1.     Don't be a dotard!
    Read these "rules" AND introduce
    yourself     before your first post
  2. A healthy approach to understanding measurements
    Being true to what the artists intended
  3. After being asked for the 308th time, Merv lists top 5 headphones
    (opinion / entertainment piece)
    Dismiss Notice
  4. $1000 to the first to design a headamp using discrete components with better measurements than Magni 3+
    Dismiss Notice
IMPORTANT: New Members Read This Don't Be a Measurement Fascist Merv's Top 5 Headphones - 2023 Edition $1000 Challenge

Pi2AES Mercury Streamer

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Mar 10, 2023.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Friend BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    84,079
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    For more info, see here: https://www.pi2design.com/mercury-streamer-v2.html
    IMG_0476.jpg

    Many moons ago, I wrote up a guide on how to get the Pi2AES up and running here. I was a relatively late adopter because of the level of effort (and mystery) to put one together. I was interested enough that I did research asking various people here how they put theirs together, eventually putting up the aforementioned guide. Still, it's not something I look forward to building. The ask to @Michael Kelly was this: can't you guys offer something without all the fuss! Hence the Pi2AES Mercury V2 Streamer.

    I don't know much about the design, but the footprint is different. Here are photos of the boards from the pi2AES website.
    [​IMG]

    And here is a photo of the back. Like the Pi2AES, there are several digital outputs: HDMI LVDS i2s, Toslink, SPDIF Coax, BNC, and balanced AES. All digital outputs work simultaneously!
    IMG_0477.jpg

    All testing was done with the Meanwell 12V @ 3.3A power brick. I know others have tried various linear power supplies. IMO, I don't think they necessarily sound better, but rather different. I actually prefer the sound of the Meanwell, but to each their own.
     
    purr1n, Mar 10, 2023
    #1
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Friend BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    84,079
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    So how hard was this for me to set up? It was ridiculously easy. We won't see multiple pages of step by step instructions as with the pi2AES. The Mercury came with an SD card with Volumio. Basically it went like this.
    1. Plug in Ethernet cable to available jack on the WiFi puck in the room
    2. Plug in power brick
    3. Run Fing phone app, look for target VOLUMIO.
    4. Type in IP address in browser and voila!
    5. Install Roon and Spotify plug-ins
    6. Select output on Spotify app on the phone and play music!
    v2.jpg

    I happen to like Volumio for two reasons: easy plug-ins for Spotify and Roon.
    v2s.jpg

    With something like Spotify, I just hit the output device setting in the bottom of the screen and change it to Volumio.
    IMG_0479.PNG

    Note: everything went right on the first try. No redos, reboots, etc.
     
    purr1n, Mar 10, 2023
    #2
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Friend BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    84,079
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    As for sound quality? I'd really have to sit down and run a split cable from the digital output into two of the same DACs, but initial impressions from known gear (Schiit Gungnir A2 and EC Studio B with various headphones), I would have to say that the sound of the Mercury Streamer V2 is very similar to the pi2AES, but a more tubey (a wee bit in the Unison direction), more liquid, and more refined (hard to explain). I really like what I am hearing!

    I don't know what special sauce @Michael Kelly put into the Mercury, but given his engineering chops, I bet he tweaked more than a few things!

    There are 55 pages (and growing) worth of discussion here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...iot-proof-ready-to-go-rpi-aes-streamer.10471/

    I have not read it all. What I wanted to do here is ascertain setup ease. There are not enough hours in the day! I wanted to take a few measurements, but I'm flying to the UK again in about 15 hours! I will have to come back to this in a day or two.
     
    purr1n, Mar 10, 2023
    #3
  4. edwyun

    edwyun Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2020
    Likes Received:
    114
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Location:
    NY/NJ
    Are you using the V1 or V2 (not that they should sound any different)?
     
    edwyun, Mar 14, 2023
    #4
  5. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

    Friend Contributor
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    3,001
    Trophy Points:
    113
    From the pictures, it’s a V1.

    I have a V1, too, and concur with @purr1n ’s findings vis-a-vis the Pi2AES.

    I also really like that the Mercury is 12V and (seemingly) consumes less power than the Pi4 + Pi2AES. I can use the UpTone LPS-1.2 and not fear that it dies too quickly (2 of them died on me already. This PSU is more like a consumable, unfortunately. It sounds so good and the mains isolation it provides is very useful in my case…). The LPS-1.2 chassis is only lukewarm when powering the Mercury. IIRC, it draws < 7W while playing (no USB attached).
     
    Clemmaster, Mar 14, 2023
    #5
  6. ColdsnapBry

    ColdsnapBry Almost "Made"

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2021
    Likes Received:
    404
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Earth
    How well do these take to frequent power on/off? In my system I power everything off when I'm done listening then back on when I want to listen. Not sure if the on/off will affect any sort of connection problems as the OS has to boot up, connect to wifi, connect to music etc.
     
    ColdsnapBry, Mar 14, 2023
    #6
  7. weicheheck

    weicheheck Acquaintance

    Contributor
    Joined:
    Dec 26, 2018
    Likes Received:
    76
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Location:
    Miami

    In my experience I turn it off and on with no issues, but mine has a Ropiee OS on it and I connect to Roon, super simple to set up the connection to Roon and then no fuss at all in the month or so that I've been using mine

    I went from a dirt cheap crappy PC out to USB cable connection to my Yggdrasil LIM, to using the Mercury Streamer with an LPS and I can attest that the difference was night and day.

    The most immediately notable difference for me was deeper bass extension, and much smoother high end without a ton of the painful glare that I assume is associated with "digititus".

    Things in general sounder clearer as well, details and staging were both taken up a notch.

    That USB cable + noisy PC was for sure a bottleneck in my system that the Mercury was able to relieve
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2023
    weicheheck, Mar 14, 2023
    #7
  8. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

    Friend
    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2016
    Likes Received:
    3,871
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Rhode Island, USA
    Home Page:
    FYI - Ropieee loads the software from the SD CARD, then runs only out of memory. Volumio, Moode and most others use the SD Card as they are running which is how corruption can occur with powering off without shutting down the software first. On our latest Volumio image we added support to allow Volumio to hold the power after pressing the power button. This then shuts down the system first, then powers off.

    But, this relies on the software to be up and running. If Volumio hangs or you press the button while it is booting it loses track of the state of the power hold and keeps it on. Then you have to "pull the plug"! Not ideal, but for those who want to power off between sessions is it preferable.

    Note that this image an also be used with Mercury V1.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2023
    Michael Kelly, Mar 15, 2023
    #8
  9. edwyun

    edwyun Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2020
    Likes Received:
    114
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Location:
    NY/NJ
    What I do when using Volumio is first shut it down via the Voluimo app. You'll see the activity light on the Mercury flicker for a few seconds. Then I physically turn off the Mercury via its power button. No problems so far with restarting etc.
     
    edwyun, Mar 15, 2023
    #9
  10. ColdsnapBry

    ColdsnapBry Almost "Made"

    Joined:
    Feb 4, 2021
    Likes Received:
    404
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Earth
    Ok cool, thanks for that. So what I gather is shutting down via the Voluimo app, then powering off the Mercury will be find? I am a bit confused at the pull the plug reccomendation @Michael Kelly, no sure if I follow ya.
     
    ColdsnapBry, Mar 15, 2023
    #10
  11. edwyun

    edwyun Facebook Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 30, 2020
    Likes Received:
    114
    Trophy Points:
    33
    Location:
    NY/NJ
    To add more details, when I first got the Mercury, I attached my SSD drive with 1TB of flac files. Turning off the Volumio app and the physically turning off the Mercury worked fine. When I powered up, I did not have issues except for the fact it took several seconds to several minutes or so to load and for the SSD USB drive and all files/album art to remount.

    More recently, I saved all my flac files to a MVMe SSD internal drive in the Mercury. Now when I power up, it takes a few seconds to fully load all files/album art. I don't notice any delay.
     
    edwyun, Mar 15, 2023
    #11

Share This Page