Raspberry PI + I2S Dac

I recently bought a raspberry pi and an i2s dac and am really impressed with the sound. I basically have a sonos system for a fraction of the price.

I bought this raspberry http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-2-1go-hdmi-14-usb-20-1080p-p-9549.html and this dac http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/kits-...-v2-tcxo-raspberry-pi-20-a-b-i2s-p-10176.html. I could have gotten a cheaper chinese dac and many other options (hifiberry, etc) but I live in France and audiophonics is french and their customer service is really top notch.

I got the raspberry pi and wrote the image to the sd card. I tried Volumio and Moode but chose moode because of the artwork ( they are basically the same). I chose the dac driver in the software. Plugged a usb drive into my router which I set up as a nas in the moode software. Bam, in about 20 minutes everything was set up. I control moode (or volumio) from my web browser or phone. Everything is really fast and things I click on play instantly. I've tried 24 bit 82,96 and 192 khz and everything works flawlessly so far.

I've had another esabre dac from audiophonics and i think the sound is better from this new one. Plus I don't have the 5 meter usb cable following me everywhere now.

Very convenient if you want to try it out.

 

audiophonics also sells an enclosure that has an lcd screen http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/appar...player-raspberry-pi-20-dac-sabre-p-10369.html. I'm gonna just build my own enclosure, I don't need and lcd screen I'm never gonna look at.

 

Looks amazing - but what is it?

I think I can nearly guess but I'm not sure how you get the digital music into the device and I'm not sure how you get the analogue sound out of it, either.

 

I use a Raspberry Pi with a HiFiBerry DAC+, and I'm also really happy with the sound quality. I'm running piCorePlayer as the Squeezebox ecosystem supports a bunch of different streaming options, and I already paid for the remote apps when I had an actual Squeezebox a few years ago.

To answer back2vinyl's question, I generally stream FLAC files from my home server over my network. The DAC I'm using plugs into one of the ports in the Pi and has RCA outputs. Easy!

 

The raspberry pi was developed in the UK and is pretty popular with schools for teaching basic programming etc. You just run Linux from an SD card which acts as the storage. It has 1GB of Ram and a USB, video and audio output. It's just a very small computer you can hook a keyboard and mouse to. I'm assuming the DAC is hooked into the USB

 

No the dac is connected by i2s which uses the pins that are on the side. Take a look at the photo of the link for the dac I posted and you'll understand. You can hook up a dac with USB also

 

I was thinking about trying picoreplayer too. Especially if I buy another one for the bedroom.

I saw posts that talked about switching code which turned me off. I've never done anything with computer code and it doesn't look too fun. Maybe this isn't true. I might have just stumbled onto a site of people who like to tweak things

 

Also. I power the raspberry from a USB hub that is next to it that I use to power my network switch and charge my phones. Convenient.

 

I just loaded the image onto an SD card and used the web interface to do some simple config. It's easy; there's no need to use the command line in the latest version of the software.

 

I know what a Rapsberry Pi is but I'm just not sure what it's being used for in this setup. I can see the Pi is hooked up to a DAC and I think there's a facility for a network connection. So I'm guessing music is streamed over a home network to the Pi and then converted to analogue by the DAC for playback . But is it connected to the network by cable or by Wi-Fi? Is it a static device or is it mobile? Where does it get its power supply from? And what happens to the analogue music signal once it comes out of the DAC? Is the device used with headphones or do you plug it into a hi-fi system or what?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm interested in new ideas and it looks very neat if only I knew what it did!

 

In this use case it's a music renderer that handles streaming of media files over either WiFi or wired Ethernet, plays it back via various playback software options, passes the digital stream to a DAC via a very short i2S connection (think onboard USB, only better) and has analog, single-ended outputs to the preamp of your choice. Basically, it is a source (PC/CD/DVD/BluRay transport/Media Streamer and DAC all in one very compact package. I believe they normally take a "wall wart" style power input, but that could be upgraded with a MeanWell SMPS or a linear power supply with the right output voltage and corresponding 2.1mm/2.5mm jack.

 

Think of the raspberry as a computer (which it is) then you choose what system to run it (volumio, picoreplayer, etc) that is the operating system. The raspberry can be used only as a music renderer. You can download other images to put on an micro SD card so it is a video server, controls home automation, robotics, etc. People do all sort of crazy stuff with them. But you must change the SD card or buy another raspberry to change between robotics, audio renderer etc.

The power input is a micro USB port. They recommend 5v 2a. But you can power it with a android charger that is 5v 1a. I use a USB hub to power it.

The raspberry also has a mini jack. So you can use it without a dac. But the sound isn't too good. I have an i2s DAC that mounts right on top. You could plug a USB DAC also.

Out of the rca's on my DAC I go straight into my preamp. HiFiBerry also sells modules that are DAC + amp.

For the music. You can plug a hard-drive with your music straight into the raspberry or use a nas. You tell the raspberry os where the music is. Then I type the raspberry in address in a browser and decide what music I want to listen to. Most of the operating systems have Web radio and Spotify built in. Or I can send music from my phone with a upnp app like bubbleupnp for Android or airplay with iPhone. Check out volumio.org for a better idea.

 

Many thanks for those answers. I think I get it now. I have the same setup really - I have a PC attached to a DAC which in turn is attached to my hi-fi system. The PC gets music over an Ethernet cable that comes from my main PC in another room. The small hi-fi PC runs JRiver which I control from an iPad.

The system you're showing here would do much the same job at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the space. The only downsides I can think of are that you probably couldn't run JRiver on it (or could you?) and you might lose some functionality with such a small package - for example, I can record as well as play back on my setup. But I think it's really neat, very impressive and well worth exploring. There's a Pi in our household somewhere - I might even give it a try!

 

Here is a video of my setup...

 

I have the HiFi Berry DAC+ pro and it's amazing. I use Volumio as the player I like it's simplicity, it looks like a Factory records cover. The media is stored on a 1TB SSD drive connected by USB.
Cheap price but high end performance and incredible convenience.

We have a bar area out by the pool, I set a Microsoft Surface on the bar and use it as an unlimited jukebox.
My kids also connect to it from their iProducts using Airplay.

 

Anyone try this...?

Ethernet connection, can you bitstream DSD files from a server, output via HDMI into an AVR and have it play Pure DSD?

 

Sure. Are you having a problem doing it?

 

Very cool stuff. I love this kind of geeky stuff, and I am just starting to get into Raspberry Pi.

 

There are some other low cost computers listed on the RuneAudio site http://www.runeaudio.com/certified-devices/

Anyone use any of these other ones: Beaglebone, Cubox, Udoo, Cubietruck, or any other wild portmanteau?

 

A +1 for the RPi plus HifiBerry boards - I have two with the Digi+ giving S/PDIF outputs (used with Metrum Octave and Graham Slee Majestic DACS) and one with a DAC+ board. All run piCorePlayer for Squeezebox emulation. Quality sound from budget sources - what's not to like?

 

Yes @Kal Rubinson I am. In fact I cannot get anything to play. Would you mind giving some hints?

The Rapberry Pi 2 Model B is ethernet connected to the network along with the Windows 10 PC that contains all my music, connected to my AVR via HDMI. Volumio is loaded on the Pi, and when I view my network on the PC I can see the PC and Volumiois on the network . On the Volumio screen I cannot mount my PC as a NAS or any of the other settings, trying several iterations and exhausting each combination. Tried the IP address of the PC (found thru network properties) and also of the router.

Any ideas?

 

Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to pick up an old netbook for $50? I use an old 7 inch Asus with a thumb drive and inexpensive DAC. Adding all the stuff that comes with a netbook -- screen, pointing device, power supply, would cost a lot of dough.

 

Full disclosure - not a Raspberry Pi user at all, but if I were you, I would double check your Windows Firewall settings on the Win 10 box, as well as your file sharing options. It could very well be that Windows can see "out" but won't let anything in to share volumes.

 

I have Raspberry PIs all over the house. Controlling them with iPad or iPhone 6s Plus is much easier than if each one was a laptop. More power efficient too.
And the Pi form factor can't be beat. You can hide one anywhere. Even the smallest laptop takes up quite a bit more room.

 

Good suggestion. Disabled firewall, no change.