Brand new to Rasberry Pi

I just got a Rasberry Pi 3 Model B for my birthday as I had talked about how I found out through these forums that they might actually be great as a DAC and even an amp with some added components. I have now been reading through lots of threads and it has just left me more confused…

First I was sure I’d get a HiFiBerry, as it was the first I read about, then I changed my mind to a IQaudIO, but soon read about the new Allo… then I started looking into bundles, and some found the HiFiBerry DAC to be best, but possibly with a IQaudIO AMP, and so on… I quickly got lost in the tango.

Now I think I might have settled for a Allo Kali + Piano 2.0 + Volt bundle, but then I read about the Tube HAT and might have to buy more RPi’s very soon… Could I get some starter tips, and good pros/cons on the different set-ups?

Main use will be headphones (Beyerdynamic DT-1770 Pro), but an added amp solution would be great as well. Tubes are fun, but solid is first choice.

Sorry for the noob post

Hey Henrik,

Belated happy birthday! :wink:

If you are planning on using the headphones from the Pi directly, the Kali / Piano bundle is a great choice. You may want to check if impedance / output volume is enough to drive your Beyerdynamic. If you plan on using an external HP amp anyway, you could consider the Allo Boss DAC.

You’ll find different opinions on the different HATs – I have a Hifiberry DAC+ Pro and an IQAudio DAC+ and both are fine as well. I have that Tube Amp too – it sounds nice when its working properly, but I found it rather susceptible to noise – recurring pops and crackles. It’s a fun project, but currently mine is tucked away in the back of my drawer with gear that has fallen out of grace.

Thanks a lot! :slight_smile:

I was thinking I would be running and amp on it as well, so looking at the Allo bundle with Volt as well. They can all run on the same RPi right? The Boss / Volt bundle is a possible solution as well. The added bass punch from the Boss could be good fun for some genres if it’s as clean and good as it looks from the reviews.

Do you use an external amp with your set up’s?

I think I’ve put the tube amps on the imaginary shelf for now, until I have played around with this more.

Hi Henrik,

i have two Hifiberry Dac+ Pro and without hacking the Board
=> splitting the power between Hifiberry and Raspi I was not satisfied.
After splitting I added a Batterypack to power both the Raspi and the Hifiberry and not poison anything with a bad psu.
From that point on I was really satisfied with the setup.

But as always better is the foe from good and I bought for my third Raspi an Allo BOSS DAC after reading some very enthusiastic reviews. And this setup satisfied me from the start.
Just warmer and a little more punch in the low area.

I also tried an Ifi micro IDSD for headphone purposes and that was a little too much for the Raspberries as the USB is not very clean and there was ticking while playing hires-files.
For this setup I use now Daphile with LMS on an old netbook and this worked better.
=> but no Roon Implementation :frowning:

On my working place at home I installed the Roon Software (Windows 10) and play via Asio to my Sanskrit Pro DAC with the Panda Setup (headphone amplifier + DC Voltage from Sanskrit) A very nice setup without hickups and perfect DSD implementation and perfect sound to my ears. Maybe it’s also due to the totally oversized iCore 7 Quadcore :wink: in this laptop from Acer. And I hear the music with my Beyerdynamic headphones.

The different players are working in different zones on different stereo setups.

Allo Boss Dac+Raspi attached to an old DSP A1000 Yamaha with open baffle self made FAST System (15 Inch bass Visaton + B200 Fullrange Visaton) in stereo mode. My favorite when it’s about enjoying music and alone at home :wink:

Hifi Berry Dac+ Pro + Raspi in my “studio” (private motorcycle workshop) with a tripath “no name” amplifier connected via Wifi and as output some selfmade Fullrange Speakers with a transmissionline and for the low end a 15 Inch bass as open baffle subwoofer with a reckhorn amplifier.
There I use the DSP program from Roon to lower the subsonic with a filter. Because the transmissionline fullrange speakers are only 3,5 inch big ;-)!

So you see you can make a lot with these different setups and I was looking for a long time for such a nice and working solution as Roon represents for me! Thanks to Hans Beekhuizen and his missionary work, maybe he didn’t intend to do so with his Roon reviews :wink:

My Roonserver (core) is running on debian 8 and the files are stored on a synology ds216j with a 1Gbit connection.
I’m still surprised with the performance in Roon with my 3 Terrabytes of music. Even over wifi to my workshop changing music or track is without any lagging. Never had this with LMS Implementation (Logitech Media Server running on NAS or even on a dedicated PC for that purpose.

So for a starter with all my experience now => I would buy a raspberry PI3 + Allo BOSS Dac install dietpi and the Roon Bridge and hook this up to the stereo or headphone amplifier of your choice.

And just like Hans Beekhuizen alwas says on his Youtube Channel “And whatever you do enjoy the music” :slight_smile:

Cheers

René

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