HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

CycleCoach wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:39 am I'll be re-reading this whole thread Stu (thanks for bringing it up, and the others like it,) because I'm in a similar boat. I have been just using my Apple Macbook with a long toslink cable for over three years. I tried a separate DAC, finally settling on the cheap one the Doc recommended with a beefy ebay power supply as this definitely gave me a big jump up in quality.
The trouble is, it's limited and I often need the Mac book for boring stuff like work. So although I'm not a DIYer, I definitely want to make some changes but it's difficult to know which way to jump. It would be easy to splurge the cash to try different things but the adult in me worries about wasting money these days.

The Raspberry Pi options are so easy to put together they are about as DIY as Lego. Or to put it another way if I can do it then anyone can.

In terms of bang for the buck and ease the Pi is hard to beat.

There are also a few 'ready-made' units available that are based on Pi and incorporate a DAC.

This one is sold direct in the UK: https://www.nordacoustics.co.uk/product ... dac-es9038

I'd noticed the Nord Acoustics Streamer only recently too. From what I can gather it is fitted with one of the top end dac chips? Be curious to try one out.
Still using the same Pi/Allo Boss Dac that was at Paul's bake-off almost 3 years ago, keep thinking that I should change to something more expensive/better as they are relatively cheap but it just sounds great so never bothered.

Toontrev wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:57 pm I'd noticed the Nord Acoustics Streamer only recently too. From what I can gather it is fitted with one of the top end dac chips? Be curious to try one out.
Still using the same Pi/Allo Boss Dac that was at Paul's bake-off almost 3 years ago, keep thinking that I should change to something more expensive/better as they are relatively cheap but it just sounds great so never bothered.

I know a guy with a £20k system who says that he can't beat one of these (with an LPSU) for less than 3 grand: https://allo.com/sparky/usbridge-signature-player.html

He might be deaf, of course, lol...

When I was screwing these things together, you could build a Raspberry Pi based streamer for less than £100 (less power supply).

Depends what you want - build your own and play with endless combinations of DAC boards (stereo output), Digi boards (digital output for the DAC of your choice and interconnect of your choice), power supplier (wallwart, battery, build your own, try a Chinese import or another).

I think I built about 4 variants and tried a couple of operating systems. Not really followed it for a couple of years now - the current version is a Raspberry Pi with a HifiBerry Dac+. What I wanted to try but never got there was to power the Raspberry Pi and the DAC separately - iirc this is technically possible but requires some very delicate butchering of the DAC board.

I went from a Pi, to a Tinker Board, to a Mini PC, and now back to the Tinker Board. I've always used an external DAC though, and I've been through a few of those too until I arrived at my current Chinese D70 clone (twin AK4497 chips). I've always thought that an external DAC gives one so much more flexibility. As with everything hi-fi though, it's horses for courses.

I'm sure I've made the point before, but coming from a telecomms engineering and IT background the thought of "going back to work," to set up my hifi didn't appeal to me, but it was actually simplicity itself. I even, eventually, made it as complicated as I possibly could, by buggering about with the configuration software file for the Pi, and disabling various bits and bobs and throttling back other parts, so it did the job I wanted it to without so many background processes etc. a.k.a. "noise." and I ended up thoroughly enjoying doing that too.

In the end I seem to remember complaining that it was "too easy."

terrybooth wrote: ↑Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:11 pm When I was screwing these things together, you could build a Raspberry Pi based streamer for less than £100 (less power supply).

Depends what you want - build your own and play with endless combinations of DAC boards (stereo output), Digi boards (digital output for the DAC of your choice and interconnect of your choice), power supplier (wallwart, battery, build your own, try a Chinese import or another).

I think I built about 4 variants and tried a couple of operating systems. Not really followed it for a couple of years now - the current version is a Raspberry Pi with a HifiBerry Dac+. What I wanted to try but never got there was to power the Raspberry Pi and the DAC separately - iirc this is technically possible but requires some very delicate butchering of the DAC board.

Its dead easy on the Allo Boss, remove a jumper link on the DAC board. One LPSU to the Boss DAC USB-C and the other to the RPi3B+ USB Micro-B. Both, at the time, Doc recommended Chinese 5V LPSU's.