hi when i first got the rpi4(running raspbian) i noticed it totally lacked in sound quality, so i purchased a "DAC hat"(iqaudio DAC-pro) and installed it. i found that the DAC hat just increased the volume of the already terrible sound.
after reading that others have had problems with pulse-audio i tried many other distros, but all had the same result. i'm currently running a totally stripped down version of armbian with pulse-audio totally removed, and am still having the same problems!!
my issue is that the mid range seems "closed in", the treble is very "harsh" at high volumes and the sub-bass is attenuated to the point that its missing, the sub-bass starts to get attenuated at about 100Hz and is just a whisper at 30Hz, i no longer get down to 20Hz !!
any help resolving this problem would be appreciated
gaz
after reading that others have had problems with pulse-audio i tried many other distros, but all had the same result. i'm currently running a totally stripped down version of armbian with pulse-audio totally removed, and am still having the same problems!!
my issue is that the mid range seems "closed in", the treble is very "harsh" at high volumes and the sub-bass is attenuated to the point that its missing, the sub-bass starts to get attenuated at about 100Hz and is just a whisper at 30Hz, i no longer get down to 20Hz !!
any help resolving this problem would be appreciated
gaz
hi again jtwrace
really i need an OS i can use everyday, which also happens to play hifi audio and video
gaz
really i need an OS i can use everyday, which also happens to play hifi audio and video
gaz
Not sure exactly what you're looking for...I use this to play "hifi audio" everyday. I use Roon but you can configure this many different ways.
ga77a, if you demand highest quality then the RPI 4 might not be the right device for you. It needs very good HATs to make it function optimally for audio.
Cheap and excellent don't go together often.
Cheap and excellent don't go together often.
Are you using a switching supply for the Pi4? If so, your problems could be common-mode noise induced.
@jtwrace i'm looking for a proper operating system TBH
@jean-paul what SBC do you think is better than the rpi4 jean-paul ?? i'm not looking for the highest quality hifi , but it needs to be way better than i'm currently getting
@abraxalito i'm using the official 5V 3A rpi power supply to power the rpi4 and DAC and a different power supply for the fan.
@jean-paul what SBC do you think is better than the rpi4 jean-paul ?? i'm not looking for the highest quality hifi , but it needs to be way better than i'm currently getting
@abraxalito i'm using the official 5V 3A rpi power supply to power the rpi4 and DAC and a different power supply for the fan.
From a quick search it looks like the PSU is a switcher. So seems to me you have a couple of choices - get a linear PSU or use a pair of 1:1 isolation transformers. Or, if your DAC hat has balanced outputs, use them into a balanced input on your preamp/amp. Another option which may improve the SQ but is rather hit-and-miss is introducing a connection to mains earth at the RPi power input 0V.
Prior experience with switching supplies - the harsh, grainy treble I'm fairly familiar with when the ultrasonic noise currents (induced by a switcher) get mixed with the audio. Do you also experience a loss of (macro) dynamics - not much perceived difference between loud and soft parts of the music?
The grounding trick is something you can try without spending any money, just to gauge if it really is the switching supply.
The grounding trick is something you can try without spending any money, just to gauge if it really is the switching supply.
your correct , it is something i can try without spending any money.
previously i ran my stereo from my laptop which also didnt have any grounding, and that didnt suffer from this issue. !!
previously i ran my stereo from my laptop which also didnt have any grounding, and that didnt suffer from this issue. !!
Did you notice any difference in the SQ between when the laptop was mains powered and running on battery? Did the laptop power brick have a two-pin or three-pin plug?
the lappy battery gave up quite quickly , and so was always mains powered.
it was a 3 pin to the power supply and a barrel jack from the power supply to the laptop.
it was a 3 pin to the power supply and a barrel jack from the power supply to the laptop.
With a 3pin plug to the lappy brick I'd put a small sum on there being a smallish ceramic cap between 0V on the output side and mains earth. Which shunts away much (not all) the noise.
Me? I haven't bought a RPi so far, I do though have something similar whose model number I've forgotten. Its using an RK3399 CPU. If/when I use it as an I2S source I do take care to use trafos or some other form of isolation as its powered by a USB-wallwart-on-steroids.
Yeah its got support for 4 I2S channels - but I'm not sure if the software's there for them, haven't looked recently.
Good question, I also wonder how he gets to that conclusion.
My setup uses a Raspberry Pi3 with a Pi-HAT Hifiberry clone running on Volumio 2 and feeding into a modified Dacmagic 100 and it sounds amazing.
The combination of the Pi and the HAT gets it's power from a tiny switching adapter, that delivers about 2A. I don't know how critical the PSU for the Pi4 is, but anything less than a 1.5A psu makes my combo refuse to boot. So it would seem that as your combo is booting and running fine, the issue doesn't seem to be with the psu.
Your problem sounds more like a bad HAT or maybe a bad driver.