I have been using both the Chromecast audio and the Raspberry Pi 3b with Roppieee with a Pro ject pre box s2 DAC and found the audio from the chromecast to be clearer with better instrument separation I presume it’s because of a better SNR, does anyone have the same experience?
Are you using USB on the pi and optical on the Chromecast? Likely the USB input ion the Project is s not as good as the Optical at rejecting noise, some DACs are better via one input type. Chord for instance recommend optical for best sq. On the older pi’s the usb bus is shared with the ethernet so it could account for what your hearing as its more noisy and prone to dropouts. If your using wired ethernet try it on wireless and see if it helps. I have not heard any difference on my RME dac with a pi, nuc via USB and Bluesound connected via coxial. But then this DAC is renowned for being level across all it’s inputs.
Yes I’m using the usb on the pi and the optical on the chromecast. How is the RME, I am considering getting one does it do native DSD? My Project is meant to but it doesn’t work.
DSD on Linux is DoP only as thats what RME support. Mac and Windows native. It’s a very good DAC and I’m pleased with it. DoP or native it will sound the same as its not transcoding only encapsulating in a pcm stream.
Well I tested it again and it seems it was my ears, I plugged both the chromecast and raspberry pi into the dac and quickly swopped them on the input selection. I could not tell the difference.
1 Like