Best budget Ethernet to USB endpoint

[Bill_Janssen (Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)]

Glenn, I’m not sure your amigo is all that audio. The “TOSLINK optical audio output” is S/PDIF, the oldest of digital audio transmission protocols, a consumer version of the pro protocol AES, and is probably the best implemented in various DACs, due to its longevity. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a DAC without an optical S/PDIF input. Every modern DAC will handle the ostensible jitter just fine.

The point about the Apple TV converting everything to 48 kHz is well-taken, though it’s not clear that anything more is really necessary.

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

The delicious irony is the naked shots suggest the Zen Stream is built around the Pi CM3 compute module! But having just bought something built around the CM4 despite having 2 Pi3’s and 2 Pi4’s plus an undressed CM4IO with CM4 module to hand, I can fully understand why anyone might choose to circumvent the hassle and just get something that works out of the box. Plug in, update, enable in Roon and play.

[Anthony_B (Tony)]

@Henry_McLeod

circumvent the hassle and just get something that works out of the box

That is not the phrase that springs to mind regarding that Zen product. I recall a huge thread around the issues it had. They may all be fixed by now however?

[Coltrane]

It holds its value well. I hope we do when we get older

[miguelito (Miguel Barrio)]

I purchased mine for $1600 a long time ago and sold it a few years ago for $1000. I have a bunch of stuff I should sell but too lazy to do it.

[Hans_Pijper1 (Hans Pijper)]

I use the Friendly Neo2 plus for a long time, no problems at all, sounds very good.

Showing (off) your Roon setup - description and photos [2015-04 .. 2021-03]

[sfp]This is my setup with the network parts. Everything right off the green line has a separate psu, and galvanic isolation with optic fibre. [set] The plaid over the TV is to have not to much reflection of the sound from the loudspeakers, ( all build by myself.).

[Johnny_Ooooops (Listener in Chief)]

For those who want to get a Pi Zero W 2 and get it going without an Ethernet dongle, and want to only achieve RoonBridge, the easiest set up by far is RooExtend. You don’t need to set up any of the other extensions to get WiFi set up and to get RoonBridge going. $20 including an inexpensive acrylic case, plus an old phone charger. Burn the image to an SD card, boot, join the RooExtend Wi-Fi network, pick your actual Wi-Fi network, and you are off to the races. I lost my Ethernet single a while back. I run RopieeeXL on most endpoints, but I got a couple Zero’s during COVID / supply chain mayhem, and RooExtend works a treat.