Can I use 2 usb sockets for different DACs?

Hello :slight_smile:
Currently I use my Musical Fidelity DAC with RPi4. But because I have Genelec laudspekares with analog and digital AES inputs I’m going to switch to AES. Probable I will buy PUC2 Lite converter connected to RPi. But I still want to use my headphone amplifier - which could be connected by my DAC to SECOND RPI USB - is it possible? I don’t think about using both outputs at the same time.

Yes, you can run multiple DACs on the same RPi running Ropieee. Indeed, they can be used at the same time.

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Just tested with my MF Dac and new PUC2 Lite. Works like charm :slight_smile:

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Just for fun I ran two DACs and one hat on a single Raspberry, it works and it shows three endpoints in Roon. Pretty cool

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Wow, I didn’t realise this was possible.

Just confirming that if I had the setup that KMM mentioned that I could stream to 3 separate endpoints? Just as an option for the future I was going to use a separate Pi for each endpoint in my multiroom/whole house audio setup where eveything is in one rack and distributed from there. I could theoretically buy cheap(?) DAC’s and have multiple endpoints on one Pi, meaning I don’t need as many pi’s running? I know the cost may not be significantly less as I would need HAT’s and dacs but it may be a bit cleaner and se less power overall as they will always be on. Could I use 4 DAC’s as there are 4 USB ports or would that overpower the pi?

Any thoughts…?

Cheers

Ash

I don’t have that many DACs to check it out. As long as the DACs have their own power supply, I don’t see an issue on that end.

Hi KMM, thanks for the info. Hmmm yes I would think they would need their own power, but it sounds like it would work. I guess I will have to try it…any ideas on any cheap usb dacs, that work with ropieee or do they need to be on the official list?

Cheers

Ash

AudioQuest DragonFly Black (or similar) should do the trick, and is low power, but doesn’t require an external power supply. Typically each USB socket will deliver 5V 0.5 A.

In contrast, the original DragonFly (1.0 and 1.2) couldn’t be used with mobile devices, but were fine with PC and RPi USB.

Thanks for the info, I was thinking that those ones might work but wasn;t sure. I will have a go at some point and see how it works. Could be a good way to fully use the pi in a whole house setup.

Thanks for the help all.

Yes, works very well! I have six (6) DACs running here [for comparison reasons] and are fed with just 2x RASPI4 running ROPIEEE. Works flawlessly!

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