Red book, a lot higher. The tracks are dumbed down to suit CD format.

As I understand it, some of the high res files available for sale are claimed to be studio resolution/exact copies, or reduced by degrees, hence different size files available for the same track. All the original digital masters are high resolution.

Yes, that is also my understanding, and so I'm convinced that (mastering aside) genuine high-resolution recordings offer a significant sonic step up from those released on bog-standard CD.

Marco.

[The Barbarian]

Mine is all bought & just waiting for Windows 10 to come along..

[Marco]

Which DAC are you going to use with your Pi?

Marco.

[The Barbarian]

Got the HRT Streamer

What i dont get is why you are using a Laptop to control it!