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

[mikmas]

Where in the chain is the DAC?
The SPDIF on its own into a mixer is about as useful as a one legged man in an arse kicking competition.
Is there a company out there making a mixer with an integral DAC?

Yup - I have an M-Audio mixer with a channel for SPDIF input .... there are probably more

[Stratmangler]

Yup - I have an M-Audio mixer with a channel for SPDIF input .... there are probably more

Thinking about it, my EMU0404 might perform such duties......
I'll have a little play and report back

[Stratmangler]

It works
All that's connected is the SPDIF and some analogue interconnects hanging out the back, plus an external power supply, so no USB connection to the PC is required.

[Ashmore]

Hello all. Calling clever people for a bit of guidance please. I'm now running the pi/iqaudio directly into the power amp. The replay is now absolutely remarkable... however there is a minor niggle.

At the end/beginning of each track there's a little double click, a bit like a pop on an LP. I assume this effect is audible because the system is running directly at full tilt (no physical pre) into a very efficient system.

I have tried the following:
Turning volume down in alsamixer and keeping LMS volume high
Keeping LMS volume low and alsamixer high (87)
Turning off upsampling.

None of these changes makes any difference.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I note that alsamixer has various mute and ramp down volume controls. Could one of these have some bearing on this?

[Stratmangler]

Could it be the DAC muting between tracks?
Which in turn would mean that the distro you're using may not support gapless playback, either that or it needs to be told to do it.

[Ashmore]

Thanks for that thought Chris, I think perhaps you're right and it's prompted me to experiment. It does seem that the pops are only there when at the very start and end of a 'playlist'. Since I've been loading tracks in LMS individually (to try the new set up with my favourite test tracks) I've been hearing the pops all the time. I've now tried a multiple track playlist and the pops are not there between all tracks, just the start and end. Result!

Thanks.

[Stratmangler]

LMS does support gapless playback with Squeezebox players.
It should do with Squeezelight and PiCorePlayer too.

I have noticed that my external DAC connected to my Squeezebox Touch gives a click when it switches between sample rates.

[aBe]

Instead of the Dac+ board you can buy a HiFiBerry Digi+ board, which outputs either toslink or coax spdif. I use one with a Caiman II DAC and it sounds better than the HiFiBerry DAC+, the equivalent of the DAC+ board from IQaudio.

I have just received an IQaudio DAC+ board and am about to compare it to both the Digi+/Caiman II and Dac+ I already have. Whichever sounds best will be staying in my system.

I got the HiFiBerry Digi+ too. (with the Output Trafo)
Connected to either the CaimanII+ or 326 FDA, everything just sounds great.

The 326 FDA is oh-so clean sounding and its clarity is outstanding.
But the CaimanII+ pips it in terms of overall musicality and better reproduction of frequency extremes.

Can't wait for your comparo impressions...

[The Black Adder]

I was getting a click to start with but it eventually sorted itself out... I might have updated the drive a few times I'm not sure. It plays through fine now and it's seamless.

May be a daft querstion but did you rip the tracks ok?

Love your photography btw -

[Ashmore]

Thanks!

Yeah tracks are well ripped, and it happens on Spotify too. I speny some hoours listening laste night and the behaviour isn't quite as I described. Theres a click on start and on end. No clicks between tracks on a playlist consisting of similarly ripped tracks (eg an album) but there are clicks when moving within a playlist between Spotify tracks and others. Lends to chris' dac observation last night. DAC taking on different setting perhaps.