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

Oh boy... now that RPi 5 has been announced for October... do you think it will require a revision to the Pi2AES hat?

 

No HW issues, but I would be very surprised if the software players (ie volumio, moode, ropiee, etc) are ready to go for many months.

 

The real question is why you'd need one to use as an audio endpoint. Seems like it will just get hotter and has the potential to sound worse because there's more circuitry and interference. (Same reason many said the 3b+ sounded better than the 4 when used with a hat.)

 

Great. That gives you all kinds of time to come up with a new case

 

If you use anything like Volumio, I would say the biggest downside is probably how the interface can get sluggish. Also, the USB port may just plain be better, but that remains to be seen.

 

That's true, but if you're using the Pi with a Pi2AES, then USB wouldn't really matter right? Unless you're using a 3b+ with a drive hooked up to USB and also hardwire ethernet hookup since they share the same bus. I haven't noticed any sluggishness using RopieeeXL on my 3b+, and I'm on a very much old version of RopieeeXL.

 

Would very much like to know if the original 24v switcher on the pi2aes can provide the 5 amps required for the new pi 5.

 

I power mine separately, but that is a great point I never considered.

 

I think so, but I need to see more info on the GPIO power pins. Not sure how much power I can push through them. The physical pins themselves are only rated at 2A each and there are only two of them.

 

Any thoughts of my problem of music will play for 3 seconds at the start of the song then stop? Using a Bifrost 2 DAC. Pi2aes and Volumio. Ah I think it's my wifi just being shit. Gotta hardwire.

 

If you look into the S-Booster, you will not find a lot to justify the price. S-Booster goes via a traditional distributor/dealer system and that does not make it cheaper.
A higher price does not necessarily mean better quality. In High-End, it's the combination of everything that makes a system sing and not the combination of the highest price gear.

 

try putting some music files on a USB drive and plugging it into the pi. That way you will know if it’s the rest of the system or the Wi-Fi.

 

If I only judged audio equipment from only price standpoint, I wouldn't be on this forum. I Judge from several reviews, which I don't think had any personal interests to make one better then other. I also understand that judging audio equipment is pretty subjective.

 

I agree that Audio is not always related to price points. The combination of the Pi2AES with PI is something very special. I did more experiments and ended up with a massive power supply from Ian Canada with 2x3000F Supercapacitors to power the HAT. It is frightening how much that improved the result. My engineering part of the brain tells me it's rubbish, but my ears are telling me something else. Out of curiosity, I replaced my combination with a Volumio Rivo and the same Supercap power supply, but it sounded not too good. It had the slightly nervous character that you get with a lot of digital units. My Pi2AES combo does not have it at all....it's the quietness that makes it so attractive. Yeah, I know, it sounds like marketing High-End Bla Bla, but it's really that good. I asked my listening team here to test as well and without telling them what I changed, they came back with the same impression. A killer system

 

Been loving my Pi2AES 1.0 with my Yggdrasil. So much so that I'm thinkin' of picking up another for my bedroom HP setup. This is a BF2/64, so no AES input unfortunately.

It appears the largest benefit of the 2.0 relative to the Lite/1.0 is improved noise figures, is that right? Re: hardware, it appears to retain the same transmitters, oscillators, and regulators.

Would folks here advise optical or coax with the BF2? Or, just stick with Unison USB altogether (hard to believe this is the way w/ RPi4 USB, tho I know Unison is solid.)

I may just throw the 2.0 in my main rig, and move the 1.0 to my bedroom...

More of a "what would you do" post. Appreciate any tips/experiences.

 

I run coax from my pi2aes to my BF2/64 - I run BNC out of the hat and rca into the dac...

usb out of the rpi4 was subpar and the reason I purchased the Pi2AES years ago.

FWIW, I never tried optical... when given the choice, spdif has always sounded better than optical whenever I've tried it in the past, so I stopped trying OPT years ago.

 

Is this the correct setup for ps audio pin out

 

Not sure what you are doing.

BTW, from your profile picture it looks like you used the PI2AES-LITE extender along with PI2AES. Was there a reason?

 

1. when I bought pi2aes2.0 pin15 and pin16 were open. jumper is in swap. is this the correct pin out for PS Audio

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there is a user manual on the website that defines the pin out and what the jumpers do. In addition, I’m sure you can find a PS audio specifications on the web.