Raspberry Pi I2S to SPDIF Hat

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Michael Kelly, Apr 30, 2016.

  1. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    Pi3 up and running. No lps or hat yet. What distros are people using these days? I tried Volumio and Moode (needed the hotspot for setup). I liked the configurability of Moode and the audio seems to be a bit better but the interface is terribad. Initial impressions are that the audio jack with headphones is unusably noisy, possibly exacerbated by the smps, but a gustard u12 as a temporary ddc sounds pretty good.

    Are most people using nas for storage? That's how I have it set up now and it works well even with lossless but was thinking usb attached flash of some sort might be nice to help cut the wifi rfi that contributed to the painful audio jack experience to the bare minimum needed for control.
     
  2. auri

    auri Facebook Friend

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    Using the Pi as a UPnP output device from a bigger PC is the most elegant solution I've seen so far.
     
  3. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I would just suck it down and get a HAT. I'm using a Digi+ Pro doing coax out, and it's working well. I am actually using it with Moode- I agree that the web interface is a bit ugly- but it does work.. however, you don't have to use that often. Have a look at MPDroid. Also, remember that it's a UnPnP endpoint, and even does Airplay.

    I'm also using a NAS to store FLACs. The NAS is also running the BubbleUnPnP server, which lets me stream Tidal through the Pi (Linn Kazoo is a freely downloadable controller for that, gives you decent interface access). I can also use the UnPnP support in JRiver, when my PC is on. So many control options, it'd be pointless to try and list them all- the web interface isn't something you have to use often, beyond making config changes.

    (Though I have worked out the quirks of the web interface now, and it's not as bad as it looks, just needs some aesthetic upgrades and better design cues.)
     
  4. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    Even a potato sounds better than the headphone out on the RPI.
    I had been using the RPI3 with a Hifiberry Digi+hat for a while and I was satisfied with it. Now I use a Digi+ Pro, and I think it is even better (blacker background etc.), but I've soldered a BNC connector to it so that might be responsible for the differences too.
    It seems I have a 502DAC (digital only) prototype from @Michael Kelly on the way, so I'm looking forward to compare it to the Digis.
    It might be better if you wait a little until it is in production and there are more comparisons available to the Hifiberry products but based on the few reviews you can read on this site it looks really good.

    I have a Synology D215j NAS with two 3TB WD Red HDDs in it and it is connected to the RPI3 with an ethernet cable. I've tried wifi first but all 24bit 192khz files or higher had dropouts every 5-10 seconds. Ethernet cable works fine.
    Moode was a little unreliable when I tried it (often dropping wifi connection, occasional interface freeze) so I've changed to Rune Audio and it is very stable, no problem so far. But it was harder to set up and for the Digi+Pro I had to update the kernel.(by the way I did all of that following online guides, so it is not that hard)
    I like Volumio 2 's interface the most, and you can even use an EQ plugin with it, but it is not working with the Digi+Pro until their next update. (It needs a kernel update, but it is crashes if you update it)
    As @Kattefjaes said, get a HAT, then you have lots of options to choose from and you should try as much as you can so you can decide what works best for your setup.
     
  5. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Just an update. I sent the nine units I had yesterday to the first nine on the list, no favorites just in the order you guys asked. I sent an email to each person with the tracking number, so if you did not get any email then I did not send you a unit.:( Sorry.

    I have sent the new version out, here's hoping the third time is the charm!

    Cheers,
    Michael
     
  6. darkstar>eyesoftheworld

    darkstar>eyesoftheworld New

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    I bought a raspberry pi 3 anticipating my 502DAC. It was pre loaded with Kodi and LibreELEC. I'm thinking I'm going to have to wipe it and start from scratch to get the 502 to work. I've read a few things and it's all Greek to me. Any suggestions for a total pi noob would be appreciated. Being able to stream Tidal is a must.
     
  7. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    One of Michael's test boards gets here Friday or so and the lps... sometime later assuming it's not seized by customs or whatever. I just wanted to get things ready beforehand. :) I did try Airplay and it'd be by far the most pleasant front end but I'll have to see how the sound compares to direct attached storage or whether Apple is molesting the sound files in transit.

    Sticking with nas would definitely be the easiest thing to do but storage is so cheap now and flash is silent which makes it tempting.

    @Lossolar

    Almost all of my music is redbook so wifi should be fine, and if I do use usb storage the Pi seems to share attached storage so it should be easy enough to manage things without relying on sneakernet (famous last words right?).

    @Michael Kelly

    Fingers crossed, I'm looking forward to hearing the board en route and hopefully building something squeezebox-ish with the production model.
     
  8. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    Yes an attached SSD works nicely. That is the good thing with this RPI setup that you have so many ways to costumize it for your needs. Sometimes I hook up an SSD or MicroSD via usb but the main reason I've bought the NAS was that I wanted a raid setup so I won't loose all my ripped music when one hdd stops working and all my music can be in 1 place. (I had a few bad experiences with data loss). Now I can just rip a cd, copy it to the NAS and I don't have to worry about it anymore.
    Also I don't have neither Tidal nor Spotify account, but I can stream my lossless music easily from the NAS when I'm away from home.
     
  9. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Airplay is, I think, normally lossless. However, it is streamed from your iThingy, which makes it a lot less elegant and efficient. It's infinitely nicer to hand off all the work, and any and all of your mobile devices to control it. Stash your FLACs on a little NAS, use an MPD remote or similar (there are a few, try them out). Then it's just the Pi network mounted the NAS, and doing all the work. Ditto if you wanted Tidal, you can something like this:

    https://www.bubblesoftapps.com/bubbleupnpserver/

    ..on a NAS, then you can just use a remote app (there are various, I tried Linn Kazoo, which worked well) to stream Tidal without your iThingy having to do all the work.

    f'ing around with plugging your storage directly into the Pi is also quite a poor plan, you lose all the advantages of fast, robust network storage, shared to everything on your network. It's less robust, less convenient, less flexible and less scalable. Oh, and you'd have a big twatty tangle of electrically noisy USB hubs and things hanging out of your Pi, which rather ruins the effect of having a tiny, quiet box, too :)
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2017
  10. rvsixer

    rvsixer New

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    I could be reading things wrong here in the wee hours, but my two cents:
    1) Airplay does not have a front end (the particular app you are streaming from is the front end). Airplay is simply a transport to stream CD quality audio (and or video) wirelessly from an Airplay transmitter to an Airplay receiver. I stream online music services this way directly to my hifi, very convenient and efficient not having to turn on any other devices to do so. NAS and media player can all stay asleep :)
    2) For more serious listening, my wired NAS and media player play stored off-line media (i.e. FLAC's).
    3) Single location RAID is NOT the same as backup, depend on it as such and data loss can certainly still happen
     
  11. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    *slams head on desk*
     
  12. Poleepkwa

    Poleepkwa Friend

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    [​IMG]
     
  13. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    One is going to try, 007, one is going to try.

    I am reminded of this joke (told to me by a rather good jazz and funk drummer):

    Q: What’s the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
    A: You only have to punch the information into a drum machine once.
     
  14. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    Yes of course but if my apartment burns down my music would be the least of my worries. :)
    (I know, I know I might get a virus, or accidentally delete something etc.) But so far I've only lost data due to failed SD cards and HDDs, so I think it's a good enough solution. Good enough sometimes satisfies me.
     
  15. rvsixer

    rvsixer New

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    Exactly, no fire needed. I've had consumer level NAS's with software RAID that would not rebuild again (or rebuild and then fail a data integrity check). Thankfully I always have a backup.
     
  16. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I received a 502DAC today, thank you so much Michael!

    I realized when I opened it that I had forgotten it used BNC and not RCA, so I did just order a new cable from Blue Jeans Cables and will be able to test it once that arrives.
     
  17. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    IMG_0831.JPG IMG_0834.JPG

    Just opened and set up. Looking and sounding great! No high pitch whine on this one. (That never did go away on my first rev P1)

    Thanks Michael
     

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    Last edited: Feb 16, 2017
  18. Jeffjazzer

    Jeffjazzer New

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    Ok Scott Kramer, you always seem to be in the front of the line when testing this stuff! .
    Let us know how this compares to the Kali. I should have jumped on one of the preproduction 502s when I had a chance.
    I'm going to hold off for either the Kali 2 or the production 502.

    Tired of looking at all these pictures! Need to get one of these puppies!

    Jeff
     
  19. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    Agreed, ideally the Pi will be doing all the work.

    I found a decent mpd client (Soundirok), or at least it will be if I can work out the quirks with cover art.

    I don't get why you think it'd be more complicated, it's literally one high capacity usb stick (256-512gb) or mini-ssd drive (like a Samsung T3) plugged into a USB port and my brief experience with the headphone jack suggests the on-board wifi generates more noise than the USB ports. Unless you're using the Ethernet port and have your Pi sitting by your NAS? Anyway the main advantage in sticking with the NAS would be convenience and cost, but it's not really that big a deal to sync two folders now and then. No RAID so less robust but solid state so also less chance of some catastrophic failure. I will concede scalability though. ;)
     
  20. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    Did the pics for you guys, since there were none yet -- was just at the keyboard when Michael asked for testers thru email, honestly thought I missed it so much time went by after that. Also can tone down the pics if they are annoying :)


    Will focus on testing 502 BNC vs Digi+PRO BNC (and some other spdif sources) -- to not muck up results with my special f'in snowflake schiit i2s

    Then on to testing the Kali/502(BNC,I2S)/Digi+PRO(BNC,I2S) (and a few other things)
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2017

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