Using an RPi4 with PI2AES running Roopieee over I2S to my DAC. The improvement over my HTPC using USB was astounding. I was not expecting the amount of improvement in just about every aspect you'd care to measure. I thought I was hearing the best I could from my setup until put the RPi in place.
A 'Pi-Fi' setup is an excellent choice if you want to combine signal processing into the preamp stage and have interactive access to it's function, but it can only adequately replace equipment from the preamp section and below. It is perfectly adequate for headphone amplification for dynamically driven headphones that are of a reasonably low impedance, otherwise, you will need additional amplification.
Great video. I decided to try Volumio on the new Asus TinkerBoard. It works just great. I output from TinkerBoard to my DAC via USB. TinkerBoard has some performance advantages over the Pi, but is new and has very little support whereas the Pi has massive support. USB out on the TinkerBoard is far superior to USB out on the Pi. For those who go the Pi route, I have heard the new Allo DigiOne is the best quality SPDIF out option. Costs a bit over $100.
Hans, can you elaborate on the quality of the hdmi output? My pi uses OSMC (kodi) and outputs to a Marantz SR5004 receiver over HDMI. It sounds very good. I never heard any jitter.
HDMI is primarily a video connection that packs audio in-between the video. It therefore depends largely on the quality of the receiver to 'recondition' the audio. I have no hands on experiences with your receiver but in General Marantz takes sound quality very serious.
Way back when I was messing about with micro computers, a driver was just a lookup file and the computer and peripheral manuals would have all the ascii command codes. So you would just look up the manuals and construct you own driver file. You could do this for any peripheral device you wanted to connect. Anything, running any OS could drive anything to the full potential of it's command set & you didn't need a computing degree to do it, just a little patience. Now, they don't tell you anything.
Hello! You're saying that the dac+ should be preferred over the audio via hdmi. Though I watched some of your videos I couldn't find the answer yet. Bits are bits and bytes are bytes, right? They are sent and received without data loss. How can one method be superior to another one in a digital way? Thank you very much for your superb videos!
On my Pi3 B+ works an HiFIberry DAC Plus with VOLUMIO 2 Image from Nanosound. CD, Airplay, NAS or Harddisk no Problems. Powersupply DIY 5.1 Volts max 3A. An Valve -SE Amp plays the Music. Display over HDMI on Samsung and Action with Mouse without PC or Phone.
Seeing you're using a computer for hi-fi is it perhaps possible to use convolution software? I would think a routine to flatten the actual room speakers before applying convolution samples of high end hi-fi might provide some interesting results for old school hi-fi lovers.
I have tried those and was not pleased with them. Actually I use a computer for music only to store the music and run music server software on it like DLNA server and Roon server. Connecting a computer directly to a DAC won't bring great sound quality unless the computer is designed for that task.
There are som quite expensive modules for the Raspberry Pi made by Ian Canada (Dac, clocks, power supply with batteries or ultra caps,etc) that you can buy from Audiophonics. Do you know if these are legit and high quality stuff or are there better alternatives?
Speaking of other mini computers, you can get a V88 Mini III at gearbest for around $30. For only $30 you get a similar cortex A53 clocked at 1.5Ghz, 2GB RAM, 8GB flash with Android 7.1, built in SPDIF, USB 2.0 and 3.0, and a remote control.
As I said in the video, there are many mini computers but only one is supported extremely well: the Pi. But feel free to experiment with other options if you feel up to it.
Very interesting, thanks. Early on you said that hdmi was second best after spdif, but did't develop that option. Is there a breakout box to get audio from hdmi?
On a Raspberry Pi the HDMI was second best. But only if your DAC, amplifier or receiver has an HDMI input. If you need SPDIF you rather use boards like those by HiFiBerry or Allo. That will give a better result than converting HDMI to SPDIF.
Interesting channel! I might be oversimplifying things . I’m exploring the option of building my own voice recorder for filmmaking as an alternative to the more expensive dedicated recorders. Would it be safe to assume that the built-in DAC on the Pi is sufficient for the lower threshold for voice recording to the SD card? For some reason I assumed the Pi could record 256 CBR compressed audio without issues. After watching Ty our other video I’m now beginning to wonder if I might run into interference issues as a result of insufficient shielding. Am I overthinking this or oversimplifying? Have a great weekend 🤙🏻🤙🏻
Thanks Hans. Question, since I am looking for a streamer and I need a phono in, I thought why not go for a cheap raspberry pi option; they have a i2Audio Phono One (at 40EU) now. Cheap as chips of course. Yet even though it needs an extra power supply I kind of wonder if it's a good idea to put all this hardware (pi, digi soundcard, phono) in one box. Since for double or in my budget max triple the price I buy a 'normal' phono preamp (i.e. rega fono mini a2d / Edwards Audio Apprentice /project Phono box E). Dank en groet van Richard
I have no experience with phono pre's on a Raspberry Pi but given the very lw voltage coming from a pick up cartridge, it would not be my first choice.
Hans. Net je kanaal ontdekt. Wel een zoektocht tussen de video's. Hen je snelle zoektip voor het nu bouwen van een hifi streaker met goede kwaliteit? (Pi met kwalitatieve hifi hat). Thnx
Hi Hans. Thanks for you reviews. I want to ask if you ever considered or listened to the Allo DigiOne audio transport that outputs only COAX SPDIF, but implements a lot of isolation and power filtering tech, that seems to result in a much cleaner output signal than the compitition, by far. Why I am interested in this particular add on board for the Pi is because an expensve linear PSU seems to be unnecessary or makes almosy no difference. I bought the Allo DigiOne Player kit with Allo's switching PSU and it sounds very good to me. But I would like to know what you think about the sound quality vs the rest of the SPDIF boards. Would be nice if you can review it for us.
There's a lot of food for thought in this video, although I find the word "horrible" a bit exaggerated. I am not completely music-uneducated, but I think you need to be quite an audiophile to find a basic raspberry pi horrible. I use a Marantz AV receiver and a pair of floor-standing Mordaunt Short speakers, nothing fancy, but not the combo you find in a chain shop for 99 euros. As an experiment, I put together a raspberry pi and connected it to the amp through the headphone jack. Yes, the worst possible thing. It is noticeable that the output volume is quite low, but once you crank up the amp, the differences with a CD player connected to the digital input of the amp are very very very subtle. Yes, there will be plenty of people with lots of experience who will think that the difference is astonishing, but I still haven't found a single thing that makes a difference like the speakers and the room. For this reason, I reserve the adjective "horrible" to the laptop speakers, most car speakers, the earphones you find in Easter eggs, also the mono bluetooth speakers. But once you've got a semi-decent pair of speakers, every source will sound pretty much the same, in my opinion. Of course if your ear is very trained and demanding you will prefer certain things to others, but I think "improvable" is a better choice of words than "horrible". Quite frankly, I doubt that more than 5% of people who enter my living room will be able to tell I am not playing a CD, but a raspberry pi with an ultra-cheap DAC. I do have a plan to buy a DAC, don't get me wrong, but apart from fixing the output volume issue, I know I will get slightly better sound quality, but I don't expect it to be obvious to my ear, but only apparent in a side by side test.
I have made a boombox with a raspberry pi (Hifiberry DAC+ ADC PRO and AAMP60) and a car Minidisc player. I also have the Pi 7" touch screen. what HiFi software can I run directly on the pi without the need for another device and network? My boombox is portable and will not be around any networks
How would the cheap power supply make the sound worse? Sounds like audiophoolery. Its a digital signal to a converter so its not like its analog that might be susceptible to noise.
Basically, once the power supply is completely adequate, you become correct, and anything beyond that makes no difference, but if a power supply isn't quite right, it can introduce digital errors. A few digital errors can be corrected, but there are limits. If you ever had to deal with printers with long parallel port cables, you may be familiar with the fact that digital signals are not completely incorruptible.
Digital signals aren't incorruptible, you're right CFWhitman, but so long as you stay within spec you don't need expensive equipment to get a stable signal, and you most certainly don't need a $90 power supply for a Raspberry Pi. The only place where higher cost components can make a real difference is on the DAC and analogue side.
I have a high quality AV preamp (Denon AVPA1HDA) with dual differential DACs onboard. What's is the best way to connect the pi for the best audio quality? Hdmi, or use a Digital coaxial hat? I'm thinking a DAC would be a waste of time as the Denon has ADC for its analogue inputs anyway and that would add further ADC and DAC processes to the signal.
The HDMI is poorly supported by player software. If your AV preamp indeed is of high quality, use a high quality HAT board. Or, even better, an audio grade network bridge like the SOtM sMS200 or Sonore MicroRendu.
Thanks for your informative videos. I have been running LMS on a desktop pc for years, streaming music to various Squeezebox units and to Ipeng on my iPhone. Sadly the pc died. If I connect the harddrive from the pc to a Rasberry PI, will the quality of the data signal sent to the Squeezebox be equal to that from the pc or will the music sound worse due to the lower quality of the Rasberry PI components compared to f.ex. A 1000€ Dell desktop computer? Thanks for your time!
The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel Thank you again for your time and dedication to this channel. Am I right to believe that the noise problem will be bigger if you use the Pi as a player?
One can also use the HDMI port to connect to an HDMI-Receiver/Amplifier. High quality digital output with no extra cost (if you allready have that AVR at home).
The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel yes it is a high quality output. The digital source is transfered 1:1 with no loss. Same signal as your 150$ digital output solution.
That maybe a problem when you send FHD or 4K video with a lot of movement along with the audio signal. But the standard prompt with a bit of ascii on it will not interfere with your audio signal.
I think, that with a soundcard with a digital s/pdif output, every powersupply, that can deliver 2.5A @ 5V should be sufficient. Since you stay in the digital domain, the noise of the powersupply doesn‘t matter.
Hello Hans Great channel with a perspective from a fellow engineer! As a long time audiophile who has collected a huge music library of FLAC music files, I am interested in a solution for implementing a Windows 10 based media server with the ESS 9038 DAC in stand alone mode. There seems to be a predominance of focus on streaming from services and NAS in the info available in your videos. My question is, has Windows networking deteriorated to the extent that you no longer pursue or recommend this approach? I know I have wasted plenty of time adapting to the windows OS. Just curious about your opinion. As for my experience. I have enjoyed the 9018 DAC in a SMSL DSD and several iEast upnp streaming players on my ethernet LAN. The iEast players work well with the Plex media server app and several PC and phone player/casting apps. Thanks for keeping us up to date and poles and zeros to you.
First: don't focus on the DAC chip alone. The very successful implementations of that chip use proprietary external filtering, have very low jitter clocks and so on. Then: I would concentrate on a solution where the storage and 'administration is on one fast computer and the DAC on a second audio focussed computer. The latter can be a small board computer like the Raspberry Pi, Sparky and so on. I will publish a video on this within a few weeks.
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel What's the real cause for USB audio quality then? Basically, you are saying i2s is superior to the dedicated bandwidth onboard USB, assuming no USB peripheral attached to share the bandwidth or cause interference.
@@tonypeng1815 I|2S is very good but USB Audio profile 2 can be very good too. It all depends on how well the interface is done and how sensitive the connected DAC is for digital mishaps as noise, disturbed clocks and so on. Watch ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thx for the video link but what I'm trying to understand is how Spdif HAT such as DigiOne using i2s connection through GPIO pin of the Pi better than the USB output in Pi 4 which has dedicated bandwidth? Or I'm asking the wrong question because they output different digital signal since one is Spdif one is USB?
Just wondering why Kodi is never mentioned as player software for the Pi, it has bit perfect audio and HDMI out so it can be displayed on a TV or by remote app.
I can't test all players on the market and given the fact that video oriented players I have tried over the years always performed less than audio only players, it isn't on my list. But if you're happy and enjoying the music, that's all that counts.
I really think he is asking about the lack of Kodi because it's often mentioned and seems to be a de-facto standard when discussing media management software. Fun fact; Kodi originally began as Xbox Media Centre (XBMC) which required an exploit to replace the default Xbox firmware before it could be of any use. The change in name was necessary once the team expanded into development on other hardware.
I know Kodi, I have owned the forst Xbox, modified it and ran XBMC on it (and it sucked). I still have a RPi with Kodi installed and I don't even like it for video. Having it play audio is not my cup of tea. And as far as "often mentioned' is concerned: ..... no, let's not go there. Writing or making videos about things you don't like is horrible work. You have to invest time in stuff you can't be enthusiastic about and that's hard work. Hey, no-one is perfect.
Hi Hans, excellent video as always. I was thinking on buying a Mac mini but... so expensive to act as player...Would a raspberry pi be good to connect to a mytek Brooklyn to act as a tidal MQA player? If so spdif would be better to connect according to you? Which player would do the trick? So many answers on this video and I still manage to get additional ones) :)
If you have a computer already to store your music on, consider a Sonore microRendu (ua-cam.com/video/2XRi9utNBl4/v-deo.html) or SOtM-sMS-200 (ua-cam.com/video/TV-FvRF9KGA/v-deo.html)
Tks Hans. i did not know such devices. But they do seem not to passthrough clean MQA to the brooklyn from what i have read. Using a mac with audirvana and then audirvana iphone control app is yet the best solution i have found. but i wanted to free my macbook from being next to DAC when i'm listening to music. cheers!
They do pass on clean MQA like any bit prefect streamer. But you do need to disable any DPS functions, upsampling, volume control and so on. Again, and like with any bit perfect streamer, using these functions the player no longer is bit perfect and thus will disable MQA decoding.
I believe it is available. Once you understand how Nyquist-Shannon digital sampling works, though, you realize that so called hires audio is rather pointless and you only need support for it for compatibility reasons. You can make a much better case for 32/48 audio than you can for 24/192 once you understand how digital sound sampling works. Going beyond the required Nyquist rate for audible frequencies is like documenting more than two points on a straight line in order to be able to draw it with a straight edge. It's unnecessary.
Then what? Than the Allo USBridge combined with Roon running on a Mac or NUC and using a high quality DAC? No. Than a Raspberry Pi without HAT board and running for instance Volumio? Yes.
I'mm only reporting on new developments and offer user help. Audirvana was also reviewed and I love it. But the most questions I get are about Roon. And.... you don't have to watch the Roon videos😀
What does Rune Audio use for a Library - I want to build this system using Rune Audio as the Player but I need help with how to rip the CDs to a library. It would be great to hook up a CD player to rip the CD and a SDD to store the music. Can anyone point me at documentation or suggest how I do this? (if reasonable am willing to pay for some consulting for help) Thanks!
Don't make it too complicated. Using a normal hard disk for storage of the audio files is more than sufficient. Use FLAC - although Rune works with all popular formats, if you don't want to use FLAC, use AIF. WAV has very poor metadata facilities. There are many ripping programs, popular ones all do a good job. If there are problems it is mostly hardware/driver related. Programs like Exact Audio Copy (Windows) and XLD (Mac) are safe choices.
Thanks Hans - your reply is appreciated VERY MUCH! I already have the following Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 B + digi+ Pro in a HiFiBerry Case + Power Supply 2.5A. I have a USB Cd Player/Burner, and a USB SDD both the CD and SDD are self powered. I want to plug them all into the Rasp Pi and use the spdif to feed my DAC which feeds an integrated tube amp. I want to use Rune Audio to play back FLAC files. I am not married to Rune but is seems like a good choice. I just want to hook it all up into a single system where I can rip a CD into the Rune Audio Library as a FLAC file. It does not have to be automatic, I'm more than happy to run a program, rip the CD and then go run Rune to play it. I just need some pointers to assemble the software. I used to run Kodi on a CuBOX but it was extremely flaky and then the CuBox died. Does Rune use something called an MPD library? Do I need to find a ripper that writes to a MPD Library and point the Rune software at the folder that has the library - this is the key point I'm stuck at. I don't know what Rune needs to store the FLAC files and read them so I know what Artists, Album and song is playing and/or to select. Does your book cover this - happy to buy it. I really miss my music system and can't wait to get something back up and running. Thanks!
Btw - forgot to add I ran Kodi on the CuBox and while very buggy it allowed me to rip and play back - this is what I want to do on the Rasp Pi. Thanks again.
No, it's not the best media player but it certainly can be decent if you use an audio grade USB board. I like this one: ua-cam.com/video/f0tMX8EdP4Y/v-deo.html. That is not a Raspberry Pi based system but it is about equal but with far better USB. And it still is very affordable.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. I run a Pi with an Idac2 and it functions really really well. My storage is connected via USB. I am just trying different software at the moment. I use this in my car. I compete in IASCA and MECA SQ competitions.. we are always chasing a better sound. I use Kodi with Carbon Car PC skin... just curious what other software out there works well?
In the client server soluton, do i need a separate pc to drive the Pi? If so, why not going directly for the usb output of a fanless miniPC, even boosted by Fidelizer or similar?
Yes, if you run a server, you need to run it either on a pc or a NAS and your Pi acts as client. Of course you could feed your PC straight into an USB DAC, but w/ a client server solution you can have players (i.e. clients) in more than one room and--depending on the system--even have a multiroom audio setup where all players are synchronized and play the same all over the house. Much like Sonos, but imho way more cheaper and flexible.
Well, you might be right there. But on a Pi you can choose your own SPDIF output, on a miniPC that's fixed. USB on the RPi is bad, but that might als go for the MiniPC. Furthermore I would use a stripped down Linux version rather than Windows or MacOS.
Shame. I was hoping you would go into detail with how different sound cards performed. How to build a Pi music system is information widely available, but nowhere can you see information about how the different cards are actually doing.
I was just searching for a some reliable non expensive solution for my audio chain, but wrongly think about this as a solution, the raspberry pie hi fi modules are very expensive and that's nothing compared to the software. this is not the way to solve things. surely a nice low profile dac would do the trick, meanwhile y save for like "matrix dac" or something like that.
Great explanation, however the link to ApplePi-Baker is incorrect. The correct link: www.tweaking4all.com/software/macosx-software/applepi-baker-v2/ 😊👍🏻
Beside technical info I also enjoy your sense of humour 😁
Thank you for your work 🙂
Humor?
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel not native speaker)
Corrected))
Wonderful. Clear and concise....and British humour too. Subscribed. Thanks Hans.
Thanks and welcome aboard!
can not understand the thumbs down....!..great video ,keep em coming
Using an RPi4 with PI2AES running Roopieee over I2S to my DAC. The improvement over my HTPC using USB was astounding. I was not expecting the amount of improvement in just about every aspect you'd care to measure. I thought I was hearing the best I could from my setup until put the RPi in place.
A 'Pi-Fi' setup is an excellent choice if you want to combine signal processing into the preamp stage and have interactive access to it's function, but it can only adequately replace equipment from the preamp section and below. It is perfectly adequate for headphone amplification for dynamically driven headphones that are of a reasonably low impedance, otherwise, you will need additional amplification.
I smarter for the time spent here. Thank you Hans!
DLNA depends on the implementation, I have a huge library and I can play gapless music and don't find it too slow, ROON is nice but not free
Great video. I decided to try Volumio on the new Asus TinkerBoard. It works just great. I output from TinkerBoard to my DAC via USB. TinkerBoard has some performance advantages over the Pi, but is new and has very little support whereas the Pi has massive support. USB out on the TinkerBoard is far superior to USB out on the Pi. For those who go the Pi route, I have heard the new Allo DigiOne is the best quality SPDIF out option. Costs a bit over $100.
I will review the DigiOne soon.
The Mister Rogers of Audio what a informed neighborhood.
Hans, can you elaborate on the quality of the hdmi output? My pi uses OSMC (kodi) and outputs to a Marantz SR5004 receiver over HDMI. It sounds very good. I never heard any jitter.
HDMI is primarily a video connection that packs audio in-between the video. It therefore depends largely on the quality of the receiver to 'recondition' the audio. I have no hands on experiences with your receiver but in General Marantz takes sound quality very serious.
Way back when I was messing about with micro computers, a driver was just a lookup file and the computer and peripheral manuals would have all the ascii command codes. So you would just look up the manuals and construct you own driver file. You could do this for any peripheral device you wanted to connect. Anything, running any OS could drive anything to the full potential of it's command set & you didn't need a computing degree to do it, just a little patience. Now, they don't tell you anything.
.
Thank you for showing me Pi Bakery, it looking as great tool! Plus whole video is great and absolutely filled with information. Good work! :)
Hello!
You're saying that the dac+ should be preferred over the audio via hdmi. Though I watched some of your videos I couldn't find the answer yet. Bits are bits and bytes are bytes, right? They are sent and received without data loss. How can one method be superior to another one in a digital way? Thank you very much for your superb videos!
You might want to watch ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
On my Pi3 B+ works an HiFIberry DAC Plus with VOLUMIO 2 Image from Nanosound. CD, Airplay, NAS or Harddisk no Problems. Powersupply DIY 5.1 Volts max 3A. An Valve -SE Amp plays the Music. Display over HDMI on Samsung and Action with Mouse without PC or Phone.
Seeing you're using a computer for hi-fi is it perhaps possible to use convolution software? I would think a routine to flatten the actual room speakers before applying convolution samples of high end hi-fi might provide some interesting results for old school hi-fi lovers.
I have tried those and was not pleased with them. Actually I use a computer for music only to store the music and run music server software on it like DLNA server and Roon server. Connecting a computer directly to a DAC won't bring great sound quality unless the computer is designed for that task.
There are som quite expensive modules for the Raspberry Pi made by Ian Canada (Dac, clocks, power supply with batteries or ultra caps,etc) that you can buy from Audiophonics. Do you know if these are legit and high quality stuff or are there better alternatives?
I have not reviewed them so I can’t say.
Speaking of other mini computers, you can get a V88 Mini III at gearbest for around $30. For only $30 you get a similar cortex A53 clocked at 1.5Ghz, 2GB RAM, 8GB flash with Android 7.1, built in SPDIF, USB 2.0 and 3.0, and a remote control.
As I said in the video, there are many mini computers but only one is supported extremely well: the Pi. But feel free to experiment with other options if you feel up to it.
Very interesting, thanks. Early on you said that hdmi was second best after spdif, but did't develop that option. Is there a breakout box to get audio from hdmi?
On a Raspberry Pi the HDMI was second best. But only if your DAC, amplifier or receiver has an HDMI input. If you need SPDIF you rather use boards like those by HiFiBerry or Allo. That will give a better result than converting HDMI to SPDIF.
The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel thanks a lot!
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel I thought Asynchronous was best as the timing on even fairly highly priced external dacs are not as good as asynchronous.
Interesting channel! I might be oversimplifying things . I’m exploring the option of building my own voice recorder for filmmaking as an alternative to the more expensive dedicated recorders. Would it be safe to assume that the built-in DAC on the Pi is sufficient for the lower threshold for voice recording to the SD card? For some reason I assumed the Pi could record 256 CBR compressed audio without issues. After watching Ty our other video I’m now beginning to wonder if I might run into interference issues as a result of insufficient shielding. Am I overthinking this or oversimplifying? Have a great weekend 🤙🏻🤙🏻
Thanks Hans. Question, since I am looking for a streamer and I need a phono in, I thought why not go for a cheap raspberry pi option; they have a i2Audio Phono One (at 40EU) now. Cheap as chips of course. Yet even though it needs an extra power supply I kind of wonder if it's a good idea to put all this hardware (pi, digi soundcard, phono) in one box. Since for double or in my budget max triple the price I buy a 'normal' phono preamp (i.e. rega fono mini a2d / Edwards Audio Apprentice /project Phono box E). Dank en groet van Richard
I have no experience with phono pre's on a Raspberry Pi but given the very lw voltage coming from a pick up cartridge, it would not be my first choice.
Hans. Net je kanaal ontdekt. Wel een zoektocht tussen de video's. Hen je snelle zoektip voor het nu bouwen van een hifi streaker met goede kwaliteit? (Pi met kwalitatieve hifi hat). Thnx
Here you find all DAC's I have reviewed: ua-cam.com/video/f4FU1tqZdeU/v-deo.html. Take your pick.
Hi Hans. Thanks for you reviews. I want to ask if you ever considered or listened to the Allo DigiOne audio transport that outputs only COAX SPDIF, but implements a lot of isolation and power filtering tech, that seems to result in a much cleaner output signal than the compitition, by far. Why I am interested in this particular add on board for the Pi is because an expensve linear PSU seems to be unnecessary or makes almosy no difference. I bought the Allo DigiOne Player kit with Allo's switching PSU and it sounds very good to me. But I would like to know what you think about the sound quality vs the rest of the SPDIF boards. Would be nice if you can review it for us.
Working on it....
Awesome!
There's a lot of food for thought in this video, although I find the word "horrible" a bit exaggerated. I am not completely music-uneducated, but I think you need to be quite an audiophile to find a basic raspberry pi horrible. I use a Marantz AV receiver and a pair of floor-standing Mordaunt Short speakers, nothing fancy, but not the combo you find in a chain shop for 99 euros. As an experiment, I put together a raspberry pi and connected it to the amp through the headphone jack. Yes, the worst possible thing. It is noticeable that the output volume is quite low, but once you crank up the amp, the differences with a CD player connected to the digital input of the amp are very very very subtle. Yes, there will be plenty of people with lots of experience who will think that the difference is astonishing, but I still haven't found a single thing that makes a difference like the speakers and the room. For this reason, I reserve the adjective "horrible" to the laptop speakers, most car speakers, the earphones you find in Easter eggs, also the mono bluetooth speakers. But once you've got a semi-decent pair of speakers, every source will sound pretty much the same, in my opinion. Of course if your ear is very trained and demanding you will prefer certain things to others, but I think "improvable" is a better choice of words than "horrible". Quite frankly, I doubt that more than 5% of people who enter my living room will be able to tell I am not playing a CD, but a raspberry pi with an ultra-cheap DAC. I do have a plan to buy a DAC, don't get me wrong, but apart from fixing the output volume issue, I know I will get slightly better sound quality, but I don't expect it to be obvious to my ear, but only apparent in a side by side test.
Let’s agree to disagree.
Hans, have you tried the Allo USBridge? It is only available for their Sparky SBC but is supposed to clean up the USB output.
No I haven't. Sorry
raspberry pi 3 + cd rom + housing + lcd screen or 7" touch pi screen -> old school cd audio player. Is it possible?
Yes. Watch ua-cam.com/video/JXixqwWeXQc/v-deo.html
An excellent summary.
You could use a Dragonfly Black on a Pi. Yes you still need an Amp, but the Dragonfly will give you the D/A and quality output.
You could use any USB DAC. But does it provide a satisfactory quality and would it be the best option for the Pi?
You better check your setup then for that is not what I heard!! See ua-cam.com/video/P3mQA_EmHNI/v-deo.html
I have made a boombox with a raspberry pi (Hifiberry DAC+ ADC PRO and AAMP60) and a car Minidisc player. I also have the Pi 7" touch screen. what HiFi software can I run directly on the pi without the need for another device and network? My boombox is portable and will not be around any networks
I like Volumio: ua-cam.com/video/TRyCpZh9-pI/v-deo.html. Works great with the 7" screen too.
How would the cheap power supply make the sound worse? Sounds like audiophoolery. Its a digital signal to a converter so its not like its analog that might be susceptible to noise.
see ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
Ground noise and chitter its well known ....stands well outside of 14k cables and other audio snake oil
I changed my home power cables by upgrading the cable from the power station. My alba HiFi sounds like a thousand dollar system
Basically, once the power supply is completely adequate, you become correct, and anything beyond that makes no difference, but if a power supply isn't quite right, it can introduce digital errors. A few digital errors can be corrected, but there are limits. If you ever had to deal with printers with long parallel port cables, you may be familiar with the fact that digital signals are not completely incorruptible.
Digital signals aren't incorruptible, you're right CFWhitman, but so long as you stay within spec you don't need expensive equipment to get a stable signal, and you most certainly don't need a $90 power supply for a Raspberry Pi. The only place where higher cost components can make a real difference is on the DAC and analogue side.
I have a high quality AV preamp (Denon AVPA1HDA) with dual differential DACs onboard. What's is the best way to connect the pi for the best audio quality? Hdmi, or use a Digital coaxial hat? I'm thinking a DAC would be a waste of time as the Denon has ADC for its analogue inputs anyway and that would add further ADC and DAC processes to the signal.
The HDMI is poorly supported by player software. If your AV preamp indeed is of high quality, use a high quality HAT board. Or, even better, an audio grade network bridge like the SOtM sMS200 or Sonore MicroRendu.
What do you say about an used usb sound card as a dac? I have a 3d printer so I don't mind printing a bigger housing for the pi.
The USB on a RPi is not what you want to use for audio
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thank you for your reply. Is it so bad, that it isn't good enough for a digital output?
Thanks for your informative videos. I have been running LMS on a desktop pc for years, streaming music to various Squeezebox units and to Ipeng on my iPhone. Sadly the pc died. If I connect the harddrive from the pc to a Rasberry PI, will the quality of the data signal sent to the Squeezebox be equal to that from the pc or will the music sound worse due to the lower quality of the Rasberry PI components compared to f.ex. A 1000€ Dell desktop computer?
Thanks for your time!
The sound quality of normal cd-quality music will probably not suffer although searching music might get slower than a new, fast computer will be.
The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel Thank you again for your time and dedication to this channel. Am I right to believe that the noise problem will be bigger if you use the Pi as a player?
no
One can also use the HDMI port to connect to an HDMI-Receiver/Amplifier. High quality digital output with no extra cost (if you allready have that AVR at home).
Well, most but not all player support hdmi. And to call it a high quality digital output.... but a number of AVR’s can playback quite well from hdmi.
The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel yes it is a high quality output. The digital source is transfered 1:1 with no loss. Same signal as your 150$ digital output solution.
If only. See my video ‘How digital can go wrong’. In hdmi audio is interwoven with video and the video clock has priority over audio.
That maybe a problem when you send FHD or 4K video with a lot of movement along with the audio signal. But the standard prompt with a bit of ascii on it will not interfere with your audio signal.
Again, if only...
I think, that with a soundcard with a digital s/pdif output, every powersupply, that can deliver 2.5A @ 5V should be sufficient. Since you stay in the digital domain, the noise of the powersupply doesn‘t matter.
Well, think again after watching this video: ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
You're right :-)
Hello! Thanks for the video, it was so useful! I've got a question: Could I use a 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 or should I go for the 4GB version? Cheers!
I have experience with Volumio and Ropieee and they work fine on a 2GB model.
Messing with this now.. so far a good DAC has sounded best but im also using an iFi Idac2.. sounds pretty amazing..
Hello Hans
Great channel with a perspective from a fellow engineer!
As a long time audiophile who has collected a huge music library of FLAC music files, I am interested in a solution for implementing a Windows 10 based media server with the ESS 9038 DAC in stand alone mode. There seems to be a predominance of focus on streaming from services and NAS in the info available in your videos. My question is, has Windows networking deteriorated to the extent that you no longer pursue or recommend this approach? I know I have wasted plenty of time adapting to the windows OS. Just curious about your opinion.
As for my experience. I have enjoyed the 9018 DAC in a SMSL DSD and several iEast upnp streaming players on my ethernet LAN. The iEast players work well with the Plex media server app and several PC and phone player/casting apps. Thanks for keeping us up to date and poles and zeros to you.
First: don't focus on the DAC chip alone. The very successful implementations of that chip use proprietary external filtering, have very low jitter clocks and so on. Then: I would concentrate on a solution where the storage and 'administration is on one fast computer and the DAC on a second audio focussed computer. The latter can be a small board computer like the Raspberry Pi, Sparky and so on. I will publish a video on this within a few weeks.
Hans, since USB in Pi 4 is independent, I guess the onboard USB audio output is equally good as spdif option?
I don't expect that, but let's wait and see...
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel What's the real cause for USB audio quality then? Basically, you are saying i2s is superior to the dedicated bandwidth onboard USB, assuming no USB peripheral attached to share the bandwidth or cause interference.
@@tonypeng1815 I|2S is very good but USB Audio profile 2 can be very good too. It all depends on how well the interface is done and how sensitive the connected DAC is for digital mishaps as noise, disturbed clocks and so on. Watch ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
@@TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel Thx for the video link but what I'm trying to understand is how Spdif HAT such as DigiOne using i2s connection through GPIO pin of the Pi better than the USB output in Pi 4 which has dedicated bandwidth? Or I'm asking the wrong question because they output different digital signal since one is Spdif one is USB?
Great video Hans! What about using the headphone jack than comes with the pi board? How does this compare with a HAT DAC?
That sounds horrible!
Alweer een top uitleg!
Just wondering why Kodi is never mentioned as player software for the Pi, it has bit perfect audio and HDMI out so it can be displayed on a TV or by remote app.
I can't test all players on the market and given the fact that video oriented players I have tried over the years always performed less than audio only players, it isn't on my list. But if you're happy and enjoying the music, that's all that counts.
I really think he is asking about the lack of Kodi because it's often mentioned and seems to be a de-facto standard when discussing media management software. Fun fact; Kodi originally began as Xbox Media Centre (XBMC) which required an exploit to replace the default Xbox firmware before it could be of any use. The change in name was necessary once the team expanded into development on other hardware.
I know Kodi, I have owned the forst Xbox, modified it and ran XBMC on it (and it sucked). I still have a RPi with Kodi installed and I don't even like it for video. Having it play audio is not my cup of tea. And as far as "often mentioned' is concerned: ..... no, let's not go there. Writing or making videos about things you don't like is horrible work. You have to invest time in stuff you can't be enthusiastic about and that's hard work. Hey, no-one is perfect.
Hey hans. Met de optische geluidskaart is het geluid dan ook true 5.1?
Dat weet ik niet, ik heb geen 5.1 muziek. Aangesloten op een AV receiver geeft Kodi wel 5.1 via HDMI.
Hi Hans, excellent video as always. I was thinking on buying a Mac mini but... so expensive to act as player...Would a raspberry pi be good to connect to a mytek Brooklyn to act as a tidal MQA player? If so spdif would be better to connect according to you? Which player would do the trick? So many answers on this video and I still manage to get additional ones) :)
If you have a computer already to store your music on, consider a Sonore microRendu (ua-cam.com/video/2XRi9utNBl4/v-deo.html) or SOtM-sMS-200 (ua-cam.com/video/TV-FvRF9KGA/v-deo.html)
Tks Hans. i did not know such devices. But they do seem not to passthrough clean MQA to the brooklyn from what i have read. Using a mac with audirvana and then audirvana iphone control app is yet the best solution i have found. but i wanted to free my macbook from being next to DAC when i'm listening to music. cheers!
They do pass on clean MQA like any bit prefect streamer. But you do need to disable any DPS functions, upsampling, volume control and so on. Again, and like with any bit perfect streamer, using these functions the player no longer is bit perfect and thus will disable MQA decoding.
Can I use volumio offline? Want to build an mobile Bluetooth speaker with volumio and raspi 7" touch Display
Yes you can
Thx
Can I also use spotify Premium on volumio in offline Mode?
You say the best sound comes from an spdif board.
Dsd or hires audio is not available on spdif, or is it??
I said that //on the Raspberry Pi// the best sound comes from SPDIF. SPDIF does support hi-res and DSD if your DAC does so too.
I believe it is available. Once you understand how Nyquist-Shannon digital sampling works, though, you realize that so called hires audio is rather pointless and you only need support for it for compatibility reasons. You can make a much better case for 32/48 audio than you can for 24/192 once you understand how digital sound sampling works. Going beyond the required Nyquist rate for audible frequencies is like documenting more than two points on a straight line in order to be able to draw it with a straight edge. It's unnecessary.
is a Mac with Audirvana and an external USB Dac a better option? I mean sound wise...I already have macs
Then what? Than the Allo USBridge combined with Roon running on a Mac or NUC and using a high quality DAC? No. Than a Raspberry Pi without HAT board and running for instance Volumio? Yes.
I'mm only reporting on new developments and offer user help. Audirvana was also reviewed and I love it. But the most questions I get are about Roon. And.... you don't have to watch the Roon videos😀
simply because it is.
What does Rune Audio use for a Library - I want to build this system using Rune Audio as the Player but I need help with how to rip the CDs to a library. It would be great to hook up a CD player to rip the CD and a SDD to store the music. Can anyone point me at documentation or suggest how I do this? (if reasonable am willing to pay for some consulting for help) Thanks!
Don't make it too complicated. Using a normal hard disk for storage of the audio files is more than sufficient. Use FLAC - although Rune works with all popular formats, if you don't want to use FLAC, use AIF. WAV has very poor metadata facilities. There are many ripping programs, popular ones all do a good job. If there are problems it is mostly hardware/driver related. Programs like Exact Audio Copy (Windows) and XLD (Mac) are safe choices.
Thanks Hans - your reply is appreciated VERY MUCH! I already have the following Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 B + digi+ Pro in a HiFiBerry Case + Power Supply 2.5A. I have a USB Cd Player/Burner, and a USB SDD both the CD and SDD are self powered. I want to plug them all into the Rasp Pi and use the spdif to feed my DAC which feeds an integrated tube amp.
I want to use Rune Audio to play back FLAC files. I am not married to Rune but is seems like a good choice. I just want to hook it all up into a single system where I can rip a CD into the Rune Audio Library as a FLAC file. It does not have to be automatic, I'm more than happy to run a program, rip the CD and then go run Rune to play it. I just need some pointers to assemble the software. I used to run Kodi on a CuBOX but it was extremely flaky and then the CuBox died. Does Rune use something called an MPD library? Do I need to find a ripper that writes to a MPD Library and point the Rune software at the folder that has the library - this is the key point I'm stuck at. I don't know what Rune needs to store the FLAC files and read them so I know what Artists, Album and song is playing and/or to select.
Does your book cover this - happy to buy it. I really miss my music system and can't wait to get something back up and running.
Thanks!
Btw - forgot to add I ran Kodi on the CuBox and while very buggy it allowed me to rip and play back - this is what I want to do on the Rasp Pi. Thanks again.
Best media player for content that is connected via USB device?
No, it's not the best media player but it certainly can be decent if you use an audio grade USB board. I like this one: ua-cam.com/video/f0tMX8EdP4Y/v-deo.html. That is not a Raspberry Pi based system but it is about equal but with far better USB. And it still is very affordable.
Will it work for the Pi? That is what I use.
No, I know of no audio grade USB board for the Pi. The USB outputs on the Pi will work but will not send a clean USB signal to the DAC.
Sorry, I should have been more specific. I run a Pi with an Idac2 and it functions really really well. My storage is connected via USB. I am just trying different software at the moment. I use this in my car. I compete in IASCA and MECA SQ competitions.. we are always chasing a better sound. I use Kodi with Carbon Car PC skin... just curious what other software out there works well?
Can you stream Tidal/Qobuz/etc. through raspberry pi?
With some of the mentioned client server solutions like LMS yes.
Yes, but that depends on the software you use.
In the client server soluton, do i need a separate pc to drive the Pi? If so, why not going directly for the usb output of a fanless miniPC, even boosted by Fidelizer or similar?
Yes, if you run a server, you need to run it either on a pc or a NAS and your Pi acts as client. Of course you could feed your PC straight into an USB DAC, but w/ a client server solution you can have players (i.e. clients) in more than one room and--depending on the system--even have a multiroom audio setup where all players are synchronized and play the same all over the house. Much like Sonos, but imho way more cheaper and flexible.
Well, you might be right there. But on a Pi you can choose your own SPDIF output, on a miniPC that's fixed. USB on the RPi is bad, but that might als go for the MiniPC. Furthermore I would use a stripped down Linux version rather than Windows or MacOS.
Hans goed bezig :D bedankt voor het delen van de passie
Very informative thank you
My pleasure
Should have titled the video Pi-Fi
There is a sound card for the Raspberry Pi called the PiFi DAC 2.0
Nikita Taranenko Ya well...practice makes perfect....live and learn.
I considered hi-fi pie...
Shame. I was hoping you would go into detail with how different sound cards performed. How to build a Pi music system is information widely available, but nowhere can you see information about how the different cards are actually doing.
Well, my nuanced opinion is in the videos reviewing individual cards. See this playlist: ua-cam.com/video/DmeUxk14vCc/v-deo.html
I was just searching for a some reliable non expensive solution for my audio chain, but wrongly think about this as a solution, the raspberry pie hi fi modules are very expensive and that's nothing compared to the software. this is not the way to solve things.
surely a nice low profile dac would do the trick, meanwhile y save for like "matrix dac" or something like that.
The is no such thing as cheap quality 😮💨
Ifs it possible to use bluetooth to bluetooth speakers?
I don't know. Not with the software I have used.
yes, it's possible
Great content!
What pollution of usb ? USB is one of best ways to tranfer audio.
Watch ua-cam.com/video/grzoqEb2KMk/v-deo.html
👌
🙏🏻
It's crazy that RPI does not to have female I/O's ?????
+Joe Vu well, it does! The HDMI, AV, USB, RJ45 are all female. Actually I can’t think of a single male connector.....
@@NoMoreBsPlease
Too small/narrow
for my old eyes.
dear sir sell me that dell monitor u have in the background plz
Digital stereo? Mine? Haha! You're funny, I'd never have a digital stereo. The oy thing digital in mine is a cd/dvd player.
The only thing*
If you want to step ahead a big step, follow this video! Ive done it two yrs ago, and couldnt find better Hi fi solution from that time!
you can stay on horse, we use now the car....
Great explanation, however the link to ApplePi-Baker is incorrect. The correct link:
www.tweaking4all.com/software/macosx-software/applepi-baker-v2/
😊👍🏻