It depends somewhat on which OS you load onto the RPi. Volumio is a simple and popular one, but not the only choice. The OS is put on a micro-SD card plugged into the RPi. Once installed you have to get it setup on a wired or wireless network. Once up and running on a network you control music playback through a web page interface.
To get RPi networking setup initially, my own preference is to attach a keyboard and display to the RPi and configure it though the command line interface. If not networked, the RPi will also create a wireless hotspot they say you can connect to and use to configure networking.
All this info is available by google searching, by the way.
The best RPi dac I know of is Allo Katana, which is very good indeed if properly powered. At its best, it can compete very well with dacs costing maybe up around $1,000 to $1,500. Above that price range up closer to $2,000 or a little more it is definitely possible to find better sounding dacs. Of course, the costs add up somewhat for power supplies and such when going the higher-end RPi dac route.
To get RPi networking setup initially, my own preference is to attach a keyboard and display to the RPi and configure it though the command line interface. If not networked, the RPi will also create a wireless hotspot they say you can connect to and use to configure networking.
All this info is available by google searching, by the way.
The best RPi dac I know of is Allo Katana, which is very good indeed if properly powered. At its best, it can compete very well with dacs costing maybe up around $1,000 to $1,500. Above that price range up closer to $2,000 or a little more it is definitely possible to find better sounding dacs. Of course, the costs add up somewhat for power supplies and such when going the higher-end RPi dac route.
I think much of what I was reading were comments by people already well into upgrading and modifying their DACs, so it's good to get the basic outline of how it's done. Seems like I need software (Volumio, Rune or Moode) on Pi to access a streaming service. As mentioned I can google "how to" when i met problems once I get the hardware in place. Thanks guys
Another thing to consider is where are you going to stream your music from? Streaming software have native support for certain streaming sites, mostly Spotify or Tidal it seems. I have a Google Music subscription, so my setup is running Volumio on the RPi. But Volumio does not support Google Play streaming. In order to stream from Google Music I use the BubbleUPnP app on my cell phone to take control of Volumio. BubbleUPnP supports streaming from Tidal and Google Music, which gives me the ability to stream from my Google Music playlists to the RPi. Sounds all very complicated I know, but if a noob like me could get it working…
I also built my own diy RPi HAT DAC. This whole project was great fun and works very well.
I built one of Matt Garman’s DACs and he even gave me the board for free. It is a TDA1387 based RPi HAT DAC (v1.6) and he might even have some boards available. You can find the thread here : tda1387 dac pcb "front end"
My build from post #466
There are actually so many diy options including modding cheap Chinese boards. It also depends a lot on your source and file bit rates. I would strongly consider building one of abraxalito’s DACs and the PhiDAC looks like a good option (for CD quality source). For a possible free PhiDAC kit see this post: lingDAC - cost effective RBCD multibit DAC design
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[QUOTE
I also built my own diy RPi HAT DAC. This whole project was great fun and works very well.[/QUOTE]
I'd definitely be jumping in at the deep end if I was to start by building my own DAC but then diy is what we're after. It looks impressive and great it worked out so well. I had a look at Google Play (changing to youtube music I think) they use medium quality files, Tidal uses high quality files. Have you tried both through your DAC to see if you notice a difference ?
I also built my own diy RPi HAT DAC. This whole project was great fun and works very well.[/QUOTE]
I'd definitely be jumping in at the deep end if I was to start by building my own DAC but then diy is what we're after. It looks impressive and great it worked out so well. I had a look at Google Play (changing to youtube music I think) they use medium quality files, Tidal uses high quality files. Have you tried both through your DAC to see if you notice a difference ?
@soundoutlad and any other newcomers – my diy DAC build and RPi setup was a big step of faith and jump into the deep end for me. Since I started with diy audio about 3 years ago I soon realized what a huge difference a good DAC makes to your system. Yes sure, every component in the chain is important, but if you can start with a really good source it brings out the best in every other component down the line. Anyway, that is what inspired me to diy my own DAC, since good commercial DACs are expensive. Although, most RPi HAT DACs are becoming better (SQ wise) and more affordable. So, if you have the money then buy an Allo Katana and live happily ever after. But I am on a shoestring budget and I love the diy aspect. If you give me a PCB and the BOM, I can put it together and make it work. I don’t even understand schematics, other than checking that the BOM is complete or correct. I also love making my own diy enclosures.
I frequently browsed the DAC threads in search of a possible project. This was/is very daunting (and discouraging at times) for a newbie like me. Unlike other threads I find the DAC threads very very difficult to understand, and most of the popular ones are hundreds of pages long. I did not understand much of the technicalities, technical jargon or even 99% of the posts, until I came across one of Matt Garman’s threads (TDA1387 x8 DAC: let's check its design, mod it -or not-, play music -or not!
-). That project involved modding certain Chinese DAC boards and looked simple enough for me attempt. He even took the trouble to post understandable wiki pages (TDA1387 X8 NOS DAC) for that particular project. This led me to one of his other projects and that is how I came upon the RPi HAT DAC that I built.Soldering SMD components was another challenge for a newbie like me. However, it is not that difficult once you have the right stuff – good lighting, magnifying glasses, tweezer, fine solder iron tip and very thin solder wire (0.6mm or less). Google is your friend and give lots of tips and you tube videos on the techniques to solder SMD components. One thing I learnt was working with a very hot iron – you zap in, solder and zap out – done in under 2 seconds.
Can I hear a difference between Google Music and Tidal high quality? Don’t know because I never tried Tidal (Premium subscription) yet. My aim is to subscribe to Tidal Premium once my system can justify it. But I do have CD ripped FLAC files on my cell phone which I can compare AB with Google Music streams, and yes, with my headphone system (Pocket Class A amp + AKG phones) I can hear a difference. In my current main system, I cannot. The weak link in my system currently is my speakers – bookshelf Tannoys. The only other DACs I could compare with, was a Sabre 9023 and a Sabre 9018. I much prefer my TDA1387 RPi HAT DAC.
Hope that inspires you.
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[QUOTE Hope that inspires you.[/QUOTE]
Yea I'm in, I'll give it a go. It will take a bit of time though, I need to spend a few months looking a posts to familiarize myself with the lingo and the tech terms. I'm in the throes of getting my kitchen project underway. Building speakers and a valve amp for the kitchen. The DAC was going to be the easy bit, just buy the pieces and clip them together. Those boards you put together look really small, suppose it's finally time I admit I need glasses.
Yea I'm in, I'll give it a go. It will take a bit of time though, I need to spend a few months looking a posts to familiarize myself with the lingo and the tech terms. I'm in the throes of getting my kitchen project underway. Building speakers and a valve amp for the kitchen. The DAC was going to be the easy bit, just buy the pieces and clip them together. Those boards you put together look really small, suppose it's finally time I admit I need glasses.
If you want an easy to build project, I can highly recommend using a Raspberry Pi 3 with the Allo Boss DAC. You can run this with Moode, which is quite simple to get up and running.
If you want to keep it simple, you could just use a standard wall-plug power supply for the Pi, and you are pretty much done (just needs a case after that). To take it a step further, you could incorporate a linear power supply. I had great success with the Linear Regulator from Glassware. Just add a transformer and fuse.
That was my first Raspberry Pi project, and I was quite surprised how well this worked and sounded.
Don't be afraid to ask questions here, I have many times, and always felt welcome even though I am quite new to all this as well.
If you want to keep it simple, you could just use a standard wall-plug power supply for the Pi, and you are pretty much done (just needs a case after that). To take it a step further, you could incorporate a linear power supply. I had great success with the Linear Regulator from Glassware. Just add a transformer and fuse.
That was my first Raspberry Pi project, and I was quite surprised how well this worked and sounded.
Don't be afraid to ask questions here, I have many times, and always felt welcome even though I am quite new to all this as well.
I'm running Archphile on a Raspberry Pi 3. I bought an IQ Audio HAT 2-channel DAC and am very happy with the sound.
I don't stream through it- but play locally ripped media into FLAC on a USB SSD attached to the Pi (low enough power consumption).
The whole setup is small and reliable. I have had one file system corruption for some reason so you need to back up your Pi microSD (standard practice anyway).
I have enabled the alsamixer / EQ and have several EQ settings for the brutal recordings. These auto-select when they detect an album change via bash scripts and MPD pipe events.
I don't stream through it- but play locally ripped media into FLAC on a USB SSD attached to the Pi (low enough power consumption).
The whole setup is small and reliable. I have had one file system corruption for some reason so you need to back up your Pi microSD (standard practice anyway).
I have enabled the alsamixer / EQ and have several EQ settings for the brutal recordings. These auto-select when they detect an album change via bash scripts and MPD pipe events.
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