Back packing DACing. Raspberry Pi-ing

uglymusic

Well, I must have approaching 100 hours on the IQaudio DAC+ - remember, I mentioned that along with all the DLNA waffle ;-)

It's sitting atop the RPi2, and cost from memory, about 34 quid.

I'm nicely impressed. It's getting more neutral as I play it - I played it unconnected for several days so I didn't have to listen to the painful early stages.

First the good: I'd be very happy to have the DAC as my main source. It's good, balanced and doesn't manage to annoy me.

Then the bad (or is it the ugly?): at present, it isn't a match for the RPi/Digi+/Young combo. The soundstage isn't as deep, or quite as wide, so for me, the experience isn't as involving. The second worry is it doesn't present the detail and nuance I love. It's introduced a thin curtain over that window we clean with our upgrades.

And finishing with the proviso: I am a detail nut. Ask @Alan about what he said about my system last week. I think it boiled down to 'detail over substance', or something along those lines. He may like the IQ DAC more than me, because there's a solidity about it (especially at the bass end), but there's a reason I have a set of Colin's SECAs. I want to hear the texture of strings, the shape of percussive events (that's for you Ben :-) ) and the wacky phasing you find buried in some electronica.

It looks like the IQ DAC won't be dislodging the Young and PSU, unless it improves substantially. However, I'll be happy to have it in my office system.

shoom

''Then the bad (or is it the ugly?): at present, it isn't a match for the RPi/Digi+/Young combo. The soundstage isn't as deep, or quite as wide, so for me, the experience isn't as involving. The second worry is it doesn't present the detail and nuance I love. It's introduced a thin curtain over that window we clean with our upgrades.''

Yes that's my take on the IQ in my set up.

Great for the money but not forcing out the Buffalo any time soon.

I've also used it with a IFI power wall wort thing and it's a little better but still not near where I am with my other DACs.

I have a linear on order for the PI so I may be interesting to find where that leads to.

Plenty Love the IQ so it may be system/expectation dependant.

uglymusic

I think some people still have low expectations of digital, and the IQ fulfils those low expectations.

Now, what about the other Pi DACs? Same story?

shoom

The berry + pro is pretty much the same story different flavour to my ears. 

Good for the price but not blast off quality which is a shame because it has the potential to fix up some of the inherent problems with DAC's tied to the Pi's clock.

Really let down by the detail such as board layout and execution of the circuit.

But there are others which may be better such as the Mamboberry which looks interesting.

http://www.collybia.com/product/mamboberry-hifi-dac-192khz-24bit/

but then ploughing through all of them may be more expensive than just buying something auditioned, standard DAC wise.

I have the IQ and Berry pro serving music in my around the house set up with PI server and it's compact, great SQ for the cash and easy to use.

What's not to like.

and it's early days on the evolutionary path.

uglymusic

Much as I suspected. £30-odd against £1000 for the Young and PSU, even five years or so old, isn't going to work, is it?

I hadn't heard of the Mamboberry. Shall do a bit of Googling to see what people think of it.

Yep. I'm planning to have the IQ in the office, another Pi/DAC in the bedroom and yet another in the kitchen feeding some active speakers. The Pi3/Digi+ is already back in the main system.

I'll probably rig up a Pi server sometime, too. I'm wondering how software RAID will work over USB2, and whether four disks will trip up the Pi.