Dummies Guide to Pi2AES! Throw away your PC or laptop.

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Jan 29, 2020.

  1. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    I realize this now :) is there anything that does that doesn't cost $100 a year ?
     
  2. AukePauke

    AukePauke Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2017
    Likes Received:
    33
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Netherlands
  3. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    Hello everybody,

    When I received my PI2AES, about two months ago, I asked if anyone tried to power the PI2AES HAT separately from the Rbi. Two of you said that they did try, but did not hear a serious difference.

    Well, I tried doing it only today. I powered the PI2AES with the Audiophonics 19V LPSU100 LPS, and the RBi3 with the 5V/3A output of the Allo Shanti LPS.

    And the sound improvement in my system is just fantastic!
    The resolution is greater, the separation between the instruments is much better, and there’s much more depth to the sound.


    @Michael Kelly ,
    Thank you for this wonderful device.
    It beats my Allo USBridge Sig with ease.
    I keep using though the Allo USBridge for my DSD albums.
     
  4. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    Moode does have CUE support! There's a setting in library to ignore cue files by default. You have to shut it off. Now that I'm done banging my had against the wall setting up all this really bad software and can actually utilize one file flacs with cues ... I must say using BNC to gungnir is easily 2 steps up over using oppo 103 coax which I was using before.
     
  5. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    GentooPlayer supports CUE.
     
  6. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    I didn't try Gentoo player, after messing with different software for hours just to reflash again I'm done.
    Moode seems to sound best compared to volumio and picoreplayer (yuck Logitech and squeeze this )
     
  7. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    Moose sounds very good, if you want to use it to play local files that are stored on a drive that is attached to your PI2AES. But if you stream to it, Moode does not sound as good as PicorePlayer or GentooPlayer.

    GentooPlayer is really the best in all regards, and it offers endless possibilities, but it is quite a geeky distribution, and its license is not free.
     
  8. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    No streaming here. I have no experience with any of these distros and I am a Linux noob. I don't want to try anymore I just want to listen to music !
     
  9. Metro

    Metro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2016
    Likes Received:
    1,590
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Francisco
    Pardon my ignorance, but are cue sheets some kind of pro audio function? What do you do with it?
     
  10. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    Nope nothing pro about it. It's just one whole album as one flac file, the cue sheet is essentially the track listing/table of contents. About half my files are like this. Without cue support it just plays the flac file as one long song, the album front to back without track numbers or any of that Info. Moode has a setting under "library" to ignore cue files and this set to yes by default.... Who know why but it's there and it works once you shut it off.
     
  11. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    If it's only to play local files, Mode is, IMHO, the best choice for you.
    It has a nice library management, it's easy to use, and its sound is very good.
    Enjoy the music.
     
  12. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 4, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,758
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Jackson, Mi
    I have quite a few cue files, but all of them have been split for playing on my phone, in my car, etc. I don't want to delete them, so I just set moode to ignore them so I don't have duplicates.
     
  13. Metro

    Metro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2016
    Likes Received:
    1,590
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Francisco
    Thanks for the explanation! None of my albums are in this format, I think because my digital library is ripped CDs and downloads from mainstream vendors. Are cue sheets primarily from independent sources and tape transfers?
     
  14. HotRatSalad

    HotRatSalad Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 4, 2018
    Likes Received:
    1,684
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NH
    Well I just always ripped to flac going back years and years. Doesn't matter if you rip one file or individual tracks you still need a cue sheet to burn it back to a CD and retain the exact image from what I understand. I have a mix of everything but mostly flac format.
     
  15. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    Hello everybody,


    To improve further the sound of my PI2AES, the techniciens of my audio gear provider, Audiophonics, advise me to insert an ALLO KALI I2S FIFO RECLOCKER between the RBi3 and the PI2AES HAT.

    Does any one of you attempted such upgrade?

    @Michael Kelly
    Do you think it would be interesting to try?
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2022
  16. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2016
    Likes Received:
    4,112
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Home Page:
    Unfortunately it won’t work. They are board is designed to take the poor quality clocks from the pi, create clean versions, then send them out to the Dac or other attached device. Our board already creates and drives to the pi the ultra clean clocks. Using the Allo board would do nothing but create a conflict.
     
  17. Metro

    Metro Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2016
    Likes Received:
    1,590
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    San Francisco
    It has its own power input, so now you can use 3 separate power supplies :cool:.
     
    • Agreed, ditto, +1 Agreed, ditto, +1 x 1
    • List
  18. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    Thank you @Mikael Kelly for your reply.
    In this case, l'll keep enjoying the PI2AES as it is, for a while, and I will upgrade then to the Mercury streamer. :)
     
  19. Dandou

    Dandou Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2022
    Likes Received:
    27
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    France
    Everything that improves the sound is fine for me…
    Though the KALI powers also the HAT, it's not a problem for me to use 3 LPS', because I accumulated a few of them over the years.
    But Mikhael says that it won't work.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2022
  20. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

    Joined:
    Jul 9, 2019
    Likes Received:
    46
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Location:
    New York
    I'm interested in your opinion on the sacrifice of the balanced in the PI2AES LITE. Did anyone mention that the sound from balanced AES is any better than regular RCA SPDIF output that the Lite hat has? After all, the key to improvement was the superior clock that I2S converter is using to remove jitter. Balanced is just funky 3 wires?

    While I regret the absence of balanced NZ2520SDA is better than NZ2520SD. Maybe it can make RCA sound as good as old school balanced?
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2022

Share This Page