How to Stream wireless to my existing DAC

[Harmonie]

RPi3 or RPi4
Which one is better and why?

 

[EdW]

Just get this semi-passive heatsink case for the RPi 4, seems highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Argon-Raspberry-Aluminum-Heatsink-Supports/dp/B07WP8WC3V

I’ve always admired this case!

 

[Aldoszx]

I’ve always admired this case!

I have one. It is a very good case, and also looks good !

 

[Jmudrick]

Paradigm PW Link $199 streamer and built in Anthem Genesis room correction. Optical out to your DAC. Thread here . Works great for me.

 

[BDWoody]

The Sabaj has HDMI input. Will connecting a chrome cast work?

You could go with the now discontinued but readily available Chromecast Audio using the optical connection.

 

[EdW]

RPi3 or RPi4
Which one is better and why?

RPI3 has a bottleneck In the input/output. It won’t run Ethernet and usb simultaneously without the occasional click or pop since just one chip is used for both. Prior to RPI4 people used something like the Allo USBBridge sitting on the HAT pins. Expensive but fixed the problem. RPI4 has a more powerful (and power hungry cpu) which we don’t need for streaming but also includes separate 1G Ethernet and usb3 chips. So no bottleneck and no interruptions to the audio. Some pundits say the stray electrical interference on the PI4 is marginally worse than on the PI3. As usual little or no measurements to back the claim. My experience: I’m using a PI4 with a relatively expensive Topping D90 with stock USB cable. Absolutely no USB noise detectable on the start of an exceptionally quiet passage of a 24/96 recording, even with my ear next to the loudspeaker at max volume.
Some people will recommend the use of a quiet supply for the RPI rather than the standard power brick, particularly if you’re using a lower cost USB powered dac. Sorry no experience myself of this. But a decent dac might still be perfectly quiet even when powered via the usb and the standard power brick. The alternative often mentioned is a power supply from IFI.

 

[EdW]

Agree ! RPi4 can run very hot easyly ! I am trying to keep mines under 40 degrees. For that, i am using custom pasive cooling with large heatsink.
Something like this

Wow! Impressive

 

[Aldoszx]

Wow! Impressive

10x. I have a couple of them, mostly RPi4 but also RPi2 and RPi3A.
Each one is diferrent, because of used “materials”.

 

[EdW]

RPi3 or RPi4
Which one is better and why?

I forgot to add that if you’re using a HAT DAC (HiFi Berry or Allo for example) then the RPI3 is perfectly OK since there is no use of the usb connectors. Plus the RPI3 does not get so hot. Again some pundits recommend the use of the quiet IFI power supply here. I can’t comment as I have not tried a HAT dac.

 

[somebodyelse]

RPI3 has a bottleneck In the input/output. It won’t run Ethernet and usb simultaneously without the occasional click or pop since just one chip is used for both.

Will this myth never die? Right symptom, wrong cause, and it's not unavoidable. There's a long bug thread about the details in the raspbeery pi kernel github. Having said that I'd go for the Pi 4 anyway as it's better in so many areas - the only thing it's got against it is a little extra heat.

 

[EdW]

Will this myth never die? Right symptom, wrong cause, and it's not unavoidable. There's a long bug thread about the details in the raspbeery pi kernel github. Having said that I'd go for the Pi 4 anyway as it's better in so many areas - the only thing it's got against it is a little extra heat.

I didn’t know that. Thanks for putting the record straight. So is the following statement accurate? For someone wanting to stream audio from the Ethernet to usb on the RPI using a standard software unmodified (piCorePlayer, Volumio, Moode etc), then the only way is to use a RPI4.

 

[Harmonie]

Thank you EdW and somebodyelse .
Like you - using the D90.
I'm hard wired using RJ45 as input and I would rather use the Pi's USB output.
So that you both recommend the Pi 4 ?
I was concerned about the 60+°C heat - but true that there are aluminium housings ... Argon ONE - though the housing is not my taste (looks a bit alien type to me) all connectors in the back seem a big advantage ...

One last question: would it be possible to stream with the Internet's provider ADSL box ?
It has RJ45, Toslink, USB, Coax (maybe) ....

 

[EdW]

Thank you EdW and somebodyelse .
Like you - using the D90.
I'm hard wired using RJ45 as input and I would rather use the Pi's USB output.
So that you both recommend the Pi 4 ?
I was concerned about the 60+°C heat - but true that there are aluminium housings ... Argon ONE - though the housing is not my taste (looks a bit alien type to me) all connectors in the back seem a big advantage ...

One last question: would it be possible to stream with the Internet's provider ADSL box ?
It has RJ45, Toslink, USB, Coax (maybe) ....

Great choice of DAC! I use a heatsink case FLIRC. This link is to a UK supplier but I expect you can get these locally in France if not from Amazon

https://thepihut.com/products/flirc...MItr3Pg7ea6wIVU-3tCh2nfQF3EAQYASABEgIUsPD_BwE

The FLIRC case is not as efficient as the Argon case for keeping things cool. Running one of the standard audio apps like piCorePlayer, Volumio or Moode hardly touches the either the RPI3 and RPI4 capability, so the cpu is essentially almost idling as regards heat dissipation. So in this application the FLIRC case takes the temperature down more than adequately and also looks quite neat. I use the standard power brick with the RPI4 and the standard USB Lead from Topping. Absolutely no usb noise detectable at all.
I don’t know much about ADSL boxes but I suspect that if you wished it to act as an audio server you would need to be running some audio application software on it. I wouldn’t know where to start but others might be able to advise further

 

[Harmonie]

Thank you, there other aluminium heat sinks types on Amazon at half the price ...
I'm not 100% sure about the D90 yet.
I had the A22 before and subjectively, I was more enchanted - I still think that it's analogue output stage is better ... but Topping's company seems more reliable and more communicative.

 

[EdW]

Thank you, there other aluminium heat sinks types on Amazon at half the price ...
I'm not 100% sure about the D90 yet.
I had the A22 before and subjectively, I was more enchanted - I still think that it's analogue output stage is better ... but Topping's company seems more reliable and more communicative.

I haven’t heard the Gustard A22 let alone in a true blind test against the Topping D90. I very much doubt if I could distinguish any differences between any of Amir’s top ranking DACs. For sure I don’t have golden ears. and the rest of my system would probably mask most differences anyway!
I‘m sure that whatever you choose you will have a great sounding setup.

 

[somebodyelse]

I didn’t know that. Thanks for putting the record straight. So is the following statement accurate? For someone wanting to stream audio from the Ethernet to usb on the RPI using a standard software unmodified (piCorePlayer, Volumio, Moode etc), then the only way is to use a RPI4.

I don't think I've never had pops/clicks with piCorePlayer on the earlier Pi versions using wired or wireless ethernet and a USB DAC. I tried high sample rate flacs from the 2l.no samples, and a Focusrite Forte that takes 4 channels of 32 bit samples to try to provoke it on a 3 B v1.2 and it was fine. That doesn't mean it's definitely fine with all DACs - the bug thread has reports that some are more likely to have problems than others - but in my experience piCorePlayer is fine on any Pi.

I tried Volumio with the BruteFIR plugin with the same Pi 3 B and got the clicks and pops. I haven't tested without the plugin but one of the people posting to the bug report is a Volumio developer, and it is apparently a potential problem even without BruteFIR. I haven't tried the other options enough to say either way.

I reproduced the same pops/clicks on stock Raspbian lite running BruteFIR in a similar configuration, and squeezelite as the source, as it was easier to investigate and try kernel patches on Raspbian than Volumio. Pops/clicks were less severe as the sample rate and bit depth of the music streamed was reduced. Disabling BruteFIR, or pinning BruteFIR to a single CPU core, stopped the pops and clicks entirely - the last one after someone reported a similar unexpected result when trying to make it worse by running a CPU stress process on the other cores. There were other processes reported in the bug thread as being a trigger like BruteFIR, and IIRC Volumio relies on one of them. I've tried the same process on the pi 4 and not been able to provoke clicks or pops.

My general advice is that if you already have a Pi then try it - you might be lucky. If you don't already have a Pi then get a Pi 4.

 

[somebodyelse]

So that you both recommend the Pi 4 ?
I was concerned about the 60+°C heat - but true that there are aluminium housings ... Argon ONE - though the housing is not my taste (looks a bit alien type to me) all connectors in the back seem a big advantage ...

@EdW pretty much covered it. I've got a cheap aluminium one that covers both sides, but as a streamer it was fine even without a heatsink, especially with the board vertical to improve cooling.

One last question: would it be possible to stream with the Internet's provider ADSL box ?
It has RJ45, Toslink, USB, Coax (maybe) ....

Without knowing the details of the ADSL box it's impossible to say. The hardware may well be capable, but the stock firmware probably doesn't include the necessary software.