Hi I’m interested in a low budget 24-bit wifi DAC. My current setup is a Roon Core → Apple Airport → Denon integrated amp. I want to replace the Airport with a unit that supports 24 bit but don’t want to spend a lot – this is for a secondary (office) set-up.
You may use any wifi router available. 24 bit does not refer to the network bandwidth needed but to the depth of audio source in use. Your Denon, I assume, does the audio part.
The wifi router will only be transmitting 0’s and 1’s.
Netgear orbi’s are pretty nice. the google nest also appear to get some love here. Whatever Apples offering is I’m sure works as well if you wish to maintain that ecosystem too.
Good luck with it.
Thanks but I need a unit that has analog audio out. My integrated does not have a DAC.
I believe you’ll end up with needing two products then.
A wifi router and a DAC. I’m unaware of a direct replacement of the airport.
I am hopefully wrong and will learn.
I would get a raspberry pi, fit a hifiberry hat (that one even has a 3.5mm output, just like an airport express), and put Ropieee on it. You’ll be humming in no time. Ropieee will connect to a wifi router.
Are you outputting optical or audio from the airport express? Hifiberry also have an optical out HAT, but you originally said you were looking for a DAC.
I have both Hifiberry unit’s in the house one with digital outputs and one with analogy outputs and confirm that they both worked a treat outputting to various devices and Amos. I used both Ropieee and Hifiberry OS and both worked well.
If you want them to look nice have a look at buying the cases at the same time
I like that idea and single board computer solutions in general. (I have an Allo DigiOne Signature on my main system.) Thanks for the suggestion and the links!
Outputting audio.
Is the hifiberry DAC2 HD worth the extra money ($50 more than the Pro)? What about the DSP extension board?
Only you can decide that! It depends how badass your office system is. Any of Hifiberry’s HATs are going to an excellent replacement. As for DSP, you’re probably not too concerned about room correction (at the office), and your Denon integrated probably has tone controls.
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i’m using;
Raspberry pi-4 running rasbian Os
(you can save some money and downgrade the Pi)
(also tried both Ropieee & Hifiberry Os’s but they are both overly controlly of everything and rasbian lets me tinker)
Hifiberry dac+pro
and it actually has 1/8" stereo jack, left & right analog audio RCA’s out.
works fantastic under 100.00 US
What add-on board are you using?
Hifi-berry dac pro
Gives you 2 analog out and a 1/8" stereo off the DAC board it was about 52.00 USD on Amazon.
The Pi also has a 1/8" stereo but don’t use that one as it bypasses the DAC.
And then I didn’t need to but spent the extra 30.00 for the case because it looks so cool.
No Audio
I got the Hifi-berry dac pro hd and set it up with Ropieee without a problem. Roon finds it as an endpoint and I am able to select it as an output. Connected to Aux2 on my receiver. However, no music comes out. Airport Express on Aux1 works fine. Can anyone recommend troubleshooting steps? Thanks in advance.
For starters turn off the USB audio. When I get back home tomorrow I’ll double check the settings I had . It really just worked without any crazy massages. To me 99% of issues is getting roon to recognize the end point
Turned off USB audio but still no audio.
Roon thinks it’s playing… have you tried turning up the volume control in Roon?
Yes, I tried that but no luck.
Have you tried both outputs? I don’t think it’s a hardware issue, rather a configuration one, but it might be… perhaps someone else can share their settings??