Non USB DAC for Raspberry Pi

[Natural Sound]

I think for its price the hifi berry is good value and a neat solution especially if you already have a Pi. Sound wise I felt it was to bright for me with the T1's not so bad with the Senn 650's. 

I'm using a crack amp with Senn 600's. I wired my Crack for a 6SN7 driver tube in lieu of the 12AU7. I have tried both in the amp with the help of an adapter socket and found the 12AU7 to be "bright" as you describe. The 6SN7 up front is the tube for me. YMMV.

If you just put the HiFiBerry into service you might want to give it 50 hours or so of run time before you do any critical listening. I noticed a vast improvement after running it in, nonstop for a week.

And yes, one really needs to take into consideration that this is a $40 DAC. But its one that sounds real good for the price AND it will decode 24bit 192kHz files. That was important to me.

 

[JamieMcC]

Its definitely not the Crack or 12au7s that are bright, it sounds like its more the dac's top end signature as the low and high  mids are better.  The T1's can be quiet picky when it comes to the top.  I tried a number of different tube combinations to see if it could be toned down without any not luck. The brightness might be something to do with running on Volumio.

Also the Hifi-berry has been running in for a few weeks now in my brothers office, who is really pleased with it via his active speakers. 

 

[JamieMcC]

Ok well today I had time to connect up and try out the Pi Hifi Berry in the speaker system I have in my lounge. I was surprised at just how easy it was this time to set up. Simply connected up the rca and Ethernet Cables switched the power on then selected volumio via the airplay icon and bingo access to media from pc's ipads etc.

The Pi had taken it bit of messing around with rebooting configuring etc to work independently with the fitted usb wireless dongle previously upstairs.

This pairing has seen much better results and is quiet easy to listen to via the speakers. It also means I get to keep my Marantz dac upstairs for a dedicated headphone rig in the bedroom.

So it looks like it might be a good solution to try for a while and the nice thing is the Pi can easily be tucked away out of sight.

 

 

[BNAL]

As I wait for my HIFIBerry DAC to arrive I wanted to ask if anyone had any additional comments on the sound of this setup.

While I wait I have been playing around with squeezeplug and piCorePlayer. I like the the fact that they just connect to my LMS, so I have immediate accress to all my music. The only issue I have had is keeping the connection up using the WiPi dongle and could not find a solution, so I ordered the Edimax EW-7811Un. From what I have read this dongle is rock solid.

Brad

 

[Natural Sound]

As I wait for my HIFIBerry DAC to arrive I wanted to ask if anyone had any additional comments on the sound of this setup.

While I wait I have been playing around with squeezeplug and piCorePlayer. I like the the fact that they just connect to my LMS, so I have immediate accress to all my music. The only issue I have had is keeping the connection up using the WiPi dongle and could not find a solution, so I ordered the Edimax EW-7811Un. From what I have read this dongle is rock solid.

Brad

I'm not sure if this will work with your dongle but it may give you a tip on what you need to do. WiFi dropouts are typically caused by power management settings. Follow this link for a simple fix.

http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup/test-and-configure

 

[BNAL]

Follow this link for a simple fix.

http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup/test-and-configure

I just received the new dongle and if I still have dropout issues I will give that fix a try. Also, recceived the HIFIBerry and can't wait to get it up and running.

 

[SammyJ]

Let us know how it goes!  I had the wifi dropout issue as well, as mentioned, it was the power management settings.

I've read that the ethernet bus is shared by the USB bus, so there's a chance of noise introduction, but i haven't noticed any audible difference between wifi and wired. 

Good luck!

 

[BNAL]

I have been using the Edimax EW-7811Un wifi with no problem. There has been no need to change the config on the Pi.

The HIFIBerry DAC is a nice DAC and is very easy to setup and use with PiCorePlayer. I have had no dropout or buffering issues. It sound niice, especially for the price. I just swapped out the Samsung phone charger with a linear power supply I built last night,but have not had a chance to sitdown and give it a listen to see if it improve the sound.