Rasberry Pi

[Progmeister]

Raspberry Pi. Wtf? hogwash. Heard it, didn,t like it and think it's a fad. so there.

[terrybooth]

The Pi by itself or the Pi plus a DAC board (HiFiBerry, IQAudio and so on)?

Of course it will rather depend on what you are comparing it with.

[Fretless]

A Pi on it's own has a fairly poor quality 'headphone' output - so it is no surprise if that sounds mediocre.

A properly installed Pi/Dac combination wipes the floor with other digital sources many times more expensive (e.g. Sonos and most CD players).
But its a fun hobby project for the computer fans and not for the analogue diehards.

[Daniel Quinn]

Sorry to let logic spoil the fun , but does a rasp pi have a SQ independant of the dac and ancillairies ?

[brit-pop]

Sorry to let logic spoil the fun , but does a rasp pi have a SQ independant of the dac and ancillairies ?

Yes, it has a headphone output which is comparable to that of a normal laptop or PC soundcard. Alternatively you could use the HDMI socket into a receiver or TV etc.

I tried it with the IQ Dac and thought the USB output to my Rega DAC, with its nice big traffo PSU sounded smoother and sweeter. Adding a Musical Fidelity vlink jitter buster improved things further and gave more open and illuminated sound.

I didn't get on with the Volumio OS though and found I preferred my laptop or even chromecast for streaming, all going through my Rega DAC of course.

Best to say not really to my tastes so I sold it. The new owner seems very happy with it though.

[Fretless]

The standard Pi board does have a 3.5 mm headphone socket and an audio function. But that is not Hifi standard, more comparable to a simple mp3 player.The add-on boards, like the HifiBerry or Durio, use the processing chips of the Pi to produce audiophile grade sound signals.