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Raspberry Pi + Hifiberry DAC Owners & Discussion Thread


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Hi guys, just thought I'd throw out my thoughts on my current music source.

I've gone away from my laptop and various player software and now use a pi and hifiberry dac + which sends spdif to my Klein DAC and wow, leaves the laptop for dead! The current amp for the mid horn is a little Bakoon (thanks@loki65) and the detail and clarity with this combo is just lovely.

The only issue I have is the players I have, Volumio is very refined with no clicks or pops when manually changing tracks or media streams, trouble is it doesn't have adjustable volume with the dac + (due in next release). Then there is Rune, adjustable volume but makes a few clicks and pops when changing tracks.

As I don't have a pre amp am I better to use a good quality stepped attenuator (recommendations?) Or use the software volume in the player?

Very happy with things which should only improve when my Fostex tweeters arrive.

Sent from my SM-T800 using Tapatalk

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The audio quality is supposed to be not quite as good using the software audio control, but in my system I didn't notice a great deal of difference, quality wise. I use analogue out though, from an IQaudIO DAC+ into an integrated amp, so whether it is the same for for you????

Incidentally, I prefer Moode player myself. Whether I could actually hear a difference, or whether it was just because I have used it longer than Volumio and the difference was just imaginary, I'm not sure.

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Im using the Vortexbox on my main system which i control either by my PC or iPhone 5 or iPad, then a raspberry Pi on my second system also controlled by the three ways above. I play different music on both systems flawlessly or sync for both systems to play the same music, i then fiddle with the delay as i have a 5 bedroom house and 1 system is upstairs so i get a delay to deal with :) not a problem as it is catered for on the LMS player.

 

I must thank Peter Hocking for his wonderful support :)

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I have three Pis but I'm not a baker. Two Pi2Bs and one Pi3B. Love them all.

 

The 3 is my main axe with a a USB XMOS DSD DAC. This I would listen to over my Oppo 95 with its SABRE 32 DACs. 

 

On the other 2s I have a HifiDAC+ and a DIGI+. Both are good to listen to. The DIGI+ drives a $40 Jaycar DAC (24/192) from optical and I think it is fine and very convenient. I use Volumio on the 2s and Rune on the 3. I prefer Rune. All runs from my smart phone or iPad with NO APPS loaded. 

 

Why anyone, at all, would be silly enough to use a laptop or computer as a music sever with all the noise, cost, heat and inconvenience I'll never know.

 

The future is now for music server and streaming.

Edited by mwhouston
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Yes MoOde does have a volume control, which can be hardware or software depending on your DAC board. Personally I don't use the volume control because as per the note where you select the enable option, it is supposed to be not quite as good quality audio using it. Having said that, I'm pretty hard pressed to tell any difference.

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  • 1 month later...

How about a mobile Pi. Try this - a small and compact mobile phone charger pack (with torch) and with on\off switch. Ran my Pi2 for 4hours constant while streaming, with wifi dongle and USB stick. Light, smart looking and powerful.

 

A mobile Pi is very possible.

WP_20161027_12_01_46_Pro (449x800).jpg

Edited by mwhouston
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  • 1 month later...

I bought my 4th Pi and now have two Pi2(s) and two Pi3(s). I had a spare Pi DAC board HiFiBerryDAC+ (or something) and wanted to use it. Rune did not recognise the DAC board so I tried Volumio. What I found is the very latest release of Volumio - V2.041.

 

Best part was I loaded an earlier beta and got Volumio, on the Pi3, to checkout of there was a later version. There was and it downloaded direct onto the Pi and updated. Great.

 

The sound is not as smooth as my AK4495+XMOS based DIY DAC with AD827 OPAMP output buffer but convenient and enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

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I recently bought another P3 to go with a previously purchased HiFiDigi DAC/optical daughter board. I've bragged in the past that I can have a Pi server up and going in 20mins and indeed have done it many times. But as we know in Oz tall poppies can take the biggest fall and be cut down in seconds.

 

I tried for two hours to get the new Pi3 on the network so I could get it setup. But, using a direct cable connection to the Pi, the router would not lease an IP. In stalled and re-installed Volumio and Rune several times thinking there was something wrong with the image file. All to no avail. The next day, total frustrated by my loss of precious time from the day before, I tried again. Still no go. Then I re-booted the router. As my father-in-law would say "bingo" up came the Pi with an IP.

 

Using the Volumio menus to select the HiFiDigi DAC I could not "see" it in the Audio section. Over and over again I installed both Rune and Volumio to see if they supported the card. Silly me it was there all the time. I had to have "I2S" "on" and then scrolling down the lower selections of Volumio it appears but as a name you don't recognise. But at least I finally got it up and working. I would say a total of four to five hours in total of gut retching frustration. But wait it was worse.

 

I use my laptop to install Rune and Volumio images. Never had a problem in the past. But, yes you guessed it, the SD slot on my laptop stop working. After formatting the SD card, and writing an image about four times the slot stops working. Yes Windows 10 crap! Not knowing what was wrong initially I had to use my wife's laptop on Win7 to do a lot of the SD card setup. Still not sure why the SD slot stops working after a few uses it never did this under Win7. Thanks Gates!

 

I have documented this tale so if others having problems with installing images on Pis and/or getting them going some of this story may help. I now have four complete Pi systems. My best is a Pi3 with my DIY AK4495+XMOS based USB DAC. Absolutely the best digital sound I have heard anywhere at any price. Second would be the Pi3 with the HiFiDAC Optical\Coax brd. With this I use a $40 Jaycar optical\Coax to RCA DAC. Excellent sound and better than the HiFiBerry+ DAC. Third system is just that Pi2 with HiFiBerry+ DAC daughter brd. And one Pi2 no other connections.

Edited by mwhouston
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Also Volumio recently released (a few weeks back) V2.041. Very good and far better layout than Rune when used from the smartphone. But still it does not show which track number you are playing in the queue of how many. And doesn't show bit rate of web radios.

 

I'm a Rune hoon and love it. BUT Volumio generates a Volumio WiFi sharing hotspot. "What the hell is this for" I have been asking myself for months? Guess what. You do not need to use your home WiFi to connect to Volumio. Once Volumio is up (about 30 seconds) connect your smartphone, iPad or whatever to the Volumio hotspot and you can control Volumio. Before you do this go into the setup menus and provide an SSID and password. It works extremely well and is faster to respond than using my Wifi.

 

This means you can take you Pi setup to a friends (or enemies) house and operate your Volumio\Pi system from any device not requiring the use or setup of the WiFi. Most have no idea what their password is. Of course you cant use Web radio but all you files on USB stick or HD can be accessed as normal.

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You can only ping an IP if you know what the IP is.  I browse into my router which displays all devices and thier IPs. It only takes 60 seconds for the router to lease an IP.  But the router needed a reboot. Never had to do it in the past but this is not the past.

 

 

 

 

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37 minutes ago, Addicted to music said:

There are apps where you load on even for an Apple device that does a search for you and list everything on the network, helpful apps so you don't clash with an address.

There was no IP being leased therefore all the apps in world could not have found it 'cause there was nothing to find. 

 

The browser into the router is all you need. Plus you get diagnostics all IPs, etc from the DHCP server. Once it is all setup I just set an icon on my smart phone for all my PIs. A simple touch of the icon brings up the PI in 5 seconds. Now using the Volumio WiFi hotspot - 3 seconds. 

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On ?20?/?09?/?2016 at 1:06 AM, mwhouston said:

I have three Pis but I'm not a baker. Two Pi2Bs and one Pi3B. Love them all.

 

The 3 is my main axe with a a USB XMOS DSD DAC. This I would listen to over my Oppo 95 with its SABRE 32 DACs. 

 

On the other 2s I have a HifiDAC+ and a DIGI+. Both are good to listen to. The DIGI+ drives a $40 Jaycar DAC (24/192) from optical and I think it is fine and very convenient. I use Volumio on the 2s and Rune on the 3. I prefer Rune. All runs from my smart phone or iPad with NO APPS loaded. 

 

Why anyone, at all, would be silly enough to use a laptop or computer as a music sever with all the noise, cost, heat and inconvenience I'll never know.

 

The future is now for music server and streaming.

Whats the USB XMOS DSD DAC, where di I find one?

Thanks

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2 hours ago, keitha said:

Thanks for that

There is three seperate PSs onboard. You should use three seperate trannies. But Jaycar sell a dual 9V secondary single tranni you can use instead of two 9V units. This will still provide all the isolation you need, save money and space. Works very well.

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My new Pi setup. Now with HDMI connection into a HDMI audio extractor.

 

these are current setups;

 

Pi3 with 2TB 2.5" drive, and I2S AK4495+XMOS DAC plays upto DSD64 files.

 

Pi3 with HiFiDigi, optical connection into Jaycar optical digital to RCA. Plays upto 24/192.

 

Pi2 using the HDMI output to Jaycar HDMI audio extractor to RCA. Inexpensive, solidly built extractor also has optical out and HDMI pass through. Plays upto 24/192.

 

Pi2 with HiFiBerry+ DAC, plays up to 24/192. 

 

The best sounding is the Pi3 with I2S DAC but all sound very good and all interfaces are very inexpensive. Also I use Volumio V2+ on some and Rune on others.  

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Pi 3 with the berry HiFi DAC + (pro) I2S is a good thing :)

OSMC is my OS of choice for media, reasonably easy to set up and network.

Ridiculously cheap for the SQ in comparison to "others" 

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11 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

My new Pi setup. Now with HDMI connection into a HDMI audio extractor.

 

these are current setups;

 

Pi3 with 2TB 2.5" drive, and I2S AK4495+XMOS DAC plays upto DSD64 files.

 

Pi3 with HiFiDigi, optical connection into Jaycar optical digital to RCA. Plays upto 24/192.

 

Pi2 using the HDMI output to Jaycar HDMI audio extractor to RCA. Inexpensive, solidly built extractor also has optical out and HDMI pass through. Plays upto 24/192.

 

Pi2 with HiFiBerry+ DAC, plays up to 24/192. 

 

The best sounding is the Pi3 with I2S DAC but all sound very good and all interfaces are very inexpensive. Also I use Volumio V2+ on some and Rune on others.  

How do you feed i2s to that  AK4495 I don't see I2s input in it

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