When you have a final price list with prices that are not going to change, can you please let us know. Thank you.
The Piano, (without the 2.1 designation @ a provisional $27), is this just a 2 channel version of the Piano 2.1, with a single DAC chip, but the same high-quality power supply, choke, LDO, etc. etc.
The Piano is a cheaper version of the Piano 2.1 (cheaper LDO on analog stage , dedicated LDOs for analog and digital side.) same filtering + headphone amp. One PCM 5122 Ic
Pricing is final .
Pricing is final .
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Hmmm. Is this the "Indian" board that Gordon is doing a war dance over?
I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable, at the point you are distributing an image where you are using his overlay for your boards in config.txt, "dtoverlay=iqaudio-dacplus". At least use your own overlay. (Don't modify his! Copy and rename the dts.. Then modify it. Then use dtc to compile it.) You have control over this image. You made it!
I'm uncomfortable that you and max2play seem to be re-distributing an image with Oracle Java, where you do not have, (only the PiF does), an exemption to the redistribution restriction for the Java software....... Not that I care. It's not me that's going to be on the receiving end of potential legal action from Oracle. I used to make a distribution. They were very clear about only the PiF had the exemption to re-distribute. People further down the food chain do not........
BTW, I have finished for the day if you want to Skype me....
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cdsgames, Clive, Greg,
Have to say, I'm a bit blown away…
In a nutshell, seamless harmonics, subtle pitch, tone, vol changes, speed, flavor type *details*, to the extreme. Detail as in “highs” is too simplistic to describe this. Incredibly quick bass.
I plan to flesh this out a little/tone it down a little, go back to my main Dac, a PSAudio, and new Schiit multibit R2R Dac— The PSAudio is very sensitive to SPDIF quality, also have the new digi+ PRO to try on it.
If you’d like to slog through my brain dump notes, this a bit of audiophile speak I'm uncomfortable with but gotta try to describe what's here!
***Just felt I need to get this out for you guys***! More later
Thanks!!
Imaging, panning effects too the millimeter left to right, front back— space between speakers maxed out, no gaps, outside speakers — it’s a bit odd, that really stuck out.
…making a list of specific tracks
Lorde, Still Sane, listen to her voice pannng, now more precise — also cavernous bass
Deepest bass, amazing subtle tone variation, fast, keeps up w/mids
Female vocals, go beautifully high & wispy
Bebel Gilberto (Inspiracao) 24/96 — stunning, impact, beautiful digital effects, again… panning, cavernous bass, yet details at ease
notes get in, get out, instantly, but sustain… voice on this track more spacious
Immense soundstage, wide, deep, 3d, different shapes album to album, track to track (sure it is anyway, but this is more).
Glass Animals (Hazy 2:16 in - beautiful, Jdnt - fun) -- phasy things come forward
Transients, sooo varied on the same track, not flat, and you can hear though them…
guitars exciting sounding, vibration
newer smashing pumpkins sound amazing, the completeness of sustained tones so interesting
a perfect circle, the noose, 3:06, the bass guitar, wow
fluctuations, more extreme
paul simon, start of song, stranger to stranger
I can get into the volume easily, just sounds good — and yet also seems dynamic at the lowest volume (good for late night)
Think thats a character of the PCM5xxx chip, it’s relentlessly flat & polite, hazy… complete at low volume *BUT*… not like this (add dynamics, clarity, still at low vol.)
Hello Scott,
Thanks for your impressions!
Short question: At this moment I use the Hifiberry Dac+ Pro as reclocker for my Audio-Gd I2S dac. Since you know both the Hifiberry and the Kali, do you expect a leap in quality when I replace my Hifiberry Dac+ Pro by a Kali reclocker?
Volt Amp
http://www.allo.com/marketing/brochures/allo-volt-amp-brochure.pdf
Volt + standalone
http://www.allo.com/marketing/brochures/allo-volt-plus-brochure.pdf
CM
It will "clean" any Laptop PSU to output about 10mV ripple/noise.It will work from 10v to 36V, its not a voltage regulator, its kind of a filter. To be used before the TPA3118 Amp.
Capacitance Multiplier Power Supply Filter (good explanation)
LLC PSU
PSU designed to be used for Class d amplifiers with 19.5v/90W output (the sweetspot for TPA3116/18) with less than 10mv ripple/noise at 3A load
http://www.allo.com/marketing/brochures/allo-volt-amp-brochure.pdf
Volt + standalone
http://www.allo.com/marketing/brochures/allo-volt-plus-brochure.pdf
CM
It will "clean" any Laptop PSU to output about 10mV ripple/noise.It will work from 10v to 36V, its not a voltage regulator, its kind of a filter. To be used before the TPA3118 Amp.
Capacitance Multiplier Power Supply Filter (good explanation)
LLC PSU
PSU designed to be used for Class d amplifiers with 19.5v/90W output (the sweetspot for TPA3116/18) with less than 10mv ripple/noise at 3A load
Yeah Gordon was asking us if we copied his board. We flatly said no and a quick look at the pictures shows that in fact they are very different boards.
Regarding our image , we will clean it up before we start selling.
About Max2play , I will have a chat with them today.
I will ping you today, was out yesterday..
Regarding our image , we will clean it up before we start selling.
About Max2play , I will have a chat with them today.
I will ping you today, was out yesterday..
Hmmm. Is this the "Indian" board that Gordon is doing a war dance over?
I'm starting to get a little uncomfortable, at the point you are distributing an image where you are using his overlay for your boards in config.txt, "dtoverlay=iqaudio-dacplus". At least use your own overlay. (Don't modify his! Copy and rename the dts.. Then modify it. Then use dtc to compile it.) You have control over this image. You made it!
I'm uncomfortable that you and max2play seem to be re-distributing an image with Oracle Java, where you do not have, (only the PiF does), an exemption to the redistribution restriction for the Java software....... Not that I care. It's not me that's going to be on the receiving end of potential legal action from Oracle. I used to make a distribution. They were very clear about only the PiF had the exemption to re-distribute. People further down the food chain do not........
BTW, I have finished for the day if you want to Skype me....
Last night I spent some time listening to the Kali board on my workbench.
My test setup was: RPi with Archphile -> Kali -> ES9023 cheap DAC -> α20 headphone amp -> Fostex t50rp mkIII headphones.
Archphile was running mpd, fed from a NAS (Ethernet).
The RPi, Kali and DAC were powered by a benchtop SMPS.
I did A-B tests, with the only difference being the introduction of Kali to the chain.
I did not have much time, so the first audition was a short one.
The difference in SQ was pretty obvious.
It was not related to frequency response or anything like that.
Kali made the music sound more real. There was a lot more detail, the $8 DAC suddently started playing actual music.
All this happened with the very out-of-spec I2S wiring that you can see in this picture:
Things might change a bit once I do a proper setup, but I suspect that most of the improvement will still be there.
I am very curious what will happen when I hook it up to my Buffalo III. Stay tuned..
My test setup was: RPi with Archphile -> Kali -> ES9023 cheap DAC -> α20 headphone amp -> Fostex t50rp mkIII headphones.
Archphile was running mpd, fed from a NAS (Ethernet).
The RPi, Kali and DAC were powered by a benchtop SMPS.
I did A-B tests, with the only difference being the introduction of Kali to the chain.
I did not have much time, so the first audition was a short one.
The difference in SQ was pretty obvious.
It was not related to frequency response or anything like that.
Kali made the music sound more real. There was a lot more detail, the $8 DAC suddently started playing actual music.
All this happened with the very out-of-spec I2S wiring that you can see in this picture:
Things might change a bit once I do a proper setup, but I suspect that most of the improvement will still be there.
I am very curious what will happen when I hook it up to my Buffalo III. Stay tuned..
Attachments
Thanks for that DimDim.
I'm getting pumped about trying it out in my setup, with the positive reviews AND the progress on 384 playback and upsampling that's been reported in some of the related threads.
The USPS saved me and re-routed the box with a Kali and Piano to me after my mistake sent it on a trip the northern regions of the US. CDSGames, for future reference, my Zip Code starts with a 3, not a 4... sorry for the mix-up.
I spent some time poking around on the Kali to confirm the power routing before I hook it up. It is a little different as the expansion header connections DO NOT all feed through. I found the following, which is a repeat of what others have said, but hopefully it is good have it all in one place:
1. With the jumper in place, it routes power from the Kali's 5v input jack and corresponding header to both the on-board LDO (TPS7A4700, I believe) and to any attached device on the Kali's expansion header (both down and up) via the 5v pins.
2. With the jumper off, the power only goes to the on-board LDO and to any attached device on the Kali's top-side expansion header 5v pins, but not down to the R-Pi.
3. Ground pins on the expansion header pass-through from the R-Pi to the Kali and any attached device.
4. The 5v and 3.3v power pins on the expansion header DO NOT pass through from the R-Pi to the Kali and any attached device and are only connected as per 1 and 2 above.
5. With the jumper off, options I see for providing 5v to the R-Pi include:
a. Through the micro-USB as most do.
b. Soldering to the R-Pi's expansion header 5v & ground pin pads
c. Soldering to the Kali's bottom expansion header 5v & ground pin pads
d. Soldering to the Kali's expansion ground pin & appropriate jumper header pads (the one to the outside of the unit)
I'll probably do c to keep it consistent with my other setups.
Poking around on the Piano, I saw no easy way to power it separately from the Kali.
I'll try the Kali first with both the Piano and the Mamboberry DAC HAT (which will be separately powered). Then later with Soekris DAM DAC and Buffalo II setups.
One question... when only powering the Kali, does the 5v from the input jack/header only go to the on-board LDO? If so, any problem with me feeding 6.3v there? I ask this as if that LDO is an TPS7A4700, that reg has a wide input range and shouldn't mind that at all.
TIA!
Greg in Mississippi
Hi Greg
We got 4 LDOs in there, I will check the specs, but should not be a problem...wait for my confirmation tomorrow.
Regarding powering Piano away from Kali, I will say this...Kali is an FPGA (not arm CPU) running at 300Mhz (from top of my head) , last we checked we had MUCH less noise on the ground compared with any SBC..next week I will post some screen about it.
Yeah it makes sense to separate the noisy SBC from DAC, but less from Kali. (however yeah...everything matters
We got 4 LDOs in there, I will check the specs, but should not be a problem...wait for my confirmation tomorrow.
Regarding powering Piano away from Kali, I will say this...Kali is an FPGA (not arm CPU) running at 300Mhz (from top of my head) , last we checked we had MUCH less noise on the ground compared with any SBC..next week I will post some screen about it.
Yeah it makes sense to separate the noisy SBC from DAC, but less from Kali. (however yeah...everything matters
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Scott,
never had a chance to tell you how much I appreciate your review.
I appreciate your wording , your love of music.
Now , I know we have provided you a free sample , but I feel your love of music shone through . I felt it, and I think I am not alone..
My baby represents more than a year of my life , I am glad to share my passion.
Everything matters , but what matters most is passion. Piano , Kali , Volt that's my heart .
Rock (jjazz Melody Gardot" your heart is as black as night" or maybe my compatriot Montrealer Leonard Cohen " Famous blue raincoat ") on.
Cheers bro .
Ioan
never had a chance to tell you how much I appreciate your review.
I appreciate your wording , your love of music.
Now , I know we have provided you a free sample , but I feel your love of music shone through . I felt it, and I think I am not alone..
My baby represents more than a year of my life , I am glad to share my passion.
Everything matters , but what matters most is passion. Piano , Kali , Volt that's my heart .
Rock (jjazz Melody Gardot" your heart is as black as night" or maybe my compatriot Montrealer Leonard Cohen " Famous blue raincoat ") on.
Cheers bro .
Ioan
cdsgames, Clive, Greg,
Have to say, I'm a bit blown away…
In a nutshell, seamless harmonics, subtle pitch, tone, vol changes, speed, flavor type *details*, to the extreme. Detail as in “highs” is too simplistic to describe this. Incredibly quick bass.
I plan to flesh this out a little/tone it down a little, go back to my main Dac, a PSAudio, and new Schiit multibit R2R Dac— The PSAudio is very sensitive to SPDIF quality, also have the new digi+ PRO to try on it.
If you’d like to slog through my brain dump notes, this a bit of audiophile speak I'm uncomfortable with but gotta try to describe what's here!
***Just felt I need to get this out for you guys***! More later
Thanks!!
Imaging, panning effects too the millimeter left to right, front back— space between speakers maxed out, no gaps, outside speakers — it’s a bit odd, that really stuck out.
…making a list of specific tracks
Lorde, Still Sane, listen to her voice pannng, now more precise — also cavernous bass
Deepest bass, amazing subtle tone variation, fast, keeps up w/mids
Female vocals, go beautifully high & wispy
Bebel Gilberto (Inspiracao) 24/96 — stunning, impact, beautiful digital effects, again… panning, cavernous bass, yet details at ease
notes get in, get out, instantly, but sustain… voice on this track more spacious
Immense soundstage, wide, deep, 3d, different shapes album to album, track to track (sure it is anyway, but this is more).
Glass Animals (Hazy 2:16 in - beautiful, Jdnt - fun) -- phasy things come forward
Transients, sooo varied on the same track, not flat, and you can hear though them…
guitars exciting sounding, vibration
newer smashing pumpkins sound amazing, the completeness of sustained tones so interesting
a perfect circle, the noose, 3:06, the bass guitar, wow
fluctuations, more extreme
paul simon, start of song, stranger to stranger
I can get into the volume easily, just sounds good — and yet also seems dynamic at the lowest volume (good for late night)
Think thats a character of the PCM5xxx chip, it’s relentlessly flat & polite, hazy… complete at low volume *BUT*… not like this (add dynamics, clarity, still at low vol.)
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Hi Greg
We got 4 LDOs in there, I will check the specs, but should not be a problem...wait for my confirmation tomorrow.
Regarding powering Piano away from Kali, I will say this...Kali is an FPGA (not arm CPU) running at 300Mhz (from top of my head) , last we checked we had MUCH less noise on the ground compared with any SBC..next week I will post some screen about it.
Yeah it makes sense to separate the noisy SBC from DAC, but less from Kali. (however yeah...everything matters
Ok... now that I knew to look, two of them are LLVB's... TI LP507's, they won't take 6.3v input, so I'll feed it 5v.
I haven't identified the fourth one yet. Which chip?
Thanks for the response on the power.
I agree on the Kali most likely producing more noise on its power than the R-Pi, but yes, I am an 'everything matters' kind of guy and have a setup where I can feed the Pi, the Kali, and the DAC each from it's own fully regulated supply. In my experience, it makes a difference.
I have several good 5v regs around I can put on the Kali input (Dexa, Belleson, Acko AKR75, Ian's TPS7A, OPC's paralleled LT3042)... so that's easy. What again is the current draw for the Kali only and for the Kali + Piano?
TIA!
Greg in Mississippi
Greg in Mississippi
Gordon the designer for iquadio , he thinks that we "copied" his DAC design.
Usually I don't care about stuff like that, but honestly why would we copy Iquadio design, its not really a good implementation .
Usually I don't care about stuff like that, but honestly why would we copy Iquadio design, its not really a good implementation .
Am I correct in saying that the HiFiBerry Digi+ and Digi+ Pro will not work with the Kali because they run in Master mode?
Pi2Design have a forthcoming product but I don't know if it will allow operation in Slave mode.
Does anyone know of any other options for SPDIF output that would work with the Kali?
Ioan, perhaps you could put something together...? ��
Pi2Design have a forthcoming product but I don't know if it will allow operation in Slave mode.
Does anyone know of any other options for SPDIF output that would work with the Kali?
Ioan, perhaps you could put something together...? ��
Kali will not work with DACs that run in Master
spidiff output from Kali its possible with a shield to sit on top of Kali.
Still,I remember that spidif ICs (i2s to spidif) add about 40ps of jitter.
spidiff output from Kali its possible with a shield to sit on top of Kali.
Still,I remember that spidif ICs (i2s to spidif) add about 40ps of jitter.
I guess this would negate the benefits of the Kali?
I wonder how that level of performance would compare with the jitter of the HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro, which is a Master with 44k1 and 48k clocks.
I lost my temper.
The whole story is that we used (only for testing ) some modified code from IquadIO. I sincerely apologies to IquadIo and to Gordon for it and we are working overtime to release are own code and to respect other people IP.
Those guys have done a lot for the community and we , truthfully , did not.
As far as hardware , they have some great stuff and I think there is enough place for everyone to compete but on good terms.
Thats why he was pissed (with good reason) he was right and I was wrong.
The whole story is that we used (only for testing ) some modified code from IquadIO. I sincerely apologies to IquadIo and to Gordon for it and we are working overtime to release are own code and to respect other people IP.
Those guys have done a lot for the community and we , truthfully , did not.
As far as hardware , they have some great stuff and I think there is enough place for everyone to compete but on good terms.
Thats why he was pissed (with good reason) he was right and I was wrong.