Raspberry Pi DAC

[hilts10]

Thinking of doing a little project to make a DAC with the Raspberry Pi and one of the DAC hats like

http://iqaudio.co.uk/hats/47-pi-dac-pro.html

https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac-pro/

https://www.justboom.co/product/justboom-dac-hat/

Then adding Volumio software and see how it sounds compared to the inbuilt DAC in my Marantz PM6006

I figured if its no good I only loose £30/40

Anyone any expierience with these ?

 

[insider9]

No experience but I'd love to know how you get on and the results you get.

 

[Dave_]

Yes i've been using Raspberry Pi as an audio source since it was a thing and have owned every iteration.

I currently have in use a Pimoroni pHAT DAC on an original Zero, a Hifiberry Digi+ (which replaced a Hifiberry DAC) on a RasPi 3 and just put together a Justboom Amp Zero for another project I'm planning.r

Frankly they make streamers from the HiFi companies look ridiculous and grossly overpriced

 

[ifor]

Is IQaudIO based, Pi, DAC, Amp feeding in ceiling B&W speakers. I could really want for any more in a kitchen system. I use a HiFiBerry Digi+ feeding a Graham Slee Majestic DAC in my main system. Superb!

 

[Gray]

I use Pi3 with an E-DAC (O-DAC) controlled by RuneAudio. I tried this option before buying a 'proper' streamer and I'm glad I did.

Your intended way, using a hat, would be even better value and more compact. I've watched a few videos by this Dutch bloke.

He's done quite a few. I've just found one at random. See what you think. I think you'll soon be watching more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps-X4ipA_fY

 

[Dave_]

Thinking of doing a little project to make a DAC with the Raspberry Pi and one of the DAC hats like

http://iqaudio.co.uk/hats/47-pi-dac-pro.html

http://raspi.tv/2016/dac-review

 

[steve_1979]

Thinking of doing a little project to make a DAC with the Raspberry Pi and one of the DAC hats like...
...Anyone any expierience with these ?

After posting a thread here and on the PFM forum I tried a Raspberry Pi for the first time last month.

A very kind gent on the PFM forum called 'Man in a van' was extraordinarily helpful. As I didn't have any experience with the Pi he let me borrow his (which also had a DAC fitted to it) for a month. After initially struggling to set it up using instructions sent via email he phoned me up and walked me thorough every step. On my own it would have be very difficult to do but having someone experienced on the phone made it a doddle.

'Man in a van' is a really nice guy and has a long history of helping people set up Raspberry Pi's so my advice is to ask the same question on PFM.

 

[Gray]

Thinking of doing a little project to make a DAC with the Raspberry Pi and one of the DAC hats like...

...Anyone any expierience with these ?

After posting a thread here and on the PFM forum I tried a Raspberry Pi for the first time last month.

A very kind gent on the PFM forum called 'Man in a van' was extraordinarily helpful. As I didn't have any experience with the Pi he let me borrow his (which also had a DAC fitted to it) for a month. After initially struggling to set it up using instructions sent via email he phoned me up and walked me thorough every step. On my own it would have be very difficult to do but having someone experienced on the phone made it a doddle.

'Man in a van' is a really nice guy and has a long history of helping people set up Raspberry Pi's so my advice is to ask the same question on PFM.

Although it's not rocket science, as with much of this sort of thing, there's an assumed level of knowledge.

(I'd never even touched an SD card before, for example)

Like you Steve, I couldn't have done it without help. Especially when it came to going into 'alsamixer' to reset the output level to the DAC. RuneAudio's official forum were very helpful with that.

It can seem a bit daunting, no wonder not everyone can be bothered with it.

 

[hilts10]

Well finally got round to building the Raspberry Pi / DAC Streamer.

After plenty of research I went for this DAC

Combined with a Linear PSU and power button, which enables the Pi to be turned of safely without the risk of corrupting the SD card.

Did a bit of a DIY case with some acrylic and a few nuts and bolts.

The SQ is in my opinion excellent. Its not massively better than the CCA but is just a cleaner sound with more depth to it.

Also being able to stream local Flack files and internet radio is a bonus.

I used PicorePlayer / LMS / Squeezelite with Spotify plugin, which was pretty easy to setup although I did get plenty of help from this forum which is very helpfull.

Would post a few pics if I could suss out how to. I keep getting a suspected spam warning *dash1*

 

[drummerman]

I did ask some questions over at PFM in the past.

Would this option give much over my CCA and HifimeDIY ESS DAC?

Easy and fast interface?

 

[hilts10]

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[nick8858]

Very ingenious and I think it looks rather good. Well done

 

[Gray]

I like what you've done with your handywork.

How much trouble did you find adding the power button? The hardware, a push-to-make button onto a couple of the GPIO pins, with or without LED indication, easy enough.

But the necessary, additional coding to make it do the shutdown. Had you done any Pi coding before? How was that?

And the linear PSU. I presume that supplies the Pi and DAC (and not just the DAC)

Have you compared the sound to that with the SMPS? (Maybe you never bothered with one)

Sorry for so many questions, but I'm interested (especially in the difficulty of the power button coding)

 

[hilts10]

I did ask some questions over at PFM in the past.

Would this option give much over my CCA and HifimeDIY ESS DAC?

Easy and fast interface?

Can't comment on your DAC but in my opinion my new setup has a better SQ when playing through the CCA DAC and marginally better when playing the CCA through my Matantz DAC. It's just slightly clearer with more depth. It's could even be my ears wanting to hear a better SQ. The CCA is an amazing piece of kit for the money so if your happy with it and don't fancy the messing around then stick with what you've got. I just fancied a bit of a project.

 

[hilts10]

I like what you've done with your handywork.

How much trouble did you find adding the power button? The hardware, a push-to-make button onto a couple of the GPIO pins, with or without LED indication, easy enough.

But the necessary, additional coding to make it do the shutdown. Had you done any Pi coding before? How was that?

And the linear PSU. I presume that supplies the Pi and DAC (and not just the DAC)

Have you compared the sound to that with the SMPS? (Maybe you never bothered with one)

Sorry for so many questions, but I'm interested (especially in the difficulty of the power button coding)

Only needed to add a bit of a script and change some settings in PicorePlayer to get the power button to work, Audiophonics were very good in giving me this information.

The LPSU is connected directly to the DAC board which in turn powers the Pi.

As far as SMPS you've lost me there so I take it I haven't bothered with one.

 

[tino]

We'll done on your Raspberry Pi setup. Looks good. I tried something similar and also used Jivelite to drive a display via the HDMI and get some fancy VU meters showing *music2*

I also managed to get squeezelite running on a second hand Simple Audio Roomplayer. All the benefits of a nice case and 50W amplifier as well as digital and analogue outs. And only for about 80-90 quid. Not as flexible as the PI but more room friendly.

 

[Dave_]

How much trouble did you find adding the power button? The hardware, a push-to-make button onto a couple of the GPIO pins, with or without LED indication, easy enough.

But the necessary, additional coding to make it do the shutdown. Had you done any Pi coding before? How was that?

Its just some simple Python scripting, however the hard works already been done with the GPIO Zero library

https://github.com/TonyLHansen/raspberry-pi-safe-off-switch/

 

[Gray]

I like what you've done with your handywork.

How much trouble did you find adding the power button? The hardware, a push-to-make button onto a couple of the GPIO pins, with or without LED indication, easy enough.

But the necessary, additional coding to make it do the shutdown. Had you done any Pi coding before? How was that?

And the linear PSU. I presume that supplies the Pi and DAC (and not just the DAC)

Have you compared the sound to that with the SMPS? (Maybe you never bothered with one)

Sorry for so many questions, but I'm interested (especially in the difficulty of the power button coding)

Only needed to add a bit of a script and change some settings in PicorePlayer to get the power button to work, Audiophonics were very good in giving me this information.

The LPSU is connected directly to the DAC board which in turn powers the Pi.

As far as SMPS you've lost me there so I take it I haven't bothered with one.

Maybe the script is easier than I think. It's just that I'm not into any form of coding - which is why I was more than happy to be up and running with a viable Pi streamer without the need for any scripting on my part so far!

Oh and sorry, SMPS is Switched Mode Power Supply - the type Raspberry Pi sells as their 'official' power supply option for the board.

Some claim that using a linear type improves the sound from the DAC (and is their reason for swapping). Others will give you technical reasons why it couldn't make any difference.

 

[Gray]

How much trouble did you find adding the power button? The hardware, a push-to-make button onto a couple of the GPIO pins, with or without LED indication, easy enough.

But the necessary, additional coding to make it do the shutdown. Had you done any Pi coding before? How was that?

Its just some simple Python scripting, however the hard works already been done with the GPIO Zero library

https://github.com/TonyLHansen/raspberry-pi-safe-off-switch/

Though I must admit that Python is nothing more than a specie of snake to me, but I will look at your link, thanks.

 

[hilts10]

[/quote]

Maybe the script is easier than I think. It's just that I'm not into any form of coding - which is why I was more than happy to be up and running with a viable Pi streamer without the need for any scripting on my part so far!

Oh and sorry, SMPS is Switched Mode Power Supply - the type Raspberry Pi sells as their 'official' power supply option for the board.

Some claim that using a linear type improves the sound from the DAC (and is their reason for swapping). Others will give you technical reasons why it couldn't make any difference.

[/quote]

As far as the script/coding goes come to think of it it was all done through the Picoreplayer settings page.

Not compared the LPSU with the standard Pi PSU but will give it a go when I get time just as a matter of interest.

 

[hilts10]

We'll done on your Raspberry Pi setup. Looks good. I tried something similar and also used Jivelite to drive a display via the HDMI and get some fancy VU meters showing *music2*

That was my next project adding a screen. Could this be done with a 3.5 inch screen? Not bothered about using it as a control screen, would use my phone for that just like the look of the fancy meters and whatnots.

 

[tino]

That was my next project adding a screen. Could this be done with a 3.5 inch screen? Not bothered about using it as a control screen, would use my phone for that just like the look of the fancy meters and whatnots.

You could take a look at something like the Audiophonics kit (see link below). Run the LMS server and Jivelite on a second Raspberry Pi with a screen and have your existing Pi as a player only.

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/cases-for-raspberry-pi-and-other-sbc/aluminium-case-kit-for-raspberry-pi3-pi2-with-tft-35-screen-p-11483.html

 

[andyjm]

Some claim that using a linear type improves the sound from the DAC (and is their reason for swapping). Others will give you technical reasons why it couldn't make any difference.

A properly designed SMPS is no better or worse than a properly designed linear supply. In case it bypassed the 'linear is better" brigade, the Pi has one or two (billion) digital devices madly switching on and off on its circuitboard.