Discuss....
Example....
Raspberry Pi Zero £4
USB DAC £7
Redbear IoT WIFI and Bluetooth uHAT £8.
5V 2.1A USB PSU £6
More usual....
Raspberry Pi3 - £32
IQAudio DAC - £30
5V 2.1 or 2.5A USB PSU £6
Or...
Raspberry Pi3 - £32
IQAudio DigiAMP+ - £55
SMPS or some description (15-19V) £10-£20
I'm kind-of ignoring the fact that one usually requires an interface device -such as a PC or phone to drive these things properly. And probably a NAS or similar to hold your music collection. Unless we're all so connected now we stream it all from t'interweb.
J.
Example....
Raspberry Pi Zero £4
USB DAC £7
Redbear IoT WIFI and Bluetooth uHAT £8.
5V 2.1A USB PSU £6
More usual....
Raspberry Pi3 - £32
IQAudio DAC - £30
5V 2.1 or 2.5A USB PSU £6
Or...
Raspberry Pi3 - £32
IQAudio DigiAMP+ - £55
SMPS or some description (15-19V) £10-£20
I'm kind-of ignoring the fact that one usually requires an interface device -such as a PC or phone to drive these things properly. And probably a NAS or similar to hold your music collection. Unless we're all so connected now we stream it all from t'interweb.
J.
My Example:
Next Thing Co CHIP:
Single Core (Allwinner) ARM
includes 24/192 CODEC and WiFi
Cost: $9
Needs a 5V 1A power supply. Cost $5
It's what the Raspberry Pi Zero should have been, but wasn't. I have been using one and I am very pleased with it. I use it only to render audio that is streamed to it over my LAN from a server computer that stores all my audio files and which can play internet streams. It has a USB port if you wanted to connect a USB HD and play files directly.
Discuss.
Next Thing Co CHIP:
Single Core (Allwinner) ARM
includes 24/192 CODEC and WiFi
Cost: $9
Needs a 5V 1A power supply. Cost $5
It's what the Raspberry Pi Zero should have been, but wasn't. I have been using one and I am very pleased with it. I use it only to render audio that is streamed to it over my LAN from a server computer that stores all my audio files and which can play internet streams. It has a USB port if you wanted to connect a USB HD and play files directly.
Discuss.
Last edited:
Here is the price-list for boombox which I'm working on right now. This is the variation of your first example. The main ingredients are:
Raspberry Pi Zero - $5
Pimoroni pHAT DAC - $14.95
5V regulator (to kill the noise from RPi) - $7.12
3W Amplifier - $7.93
5W Speakers - 10.98
2.2" LCD - $24.95
Here is how it looks like without connected speakers and enclosure:
Raspberry Pi Zero - $5
Pimoroni pHAT DAC - $14.95
5V regulator (to kill the noise from RPi) - $7.12
3W Amplifier - $7.93
5W Speakers - 10.98
2.2" LCD - $24.95
Here is how it looks like without connected speakers and enclosure:
I just cut $20 out of the cost. A little Sanwu PCM2704 board I bought for ~$9/shipped arrived today. Tested it against the UCA202. A bit more THD, but still low. Only downside is that the LED is really bright. I need to cover it so I can sleep.
Android is good s4 or equivilant and later they are more becoming more focused towards better audio playback. Instead of 3.5 bypass internal dac via mini usb< full size usb < external dac.
That's quite interesting. I thought the C.H.I.P.( and Pocket C.H.I.P.) were interesting for price and size but I think I ruled them out due to mediocre IO for other projects. They might be just the thing for audio though.
It looks like the DAC is part of the SoC. Has anyone done any tests on it?
FWIW, it looks like the NanoPi Neo is available now for $7.99 (+shipping). It uses the Quad-core H3 SoC and brings out the analog audio output to the GPIO headers. It also brings out a SPDIF signal on another pin. The NanoPi M1 is a little more ($12.99+shipping), and also brings out the pins needed for one I2S interface (the SoC has a second, but the signal lines aren't broken out). I don't know if the software support for I2S is there though. Neither has WiFi, both have 10/100 ethernet from the SoC.
Hmmm that Neo Pi is interesting. Seems comparable to the CHIP. Both bring out the audio to header pins. What seems to be totally lacking on the Neo Pi is any kind of display support. Not sure how to get around that in Linux... sure you can SSH in but it is pretty nice to be able to do the first boot and some basic configuration with a monitor attached.
BTW I have been using a CHIP board, with my streaming audio interface, as my headphone source for awhile now. The audio seems to be good quality but I have not made any measurements on it.
I think what it comes down to is OS and hardware support. For example the company "Orange Pi" was a hit when it first came out with a $15 small Raspberry Pi like board (even though you could not really get them at that price). The problem was the one that I bought was buggy because the OS port was really poorly done and the Allwinner was not yet supported by any mainline kernel. Are any Allwinner SoCs supported yet? They were supposed to be by June or so, but you know how these things go.
I have been happy streaming 16/48 to my CHIP. I threw a small Al heatsink on the CPU which seemed to be getting warm... but otherwise it's a stock unit. Everything works as advertised. I plan to build a couple into subwoofers, since the single core should have plenty of power to handle that kind of task.
If the Pi Neo works well then its four cores and onboard audio codec make it a very interesting option for embedded Linux based software DSP crossovers.
I didn't think about the lack of video since most of my linux experience is via serial console or shell.
I haven't pulled the trigger on a NanoPi or a Chip yet. The prospect of fussing with custom kernels puts me off. I'll probably cut my teeth on LADSPA messing around with my RPi with a USB or I2S DAC, and then take another look.
I did just check kernel.org, and it looks like there is /arch/arm/mach-sunxi, but I'm not sure the state of board or chip support.
I haven't pulled the trigger on a NanoPi or a Chip yet. The prospect of fussing with custom kernels puts me off. I'll probably cut my teeth on LADSPA messing around with my RPi with a USB or I2S DAC, and then take another look.
I did just check kernel.org, and it looks like there is /arch/arm/mach-sunxi, but I'm not sure the state of board or chip support.
On the CHIP I had no problems with the (custom) kernel that came pre-installed. I believe that you currently cannot update the kernel, which is version 4.4.11 on my machine. I assume that when SunXi becomes supported (IIRC that was supposed to happen this past June) you will be able to do that. I was able to install various packages using apt-get without any problem. I did use a monitor connected via the composite video AV output to do the initial setup, but NextThingCo offers VGA and HDMI backpacks for a reasonable cost. After the initial setup I have run it headless, over SSH.
Allwinner support is an ongoing "theme". I have a Cubietruck.... some stuff works with the OEM kernal and dist i.e. NAND.... Though the power processing only works reasonably if one runs the "mainline" kernel...
Look to Igor P?!
The last comment was a not quite helpful, I think. I blame it on tiredness and alcohol.
armbian – linux for ARM development boards
Armbian is my choice for the Cubietruck. It's maintained by Igor Pecovnik.
Linux Sunxi explains what's supported by various kernels.
Linux mainlining effort - linux-sunxi.org
J.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.