Lost (or not) In Translation

[embee999]

Hello, everyone. During Covid I spent some time upgrading/changing our home network/music systems and getting into new hardware - SBCs (RPi 0W/3/4, RockPi4) and software - home automation/LMS/PicorePlayer. I have a slight conundrum in the living room. I used to have a Vero4k for TV and RockPi with DietPi for music with a Soundkey and a Tangent Ampster BT II to switch sources. Then I discovered that streaming TV via browsers in the UK came with no commercials and moved the Vero upstairs in favour of a Intel NUC. All went well until the RockPi died and I had to re-evaluate the position. I am left with the NUC (Ubuntu) running the TV(Kodi) and Home Assistant which provides a client to LMS.

I want to add the WiiM Pro Plus (gives me Quboz/Squeezebox/DLNA) to allow bluetooth to my headphones so that I do not have to interact with the TV/PC to change the sound output. I assume I can re-provision the Soundkey as my laptop accessory. The NUC only has USB and a 3.5mm headphone jack. I am currently using a USB to optical adaptor to the Ampster.

Apparently, the WiiM DAC is 'better' than the Ampster's (different AKM numbers) so I wonder which connections from NUC to WiiM and WiiM to Ampster should I use to take advantage of the WiiM's DAC? The Ampster has RCA and Optical line in. My best guess is RCA out to RCA in.

My apologies for the rambling and too much IT stuff.

 

[kyuu]

Apparently, the WiiM DAC is 'better' than the Ampster's (different AKM numbers) so I wonder which connections from NUC to WiiM and WiiM to Ampster should I use to take advantage of the WiiM's DAC? The Ampster has RCA and Optical line in. My best guess is RCA out to RCA in.

Yes, if you want to avoid using the Ampster's DAC then you'd want to use analog out from the Wiim (which would be the RCAs). I would say there's likely no advantage to doing so, even if the Wiim's DAC is better. Ultimately you're limited by the performance of the amp, so as long as the DAC is more performant than the amp that's all you need. It's certainly possible that the Ampster's DAC is a bottleneck, we don't know since we have no measurements of the Ampster. I would consider it unlikely. But if using analog out from the Wiim doesn't cause any issues, then why not?

 

[embee999]

Yes, if you want to avoid using the Ampster's DAC then you'd want to use analog out from the Wiim (which would be the RCAs). I would say there's likely no advantage to doing so, even if the Wiim's DAC is better. Ultimately you're limited by the performance of the amp, so as long as the DAC is more performant than the amp that's all you need. It's certainly possible that the Ampster's DAC is a bottleneck, we don't know since we have no measurements of the Ampster. I would consider it unlikely. But if using analog out from the Wiim doesn't cause any issues, then why not?

That's grand. If I do any comparison with the other connections, I'll report back but I have no measuring equipment other than my own ears.

 

[kemmler3D]

I have no measuring equipment other than my own ears.

In this case that's fine as no audible change is really expected. If something goes wrong with the connections it will sound really bad, not subtly, subjectively worse.

 

[embee999]

In this case that's fine as no audible change is really expected. If something goes wrong with the connections it will sound really bad, not subtly, subjectively worse.

Well, my ears spot the massive lag by the bluetooth headphone out. The squeezebox integration does not see my LMS server BUT the LMS sees it as a player - not a win. The app is not for the non-technical and leaves a lot to be desired in the UI design. I think this goes back and I will concentrate on the bluetooth codec issues.