Raspberry PI + I2S Dac

If streaming to the Pi the onboard audio will never match an outboard DAC. In my case the Pi's add on ESS 9023 DAC will go into my amp directly, and I'll stick a hard drive onto my router to act as a NAS and will run Volumio. Am lucky enough to have CAT5 all over the house so no need for wifi.

 

Check out volumio 2. It's in the development stage but should be good. It can be downloaded and is functional with bugs. You can update the OS by Internet which will be practical for you because otherwise you would have to open up your unit, eject SD card, write OS and reinsert SD card

 

I use it at work with the hifiberry DAC. I've also used the IQaudio DAC with equally good results. My office setup on my desk includes bottlehead quickie preamp, T-amp, Pioneer BS-22 speakers (Andrew jones). I can stream from my home squeezebox server (Windows 7) without any transcoding to MP3. No display, but everything is controlled with ipeng on the iPhone.

 

I can hear no difference between the Rasperry plus onboard HiFiBerry and my barebone with external asynchronous USB-DAC. Or my CD player.

Why don't you try PiCorePlayer with LMS as software on the Rasperry? Then you can hook the hard drive direcly onto the Rasperry and you need WiFi only to control it with the app on your tablet.

 

I think. Technically your "onboard" Hifiberry dac is not on board even if you directly mount it on the board. It bypasses the raspberry onboard DAC which on the Pi 2 (don't know about pi 3) leaves a lot to be desired.

But maybe I'm wrong. Never looked up the definition of onboard.

 

That's my understanding as well, and the interface between renderer (RPi) and Dac (HiFiBerry DAC+, Digi+, etc...) is an i2S connection which is the same way a CD Transport sends data to an internal DAC in a "CD Player." In effect, bypassing the stock DAC on the RPi and going with a supposedly higher caliber of hardware. I have zero complaints about my RPi2 as an audio renderer, sounds good to me.

 

Now if there was a way to update my ITunes play counts that go back to 2004 I would be in heaven! thanks to iSyncr I can do that with my Android phone, but haven't found anything on the various Pi distros that might do the same...

 

You're absolutely right - onboard is on the mainboard, and outboard is exactly the opposite - whether GPIO or USB its outboard.

Can't say for the Pi 3, but the earlier models the onboard audio output quality is equivalent to 11-bit 48 Khz.

 

You are right, of course. Please forgive a foreigner for mangling your language.

 

No need to apologize. I live in France and mangle the French language on a daily basis.

 

I've just this evening installed a Raspberry Pi 3 running Volumio with HiFi Berry Digi+, which is connected via coaxial cable to my Rega DAC-R. All I can say is wow. The sound is excellent (dare I say better than my Foobar/USB/Rega set up?). Streaming lossless files is flawless and the Rega DAC lights up with the correct sample rates. No blips or noises when switching sample rates either.

Having a couple of teething problems. The first time round was a complete right off with the software stalling and not finding my network share (which is just my music folder shared from my laptop over the network). Second time around everything worked fine and the Pi saw my music share immediately and began populating the Volumio library however it is being a bit selective over what it chooses to show in the library. My entire music library is shared with multiple masterings etc, but Volumio is only displaying about half the library, seemingly at random. Anyone got any ideas as to why this might be happening?

 

I know when I started using moode which is basically the same as volumio I had to retag a bunch of my music. A bunch of it was filed under unknown artist or various artist. I thought the same thing as you at first.

 

This looks like the kind of crazy do it yourself project that I would attempt. Looks like a lot of fun.

 

I'm actually considering other ways I might be able to use other Pis around the house (there are tons... security, home automation, cord-cutting, Plex-serving, and on and on). They are neat little devices, that's for sure.

 

Totally true. Outside of music. I have used them for home automation.

 

Swapped things around a bit and now everything is running smoothly. I ditched Volumio for RuneAudio which is much faster to operate and has a cooler colour scheme, synced my music library to a spare USB hard drive and connected that directly to the Raspberry Pi. The Pi's USB drive is now mapped on my network and mirrors my computer's music folder Next I'm thinking of wirelessly pairing a second Pi to my main Pi to create a portable headphone station. The wifi Pi would see the main Pi's USB drive over the network and stream from there to an external DAC and headphone amp which could be moved around the house

 

Sadly was let down by Audiophonics and had to cancel my order with them. When I placed the order had received an email from one of their guys saying 7 to 15 days to assemble and ship the RaspDAC. At that time, the kit was available, and as I'm doing some exams at the moment I thought I don't have the time to do it myself. Anyway, 15 days passes and no news, dropped them a line, and am told it will be up to a further 25 days for shipping and assembly .

Obviously went back to them and pointed out that their own email at the time of purchase said 7 to 15 days and expressed my dissatisfaction and that they either give me a discount or a refund. They took the refund option, and fair play, was done straight away. Spent half the money and ordered a Pi 3 and HifiBerry DAC+ Pro, which shipped the same day, rather than waiting and having another potential delay. I had read elsewhere online about other customers having issues with delayed products from them, but wanted to believe...

 

thats good to know about Rune, I was looking at Volumio initially, but as Rune has a ready made Pi 3 distro image was planning to use that instead after switching from getting a RaspDAC bundle (Pi 2) to a HifiBerry (Pi 3), so am glad you have good feedback on using it. I have a lot of stuff in ALAC as opposed to FLAC, and would rather not re-encode if I can get away with it - any issues playing ALAC on Rune? (have many going up to 24/192)

 

I'm having an issue with mpdroid. I'm using an external HDD and ended up deleting an album off of it and replacing it with a different pressing. When I load up mpdroid it says that I have two of each song... they both play despite there only being one album on the HDD. I have tried refreshing the database but it doesn't fix it (artwork also doesn't display with that particular album). Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

 

Yeah the latest stable version of Volumio is a year old, whereas RuneAudio (and Moode) have both been updated this year for the Pi 3. Consequently, Rune is much swifter than Volumio and it has album artwork. I also find the language it uses in the software more intuitive and easy to interpret than Volumio's. My entire library is ALAC from redbook up to 24/192. Everything plays flawlessly. I'm using the Digi+ rather than the Dac+. You have to enable ALAC playback in Rune's settings, you also need to enable the Hifi Berry product you're using in the config (on the SD card): Digi+ support in RuneAudio. : Raspberry Pi • RuneAudio Forum »

I'm a Linux rookie but it's working great so far. I needed to do some code editing to get write access to the USB hard drive attached to the Pi (so that I can sync new music to the USB library over my network). See here: A $70 Bit-Perfect Audio Player? - Page 7 »

Looking forward to reading your thoughts when you have it up and running!

 

In Rune there's a "rebuild library" option in Library, does mpdroid have something similar? Try unmounting/remounting the drive?

 

Pi 3 Digi+ users should read this: Digi+ , Rune and USB drive = channel swapping : Raspberry Pi • RuneAudio Forum ».

 

Sorry for all the multiple posts but hopefully this might prove useful to future users...

I've played with the Pi 3 > Hi-Fi Berry Digi+ > RuneAudio set up for a few days now. I'm really pleased with how it sounds in my system. My DAC shows up the correct sample rates, no issues with noise/distortion, dead silent operation, no more laptop in the system, and the RuneAudio app is great. As far as I can tell it works. I have, however, had to jump through a few hoops in order to get to where I am now. I suppose this is to be expected with free software and the customisable nature of the Raspberry Pi but it also has the potential to put off a lot of would-be users.

As an audiophile, the combination of the Digi+ with a USB mounted hard drive connected to the Pi 3 seems the most logical as it enables one to pair the player with an external DAC and get files directly from an attached hard-drive rather than relying on the network (I ditched the network streaming idea early on). Unfortunately, this very set-up seems incompatible by default with the Pi 3 (Pi 3 is the current model), so it's necessary to perform some system modifications in order to get everything working. This is where things could get off-putting, because it involves editing config files and root files that have been designed in Linux. I've been able to make the required changes by copying and pasting and joining the dots from various forums (unfortunately Linux users don't write with the casual user in mind, they're very in-depth!) but I only half understand what exactly the various codes mean. All I know is, I had to input them to get my Pi 3>Digi+>USB set-up to work.

Here's what I've done so far. Hopefully I'm not just waiting for the next hurdle to arrive...

1. Enable Digi+ output: Digi+ support in RuneAudio. : Raspberry Pi • RuneAudio Forum »
   
2. Grant read-write access to the USB drive attached to the Pi (so one can sync files from the computer to the drive, this is how I keep my Pi in sync with my computer's music folder): A $70 Bit-Perfect Audio Player? - Page 7 »
3. Upgrade RuneAudio to the latest Kernel (as of 6 May 2016) to prevent an issue whereby channels swap at random if (and, it appears, only if) you are using the Pi 3 > Digi+ > USB attached drive set-up: Digi+ , Rune and USB drive = channel swapping : Raspberry Pi • RuneAudio Forum »

As you can see, everything that might appeal to an audiophile about Raspberry Pi playback (being able to use an external DAC, accessing files from a directly attached storage drive, correct channel balance ) are incompatible by default, but only if you have this very set-up. For example, the channel balance issue only occurs if you're using the Digi+ with a mounted USB drive.

A bit of a rocky couple of days then but I'm still of the opinion that it's been worth it. Currently playing Talking Heads and it sounds fantastic. I think it sounds better than my Foobar>USB>DAC set-up but that's probably not the case as I'm using the same DAC. It seems like a cleaner path for the data though...

 

That sucks. I've had nothing but good experience with audiophonics. I've ordered a bunch of stuff from the for pleasure and for work. Right now in France there are a lot of holidays (4 I think in may) and a lot of people take a week or two off the end of April/early May. I imagine that is what the problem is. Bit they should have been able to see that problem and not quote you one week.

Anyway glad everything worked out for you.

 

What OS are you using (volumio, rune,etc.)? have you tried to refresh in the OS? I use mpdroid and have never had this problem. I don't know how it accesses the music either.