8ch hifiberry hat dac for RPI5

[melomane13]

first 8ch hat dac for RPI 5

HiFiBerry DAC8x | HiFiBerry

Maximum output voltage	2.1Vrms
DAC signal-to-noise ratio	112db	typical
DAC THD+N	-93db	typical
Frequency response	10Hz-70kHz	-3dB
Power consumption	<0.3W
Sample rates	44.1-192kHz

 

[Tell]

I'm curious about this one! I'm currently using a MiniDSP 2x4HD that does exactly what it's supposed too, but I would like to have more channels for movie watching (unclear if and how I can get PCM from my Nvidia Shield for this though), and also a loudness volume control.

 

[melomane13]

@Tell, your nvidia shield have spdif out. so use spdif to usb adapter to get sound with camilladsp

 

[Tell]

@Tell, your nvidia shield have spdif out. so use spdif to usb adapter to get sound with camilladsp

No spdif on the shield, but I have Behringer UAC202 connected to it with a spdif out. But with that I only get stereo or DTS, I need PCM instead. Maybe there is some way of getting HDMI in? Though I guess this is a bit offtopic so better not dive too much in to this here

 

[TheBatsEar]

Nice. I have just, like JUST A FEW DAYS ago, ordered a MiniDSP Flex HT to get 8 channels for about ten times as much money.

Anyway, i ordered one, could come in handy later.

 

[melomane13]

No spdif on the shield, but I have Behringer UAC202 connected to it with a spdif out. But with that I only get stereo or DTS, I need PCM instead. Maybe there is some way of getting HDMI in? Though I guess this is a bit offtopic so better not dive too much in to this here

if you want multichannel, use avr, is more simple.
this 8 channel dac for rpi is best for crossover and room correction

 

[melomane13]

Nice. I have just, like JUST A FEW DAYS ago, ordered a MiniDSP Flex HT to get 8 channels for about ten times as much money.

Anyway, i ordered one, could come in handy later.

returns it...

 

[IAtaman]

Nice. Thanks for the heads up. Came in a very good time as I wanted look into multi channel. Ordered one, lets see how it works.. I also have the secret agenda to maybe use it to tri-amp my speakers.

 

[MCH]

Nice. I have just, like JUST A FEW DAYS ago, ordered a MiniDSP Flex HT to get 8 channels for about ten times as much money.

Anyway, i ordered one, could come in handy later.

Nobody is offering yet a multichannel input hat for the rpi5 you are good with the minidsp

 

[Tell]

if you want multichannel, use avr, is more simple.
this 8 channel dac for rpi is best for crossover and room correction

And AVR is not simpler because it doesn't do crossover, room correction, loudness volume etc etc the way I want it to.
But yeah, there must be some way of getting multiple channels over PCM into the pi, and if it doesn't exist then this ain't a simple solution either

 

[melomane13]

And AVR is not simpler because it doesn't do crossover, room correction, loudness volume etc etc the way I want it to.
But yeah, there must be some way of getting multiple channels over PCM into the pi, and if it doesn't exist then this ain't a simple solution either

look at MiniDSP Flex HT

 

[mdsimon2]

No spdif on the shield, but I have Behringer UAC202 connected to it with a spdif out. But with that I only get stereo or DTS, I need PCM instead. Maybe there is some way of getting HDMI in? Though I guess this is a bit offtopic so better not dive too much in to this here

Doesn't the Shield act as USB host? Couldn't you use a raspberry pi in USB gadget mode with the Hifiberry DAC 8x? Looking at old screenshots of the Shield menus it looks like you should at least be able to set USB output as 5.1.

Michael

 

[Tell]

Doesn't the Shield act as USB host? Couldn't you use a raspberry pi in USB gadget mode with the Hifiberry DAC 8x? Looking at old screenshots of the Shield menus it looks like you should at least be able to set USB output as 5.1.

Michael

Interesting! Never heard of this before, will do a bit of researching on this. Thanks for the tip!

 

[silverD]

I received my DAC8x and planned on using it with a Hifime S2 Digi and CamillaDSP for active speakers. I used the great tutorial from @mdsimon2 and Ubuntu 24.04 server LTS, but couldn't get the DAC8x to be recognized. After hours of struggling, it seems as though there is a bug with overlays. I reimaged the sd card with Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64, followed the tutorial again along with installing git ( sudo apt install git ), and added the overlay for config.txt: dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac8x and it seems to be working.

 

[mdsimon2]

I'll post some measurements later, but overall the DAC8x is pretty nice. Residual noise is ~7 uV which is the same as the MOTU Ultralite Mk5. It has an analog mute when no signal is present that drops residual noise to below 4 uV which is nice.

SINAD is 89-92 dB in to a Cosmos ADC at the 1.7 V input voltage setting which has a pretty punishing input impedance of ~450 ohm. Switching to higher input voltage settings on the ADC doesn't change SINAD but even at 10 V the input impedance is still only 2.4 kohm. All channels seems about the same in terms of noise / distortion.

It doesn't have any significant turn on / off pops when restarting the RPi5.

The biggest issue I've found is the RPi5 itself. As noted by @silverD, the DAC8x only works with Raspberry Pi OS and does not work with Ubuntu. I also had issues with using a hifime UR23 for SPDIF input as it is not correctly identified by the RPi5. Interestingly enough if I connect the UR23 to the usb-c port it works. S2 Digi works on the normal USB ports. I have found that the rate adjust feature in CamillaDSP V2 is a lot slower than V1 and I've need to set the adjust interval pretty low (2 seconds), at least when being feed by an AppleTV.

After some GPIO pin rejiggering I have my OLED display working with the DAC8x. I used a 5 V to 3.3 V regulator to power the display as suggested here -> https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/hardware/gpio-usage-of-hifiberry-boards/. Everything fits in my modushop GX247 enclosure which was designed for the RPi4. The orientation of the USB / ethernet ports is reversed compared to the RPi4 but this only impacts the back panel which I am not using as I needed it removed to route the DAC outputs out of the case. I used standoffs on the RPi5 that were a few millimeters shorter in order to get the top of the enclosure to fit, at least when connecting the OLED display via the GPIO header on the DAC8x.

I'll be updating my CamillaDSP tutorial to include the DAC8x and RPi5 in the near future.

Michael

 

[Daverz]

What kind of output connectors are those?

 

[mdsimon2]

What kind of output connectors are those?

Stereo mini TRS (1/8"). I am using 1/8" to female stereo RCA adapters, and then monoprice RCA to XLR cables as all my amps have balanced inputs.

Michael

 

[mdsimon2]

Here are the measurements. As a disclaimer HifiBerry sent the DAC8x to me for free, although it seemed to be a normally packaged retail version.

All tests done with a Cosmos ADC Grade B set to 1.7 V input voltage using Channel 1 of the DAC8x. Signal path was MacBook Pro 2015 optical output -> S2 Digital -> CamillaDSP routing (no rate adjust or resampling or other processing enabled) -> DAC 8x -> Cosmos ADC. MacBook Pro, CamillaDSP and DAC8x running at 44.1 kHz. Cosmos ADC running at 192 kHz. All channels were driven while testing. THD+N and dynamic range tests used 20-22K bandwidth and are unweighted.

-60 dBFS 1 kHz tone, 7.5 uV residual noise, dynamic range = 49 + 60 = 109 dB

-145 dBFS 1 kHz, 4.1 uV residual noise (this shows analog mute functionality when no signal is present)

2 V 1 kHz tone, -91 dB THD+N

-10 dBFS 32 Tone 1/3 Octave

-10 dBFS White Noise

J Test

Michael

 

[MCH]

Here are the measurements. As a disclaimer HifiBerry sent the DAC8x to me for free, although it seemed to be a normally packaged retail version.

All tests done with a Cosmos ADC Grade B set to 1.7 V input voltage using Channel 1 of the DAC8x. Signal path was MacBook Pro 2015 optical output -> S2 Digital -> CamillaDSP routing (no rate adjust or resampling or other processing enabled) -> DAC 8x -> Cosmos ADC. MacBook Pro, CamillaDSP and DAC8x running at 44.1 kHz. Cosmos ADC running at 192 kHz. All channels were driven while testing. THD+N and dynamic range tests used 20-22K bandwidth and are unweighted.

-60 dBFS 1 kHz tone, 7.5 uV residual noise, dynamic range = 49 + 60 = 109 dB
View attachment 367203

-145 dBFS 1 kHz, 4.1 uV residual noise (this shows analog mute functionality when no signal is present)
View attachment 367204

2 V 1 kHz tone, -91 dB THD+N
View attachment 367205

-10 dBFS 32 Tone 1/3 Octave
View attachment 367206
-10 dBFS White Noise
View attachment 367208

J Test
View attachment 367207

Michael

Thanks Michael. Any comments on the results?
Do I understand correctly that the sinad is distortion limited and noise seems pretty decent? That is good news IMO, no complaints.
However I wonder why they use 4x meh stereo dacs instead of one of the cheap 8 channel dacs that at least on paper perform significantly better.

 

[lewdish]

Are they using the usual TI/PCM Dac chips?