Going down the Computer Audio rabbit hole -- wish me luck :)

[essrand]

Looking to optimise my Computer Audio setup. Boy! is it a rabbit hole? Looking at this thread in CA (computer audiophile) is enough to make me faint: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...y-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/

Audio servers, USB cards, USB cables, streamers, LPS power supply, ethernet regen, network switch, modem, ethernet cables.....

Enough to make me go back to CD players ..... almost

From my light reading of this mammoth thread. You can start go for solutions from $30 and ending up to $30000 server like the OP of the CA thread did. Or move to CD player or Vinyl, let's see where I end up.

I have started with Roon on a 2010 Mac Mini, so lots of scope for improvement.

Started with USB cable......tried a few....found a good one -> Check.

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

This week: piCorePlayer + LMS versus Roon + Mac Mini

 

[bloredude]

It doesn't have to be a rabbit hole if you don't want it to Buy a high quality streamer with RCA outs and install a good switch/router. Just two components will replace the entire list. To play local content, add a local NAS.

Computer Audio can actually be very very simple if you don't pay attention to marketing speak.

 

[bornfi]

Looking to optimise my Computer Audio setup. Boy! is it a rabbit hole? Looking at this thread in CA (computer audiophile) is enough to make me faint: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...y-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/

Audio servers, USB cards, USB cables, streamers, LPS power supply, ethernet regen, network switch, modem, ethernet cables.....

Enough to make me go back to CD players ..... almost

From my light reading of this mammoth thread. You can start go for solutions from $30 and ending up to $30000 server like the OP of the CA thread did. Or move to CD player or Vinyl, let's see where I end up.

I have started with Roon on a 2010 Mac Mini, so lots of scope for improvement.

Started with USB cable......tried a few....found a good one -> Check.

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

This week: piCorePlayer + LMS versus Roon + Mac Mini

Unless you like to take joy of travelling through rabbit hole, I would recommend looking into Innuos Phoenix and https://ideonaudio.com/product/3r-master-time-black-star/ that puts any mediocre computer to elite class. See, whatever be the computer, audio has to come out of USB and what these product do is that, lol, I do not know what they except for what their site says that it re-clocks and provide clean power further. I have tried with different computer and phones and results are always fantastic.

After this, if you want to take it further, look at Audinate Dante. I will, very soon, be putting my Dante setup for sale as soon as I find someone travelling to India. I find this solution best among all others I have tried (including dCS Network Bridge). Dante or for that matter, any pro grade solution does not interfere with soundstage. All these other solutions appear to dismantle everything and then recreate and recreated rendering is something I never liked that would always shrink the soundstage, add unnecessary shine to the sound.

 

[drkrack]

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

Well I've been through this, but its a never ending dilemma ; Mac better with resolution, Holographic Soundstage whereas Allo Digione Signature Streamer (Volumio) is good with tonality, Lesser Jitter & most importantly musical. You can see a LPSU for Allo Streamer, but I feel its lil better with 20k mah power bank with 2 USB outputs.
This Comparative analysis (Allo USB bridge, Signature Streamer, MacBook and Intel Nuc) has stood through 5 DACs ( Gungnir Multibit, Ares2, Chord Qutest , Esoteric Cdp K01x and now Denafrips Terminator) and a DAC cum Streamer like Cxn v2 etc. Nevertheless its a close call between the last two remaining.

Next is getting Pi2I2S HAT and using the I2S interface, instead of Bnc on Terminator. Will keep you posted in the Dedicated I2S thread, meanwhile I'll be eagerly waiting for your experience with this.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Looking to optimise my Computer Audio setup. Boy! is it a rabbit hole? Looking at this thread in CA (computer audiophile) is enough to make me faint: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...y-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/

Audio servers, USB cards, USB cables, streamers, LPS power supply, ethernet regen, network switch, modem, ethernet cables.....

Enough to make me go back to CD players ..... almost

From my light reading of this mammoth thread. You can start go for solutions from $30 and ending up to $30000 server like the OP of the CA thread did. Or move to CD player or Vinyl, let's see where I end up.

I have started with Roon on a 2010 Mac Mini, so lots of scope for improvement.

Started with USB cable......tried a few....found a good one -> Check.

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

This week: piCorePlayer + LMS versus Roon + Mac Mini

Iam in the same boat, and went through all that faff
The digital chain got so long with all the LPSU including external clockers , that I just gave up. Iam enjoying CD's now, borrowed from my friends of course

And just like you going into vinyl now. I didn't want any more sleepless nights fretting over sample rates, clocking, upsampling, power supplies , Ethernet isolators, and latest spec CAT cables.

Iam using gaana via CCA , and happy enough with the sound. It defintiely can be improved with tidal over my roon chain. But I still don't want to go back that route despite the audible gains in sound quality.

 

[bloredude]

I would recommend looking into Innuos Phoenix and https://ideonaudio.com/product/3r-master-time-black-star/ that puts any mediocre computer to elite class.

Interesting product! Sounds like a magic bullet.

Previously my DAC used to sound different when connected directly to an USB port, vs connected with a USB-SPDIF converter. With constant tweaking sound kept improving. After a while the direct USB connection began sounding virtually indistinguishable from the connection via an entry level USB-SPDIF converter.

What I am trying to say is - as you go tweaking the software side of things, the sound keeps improving (so long as it's a good piece of hardware). Fun part, most (if not all) software tweaks are free. My favorite route is to spend time with tweaking on the software side. Or, for the non-technical people, start with a pre-optimized OS - Volumio, PiCore - before plonking money on hardware tidbits.

 

[vivek_r]

Look at the trip Alice had down a rabbit hole! Wonderland indeed!

 

[bloredude]

Very useful post. And informative too!

 

[bornfi]

Interesting product! Sounds like a magic bullet.

Previously my DAC used to sound different when connected directly to an USB port, vs connected with a USB-SPDIF converter. With constant tweaking sound kept improving. After a while the direct USB connection began sounding virtually indistinguishable from the connection via an entry level USB-SPDIF converter.

What I am trying to say is - as you go tweaking the software side of things, the sound keeps improving (so long as it's a good piece of hardware). Fun part, most (if not all) software tweaks are free. My favorite route is to spend time with tweaking on the software side. Or, for the non-technical people, start with a pre-optimized OS - Volumio, PiCore - before plonking money on hardware tidbits.

I wish you get chance to lay your hands on any of these two in future. I too have a fine-tweaked computer and while these tweakings are jugaad, this product for me came as a panacea.

Depending on what your rest of the system looks like, this may or may not sound interesting to you at this time.

 

[essrand]

Unless you like to take joy of travelling through rabbit hole, I would recommend looking into Innuos Phoenix and https://ideonaudio.com/product/3r-master-time-black-star/ that puts any mediocre computer to elite class. See, whatever be the computer, audio has to come out of USB and what these product do is that, lol, I do not know what they except for what their site says that it re-clocks and provide clean power further. I have tried with different computer and phones and results are always fantastic.

After this, if you want to take it further, look at Audinate Dante. I will, very soon, be putting my Dante setup for sale as soon as I find someone travelling to India. I find this solution best among all others I have tried (including dCS Network Bridge). Dante or for that matter, any pro grade solution does not interfere with soundstage. All these other solutions appear to dismantle everything and then recreate and recreated rendering is something I never liked that would always shrink the soundstage, add unnecessary shine to the sound.

2500, 3500$ that's a lot of coin for just a USB reclocker. Can you just add a 600-1500 usb card by Pink Faun, JCAT or Taiko to your music server.

What are you replacing the Dante with?

 

[essrand]

Okay, I went through this blog: https://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/p/the-engine.html

To optimize my rpi4 streamer and the LMS server. After two days of going through a lot of steps and learning a lot about Rpi4. I got it going quite well.

Initially the sound was great, for sometime I thought I was totally beating my mac mini with Roon.

But after a while the sound was fatiguing, the mac mini with Roon was more relaxed and resolving. So I am back to my Mac Mini. I have heard that the USB interface on my Nagra DAC is nothing to sneeze at, so maybe some of that re-clocking is taken care of.

Next step is to try Rpi4 from this link: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/60691-how-is-the-pi-4/:

This is the bold claim made in this link: "FWIW there's an audiophile in Japan who used to have i9-9900T + Z390 motherboard + JCAT USB + JCAT LAN + Daphile, Pi 4 was able to beat that config with ease"

Would be fun, if this claim were actually true. Will keep you posted

Look at the trip Alice had down a rabbit hole! Wonderland indeed!

This new lockdown has given me too much extra time

Interesting product! Sounds like a magic bullet.

Previously my DAC used to sound different when connected directly to an USB port, vs connected with a USB-SPDIF converter. With constant tweaking sound kept improving. After a while the direct USB connection began sounding virtually indistinguishable from the connection via an entry level USB-SPDIF converter.

What I am trying to say is - as you go tweaking the software side of things, the sound keeps improving (so long as it's a good piece of hardware). Fun part, most (if not all) software tweaks are free. My favorite route is to spend time with tweaking on the software side. Or, for the non-technical people, start with a pre-optimized OS - Volumio, PiCore - before plonking money on hardware tidbits.

What exactly were you tweaking? Mind sharing with us, so we can also learn Currently I am doing this exactly, tweaking picoreplayer as per suggestions or tutorials.

It doesn't have to be a rabbit hole if you don't want it to Buy a high quality streamer with RCA outs and install a good switch/router. Just two components will replace the entire list. To play local content, add a local NAS.

Computer Audio can actually be very very simple if you don't pay attention to marketing speak.

What exactly is a good streamer? I don't know. How much improvement it will bring me, not sure. Which brand, not sure. Why streamer in the first place, that too I am not sure yet. No dealer I know of is giving home trials, so can't just plunk down a 1L or 3, and hope for the best.

The Bricasti Streamer is a modified Raspberry Pi, I know because I owned the Bricasti DAC with built-in streamer. The Streamer inside the new Boulder 866 is also a modified Raspberry Pi.

The Bricasti DAC using streamer vs USB input, there was a difference, the ethernet input was more relaxed and musical, but it wasn't a night and day difference.

So I thought, why not buy a Rpi4 and see how far I can go with tweaking it. If not anything it will be a good learning experience, and will give me enough knowledge to be able to make an intelligent decision on the right streamer/frontend when the times comes and I am done with the rabbit hole.

 

[bornfi]

2500, 3500$ that's a lot of coin for just a USB reclocker. Can you just add a 600-1500 usb card by Pink Faun, JCAT or Taiko to your music server.

What are you replacing the Dante with?

My computer (see link below) does not have a PCI slot so, instead of revamping entire setup, I found it logical to go for this. My room is so quiet that I can hear CPU fan and so I had to replace my NUC with this computer. Moreover, this is a complete package in the sense I can use my iPad/phones with this too.

Yes, JCat and Pink Faun are the options but if you read about these category of products, they call for good power supply. So, after getting this card, if you start looking for a power supply, will easily add up to something for which you can get Innuos or Ideon that in my mind is much cleaner and flexible approach.

Dante is not going anywhere , had multiple setups that I am reducing.

MXE-5400 | Integrated Fanless Embedded Computers | ADLINK

Integrated Fanless Embedded Computers,Powerful 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor-Based Fanless Embedded Computer

www.adlinktech.com

 

[hydra]

Looking to optimise my Computer Audio setup. Boy! is it a rabbit hole? Looking at this thread in CA (computer audiophile) is enough to make me faint: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...y-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/

Audio servers, USB cards, USB cables, streamers, LPS power supply, ethernet regen, network switch, modem, ethernet cables.....

Enough to make me go back to CD players ..... almost

From my light reading of this mammoth thread. You can start go for solutions from $30 and ending up to $30000 server like the OP of the CA thread did. Or move to CD player or Vinyl, let's see where I end up.

I have started with Roon on a 2010 Mac Mini, so lots of scope for improvement.

Started with USB cable......tried a few....found a good one -> Check.

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

This week: piCorePlayer + LMS versus Roon + Mac Mini

Computer Audio is indeed a rabbit hole. It is the digital version of a Turntable (tweaks, tweaks, tweaks) IMHO.

I've been down this path:

Purpose built Music PC with internal soundcard > added a Rega DAC (coaxial out from SC) > swapped SC out for a USB to SPDIF converter > pulled out the SMPS and added a Linear Power Supply for the PC > kept the PC aside and used a RPi + Hifiberry Digi+ HAT running Moode (powered by the LPS) with the DAC > Swapped out the RPi setup with a Yamaha WXC50 (used as streamer with the Rega DAC) > Swapped out the WXC50 with a Matrix mini-i Pro 3, a Streamer+DAC (and retired the long suffering Rega DAC) > Built a Roon ROCK and started using the mini-i Pro 3.

Now my setup is simpler (fewer boxes) and it sounds much better than when the Music PC was the transport.

Trust me, don't start with the PC, just get a Streamer/DAC or a Streamer. Especially since you're using Roon. You'll likely save a bunch of money, have a shorter source-signal chain, have fewer boxes, have a better control interface, and generally a better sounding setup. Not to mention less heartburn from constant tweaking of the software in the PC (and sometimes hardware components).

Aside:
Roon works best when you separate the Core/Server and the End Point. They've designed their entire music delivery system/protocol around this structure. It also generally sounds best when your End Point is not the Core/Server. You can continue using the Mac Mini as Core if you'd like, and setup the RPi as an endpoint with Roopie or DietPi (and connect your current DAC to the RPi4 via USB). This will actually cost you nothing extra, and will most likely be a step up in sound, and stability/usability of Roon.

 

[bloredude]

What exactly were you tweaking? Mind sharing with us, so we can also learn Currently I am doing this exactly, tweaking picoreplayer as per suggestions or tutorials.

Will do when I can (without polluting your thread). Though I am pretty lazy about it. Lazy as in not consistent and with motivation. One day I will wake up and go - "hey let's try doing this". And then, next morning no motivation to continue from where I left. Even little things I do when I try to document, it gets so lengthy I give up writing about it Being able to communicate in short passages is not exactly my strength

What exactly is a good streamer? I don't know. How much improvement it will bring me, not sure. Which brand, not sure. Why streamer in the first place, that too I am not sure yet. No dealer I know of is giving home trials, so can't just plunk down a 1L or 3, and hope for the best.

The Bricasti Streamer is a modified Raspberry Pi, I know because I owned the Bricasti DAC with built-in streamer. The Streamer inside the new Boulder 866 is also a modified Raspberry Pi.

The Bricasti DAC using streamer vs USB input, there was a difference, the ethernet input was more relaxed and musical, but it wasn't a night and day difference.

So I thought, why not buy a Rpi4 and see how far I can go with tweaking it. If not anything it will be a good learning experience, and will give me enough knowledge to be able to make an intelligent decision on the right streamer/frontend when the times comes and I am done with the rabbit hole.

Oh, I see that you used some "good" streamers in the past, lol.

Well, first off, for the record's sake - I myself like to tweak things once in a while, so obviously I am not against tweaking/learning. The reason I suggested a streamer is that the mention of the phrase "rabbit hole" made it sound as if (quite possibly incorrectly) you were being forced into taking this route after being frustrated enough. Hence the well-meaning suggestion.

About the Briscati - well, why would you buy an expensive streamer if you already know it's built around a cheapy pi? Sorry to hear it didn't work for you.

No idea whether you gave up that route because the sound quality didn't work for you, or because it bothered you that expensive streamers are being made of cheap components! If it's the first reason, and if you are trying to achieve a better SQ from a cheap Pi than a Briscati streamer, then I am all for it. Will be glued to this thread and absorb as much as I can. But if it's the second reason - well, in High-end audio it's pretty common.

Interesting thread, let's get on with the learning.

 

[rsjaurr]

The Bricasti Streamer is a modified Raspberry Pi, I know because I owned the Bricasti DAC with built-in streamer. The Streamer inside the new Boulder 866 is also a modified Raspberry Pi.

The Bricasti DAC using streamer vs USB input, there was a difference, the ethernet input was more relaxed and musical, but it wasn't a night and day difference.

So I thought, why not buy a Rpi4 and see how far I can go with tweaking it. If not anything it will be a good learning experience, and will give me enough knowledge to be able to make an intelligent decision on the right streamer/frontend when the times comes and I am done with the rabbit hole.

Almost all the brands including most of big brands you mentioned and other are using Rpi4 as streamer in their streamer/DAC.

I might be wrong but probably dCS, Lumin and a few other are using their own boards.

 

[manueljenkin]

Looking to optimise my Computer Audio setup. Boy! is it a rabbit hole? Looking at this thread in CA (computer audiophile) is enough to make me faint: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/...y-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/

Audio servers, USB cards, USB cables, streamers, LPS power supply, ethernet regen, network switch, modem, ethernet cables.....

Enough to make me go back to CD players ..... almost

From my light reading of this mammoth thread. You can start go for solutions from $30 and ending up to $30000 server like the OP of the CA thread did. Or move to CD player or Vinyl, let's see where I end up.

I have started with Roon on a 2010 Mac Mini, so lots of scope for improvement.

Started with USB cable......tried a few....found a good one -> Check.

That done: I will start with the cheapest solution, a Raspberry Pi 4, goal is to beat Roon + Mac mini and go on from there. Will try to chronicle the journey here. Would love advice, suggestions etc.

This week: piCorePlayer + LMS versus Roon + Mac Mini

I'll first recommended looking into free options that minimize system activity and hence lower system noise.

I made a thread at audiophilestyle when I started comparing players :

Subjective comparison of Software Music Player

audiophilestyle.com

You'll be able to see a lot of options and tweaks there.

If you want a simple suggestion you can try right away, try Junilabs audio player, or wtfplay.

This is not to say system tweaks don't matter, I have custom usb cables (uptone uspcb) and I do plan to build an audiophile server (that will also behave as numerical computation machine when not playing audio).

Comparisons of pi4 vs desktop can be all over the place due to differences in dac usb input structure etc. You'll have to choose the option that best "synergizes" (or in electromagnetic terms, decorrelates em noise, or detunes) with your system.

My belief is that an optimized server cpu or custom low noise microcontroller/asic design paired with a similar setup of microcontroller on receiving end would be the best choice for low noise playback. The mobility parts have design choices meant mainly for lower power consumption (throttling, complex and somewhat jittery speculative execution structures, choice of logic cells, etc) and it would be harder to control the overall noise and jitter they impart to the ground and data lines coming out of them. Not to mention the PCB layout is meant to be super compact in those cases.

If you want to stay digital but let go of pc playback, I found something at diyaudio: https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/group-buys/260565-gb-sdtrans384-micro-sd-card-digital-transport.html

But I guarantee the rabbit hole will not stop there either. From there one might compare different SD cards (SLC vs MLC vs TLC), file copy methods and scenarios to the sd card, file system, etc.

Another tweak that was quite popular (I've never tried it though) was routing through an old network switch Cisco 2960 (apparently it's of quite high quality, don't quote me on that).

 

[bloredude]

Almost all the brands including most of big brands you mentioned and other are using Rpi4 as streamer in their streamer/DAC.

I might be wrong but probably dCS, Lumin and a few other are using their own boards.

Add some more to the list. Antelope, MyTek. Pehaps also Meridian.

 

[Yelamanchili manohar]

Okay, I went through this blog: https://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/p/the-engine.html

To optimize my rpi4 streamer and the LMS server. After two days of going through a lot of steps and learning a lot about Rpi4. I got it going quite well.

Initially the sound was great, for sometime I thought I was totally beating my mac mini with Roon.

But after a while the sound was fatiguing, the mac mini with Roon was more relaxed and resolving. So I am back to my Mac Mini. I have heard that the USB interface on my Nagra DAC is nothing to sneeze at, so maybe some of that re-clocking is taken care of.

Next step is to try Rpi4 from this link: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/60691-how-is-the-pi-4/:

This is the bold claim made in this link: "FWIW there's an audiophile in Japan who used to have i9-9900T + Z390 motherboard + JCAT USB + JCAT LAN + Daphile, Pi 4 was able to beat that config with ease"

Would be fun, if this claim were actually true. Will keep you posted


This new lockdown has given me too much extra time


What exactly were you tweaking? Mind sharing with us, so we can also learn Currently I am doing this exactly, tweaking picoreplayer as per suggestions or tutorials.


What exactly is a good streamer? I don't know. How much improvement it will bring me, not sure. Which brand, not sure. Why streamer in the first place, that too I am not sure yet. No dealer I know of is giving home trials, so can't just plunk down a 1L or 3, and hope for the best.

The Bricasti Streamer is a modified Raspberry Pi, I know because I owned the Bricasti DAC with built-in streamer. The Streamer inside the new Boulder 866 is also a modified Raspberry Pi.

The Bricasti DAC using streamer vs USB input, there was a difference, the ethernet input was more relaxed and musical, but it wasn't a night and day difference.

So I thought, why not buy a Rpi4 and see how far I can go with tweaking it. If not anything it will be a good learning experience, and will give me enough knowledge to be able to make an intelligent decision on the right streamer/frontend when the times comes and I am done with the rabbit hole.

On a slightly different track, did you by any chance try the coaxial input in your dac. I found a huge difference between usb and coaxial input in my dac. Since the coaxial was way better off.

 

[essrand]

Computer Audio is indeed a rabbit hole. It is the digital version of a Turntable (tweaks, tweaks, tweaks) IMHO.

I've been down this path:

Purpose built Music PC with internal soundcard > added a Rega DAC (coaxial out from SC) > swapped SC out for a USB to SPDIF converter > pulled out the SMPS and added a Linear Power Supply for the PC > kept the PC aside and used a RPi + Hifiberry Digi+ HAT running Moode (powered by the LPS) with the DAC > Swapped out the RPi setup with a Yamaha WXC50 (used as streamer with the Rega DAC) > Swapped out the WXC50 with a Matrix mini-i Pro 3, a Streamer+DAC (and retired the long suffering Rega DAC) > Built a Roon ROCK and started using the mini-i Pro 3.

Now my setup is simpler (fewer boxes) and it sounds much better than when the Music PC was the transport.

Trust me, don't start with the PC, just get a Streamer/DAC or a Streamer. Especially since you're using Roon. You'll likely save a bunch of money, have a shorter source-signal chain, have fewer boxes, have a better control interface, and generally a better sounding setup. Not to mention less heartburn from constant tweaking of the software in the PC (and sometimes hardware components).

Aside:
Roon works best when you separate the Core/Server and the End Point. They've designed their entire music delivery system/protocol around this structure. It also generally sounds best when your End Point is not the Core/Server. You can continue using the Mac Mini as Core if you'd like, and setup the RPi as an endpoint with Roopie or DietPi (and connect your current DAC to the RPi4 via USB). This will actually cost you nothing extra, and will most likely be a step up in sound, and stability/usability of Roon.

"Roon works best when you separate the Core/Server and the End Point. They've designed their entire music delivery system/protocol around this structure. It also generally sounds best when your End Point is not the Core/Server. You can continue using the Mac Mini as Core if you'd like, and setup the RPi as an endpoint with Roopie or DietPi (and connect your current DAC to the RPi4 via USB). This will actually cost you nothing extra, and will most likely be a step up in sound, and stability/usability of Roon."

WRT the above statement, in my experiments using Roopie on Rpi4 as streamer and Mac mini as Core sounded *WORSE* than directly connecting Mac mini to the DAC. That was my first experiment. And I was quite surprised that it was the case.

 

[essrand]

Will do when I can (without polluting your thread). Though I am pretty lazy about it. Lazy as in not consistent and with motivation. One day I will wake up and go - "hey let's try doing this". And then, next morning no motivation to continue from where I left. Even little things I do when I try to document, it gets so lengthy I give up writing about it Being able to communicate in short passages is not exactly my strength



Oh, I see that you used some "good" streamers in the past, lol.

Well, first off, for the record's sake - I myself like to tweak things once in a while, so obviously I am not against tweaking/learning. The reason I suggested a streamer is that the mention of the phrase "rabbit hole" made it sound as if (quite possibly incorrectly) you were being forced into taking this route after being frustrated enough. Hence the well-meaning suggestion.

About the Briscati - well, why would you buy an expensive streamer if you already know it's built around a cheapy pi? Sorry to hear it didn't work for you.

No idea whether you gave up that route because the sound quality didn't work for you, or because it bothered you that expensive streamers are being made of cheap components! If it's the first reason, and if you are trying to achieve a better SQ from a cheap Pi than a Briscati streamer, then I am all for it. Will be glued to this thread and absorb as much as I can. But if it's the second reason - well, in High-end audio it's pretty common.

Interesting thread, let's get on with the learning.

Just a few corrections

"Oh, I see that you used some "good" streamers in the past, lol."

Only the Bricasti, it came with streamer built in, which much later I found out (when I opened it up) was based on Rpi, don't own the 866 or ever owned it, but read that it uses the Rpi.

"No idea whether you gave up that route because the sound quality didn't work for you, or because it bothered you that expensive streamers are being made of cheap components! If it's the first reason, and if you are trying to achieve a better SQ from a cheap Pi than a Briscati streamer, then I am all for it. Will be glued to this thread and absorb as much as I can. But if it's the second reason - well, in High-end audio it's pretty common."

I moved from Bricasti streamer/DAC cause I wanted a better DAC, my new DAC doesn't have a streamer built-in. So I am dipping my toes into this brave new world. Not completely convinced as to why one would need a streamer so far. Hence hesitant to plunk down 1000s of $$ on some off-shelf solution which for all I know is made of some 30$ rpi device in a fancy box.