So my Roon implementation is humming along nicely. I recently purchased a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC. Currently I am feeding it as follows: Roon Core on Windows 10 => RaspberryPI running DietPi => HifiBerry Digi+ Pro Coax => Neutrik NADITBNC-M Coax to AES/EBU converter => Yggy AES/EBU input.
I am wondering how much better I would do by upgrading the Raspberry Pi/Hifiberry Digi+ Pro to a higher-end Roon Ready endpoint? Are there any Roon Ready endpoints that have native AES/EBU balanced output?
The boring part of me says, to some extent, “bits is bits”, the Hifiberry rig does just fine, and sounds good…but the lurking audiophile in me says UPGRADE!
So again I ask, anyone using any/recommend any Roon Ready endpoints with native AES/EBU? Thanks!
This has the features you seek, though at about 2x the price of your Yggy…
There’s also this at a much lower price, though I’m not sure how much or a performance improvement you would see going from the HifiBerry Hat to this one. It still requires an adapter, but that’s just a question of form factor since the Pi2design hat does output true balanced AES/EBU unlike the Digi+.
I’ve been playing with the dCS Network Bridge since before it was released and can say that it’s truly outstanding. (disclaimer – I’m a dCS dealer)
I’ve tried most of the other endpoints out there and so far nothing has come close in terms of outright performance and overall refinement. Don’t discount the importance of a properly designed AES/EBU output driver. The Neutrik you have works, but it’s a completely passive component and I’m not sure what’s going on inside of it (is it generating a balanced signal using a transformer or just shorting the inverted waveform to ground).
