RPI always with Hat ? (e.g. Allo Digione, Hifiberry Digi+ Pro etc.)

[doug2761]

Oh yeah - if you were thinking about swapping out the Mac Mini to improve sound quality then I'm +1 with the others saying that they can't hear an audible difference going from Mac to some other streamer. I've played with USB from Windows 10, Mac OS, raspi, Squeezebox Touch. Played with Coax and optical from Touch and raspi. All work great. USB can do higher word length and sample rates plus the cables are dirt cheap so that's what I use. I only use the other connections if I want to use multiple digital sources to the same dac.

 

[almico]

There will be no SQ difference between the two. Sometimes there can be implementation problems with USB, but you'd know about that (pops, clicks or whatever - not SQ).


I don't know of a way to stream Amazon Music through an RPi. Amazon are very protective. Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz can be streamed, but Amazon is a different matter.

I've had those implementation issues before. Turned me off to digital music for years. Still not sold on it. For the car it's fine.

I like the idea of Amazon HD, but if they're not playing well with others, then that won't work. I upgraded to Amazon HD yesterday because I heard a rumor there was a way to stream through an RPi, but I just learned it's only via Airplay. If I can't do it natively, then why bother. I just canceled my Amazon music subscription entirely and told them why, not that they care.

CDs are dirt cheap these days. I made my own digital music system years ago with a MacMini. I accumulated over 4000 songs when my WD hard drive crashed. That was 8 years ago and the end of my music server career. When I'm home I'll put on a record. Otherwise it's Pandora.

But I'm tweaking my music system again and looking around to see what's out there. My MacMini is a 2009 and useless as is iTunes these days.

What's the best way to manage, store and playback burned CDs and downloaded hi-res files and, heaven forbid, stream hi-res audio?

 

[almico]

Oh yeah - if you were thinking about swapping out the Mac Mini to improve sound quality then I'm +1 with the others saying that they can't hear an audible difference going from Mac to some other streamer. I've played with USB from Windows 10, Mac OS, raspi, Squeezebox Touch. Played with Coax and optical from Touch and raspi. All work great. USB can do higher word length and sample rates plus the cables are dirt cheap so that's what I use. I only use the other connections if I want to use multiple digital sources to the same dac.

Unfortunately, I can hear if I swap matched 12AX7 tubes between preamp channels. But I guess you're right. If you're dealing with digital music anyway it doesn't really matter what flavor.

 

[Beershaun]

Prior to RPI4 a HAT was better due to the bandwidth limitations of the USB port. It shared the same bus with the ethernet port and audio content streaming in through the ethernet port and out through the USB would stutter pop and click. So it was unusable. RPI4 has addressed that issue and now ethernet port is separated from USB and you can stream as much data as needed for audio out via USB without a problem. So no longer needed.

I use a hifiberry digi+ with my rpi3 for that reason to stream via coax to my Topping E30. It wouldn't work reliably when I tried to plug in my Audioquest Dragonfly Red.

 

[almico]

Prior to RPI4 a HAT was better due to the bandwidth limitations of the USB port. It shared the same bus with the ethernet port and audio content streaming in through the ethernet port and out through the USB would stutter pop and click. So it was unusable. RPI4 has addressed that issue and now ethernet port is separated from USB and you can stream as much data as needed for audio out via USB without a problem. So no longer needed.

I use a hifiberry digi+ with my rpi3 for that reason to stream via coax to my Topping E30. It wouldn't work reliably when I tried to plug in my Audioquest Dragonfly Red.

It still shares the same environment and power supply though, right? My USB DAC runs on a separate internal battery to keep the board clean. Plugging it in to a PSU only charges the battery. The DAC power is supplied only by the battery.

As I understand it, that is the advantage of the Digione Signature. Separate power supplies for clean and dirty board.

So "no longer needed" is accurate. But whether it is desirable or not I guess is a matter of preference.

 

[Beershaun]

Yes. Although Amir's tests have not shown measurable differences on modern DAC performance from various power supplies.

 

[almico]

Yes. Although Amir's tests have not shown measurable differences on modern DAC performance from various power supplies.

I'm am not in the camp that believes everything that measures well, sounds good, or everything that measures poorly, sounds bad.

 

[Beershaun]

I'm am not in the camp that believes everything that measures well, sounds good, or everything that measures poorly, sounds bad.

Sure. That's perfectly fine.

 

[somebodyelse]

Prior to RPI4 a HAT was better due to the bandwidth limitations of the USB port. It shared the same bus with the ethernet port and audio content streaming in through the ethernet port and out through the USB would stutter pop and click.

This old myth surfaces again It's not a bandwidth limitation, it's a latency issue that's rather odd and triggered by certain software including BruteFIR. See the Raspbian kernel bug report for the gory details. I've never encountered it with PiCorePlayer despite having tried hard to provoke it. Volumio can apparently suffer (reported in the bug report by one of their devs) although I only ran into it after enabling the brutefir plugin.

 

[Sukie]

What's the best way to manage, store and playback burned CDs and downloaded hi-res files and, heaven forbid, stream hi-res audio?

An RPi4 would do the job. It has 4 USB ports. You can rip your CDs on to a flash drive or external HDD and plug it straight into the Pi. You can run the Pi with any of the usual software packages - Moode, Volumio etc. All of these can be configured to stream hi-res from streaming services. It's a cheap and effective solution.

As I understand it, that is the advantage of the Digione Signature. Separate power supplies for clean and dirty board.

So "no longer needed" is accurate. But whether it is desirable or not I guess is a matter of preference.

You can throw a Digione Signature into the mix, no problem. I don't think you need one, but, like you say, it's a matter of preference.

 

[somebodyelse]

An RPi4 would do the job. It has 4 USB ports. You can rip your CDs on to a flash drive or external HDD and plug it straight into the Pi. You can run the Pi with any of the usual software packages - Moode, Volumio etc. All of these can be configured to stream hi-res from streaming services. It's a cheap and effective solution.

I'd throw daphile into the mix too - it includes easy CD ripping and the option to schedule backups so nothing gets lost if a drive fails.

 

[almico]

I'd throw daphile into the mix too - it includes easy CD ripping and the option to schedule backups so nothing gets lost if a drive fails.

Now it's getting interesting. Any chance I can use my Apple Superdrive on a RPi? I have a new 3gb WD hd for storage.

 

[Sukie]

Now it's getting interesting. Any chance I can use my Apple Superdrive on a RPi? I have a new 3gb WD hd for storage.

I have no experience of this myself (all ripping done on PC using dBpoweramp CD Ripper). I did find this, which might be helpful:

https://mvmn.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/ripping-cds-with-raspberry-pi-and-apple-superdrive/

 

[somebodyelse]

Now it's getting interesting. Any chance I can use my Apple Superdrive on a RPi? I have a new 3gb WD hd for storage.

daphile runs on pc hardware rather than a Pi. The hardware requirements are very modest so if you've got an old pc or laptop around you can give it a try and see if it's worth getting anything more specialized. It's linux but you'll never see that as it's all behind a web GUI. It works very nicely on used thin clients for a cheap fanless solution (check https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/ for hardware details and possibly linux compatibility issues), or for the hifi look you can build a pc in something like a Streacom FC5. I've no idea whether it would work with a Superdrive though - from SJ777's link it looks like they're slightly nonstandard so it may not.

 

[almico]

So I found out how to get your digital music to sound better. Don't ever listen to analogue any more.

I've been deciding which streaming service to subscribe to (and rebuild my CD ripping server). They all have pluses and minuses. Pandora has by far the best curated music, but the sound quality is limited. Amazon HD has great quality at a great price, but the device selection is limited. Tidal has great sound and good device selection, but at $26/mo, it's not cheap.

After farting around all day trying to get my MacMini back up to speed, I hit the subscribe button on Tidal and connected it to my SMLS SU-9 to see what these MQA files are all about.

At first I was disappointed. I thought my Altec A5 crossovers were maybe getting tired. The mid/highs were grainy and a bit shouty. Bottom was not bouncy or punchy. It sounded, well, meh, even with Tidal Master material.

For a reference, I fired up my Techniques SL1200 for the first time in it feels like years, I'm embarrassed to say. I went through the old album section ritual. Funny how it hasn't changed in over 50 years. I found Jeff Beck Wired in my hands and plopped it on the platter. I switched the input selector on my preamp from 3 to 1, lowered the tonearm and BAM...the room came alive. It's clearly not the speakers, or preamp or amp. Good. Then I picked the same track(s) from Tidal and A/B'd the input sector back and forth for 3 tracks. It only took a few bars really. I couldn't believe my ears. All the lushness I loved so much was back. All the depth and dynamics and liquidity was there in spades.

So I'm thinking that we had it pretty good back in the 70s. Maybe we didn't know how good. When CDs came out we were seduced by the ease (and laziness) they afforded us. MP3 did it again. Did we really almost give up that much sound quality just to be able to flip through an iPod with ear buds and listen to 1000s of songs, crappy quality songs but music nonetheless.

Now I've been trying to play catch up and try to force my laziness (and frugalness) to coexist with my love for great audio. I have failed so far. I'm not spending $5000-$30,000 on a DAC to try and get almost as good SQ as a $400 turntable.

Maybe analogue music ruined me, and if I never heard a great vinyl recording on a great system, I would be OK with digital. But I have, and I'm not.

 

[changer]

Is 2 or 4 GB of RAM enough to use a RPI4 with Volumio?

 

[somebodyelse]

Is 2 or 4 GB of RAM enough to use a RPI4 with Volumio?

According to their FAQ 1GB is the recommended minimum, so 2GB or 4GB should be fine.

 

[sjeesjie]

Well this thread just precented me from buying a hat Thank you for that!

 

[MCH]

Haha, and i would not even bother buying a pi4, my 11euros pi zero w work perfectly fine

 

[Mrdead]

I'm am not in the camp that believes everything that measures well, sounds good, or everything that measures poorly, sounds bad.

Finally someone said it lmao