The Raspberry Pi gets it's own Wolfson-based Sound Card (upto 24/192)

[amitk777]

Had I heard both, could have given u an opinion then.

I chose merely on availability and the ease of usage. Besides the latest release of truehls 7.09 rpi squeeze plug has Wolfson support so home run !

Dheeraj , the Raspberry PI B+ has been announced. Any idea if it will work with Wolfson DAC as well ?

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Currently they haven't updated. I don't have the new b+ board to test... yet ;-)

On a side note, hifiberry doesn't match the new board yet either

 

[venkatcr]

Dheeraj:

Reopening an old thread for some updated information.

I am in the process of setting up a while home audio + video system that will use my audio PC + HTPC as servers. I might even think of combining the two and sell of the Audio PC. That depends on some experiments I will do on the efficacy of the HTPC with the Asus sound card.

Coming to the point. I have been doing extensive reading. Though the Element 14 DAC card sounds attractive, support for that seems be be very low. Wolfson seems, for some reason, reluctant to deliver drivers and other software.

HifiBerry, on the other hand, has now become plug and play. They also claim it is compatible with PI3. If that is true, then that is the ideal solution for me. The fact that Bryston has chosen HiFiBerry for their new player also pushes me in that direction. (See http://www.hifivision.com/dac/62218-sony-hap-s1-i-like-unit-13.html#post689401)

I also considered the IQAudio, but there is not much difference between HifiBerry and IQAudio. They both use Burr Brown 32-bit/384kHz DAC (TI PCM5122) DACs and should sound about the same.

Remember this is not going to be a high end system but a decent small system in the living room where I can play music continuously. I have a large library of music and want to use that effectively.

Your comments?

Thanks

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Dheeraj:

Reopening an old thread for some updated information.

I am in the process of setting up a while home audio + video system that will use my audio PC + HTPC as servers. I might even think of combining the two and sell of the Audio PC. That depends on some experiments I will do on the efficacy of the HTPC with the Asus sound card.

Coming to the point. I have been doing extensive reading. Though the Element 14 DAC card sounds attractive, support for that seems be be very low. Wolfson seems, for some reason, reluctant to deliver drivers and other software.

HifiBerry, on the other hand, has now become plug and play. They also claim it is compatible with PI3. If that is true, then that is the ideal solution for me. The fact that Bryston has chosen HiFiBerry for their new player also pushes me in that direction. (See http://www.hifivision.com/dac/62218-sony-hap-s1-i-like-unit-13.html#post689401)

I also considered the IQAudio, but there is not much difference between HifiBerry and IQAudio. They both use Burr Brown 32-bit/384kHz DAC (TI PCM5122) DACs and should sound about the same.

Remember this is not going to be a high end system but a decent small system in the living room where I can play music continuously. I have a large library of music and want to use that effectively.

Your comments?

Thanks

Hey Venkat,

Go for the hifiberry dac plus. Wolfson sounds brilliant but has little to no ready support.

 

[regeHA]

Dheeraj:

Reopening an old thread for some updated information.

I am in the process of setting up a while home audio + video system that will use my audio PC + HTPC as servers. I might even think of combining the two and sell of the Audio PC. That depends on some experiments I will do on the efficacy of the HTPC with the Asus sound card.

Coming to the point. I have been doing extensive reading. Though the Element 14 DAC card sounds attractive, support for that seems be be very low. Wolfson seems, for some reason, reluctant to deliver drivers and other software.

HifiBerry, on the other hand, has now become plug and play. They also claim it is compatible with PI3. If that is true, then that is the ideal solution for me. The fact that Bryston has chosen HiFiBerry for their new player also pushes me in that direction. (See http://www.hifivision.com/dac/62218-sony-hap-s1-i-like-unit-13.html#post689401)

I also considered the IQAudio, but there is not much difference between HifiBerry and IQAudio. They both use Burr Brown 32-bit/384kHz DAC (TI PCM5122) DACs and should sound about the same.

Remember this is not going to be a high end system but a decent small system in the living room where I can play music continuously. I have a large library of music and want to use that effectively.

Your comments?

Thanks

Venkat,

To my knowledge you plan to use the new AVR and not a dedicated stereo amp or receiver. I'd think the DAC of the AVR would be better here.

If its a different unit then I'd use Chromecast Audio or Raspberry Pi with an external DAC. But that said I've heard the HiFiBerry DAC and it sounds good especially for a small/2nd unit. I've not heard IQAudio, but from what I've read online some folks say its better than HiFiBerry. But its out of stock so I could not order it.

 

[venkatcr]

To my knowledge you plan to use the new AVR and not a dedicated stereo amp or receiver. I'd think the DAC of the AVR would be better here.

I don't need a DAC for my main music system. I am very happy with the Asus sound card, and am not planning to look beyond.

If its a different unit then I'd use Chromecast Audio or Raspberry Pi with an external DAC. But that said I've heard the HiFiBerry DAC and it sounds good especially for a small/2nd unit.

I am planning to set up multiple music units (small ones) all over the house. And the PI+Hifiberry fits that plan well. Maybe I will experiment with CCA, but I like the open ended eco system of the PI. That is one of the reasons I have not gone for a media player.

Thanks

 

[dheerajjotwani]

I don't need a DAC for my main music system. I am very happy with the Asus sound card, and am not planning to look beyond.



I am planning to set up multiple music units (small ones) all over the house. And the PI+Hifiberry fits that plan well. Maybe I will experiment with CCA, but I like the open ended eco system of the PI. That is one of the reasons I have not gone for a media player.

Thanks

Just to add, we paired an antelope gold first over usb - pcm2704 - usb - rpi and found pretty impressive results. To test further, the same was then bridged on optical toslink - pcm2704 - usb - rpi and the results were jaw dropping.

So venky, you may wanna give pcm2704 a try. Its available on ebay.in for under 1k for just the pcb. For all you know, you may not need hifiberry at all.

 

[rikhav]

Hi Dheeraj
What you mean by bridged?

Used some USB to spidif converter ?.

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Hi Dheeraj
What you mean by bridged?

Used some USB to spidif converter ?.

No no. Pardon my lingo. The gold was simply connected (bridged) using a usb cable to pcm2704 which inturn was connected usb to rpi.

Second test was done with an optical cable connecting pcm2704 to antelope and pcm2704 remained connected on usb.

 

[rikhav]

What exactly is pcm2704?

Antelope I am assuming is the dac. Right ?

 

[keith_correa]

I didn't understand that chain at all. Dheeraj can you please explain these:

antelope gold first over usb - pcm2704 - usb - rpi

bridged on optical toslink - pcm2704 - usb - rpi

 

[dheerajjotwani]

I didn't understand that chain at all. Dheeraj can you please explain these:

Rpi - usb cable - pcm2704 dac - usb cable - antelope gold - ath m70x

Rpi - usb cable - pcm2704 dac - optical cable - antelope gold - ath m70x

Rpi is running shairport this connected to itunes server.

 

[rikhav]

Rpi - usb cable - pcm2704 dac - usb cable - antelope gold - ath m70x

Rpi - usb cable - pcm2704 dac - optical cable - antelope gold - ath m70x

Rpi is running shairport this connected to itunes server.

Ok now it's clear
What distro you use in raspberry which has shairpoint inbuilt

I am not sure how shairpoint works but why would you need to 2 dacs for iTunes server ?

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Ok now it's clear
What distro you use in raspberry which has shairpoint inbuilt

I am not sure how shairpoint works but why would you need to 2 dacs for iTunes server ?

I used picoreplayer and enabled shairport. It was to identify the ability of usb sound out using pcm2704

 

[rikhav]

I used picoreplayer and enabled shairport. It was to identify the ability of usb sound out using pcm2704

Ok cool
I also use picore.
Use a Logitech media server with it
What version of picore you use ?

 

[dheerajjotwani]

Ok cool
I also use picore.
Use a Logitech media server with it
What version of picore you use ?

The most recent. You may wanna redownload rather than upgrade

 

[Deleted member 45006]

Anything special about RCAs? They are just one of those accidental "standards."

But the Hifiberry has Choice (I went for that when ordering my ODAC, and I use the RCAs rather than the 3.5) which is good.

Thanks for telling about it.

True!,but its easy to find a good RCA cable than a 3.5mm to RCA cable Also, its nice to have the feel that, my left and right are 'physically' seperated so I can expect a better stereo imaging! And I don't care how its implemented inside that DAC box!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

True!,but its easy to find a good RCA cable than a 3.5mm to RCA cable Also, its nice to have the feel that, my left and right are 'physically' seperated so I can expect a better stereo imaging! And I don't care how its implemented inside that DAC box!

Have a look inside. I'm no electronics guy, so correct me if Im wrong, but the last time I looked inside an amplifier case, all the RCA grounds were, err... grounded. You are not really getting any more connectors than you are with a three-pin L-G-R plug; it only looks that way on the outside.

For anything technically different, we have to leave RCA behind and enter the world of balanced cabling, as used in pro audio. The reasons that it is used in pro audio, eg noise rejection over loooong runs, are not really relevant to home hifi audio. Whether 1-foot balanced cables would sound better than one foot unbalanced cables might be moot --- but it seems to me that the whole concept of balanced cabling is superior. There is something nice about having something that one feels is good engineering, whether it sounds better or not. All part of the ownership experiemce!