HifiBerry Digi+ PRO

Audio Gear Talk Raspberry Pi
21

It has finally arrived… €6,28 in taxes and €13 for handeling - go figure. Anyway – will be sharing experiences ASAP. :slight_smile:

1 Like
22

Screen Shot 2016-09-08 at 15.40.06.png1724×1314 147 KB

It works. But so did the old one. Sounds fine so far. But so did the old one. :slight_smile:

Off to some serious high-res listening…

1 Like
23

Raspberry Pi 3 and Digi+ Pro delivered this morning :slight_smile:

first time ever with a Raspberry and… linux :frowning:

tried, first, using HiFiBerry’s roon image: all was working fine, but wasn’t fond of quality (good, nothing special)
so I ventured into DietPi and with a few trial/errors/head-scratching :stuck_out_tongue: managed to get it working :pheew:
I feel sound quality is better now :slight_smile:

1 Like
24

Heh… Great news. :slight_smile:

I had a very nice evening listening to the Digi+ Pro. Perhaps because I was home alone, allowing for more liberties with the volume control, perhaps it was the Macallan 21 – who knows?

Anyway – count me pleased.

DietPi may very well be the best way to run Roon Bridge on a Raspberry Pi right now, given its very low process count.

25

went back and forth between DietPi and HiFiBerry’s Roon image and… difference (if actually any, but I believe something is there) is so subtle that I’ll stick with the totally hassle free Roon image: copy it to a card, insert the card in the Pi, power it and… forget :slight_smile:

and you even get, as bonus, nice graphics of the actual device in Roon :wink:

26

I derive so much joy from just that little detail. Especially the HifiBerry graphic. I’m hoping that Schiit products end up being added to the Roon Ready database as I would love to see my Bifrost represented in glorious line-art.

1 Like
27

just realised all I needed, to accomplish my goal (listening to my music collection through headphones, without turning on my whole main system), was… a cable :facepalm: :rolling_eyes:

so if someone wants a one day old Raspberry Pi 3b with Digi+ Pro card, black metal case and iFi iPower PS… just drop me a PM. think it will be wise, and much faster, keeping it to EU :wink:

if this is against forum rules/policies please delete :frowning:

thanks :slight_smile:

28

… and found the cable I’d need would cost… as much as the Pi + Digi+ Pro + iPower PS :rolling_eyes:

so I’m keeping the Pi :stuck_out_tongue:

29

Just out of interest: what cable are we talking about?

30

a 75ohm coax cable with RCA plug on one end and a two poles minijack on the other one (for Chord Mojo)
only one I could find is made my Moon Audio in the US

I already have a 4" long one (for the Pi/Digi) but would need a 3’ long one to connect directly Mojo and Aries :frowning:

31

Received my Digi+ Pro today & have set up a new Raspbian Jessie Lite install. It recognises the Digi+ Pro just fine…

card 1: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi], device 0: HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro HiFi wm8804-spdif-0 []

…but Roon only sees it as an ALSA device…

Pretty sure that’s not right. Any thoughts please?

32

It is right as right can be: RoonBridge/RAAT on the Pi outputs to your Digi+ Pro via ALSA. Here’s mine:

Screen Shot 2016-09-12 at 18.07.15.png814×702 54.1 KB

1 Like
33

Ah good to know, thanks. I could have sworn that I saw a picture posted recently that showed an actual picture of the Hifiberry device on that Roon screen. Oh well, glad to know it’s as it should be. I’m currently comparing coax from Digi+ Pro versus USB to my DiDiT DAC212SE…

34

You’ll see the picture of the HiFiBerry box when you run their Roon Ready image on your RPi. If you run the generic Roon Bridge image, you won’t…

1 Like
35

ps…Living Roon - I see what you did there :wink:

3 Likes
36

ahhh the penny drops, that makes sense cheers. Any opinions on which is the preferred way to go?

37

I’ve never done a blind A/B test to see if there’s any perceived difference in sound quality, but I quite like the line art, logos and product manual links of Roon Ready devices…

Roon 95.PNG399×569 36.7 KB

38

Yes agreed. I just grabbed a spare sd card & put the Hifiberry Roon image on it. It works perfectly without any manual configuration at all, which is nice. Appears so far to sound equally as good as the manually built Jessie Lite image, that is to say…indistinguishable from the USB output from my NUC Roon core into the same DAC.

39

I discussed this with @brian some time ago: there’s no functional difference.

Basically RoonBridge is configurable and gives you full control over the OS it runs on, so you can run a very lightweight install with a low process count.

RoonReady images are ready-to-run, with a preconfigured version of RoonBridge tailored to the soundboard it needs to support. And yes – RoonReady certification includes personalised line art for your device.

RoonBridge updates come along with Roon updates, while updates to RoonReady devices need to be supplied by their makers – that process is usually a bit slower. But then again – HifiBerry’s 1.06+ image is supposed to be self-updating, so there you go.

Basically: pick whichever fits you best. There should be no audible differences.

2 Likes
40

There is one big functional difference;
With the Roon Ready image you cant connect and use a USB DAC. Only the “certifiied” Hifiberry units are available as output.
And i miss the option of pluggin in the USB cable for some DSD galore! :wink: