Pi2 Design Idiot-Proof Ready-To-Go RPi/AES Streamer

I like Wireworld HDMI cables for I2S runs. They used to make the flat cables in 0.3M length but those are hard to find and maybe out of production. They currently have the Sphere and Radius HDMI cables in 0.6M length. I like them because reasons, not saying they're required for proper I2S. I have a flat Starlight 7 HDMI and it's been great.

Does the Mercury Streamer support native DSD from its USB output? I assume the other ports will not do DSD over PCM? I don't need DoP, but no DSD via USB would be a deal breaker for me. I am also interested to understand why a certain design may or may not be able to manage DSD through its interfaces. Is this due to a Tx frequency or word length issue?

 

The Mercury will work with Moode and other software right? If we flash the SD card? I don't like Volumio for whatever reason.

Can you clarify this? You said it wouldn't benefit from a Sigma 11 LPS but here you seem to be saying it will benefit from an external LPS.

Sorry for being a dummy

 

It seems LPS is suggested now with the Mercury streamer.
That makes me worry about the performance of Mercury streamer without LPS.
Is there a measurable or audible difference of Mercury streamer with and without LPS?

 

I guess what he meant was with Mercury you will get the actual benefit of using LPS as there is no switcher in path which would have polluted the power from LPS had it been there.
With Pi2AES, due to usage of switcher some benefit of LPS are lost. I may be wrong but thats how I interpret it.

 

The extra regulation built into the sigma is not only not necessary but whatever regulator is in there has to carry the full current required mercury, but only a small portion of that goes to the critical circuits. Our LPS will not have that extra layer of regulation because it is already built into mercury for the critical circuits.

 

No one said it was required, it’s simply that the LPS may, may bring a small benefit to the overall noise and jitter. But whether you would even be able to hear it, or your DAC would be able to resolve to a level where that noise and or jitter would be noticeable is completely unknown.

 

I would love to have a very short HDMI cable for stacked Mercury streamer and Mercury DAC/Amp. 6 inches is probably more than long enough. Ideally, the exact length for stacking the 2 boxes with 90 degree HDMI plugs... something like this (but HDMI connectors, of course):
https://www.amazon.com/CESS-067-Short-Stacking-Right-Angle-3-inch/dp/B082PLZB54

 

Is this a clear acrylic case or black? Can it be easily taken apart ? (I'd prefer clear and I'd like to spray the inside of the case to create my own color... similar to what I did with my Pi2AES boxes)

I assumed the DAC/Amp version had the streamer built in (ie., no reason to purchase and stack both)

 

Are you saying you still assume this? Because if you look at the renders, there’s only a single i2s input on the back, and no network connectivity or antenna. Plus look at the internals. Pretty sure this is just a Dac+Amp, meant to be paired with the Mercury streamer.

 

both black aluminum and clear acrylic.

They are two separate components.

 

I'm assuming the dual output on the LPS is so it can power both the streamer and dac?

 

Exactly!

 

Wrong assumption. Sorry buddy

 

A question for beta tester - are you using wired connection or Wifi of pi board?

 

So far, I have been using wired only.

 

When ordering the Mercury streamer, will it come with a simple 12V switched power supply?

 

Yes it will.

 

The DAC will come with a short, slim HDMI cable. But it has to be long enough to place the units side by side with some slack. Something like this monoprice in 2ft:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24187

 

No issues with Moode on the mercury streamer so far.. just played some highres flac files on my synology nas cifs share, and then I used spotify connect and set it to 320kbps quality.. no issues there either. haven't tried any dsd files yet..
During first setup I had issues with 5GHz again, had to set it up for 2.4GHz

Might try the idpi sdcard again I got from jriver tomorrow.. will try it with some tvs to see if it finally outputs hdmi signal.. for some reason it didn't work with my computer monitors.. I made sure it was the video hdmi, not the i2s one

 

5Ghz requires router to be closer to the receiver and 2.4Ghz can cover larger area and hence are stable when we are away from router.