Someone just needs to take that damn SMSL D6 and turn it into a DAC hat. Done!
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Innomaker and Ian Canadas arenāt interested in DSD Direct mode
Not enough people care
The design would need to come from Jussi 
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You donāt think there are enough people?
Seems like everyone here would be interested.
Plus it would encourage sales of all their other components.
Donāt overestimate the number of enthusiasts here. 20, maybe 50? Not enough for a business case.
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RPiās I2S interface is not really up to that taskā¦
Look at Ianās site. He has 40 different options and boards.
Surely anyone that wanted to have a streamer or ddc could simply add a DsD dac.
Thatās why we need someone to design a stand alone DSD hat.
What would it use to interface with RPi? And what would be the point of such?
There are better CPUs than the RPiās one for such purposesā¦ But I donāt have time to become a streamer manufacturer. And entire streamer would be much more expensive than those hats.
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The last time I asked people to like my post if they wanted Jussi to design a DAC HAT I think 4 people liked it lol
The DSD Direct thing is very niche
There are people that donāt want to mess with Piās and etcher and microSD cards and happy to pay $10k for a T + A lol
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Thatās not the case.
What is niche are people who like to build DIY electronics with bare RPi boards and hats and PSUs and assemble their own DACs from such partsā¦
Most people like to get something ready made.
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Yes, why bother with a HAT when a simple RPi 4 + SMSL D6 does the trick, only to have all in one case and to lose one cable?
If the HAT will blow the D6 out of the water performance wise than ok, but how much would such a HAT which will be produced in low quantities cost?
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Because @Cameron_Rector is on a mission to reduce box and PSU count 
I donāt blame him but not at the sacrifice of overall performance
Maybe Spring 4 and Cyan 3 will have Holo Red internally ! lol
Everyone should legit email Tim over at Kitsune - support@kitsunehifi.zendesk.com
They are more likely to listen to such requests and think carefully about it, than Jussi designing a HAT
It seems like a logical evolution for Holo too
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A hat board seems easier and far cheaper to build and design then an entire streamer.
I agree DIY is a niche community, but we donāt have much options and besides the smsl, these products costs us thousands for parts we donāt even use. Paying $8k for a Dac200 and only needing 1/4 of its components sucks. Paying $6k for a Holo May and never touching the R2R ladder and all those beautiful matched resistors, sucks.
Those are our options.
Bottom line we need a HQplayer DAC.
Iām bored of I2S and USB
Network audio is the future.
Totally wouldnāt sacrifice performance or sound.
If SMSL can do it for $175, someone couldnāt make a hat for $200?
Hey man, you canāt plagiarise
The T+A DAC and Gustard streamers are all eth-to-USB internally btw
You save 1 PSU and 1 box but now you have a little computer in close proximity to analogue section of your DAC.
If the measurements are OK then no issues of course.
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If I would design it, the design cost would be maybe around 50kā¬. And then the board cost, manufactured in Finland would be around 1kā¬ each (assuming relatively small volumes), plus something to deplete that 50kā¬ development investment.
It is designed and made in China, and I guess they assume somewhat larger sales volumes.
There was Cyan DSD before. And the cost wasnāt all that much different in the end. Having or not having those resistors doesnāt change the total cost much.
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How is da jitter @jussi_laako with Cyan 2?
Both DSD256 and DSD512 clean ? No weirdness ?
And no mains PSU noise from the small linear PSU ?
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Personal question: Iām using my A26 in direct DSD via the I2S LVDS inputā¦ Iād like to know whether there would be any gain in switching to Cyan (same input) but in DSD512. Beyond measurements, from an audio point of view, timbres, mids, highsā¦ (with a transparent Benchmark AHB2). 
@jussi_laako : you have the 2 (A26 & Cyan2) ??
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Question from a novice: if the R2R resistors are not used, what decodes the digital on the R2R DACs?
the DSD to analogue conversion is completely separate analogue section of the board to the PCM section
Original Cyan had a pure DSD conversion only, as an option.
Cyan 2 (like Spring 3 and May) has both DSD and PCM - no options to have DSD or PCM only.
So if I understood correctly, the R2R is for PCM conversion.
But for DSD conversion, what principle does he use to go from digital to analog?