Raspberry Pi DAC options recommendations??

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JonesySA

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Joined 2014
#1
Hi all,

I would like to create FLAC etc player from a Raspberry Pi B+. Volumio, Runeaudio, and Squeezbox distros seem common however I haven't found much in my search concerning DACs. Most people seem to use the same boards on their B (hifimediy) however one report stated the audio quality was less than CD.
What DACs will work well with the B+, what audio quality should be expected and do they require any additional boards?
Cheers
 
#2
I'm going to try HiFiBerry Digi. It's actually SPDIF interface to my standalone DAC. However they also offer DAC boards for Raspberries.

You can also pick a USB dongle, like Dragonfly and many other.

Check Volumio.org for more resources.
 
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#3
The HifiBerry Digi seems like a good bet. Raspberry Pi has a few issues with its USB that can lead to dropouts with USB DACs. The latest kernels are a lot better but it is still somewhat of a lottery. I used the Audio Widget USB2.0 DAC, but to get rid of the last few glitches I had to overclock the Pi to the max.

The HifiBerry and Wolfson Audio Card work with the processor's I2S interface, which gets round the USB thing. They both need a custom patched kernel. I believe Runeaudio, Volumio etc have the kernel that supports the HifiBerry cards, but if you want to use the Wolfson you may have to swap out the kernel yourself.

The Wolfson Audio card works bit perfect at 24/96 for me and I expect the HifiBerry will be the same.
 
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#5
chip_mk said:
I'm going to try HiFiBerry Digi. It's actually SPDIF interface to my standalone DAC. However they also offer DAC boards for Raspberries.

You can also pick a USB dongle, like Dragonfly and many other.

Check Volumio.org for more resources.
Click to expand...

I've been very pleased with the humble Raspberry Pi/HiFiBerry Digi combo, mine feeds a MiniDSP NanoDigi that does crossover/EQ/Time Domain corrections, and then routes via S/PDIF to a pair of HiFimediy DDX320V2.2 PWM digital amps that drive modified ML Sequel II panels from 400Hz up and a small array of Celestion 4.5" Neo drivers from 85-100Hz.

Low bass is handled by a Firestone PCM1794 DAC also fed by the NanoDigi that in turn feds a dedicated class 'D' amp driving two Eminence Sigma 18's in a floor-mount IB manifold.

Since I'm pretty committed to the Squeezebox/MusicIP ecology, I've been using the Squeezeplug distribution, which is lightweight enough to run comfortably on the Pi. Picore Player also works quite well and seems to have decent support.

If I were to buy a Raspberry Pi today, I'd go with the 'B' version which has improved support for external boards and slightly better I/O handling.

There's also Wolfson Audio Card for the Pi which is a DAC that also has many soundcard features (e.g. both analog and digital outputs, microphone built-in, and a 4W PWM amplifier) and it's pretty cheap too at around $48.

The HifiBerry folks are at:

HiFiBerry - High quality Raspberry Pi Audio | Audiophile 24/96, 24/192 sound cards (Audio DAC and SPDIF out) for the Raspberry Pi, audio out, audio cards, audio projects

and there's a fairly detailed discussion of the Wolfson here:

Raspberry Pi Revison 2 and the Wolfson Audio Card

Cheers

Jim
 
#7
Hi, I have a running setup RasPi+HifiBerryDAC+Volumio.
It works very very well with my *.flac and *.mp3 files.
The HifiBerry DAC doen't have any kind of S/PDIF; this is the HifiBerryDigi.
The main-problem is the ethernet-connection.
When you are not using WiFi the normal LAN will probably bring some noise in your system, when the PI isn't running.
The interface of Volumio runs very stable and is easy to use! 🙂
 
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