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

[guyb]

I have my pi a!d hdd psu plugged into switched sockets so once shut down in evening i flick the switches....just in case....it also means repowering doesnt require me to unplug and replug

Due to where I have everything plugged in I can't get to the sockets!

I have just bought the ifi iUSB Power that I am going to use to both power the Pi and provide a 'clean' USB signal to my DAC. This will be accessible so once Volumio is shutdown I could just unplug the USB cable from the power only USB socket of the iUSB.

Having said that I may just leave it powered all the time unless I am going away.

Guy

[montesquieu]

Due to where I have everything plugged in I can't get to the sockets!

I have just bought the ifi iUSB Power that I am going to use to both power the Pi and provide a 'clean' USB signal to my DAC. This will be accessible so once Volumio is shutdown I could just unplug the USB cable from the power only USB socket of the iUSB.

Having said that I may just leave it powered all the time unless I am going away.

Guy

You need one of these

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/usb-cable-...FePItAodDDAAmA

[dowser]

OK, cool. Thanks for the help.

So I can just adjust the level using the software Mixer type to get it the right level and then set the Mixer type to disabled and there will be no impact of audio quality and bit perfect playback?

How would one go about checking the alasmixer settings and what impact does the output of 2 or 1v RMS make? I guess I would need to find a monitor and keyboard

Not necessarily - if you know the IP address install PUTTY on a computer and then SSH into it. Default username/password (with Volumio) is root/volumio. But have you not already done this to modify the config.txt file to tell it to use the IQ Audio DAC? Typing in "alsamixer" (without the quotes) will launch the interface - the middle slider toggles between 0% (1v) and 100% (2v). 2v is louder.

Richard

[guyb]

I am on a Mac and can probably use Terminal.

I am not using a IQ Audio DAC but simply using the USB output to an external DAC so other than selecting my DAC on the settings page and playing with the other settings I have pretty much just inserted the Micro SD for a bit of plug and play action. All setup in about 10mins

I'll take a look at alsamixer and have a play

Guy

[guyb]

OK, so I SSH'd into the Pi to look at/change settings in alsamixer.

I selected my DAC and adjusted the <Digital In> level so that it was level/just below the 'white' bit

When I did this the volume/level through my DAC was the same as my other amp inputs such as my CD and turntable.

So as long as this ain't messing with the audio quality I am happy

Before:


After:


EDIT: actually the after image is slightly wrong as the level was set to 84 which was a dB Gain of -4.50, -4.50

[cyclopse]

OK, so I SSH'd into the Pi to look at/change settings in alsamixer.

I selected my DAC and adjusted the <Digital In> level so that it was level/just below the 'white' bit

When I did this the volume/level through my DAC was the same as my other amp inputs such as my CD and turntable.

So as long as this ain't messing with the audio quality I am happy

Before:


After:


EDIT: actually the after image is slightly wrong as the level was set to 84 which was a dB Gain of -4.50, -4.50

Similar to my findings. A 100% setting in Alsamixer is too high compared to my other sources and leads to clipping of the output signal.

I like the playback flexibility, Flac input 24/96 and 24/192, WAV 24/96 and DSD all handled with no issues. Did get some distortion with DSD 2.

Regards

Stephen

[struth]

ooooh, I dont have one of those

[lovejoy]

Time to open a brand new can of worms, look away now if you're of a nervous disposition:

Has anyone else noticed how sensitive the IQ DAC is to interconnect quality? Quite by accident, I managed to swap a set of interconnects with my CD player and suddenly realised the sound from the Pi/IQ had changed quite significantly - It had taken on a hard edge and the HF was sounding somewhat rough. Picking up on what must have caused this change straight away as I'd been unplugging and re-plugging everything, I tried swapping out a couple more interconnects I had lying around and the differences are much more marked between the cables than any piece of kit I've ever tried different cables on before, to the point that if I'd initially had the Pi connected using my CD player interconnects, I don't think I'd ever have been that impressed with it and wondered what all the fuss was about. At the moment, I've settled on a set of Supra interconnects at 0.75m which have very low capacitance values (these were cables I'd chosen for my turntable when I was using an MM cart but have since moved to MC).

So that's got me thinking - Are these large differences down to the fact that there's not that much in the way of a buffering stage in the analogue output of the IQ DAC? In which case, how would it fare with something like a Musical Fidelity X-10D on the end of it, or similar buffering stage - Or can it be Lampizated? Now that sounds like a project!!

[struth]

Interesting. I have only used it with one set; a 2 m set of monster cables(only free pair I had long enough). I have a fancy MF buffer that I'm using wth my cd at moment but may try it with the pi sometime to find out. I'd have to move it I think to try another set of cables

[lovejoy]

I'd be very interested to hear what sort of a difference that makes for you Grant...