Looks like USBridge Sig uses CM3 board so likely need to use the RPi3 image linked above.
Burn to a microSD using etcher and insert in USBridge Sig.
I wonder if RoPieee XL is the problem here.
Testing NAA OS will be ideal.
Even better if you have a seperate RPi4 and test with the RPi4 NAA OS image.
I donāt think my images work on USBridgeā¦
Not even RPi3 image?
USBridge Sig is a CM3+ (RPi3 guts)
No, maybe it boots but any extra hardware is dead. I donāt have a DTS for USBridge Sig.
And remember that the USB interface of RPi3 is useless.
Ok better to get an RPi4 then.
All HQP users should own an RPi4 , for troubleshooting purposes 
It just so happens I have got an RPI4 (running Ropieee) on another system upstairs. I can give the RPI4 NAA a blast on my RPI4 - it would be certainly interesting. Wont be this week though as I have lots of work deadlines. Will keep you posted!
I had clicks and pops and then it went pfft, I was not expecting Rice Krispies style snap, crackle and pop yet did not expect my Ā£1000+ DAC to give up the ghost after 9 months. Peter Tyson have been next to useless, refused to refund and advised to claim through credit card company. How can Chord UK not fix a made in Britain product within 6 weeks. Iām left scratching my head as to how and why Iāve been let down so badly: Iām no big fan of US mega tech but canāt help thinking Amazon would have handled this much better.
Hmmm I donāt want to go too far off topic but a refund 6 weeks after purchase is not common.
Definitely should be fixed under warranty though - did you contact Chord? What did they say?
Theyāve been really good to me under warranty. The typical terms and conditions apply. You have to drop it off at place of purchase and it can take a while till you get it back (if it needs to be sent to Chord for repair).
Thanks for your comment, I think we might have slightly different levels of tolerance when it comes to expectations from a Ā£1000 DAC. Iām kind of curious for how long you would be prepared to sit and wait, with no update, for your expensive DAC to be repaired? For me 6 weeks+ is bloody outrageous, from a company proclaiming made in Britain, current range item, sorry somethingās rotten in Denmark.
For me an all round really poor performance, all Iāve had from Peter Tyson is āweāve sent Mitch an emailā. Iāve had this answer 3 times, Iām not sure what Mitch does but from my perspective it sure aināt busting a gut fixing things.
Hi
When you mention refund and issue at 6 weeks in your first post, generally 6 weeks is well past the ādead on arrivalā period or ācooling off periodā for electronics. So generally refund at 6 weeks is not an option.
At that point it should be repaired or replaced (the distributor will decide which).
I had something repaired by Chord and it did take over 6 weeks for me to get it back. This is definitely a long time and did test my patience.
But it cost me nothing and came back fixed. And no issues for 3 years now.
If the time to repair is your main gripe, then I can definitely understand your frustration. Luckily I had another good DAC to use in the meantime.
A bit of an update ā although the results are rather unexpected.
Last Thursday (today is Tuesday) I thought I would give my Raspberry Pi 4 a try to see if it did the clicks and pops and white noise. I upgraded the Ropieee to XL on it to use it as the NAA and I connected it to my Qutest USB input (using one of the USB 3 ports on the RPI4), network connection via ethernet and using an IFI Ipower 2 5v PSU. I am using the RPI4 as the NAA and upsampling PCM to 705/768 PCM via sinc M and LNS15. I have the DAC bits set to 24 and the buffer time to 0 (= default). I can report that I have heard no clicks and pops at 705/768 and only one blast of white noise in the time from then to now. I think the white noise was when I had things not setup right. This is an improvement over the previous setup by a long way. The other thing to report that previously I had the buffer time set to about 10ms and with this config in the RPI 4 I have it set to default, so there is still the option of reducing it should the white noise happen. I dont know why this is - my guess is that the RPI4 has a faster processor, separated ethernet and USB buses and the USB 3 bus might be quicker or something ā just a guess. I did try using WIFI but this caused dropouts in the music playback so I went to ethernet and this has been fine.
I have done fairly extensive testing with upsampling 768 as this is the ātorture testā ā where things are most likely to go wrong and I have been playing a lot of my 48 / 96 material to get to the 768 upsample frequency. I also bought a few of the new Pink Floyd 192 albums (Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Animals) giving myself the excuse that I āneededā them to test with. They all sound fine - actually playback quality is very good generally using the RPI4 as the streamer!
If you have a spare SD card and you feel like experimenting, try the custom RPi 4 HQPlayer NAA image. Burn, plug in, go.
Speaking of experimenting, I forgot to mention that about 2 hours ago I got bold and tried underclocking / undervolting the RPI4 as per Archimagoās Musings: MUSINGS/HOW-TO: Raspberry Pi 4 āTouchā Audio Streamer, and CRAAP settings! and so far so good. No idea whether it sounds better but it sounds very nice to me, and so far with no pops or white noise at 768. It also runs a bit cooler. At the moment Im in the āits not brokeā frame of mind, but I might tinker with the native NAA somewhen. Having said this I also use Roon transport on the RPI4, and Ropieee gives all this in one package. I like Ropieee a lot.
Another update. I still am having good luck with the RPI4 USB3 output and 705/768khz upsampling in that there are no clicks, pops or white noise, so this is good. However, upon further listening I have found that the sound from the USB output is nothing like as good as the SPDIF output from a DigiOne sig I have sitting on top of the RPI4. The USB output was detailed but rather flat and boring in terms of sound, plus it sounded a bit rough ā it felt like the sound was nothing like as smooth as it was coming out of the DigiOne sig, and the DigiOne sig had better detail, more punch and a wider & deeper soundstage. Altogether the USB felt a bit gritty and the DigiOne sig was much nicer to listen to.
So I looked into USB cleaners to see if they would make a difference and I ordered an iFi iPurifier3 from a place with a good return policy so there was nothing to lose by trying it. Well with the iPurifier in place, I reckon the sound from the USB output of the RPI is at least as good as the sound from the DigiOne sig and quite a lot better than the USB output alone. It will be staying! With the iPurifier in place, the sound is smoother, has better punch, details are much easier to hear, sounds are better separated and more clearly defined, and the soundstage is wider and deeper than with the USB alone. I now have the thing I was looking for ā the ability to go up to 768k with no white noise and clicks, and with an output that is dynamic, detailed and smooth at the same time.
Good to hear you found a solution!
I canāt help wondering though: why canāt the DAC āpurifyā its own USB? Mind-boggling.
Before you can purify something you have to identify what makes it impure I suppose. Best done externally if you believe in such things (tests over at ASR shown no effect on DAC output from these devices, not that they have tested every device with every DAC).
Have been thinking about trying HQPlayer but the thought of blasts of white noise is a considerable disincentive to bother.
@Steve_Taylor1 do you have a USB power bank and USB Type A to C cable?
If so, could you test your RPi4 powered by powerbank, without iPurifier? How does that sound compared with iPurifier + RPi wall charger?
I havent got a USB power bank - but the RPI4 (recall it has a DigiOne sig hat) is powered by an Sbooster on the clean (SPDIF) side and an iFi ipower2 on the RPI side - so effectively the RPI is powered by an ipower. This has been the case for a while now and has been constant before and after putting the iPurifier in.
The iFi iPower has been measured to pump out lots of RF and leakage currents - higher than normal SMPSās. Even if itās ānoiseā levels in audio band is better than normal.
iPurifier is an RF filter.
Clever of iFi to make a fixer for their own device!
Can your sBooster power both RPi4 and DigiOne HAT at the same time? That is better than the iPower.
Probably no need for iPurifier with just the sBooster?
More PSUās in the chain, more sources of RF added.
A USB powerbank is completely isolated from AC power RF and leakage currents. As long as the powerbank isnāt connected to its charger of course.
Rob Watts loves powerbanks for this reason. He described AC RF as a fungus that goes everywhere inside the DAC - very difficult to filter out with USB sources unless the USB source itself is running on battery. Thatās the big advantage of optical connections. RF free.
ā¦will use a switching regulator to turn the battery voltage into a 5V regulated output. So it is likely to be ānoisyā to some degree. Never seen any measurements of one though.