DDC Measurements - Audio-GD DI-20HE, Pi2AES, ifi Zen Stream

Greeting and salutations. SBAF has enriched me so here I contribute a Rando one off.

My system had an unpleasant character and it didn't make sense to me. I have a USBridge Sig into unison yggdrasil. So why does it sound better if I turn the volume down, or off.

I have the Allo Shanti to power the USBridge, better than crappy cables, a netgear GS105 ethernet switch dedicated to the USBridge. Even did the separate ground for the negative power line tweak on the switch.

Had to do something. Saw posts about PI2AES and thought maybe the yggdrasil would like AES better than USB (even if Moffat thinks unison) so I ordered the P2AES. This is going to take weeks to get and even if it is better it doesn't explain why my system sucks.

What else could it possibly be. The dac goes balanced to Freya+ to mono Ageirs and tekton pendragons. That should be good enough. Then I rememeberd a few years ago reading post by those lunatics buying dac priced ethernet switches. Oh come on, really. I'm not paying that. But I'll try this https://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Ethernet-Converter-Duplex-1-Meter/dp/B0995KVS2Y

Delivered today
Package was left inside the residence’s mailbox

Problem solved. Beware noise on the ethernet.

 

SU6 now added too. https://goldensound.audio/2021/08/01/singxer-su6-measurements/
I have a new DI20HE on the way which I'll test once that arrives and will properly subjectively compare the two. One of the things that is said about it is that the performance can be improved via firmware updates later down the line. So hopefully will see how the latest version does once it arrives.

Regardless, it's clear that both the SU6 and DI20HE are absolute totl devices and you can hardly go wrong with either.

 

Although wrapped in excess verbiage, the main point is actually kind of interesting. I'm sceptical, but if I was in the US, I would be tempted to buy what looks like optical isolation and test it out.

 

If you're interested in testing software on the Pi2AES, I have an impression there may be differences as the OS gets tuned to realtime & audio focus and away from general purpose OS. So..

RoonBridge on AudioLinux > RoonBridge on Ropieee > RoonBridge on Volumio > UPNP on Volumio

I don't have a lot of conviction though - these are just very soft impressions.

 

Would be great to compare the di20 against the di20 he to see how much of a difference the regenerative power makes

 

Update on Mercury Streamer

We are now taking orders for a limited number of Mercury Streamer, 4GB SBAF edition at $499. Production versions will have 8GB and will be priced at $599. If you order please include your SBAF user name in the notes section.

https://www.pi2design.com/store/p25/Mercury_Streamer.html

 

Nice!
I'll be ordering one as soon as I'm able to.

Is the SBAF/Normal version different in any way other than the 4gb/8gb?

 

The only difference is the Compute Module installed has 4GB or 8GB.

 

Looking forward to your review on this one. Was following the progress for release on the mercury streamer from pi2designs since inception. I appreciated your take on the original pi2AES from them so this should be very interesting indeed. Thanks for all the work you put into your videos. Love the perspective.

 

BTW, I just got the first build sample from my assembly house. I plan to test it tomorrow and then I could send it to you for review? Do you have a high quality 12V linear? Assuming you even have the time.

 

I'd love to review it if you're happy to send one over, thank you!
I do have a Ferrum HYPSOS here so would probably use that, though also have an ifi iPower 12v which I think a lot of people would be using so that would work too.

I could get a written review done and up on https://goldensound.audio without issue. Though my queue for videos (which I'd definitely like to do one of the mercury) is a bit long at the moment so it may be a couple months before I can do a video on it unfortunately.

If you'd be happy with a written review now and video review later I'd love to do that. Though I totally understand if you'd prefer to wait until a video review could be done on a shorter timescale instead

 

Also on the thread topic, I posted some measurements of the Chord MScaler both in terms of Jitter (which was surprisingly poor) and looking at the filter itself (which is great and I really wish there were more competitors to this so that we could get some M-Scaler-esque products at slightly more affordable prices!): https://goldensound.audio/2022/03/17/chord-hugo-m-scaler-measurements-and-technical-evaluation/

 

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I don’t expect mercury to be dramatically better than PI2AES, but the ability to have a completely linear power chain for the critical circuits should put it ahead a bit.

I’ll send you an email when I dispatch the unit. I will mark it as a no cost loaner with a value of US$10. Hopefully that will get it past the taxholes.

 

Wow that’s a detailed review….thank you. I’m using HQPlayer and have recently got PGGB trial but only issue with PGGB is it turns every song to like 2GB if you upsample it to higher rate like 16fs and needs a beefy computer to work but I really like how user friendly PGGB is.

 

Added U18 measurements: https://goldensound.audio/2022/04/07/gustard-u18-ddc-measurements/

 

Also updated the first post in this thread with all tested DDCs so far and listed them in order of RMS jitter performance

 

Any chance to put cost in that list as well? PI4 + PI2AES + Case = $329 + linear supply?

 

Yep that's a good idea.
I'll go through and add pricing shortly

 

@GoldenOne

It’s sounds like you’re super busy and no time for crazy rabbit holes but I was reading a bit about this raspberry pi audio distro that claims to have reduced jitter:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/symphonic-mpd.11713/

Which made me wonder if there really was a difference compared to more mainstream distros and if so how the different ones rated and the possible effect of conventional wisdom based strategies (e.g. the pi3 is thought to be “less noisy”) or whether settings like clock speed, etc. made any difference.

 

I have an IFI Zen stream + denafrips pontus 2 DAC (linked via USB cable). The IFI has an HDD attached and I play the songs from the HDD. The IFI is used only by Wifi (no network cable).

Would it help with the sound quality if I would add a singxer SU-6 DDC for converting the signal to I2S and feed the dac?