Been happy with my Digi+ and RPI driving Devialet Phantom thru Toslink. Want to build another endpoint for driving headphones (Sennheisers). Any HAT recommendations? Source are mostly DSD files.
I use a Raspberry Pi -->Roon–>Dragonfly Red. I dont have any hat, as everything works just fine via the built-in RaspPi USB. I think it sounds great. I realize (or at least I have read) that plain old USB ports can be noisy etc, but this setup is working great for me. This rig is even on WiFi and there are no problems. I am not sure about the senhiesers specifically; I use Beyerdyanmic AK T5p’s and the sound is sweet.
Couple of options:
If you’re only looking for a RPi hat then iqaudio make a dac/amp with a 3.5mm output. Depending on which Sennheiser headphones you have it may work.
You mentioned your source files are mostly DSD, but since you’re converting down to at most 192/24 for the Digi+/Phantom combo, I presume you’re willing to do this too for the headphones
If not, look at the Chord Mojo/Poly combination
I don’t think the RPi will play DSD via Roon, no matter what Hat/USB DAC you use.
One final thing, with the latest update, Roon plays to the iOS remote app so you could just use an iphone/ipad with the roon app. And even use a USB DAC with this.
For example, I occasionally use my iphone with a Chord Mojo attached with my Sennheiser 600s, playing via Roon.
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