Raspberry DAC suggestion

[piero.rossi]

Hello all,

Few updates: a friend of mine gave me a DAC hat for free, since he doesn't need it anymore.
It is a PiFi DAC+.
I know this has been reviewed here, and got really bad scores; but there is also few post and a site that explain how to modify it to improve its SQ.
Actually it sports a PCM5122, so it should not be so bad.
I'm an electronic engineers, by other things, so I have a quite nice working bench at work; so, why not to try and improve it?
I made all the suggested modifications, moreover I replaced capacitors with ceramic ones (instead of those fake Wima), added few capacitors where I think they are needed (bypass and voltage doubler, as per datasheet and application notes); now the DAC sound quite honestly, to my uneducated (and old) ears.
There are also few engineering errors, like for example 33R resistors on the I2C and I2S buses; they should not be there, so I removed them.
Also the ground plane is not correctly implemented, so I modified it.
I also improved the (external) power supply, adding a lot of capacitance on the 5V rail, together with a few high-frequency filter.
There's no need for a linear PS, if you know how to filter out high frequency noise from a switching PS.
For the moment, I will use this DAC (it was free); my idea is however to move up to a better one, in the next future.
I still have to find the right configuration for the DAC in Moode; in particular, I will spend some time on the MPD's SOX settings, which are quite complicated, for me.
However, scope of this post is to let you know that a cheap DAC chip, if correctly implemented/updated, sounds quite nicely.

 

[RadioBuddha]

In the last few days, I tried Volumio and Moode Audio, and I decided in the end for the latter.
It has everything I need:
- Local and remote media library management
- Integrated NAS (I can use the spare part of the USB disk as a networked backup volume)
- Can work as a bluetooth renderer (useful for my daughter, which plays Youtube video audio tracks on the HiFi system)
- I can control playback using the web interface, or an app like M.A.L.P. on smartphones
- Nice internet radio management
- Can be used as an airplay/spotify/Squeezelite renderer
- Has a rich set of audio (MPD) and DSP settings

Volumio, instead, didn't satisfied me completely.

I only have to buy a nice DAC.

How does internet radio work, can you set presets on the app? The annoying thing about TuneIn Radio is the ads that hit every station when you start playing them, perhaps there is no way to escape this but whatever station I try, WNYC, WQXR, WSHU, WFUV, no matter if I am on their website or accessing them through TuneIn, you get an ad whenever turning them on for the first time, also the sound quality is hit or miss on TuneIn.

Are there any internet radio apps that cut out the ads (and or station ID "you are now listening to") and bring you right into the station as if you are listening on your FM tuner?

 

[Madeintooting]

In Moode and Volumio you can add an internet radio manually using the stations URL, you'll then go straight to the stream.
Volumio has a RadioParadise Addon that allows you to listen to various streams in flac.

 

[piero.rossi]

Update: I found a nice offer on Amazon, and bought the Topping D10S.
The idea was to try it, and return it back if I could not hear any improvement.
Well, yesterday, right after dinner, I installed it with my Raspberry/Moode audio setup, configured it and started to play music.
It took not more than 10 minutes.
I was quite skeptical, my old ears are not so good I can hear subtle difference (so I thought)... But I was (and I'm still) amazed on the sound quality of the D10S.
Wow!
I started to try all the most "complicated" songs I usually listen, from classical to hard rock; and I must say the DAC has proved to be a great performer with every single song.
My amplifier, a really high range vintage one, has bass, high, loudness, superbass controls; I was used to leave loudness activated, to add some bass and highs to the signal; at the end, yesterday, I excluded all the equalization (the amplifier has a pushbutton that excludes the whole stage, called "DC"), since I do not need it anymore.
I simply left a few superbass emphasis (a small gain under 75 Hz, to help my bookshelf speakers with very low frequencies).

So, I was wrong. The PiFi DAC+ didn't sound so fine; the Topping D10S blown it right away!

 

[Vavilen]

Hey guys!
I'm looking for some weird solution.
I want to buy this dac board , connect RPI 4 using the I2S interface and put into the same case.
I googled a bit and found that it was buggy 5-6 years ago. But what about now?
Is it possible to pair these devices?

 

[dtaylo1066]

For reliable and high performing Pi dacs I would look at https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-and-interfaces-for-raspberry-pi-c-6384.html

 

[Vavilen]

For reliable and high performing Pi dacs I would look at https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/dac-and-interfaces-for-raspberry-pi-c-6384.html

Yes, this could be an option. But I need at least 1 optical input + streamer. Can I connect several HATs and one of them includes optical input and another is for balanced or rca output?