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

I have Pontus 1 So its a little different. All i had to do is just to press the mode of the i2s configuration few times to have good sound. And it works without problems since.

edit: setting 3 led on works for me

 

Announcing the PI2AES-LITE, Digital Audio HAT

The PI2AES-LITE, designed and manufactured by PI 2 Design, is a professional I/O Shield designed to bring Professional Studio Grade Audio to the Raspberry PI ® 3, 3+ and 4 series of Single Board Computers. This HAT compatible board converts the Raspberry Pi ® I2S Interface to High Definition AES Coax, SPDIF and Toslink Digital Audio Outputs. Fully Compatible with all PI2AES software. See our web site for more details.



Please note, this is a pre-order. Initial production units are estimated to ship by mid July 2022. Your order can be cancelled at any time prior to shipment for a full refund

 

Standard HAT size - so should fit in the standard HighPi cases, is that correct Michael?

 

Yes but the openings for the connectors won’t be there. However we are planning to create our own case and offer it with each unit at no charge. I just need to finish the design and cut it on the laser sometime this week.

 

Those panels on the side, with the slots around 3 edges, are designed to be pushed out to accommodate HATs with connectors up there - (eg various HiFiBerrys - scroll down on the manufacturer's page and you'll see pics).

If your plans & pricing and account for a case, great - but if they'll fit, maybe you could save yourself some money & time by buying & supplying the ready-made ones.

 

I’ll take a look. Although it wouldn’t have our name on there!

 

Hi I have a Toslink question.
The QED Toslink cable I have seems to be quite sloppy in its alignment when pushed into a Toslink socket. Does this sloppy alignment cause any practical problems, or is it acceptable?
Does the Pi2Aes have a more robust socket?
Is there any way to make the connection more aligned?Thanks, Peter

 

Check to make sure the housing is not caught up on the acrylic. Some cables require much larger openings than we designed.

 

I checked, and that is not the problem. The cable sags a bit and the Toslink socket allows plenty of play in the alignment. Even rca connectors are more precise. The larger question is does the sloppiness matter in terms of sound quality?Thanks, Peter.

 

It would pretty much be a binary situation, either it works or it doesn’t. Audio is not like computer data where you can get dropouts that get retransmitted. You would hear if there are discontinuities.

Sadly the whole standard is poor from a mechanical fit point of view. It simply uses a small plastic bump to secure itself into the socket. Overtime that bump just wears off, or the bump is smaller than the socket designers expected, etc.

 

Yes, that’s my observation. Thanks. Have you seen any collars that might improve alignment?

 

sorry, no.

 

Anyone using their Pi2AES with PiCorePlayer? If so, what are you using as an output device? Here's my current configuration:

After a reboot I get no sound from I2S, AES, nor coax when using AirPlay. When using the Pi's headphone jack, audio plays fine. The hardware (rev P3) works great with moode and RoPieee. Did I miss a setting somewhere?

 

I haven't used PiCorePlayer but my suggestion is to try different settings for the Mixer, where I've had a problem on one system (don't remember which one). On my config for RoPieeeXL and Volumio I see the mixer set to "none".

 

This is great, thanks for working around the parts shortage!
What I'm really confused in Lite the AES is gone but there is "AES coax". I don't really understand what is AES coax. I have Modius DAC, it has "Coaxial SPDIF", and it has AES. Can you please explain it to me like I'm 5?
Is there any sound difference between Coax and balanced AES? Should I care?
I'm interested to buy, the original PI2AES is not on sale for a while. Perhaps I would prefer the original but I'm not sure it's realistic.

 

AES defines two main standards, Balanced and coax. AES coax is similar to spdif, but the voltage level is higher allowing more drive ability.

 

Does anybody know if "Allo Digione" is still the best thing to select in volumio ? There's some pi 2 design 502 something or others in there now as well.

 

That or HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro (the 'Pro' is important).

 

Haha I went through all this trouble just to find out volumio and moode have no cue support. Wtf ... Over

How is that even possible ?

 

Because the player guts of both of them is MPD, which doesn't support cue sheets.