Raspberry Pi I2S to SPDIF Hat

@Hands I agree on the bypassing usb subject and the transport frenzy that is currently so trendy. But man... those figures (500\1000) you throw above are crazy
It is a pi hat, the whole system is designed to be cheap and diy friendly. Better to keep it cheaper and invest in a lpsu, which at the end represent the most part of the improvement you are likely to experience. After all this hat leaves very little to be desired, expecially now that Micheal is implementing a version with bnc and aes.

 

Drooling at the thought. Sonore released the Microrendu, and it integrates the Regen, for which I have little success with in my setups, and don't relish having to relive it. It is at the $700 range with ifi power though.

On the other hand, burning in the Digi+ board last night did improve its the sound, much to my surprise (I ran it with a battery, which shortly ran out). Like tboooe said, your market opens up with RCA, but if it sounds decent, you can blow up with BNC or AES, mounted in a case with a good LPS. Sort of like what Bryston is doing, but closer to the Raspberry Pi use case. Crossing in $500 starts to get iffy unless the bundle moves away from SMPS and acrylic cases.

 

I'm excited that if the performance of the board does hold up and end up as good if not better than the Hifiberry, that I can build for about $200-250 something that performs as well or better than the new Bryston streamer.

 

@Hands I was having a deja vu... I thought we were in the micro rendu thread on CA where people begged to pay more than 1k for that gizmo
I agree on guessing that a CNO board would not cost that much given Micheal's price policy, but why take the risk? LOL

I suggest caution. Let's hear what this board brings on the performance table. Then we'll start from there.

 

I am thinking at $250 or less for an audiophile version it would be a big success. Though I am not sure what else can be done to it. I agree that putting it into a nice case including a Pi3 so its plug and play would make it attractive to the masses instead of just us nerds. That is basically what companies like Bryston and Sonore are doing.

 

Before talking prices I'd like to know what this supposed audiophile version should implement more than it does right now.

 

Totally agree with you! As I said, I am not sure what else can be done to this thing without dramatically changing its scope. As with all things in audio, we are reaching a point of diminishing returns very quickly. I think the design as it stands right now looks great on paper and I would be happy with it.

 

I was referring to the original "budget" board since I have more humble equipment. My estimates included a nice LPS and a decent looking case. Even for a couple hundred more for a blinged out version with AES/BNC/LMNOP still seems like it would be a crazy good value, even if it isn't 100% as good as some $2000 purpose build PC with $1000 fancy reclocker attached.

 

I am really hoping a Pi3 + This Board will sound at least as good as my fully tweaked PC being used as a renderer.

 

The old phrase comes to mind, polishing a turd. It is what it is, only better, lol. Throwing crazy money won't make it different. But at Rpi prices, its worth a shot.

 

Common Sense Award 2016

 

I'd prefer a BNC connector over RCA for SPDIF out. If there's room for a miniXLR AES out that'd be gravy.

 

3D PDF's for the SPEED ONE and SPEED TWO (how's that for fancy names) as well as schematics for you guys to take a look at. Go to http://www.pi2design.com/private-info.html

Adding BNC was easy and XLR simply required the differential driver. Both are transformer coupled. The SPEED TWO will require more testing since we have never done AES before. Once we're sure it's solid we'll need some of you guys to hook it into your equipment and evaluate the sound.

As for pricing, the total cost additional was less than $6 so even at 4x this board will be well south of $100. If that low price offends, then give another $100-200 to a charity.

Cheers,
Michael

 

Why XLR, isn't BNC the best? That was just added later for pro & long runs... trying to avoid feature creep Do we really want a big differential circuit there?

 

Well... there is no "killer" in the name, and yet... very cool! Once again, Kudos for the price policy. If there was a thumbs up emoticon I would have used it.

 

I saw the 3d images, just wondering if could be possible to make one bigger with all the outputs? RCA, BNC, AES, TOSLINK.

 

Yeah, I kicked that around. Does anyone want all of them at the same time? Having multiple boards is not an issue for us and actually does keep the cost down for those who do not want or need the differential or BNC.

We do make bigger add-ons we call shields. They are the same size as the Pi and we use that when we have lot's of connectors. But the Hat size is the official supported spec from the Raspberry Pi folks.

Cheers,
Michael

 

slightly off topic but do you guys recommend any rpi case for my new rpi 3 that will allow the hat to fit? or do you just take the top off to create space for a HAT?

this case seems cool but not sure how it woudl work with the hat.. where would the holes for the new coax and toslink go?

https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/pibow/products/pibow-for-raspberry-pi-3

maybe this would work better for the speed1 hat? or would I be creating a hat crime

https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/pibow/products/pibow-coupe-for-raspberry-pi-3

 

Actually i need board with coax/aes and RCA same time, so if you going with this solution, i will need two boards with two RPis.
I understand if you switch output from RPi to i2s output, then you will get same signal on all the hat board outputs same time? I mean, if i want to play same music with two different dacs, one connected to RCA and one to COAX.