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DAC Suggestions


rplace

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"Music management in Plex is a dumpster fire. And playback via my Shield TV resulted in forced resampling that I didn't like."

 

I use the Amazon Premium and tried the same with Plex and my Shield. No matter what I tried the best i could get was 48Hz which is what I assumed the is the requirement for the surround stuff to work. I had the Shield HDMI out to a switch so I could pick off the optical and send to a Schitt Modi which worked great but couldn't get the true full rez Amazon was putting out. I switched to a Bluesound Node 2i and am much happier but i don't need Plex for it or my Shield for it anymore. I do use the Shield to stream Spotify and Amazon when I don't want to bother with a controller. 

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On 3/31/2020 at 9:31 AM, rplace said:

 

 

DAC already seeming like a Rabbit Hole. Thanks to all for the info so far.

Everything in Audio is a rabbit hole, if ya don't want to fall in ya gotta stick to yer phone and the earbuds that came with it 😜

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Been busy and distracted. My Channel Islands DAC which was 10 years old stopped working in December. I was interviewing with Asahi Kasei last year. Really liked the AK4497 chip reviews I was reading. I run TV through the OPT, CD through COAX and high resolution radio by bluetooth. The Topping D70 to me is a step up in realism and soundstage from Channel Islands. 

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I got my Denefrips Pontus, an old school Ladder Style DAC,  a few days ago to mate with my Bluesound Node2i and my Primaluna Evo 400 and I must say it all sounds fantastic.WOW! I originally used the DACs built in the Node2i and then hooked up a Micromega Dac that I had about 5 years that didn't sound bad but the Denefrips Pontus just sounds so much better.And... of course everything in Audio is a rabbit hole -- but its sometimes fun going down the rabbit hole. Even more fun when the music sounds so good you cant stop listening. And its only $$$$ - Cant take it with you. I have hundreds of records and a nice Turntable and phono preamp and I love analog but the Denefrips /Node2i combo sounds pretty close to my phono setup.

Edited by Fido
grammar mistakes
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15 hours ago, Audio Flynn said:

The Topping D70 to me

 

14 hours ago, Fido said:

Denefrips Pontus

 

Two that were not on my Radar, I like what I have read about both. Two different price points. Both have balanced output which I need.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

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On 4/22/2020 at 12:44 PM, rplace said:

 

 

Two that were not on my Radar, I like what I have read about both. Two different price points. Both have balanced output which I need.

 

Thanks for the heads up!

WQXR classical public radio in these trying times is very relaxing. I am still captivated by the BT quality at 96khz. The balanced and HDMI inputs are reviewed well although I have not tried them. I just cannot get into MQA. When DVD A died it irritated the crap out of me. It is s mental block.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quick update on my DAC quest. I've been intrigued by all the good things I've heard raspberry pi both audio and non-audio. So I went with a raspberry pi 4 with HiFiberry DAC Pro XLR version, XLR case made specifically for it and Ropieee. For the cost and size this is no-brainer if you want a DAC and XLR connections are a must-have. Simple, cheap, fool proof set up. I've not spun an LP in 10-12 days or so. I'm not ready to give up on vinyl just yet, but Roon+Dac in my "good" room is surely a nice addition.

 

Roon forums, Ropieee how to + Etcher makes this almost as simple as Sonos, once you put the lego-like Pi stuff together.

 

Keep the ideas coming for the "ultimate" DAC around 2K, but for now I'm more than happy at ~200. I'm guessing 10X the money gets you maybe 10% better, if that.

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23 hours ago, rplace said:

Quick update on my DAC quest. I've been intrigued by all the good things I've heard raspberry pi both audio and non-audio. So I went with a raspberry pi 4 with HiFiberry DAC Pro XLR version, XLR case made specifically for it and Ropieee. For the cost and size this is no-brainer if you want a DAC and XLR connections are a must-have. Simple, cheap, fool proof set up. I've not spun an LP in 10-12 days or so. I'm not ready to give up on vinyl just yet, but Roon+Dac in my "good" room is surely a nice addition.

 

Roon forums, Ropieee how to + Etcher makes this almost as simple as Sonos, once you put the lego-like Pi stuff together.

 

Keep the ideas coming for the "ultimate" DAC around 2K, but for now I'm more than happy at ~200. I'm guessing 10X the money gets you maybe 10% better, if that.

Awesome exact same setup as me except I have unbalanced version. I'm going to get the display for mine so I can see the artwork artist, track and wot not. This is a great entry level option and when you upgrade there are all kinds of uses for a raspberry!

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On 5/8/2020 at 8:48 AM, rplace said:

So I went with a raspberry pi 4 with HiFiberry DAC Pro XLR version, XLR case made specifically for it

 

I recently "upgraded" to the pi4 and kept my digi+ pro HAT. I don't hear a sonic difference, but I wanted a metal case and for this particular HAT they only carry them for the rpi4. Finally having a dedicated gigabit NIC that's not shared with the USB bus is also nice.

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1 hour ago, glens said:

 

I take it you mean a network interface which isn't in a USB dongle?

 

No. On older Pi models the USB ports and ethernet port shared the bus, which would sometimes lead to performance issues. The NIC was also only 100Mbit and not Gigabit.

 

Quote

The number and type of USB ports on Raspberry Pi depends on the model. The Raspberry Pi Model B is equipped with two USB 2.0 ports; the B+, 2B, 3B and 3B+ have four USB 2.0 ports. The Pi 4 has two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. In all models prior to the Pi 4, the USB ports connect to a combo hub/Ethernet chip, which is itself a USB device connected to the single upstream USB port on BCM2835. On the Pi 4, the USB hub chip is connected to the SoC using a PCIe bus.

 

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/usb/README.md

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Just a heads up to anyone keeping track. This seems like a great little package, providing both DIY version as a DAC only for Pi or a complete streamer with dual mono Burr Brown chips, XLR and RCA. Lots of software options. I have a Roon version inbound. Pecan is my favorite kind of pie

 

https://orchardaudio.com/shop/ols/products/pcnp-strmr

 

rs=w:388,h:194,cg:true

 

rs=w:388,h:194,cg:true,m

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7 hours ago, rplace said:

Just a heads up to anyone keeping track. This seems like a great little package, providing both DIY version as a DAC only for Pi or a complete streamer with dual mono Burr Brown chips, XLR and RCA. Lots of software options. I have a Roon version inbound. Pecan is my favorite kind of pie

 

https://orchardaudio.com/shop/ols/products/pcnp-strmr

 

rs=w:388,h:194,cg:true

 

rs=w:388,h:194,cg:true,m

 

Thanks for the purchase and mentioning my product here.

 

If anybody has questions feel fee to ask.

Edited by orchardaudio
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Awesome exact same setup as me except I have unbalanced version. I'm going to get the display for mine so I can see the artwork artist, track and wot not. This is a great entry level option and when you upgrade there are all kinds of uses for a raspberry!

Same here but hifiberry digi+ knockoff with galvanic isolation xformer - using the coax out to my DAC (emotiva dc-1 stealth).

I played with a Brennan B2 for a while but the firmware is touchy. For what the Brennan costs I can use Roon for 5 years and it is rock solid.

I need to rewrite the Brennan firmware from scratch and have a side gig income stream.
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