Question about RPI DAC boards

[Black_Hawk]

Hello folks,

I wanted to know how much of a difference in audio quality is there between these 2 DAC boards:

HIFI DAC+ Sound Card With I2S Port For Raspberry Pi

and this:

Raspberry PI IQaudio DAC Pro

The audio chain will be RPI + DAC > FOSI Audio TDA7498 > Speakers.

Between these 2 which one will be a better purchase?

Thanks

 

[surfatwork]

They aren't going to sound much different. Both are based on the pcm5122, and both are pretty basic DACs.

 

[premoddev]

IQaudio dac pro uses pcm5242, a different burr-brown chip. Also it has a headphone amplifier as per the specification. Go for it

 

[Black_Hawk]

IQaudio dac pro uses pcm5242, a different burr-brown chip. Also it has a headphone amplifier as per the specification. Go for it

Thank-you for your reply. I have almost decided on the IQaudio DAC but the thing is I'll be using VOLUMIO on it and apparently some users have had issues and bugs after installing Volumio on IQaudio (like the volume control not working). Do you know if these have now been fixed?

@surfatwork : There is a listing error on Robu regarding IQaudio, Unlike the HIFI DAC which houses a PCM5122 chip, the IQaudio has a PCM5242 chip. Correct specs can be found here in the link below:

Four new products: IQaudio is now Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi

Popular IQaudio products DAC+, DAC Pro, DigiAMP+, and Codec Zero will be available to buy from Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers.

www.raspberrypi.org

 

[premoddev]

I am not aware of this issue and I never used this DAC. But I am using Allo Boss and never had similar issues..

Yes the volume adjustments through the app on Volumio is handy, but for better SQ it was recommended to disable in the dac/streamer and do it in your preamp/amp.

You have other options like Moode Audio, Picore player etc available in case if you feel volume control is buggy on Volumio.

 

[Black_Hawk]

I am not aware of this issue and I never used this DAC. But I am using Allo Boss and never had similar issues..

Yes the volume adjustments through the app on Volumio is handy, but for better SQ it was recommended to disable in the dac/streamer and do it in your preamp/amp.

You have other options like Moode Audio, Picore player etc available in case if you feel volume control is buggy on Volumio.

Yes, Moode audio... I'll look into that as well. I don't think the quibbles still exist as the posts I read on the Internet date back to a few years and I'm guessing they have patched the problems out.

Are you using the Allo Boss 1 or 2? How is it compared to this IQaudio board? I will be connecting an external HDD to the RPI and playing music of it.

 

[premoddev]

Mine is BOSS v1.2 the previous version of BOSS2. It's pretty good but costlier than IQaudio dac. But I never heard anything else than my boss, so can't compare at the moment.

 

[Black_Hawk]

Mine is BOSS v1.2 the previous version of BOSS2. It's pretty good but costlier than IQaudio dac. But I never heard anything else than my boss, so can't compare at the moment.

So this one I believe:

Buy BOSS I2S DAC V 1.2 online in India | Fab.to.Lab

BOSS I2S DAC V 1.2

www.fabtolab.com

EDIT: They discontinued the V1.2

 

[premoddev]

It still there in the Allo website, not sure they officially discontinued or not..may be to push the boss2 ?

 

[MaSh]

I guess in India allo boards are more popular. Where are you sourcing the boards from?

MaSh

 

[Black_Hawk]

It still there in the Allo website, not sure they officially discontinued or not..may be to push the boss2 ?

I called up Fab To Lab and they confirmed that it's continued. Oh well, I'll just go with the IQaudio DAC.

 

[Black_Hawk]

I guess in India allo boards are more popular. Where are you sourcing the boards from?

MaSh

Hi MaSh,

I'm sourcing the RPI 4 (4GB variant as 2GB is OOS) and IQaudio DAC board both from Robu India.

 

[surfatwork]

There is a listing error on Robu regarding IQaudio, Unlike the HIFI DAC which houses a PCM5122 chip, the IQaudio has a PCM5242 chip. Correct specs can be found here in the link below

Sorry, my bad.
But nevertheless, I don't think there is going to be a significant difference in sound. I've used iqaudio, a wolfson and one other (can't remember). But through a teac m500i into a pair of missions, they didn't much different from each other. All were decent. Not great. Not poor.

 

[Black_Hawk]

Sorry, my bad.
But nevertheless, I don't think there is going to be a significant difference in sound. I've used iqaudio, a wolfson and one other (can't remember). But through a teac m500i into a pair of missions, they didn't much different from each other. All were decent. Not great. Not poor.

Yep, frankly between the the HiFi DAC and the IQaudio both will be decent and won't have a remarkable difference in quality.

 

[Yogesh]

Hi MaSh,

I'm sourcing the RPI 4 (4GB variant as 2GB is OOS) and IQaudio DAC board both from Robu India.

From where you are getting the case?

 

[Yogesh]

Yep, frankly between the the HiFi DAC and the IQaudio both will be decent and won't have a remarkable difference in quality.

Have you considered the Boss2?