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RE: Further thoughts on RPi player

Posted by soundchekk on March 10, 2017 at 00:39:03:
Just using the Pi as digital transport leaves certain great opportunities untouched.

The todays HAT modules are that well done, that there's IMO no real need for external DACs anymore. (And the evolution is still on its way!)
These devices even support up 2 384kHz -- for those hunting after large figures.

Since you go straight I2S you just skip all these messy audio interfaces (SPDIF, USB, asf.) and related very costly tweaks.

You might consider the Allo Kali I2S HAT reclocker. It gets the jitter down to audiophile levels.

Using the iFi iPower gets the power noise down to quite low levels.

There are numerous DACs IMO sounding quite good. Many of them sounding better with the Kali.

However. E.g. Allo has just launched the "Boss" DAC.
That DAC doesn't even require the Kali reclocker anymore. It IMO sounds really nice.

At 150$ - PI+Boss+iPower + free distro of choice - you'll end up with a great audio piece.

You don't need great technical skills to put it together.
It's probably easier then building you favorite Lego gadget.

There are still people around who spent/d thousands of $ on similar (sounding) solutions. IMO that's just waste of money.

Stuff like MicroRendu - just a stupid USB interface - are IMO
overrated, overexpensive and extremely inflexible.
Meanwhile you'll find quite some so called High-End gear with Raspberry
Pi inside. It can't be that bad - even though some audiophiles
claim otherwise.
One main aspect is the PI software support. It's mainly free and quickly evolving.
Small and medium size audio companies just can not afford to develop fancy custom software and provide long term support - unless they make you pay for it.
And that's IMO a killer argument against these devices.

Yep. And there are still people out there using even PCs.

Enjoy.

PS: I agree that Logitech was years ahead of the competition. Almost a decade later not that many companies can offer a similar HW/SW solution.
The SB Touch had quite some tweak potential during those years I've been running it (I put together and made available a Touch Toolbox during those days).
As a matter of fact your mentioned low end weakness benefited from it.

At 300$ it was twice as much as above PI solution. Which was more then fair
during those days. Nothing in the world would make me stepping back though.