Streamer advice for absolute beginner.

[Tinman1952]

I've seen many such theories and opinions.
Quite a few people say that the Pi is noisy, due to having a switching PSU - and, because it's a computer, with all the pollution you mention.
Also, some say that its USB output is unusably noisy - so in their opinions a Rpi is no better than a PC in terms of noise. Personally, I use both, with no SQ problems whatsoever.
I'm sure some of these people form their opinions just by reading what others have said....and those others said it because they read it somewhere....and so these things become 'known' facts
Biggest (genuine) improvement with the Pi is the lack of a fan - so much better when listening with open backed headphones.

I’ve never heard anyone say the Pi is inherently ‘noisy’ certainly the SoC is better than a high power CPU laptop with internal HDD. Most audiophiles use a low noise power supply (linear or even a power bank….)
The models before the Pi 4 had a shared bus between the USB and Ethernet which could cause noise problems but from the Pi 4 they are separate.
I am glad you are happy with yours!

 

[Gray]

I’ve never heard anyone say the Pi is inherently ‘noisy’ certainly the SoC is better than a high power CPU laptop with internal HDD. Most audiophiles use a low noise power supply (linear or even a power bank….)
The models before the Pi 4 had a shared bus between the USB and Ethernet which could cause noise problems but from the Pi 4 they are separate.
I am glad you are happy with yours!

I've seen it said that, due to being faster, the Pi4 is worse for audio than earlier versions.
I only bought a second 3b model as it was cheaper and because the first was perfectly OK.
It pays to ignore many of the 'expert' opinions out there