HQP NAA - Raspberry Pi

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Hi Ruud,

Since you want to use the Digi+ Pro then the recently updated Signalyst NAA image for RaspberryPi3 is not for you if the Digi+ Pro needs an overlay or Linux configuration as the image is non-configurable. You cannot SSH into it or edit files attached to it. It is intended for the simplest Ethernet in, USB out operation.

You should be aware of the limitations of the Pi3 as an HQP NAA arising from the shared Ethernet/USB bus. If you were intending to use HQP to upsample to DSD 128 or higher I would recommend looking at a Cubox instead. You can see the problems that Mike Pinkerton had above. I think, however, that the Digi+ Pro may be limited to DSD64 in any event.

There are three alternative approaches to installing an NAA on a Raspberry Pi3 with a Digi+Pro.

Firstly, you could install a Stretch version of Raspbian on your Pi and then the latest armhf NAA. I’m not sure how you would configure the Digi+Pro in that case, there is likely to be an overlay to do so.

Alternatively you can use DietPi (currently Jessie) and update packages to Stretch:

  • Install DietPi and configure the Digi+ Pro as soundcard. You can also now take the opportunity to install Roon Bridge so you can swap between Roon Bridge and NAA should you wish to do so;

  • Install the latest armhf NAA, you will be notified that some packages require Stretch updates for dependencies as per Rene’s posts here and here.

  • edit ‘jessie’ to ‘stretch’ in /etc/apt/sources.list and run:
    apt update.

  • install the packages that need stretch manually:
    apt install package1 package2

  • install NAA again

  • edit stretch back to Jessie in sources.list

Lastly, you could wait a short time for Dan to finish updating DietPi to include installation of an NAA and required Stretch dependencies. He has started that process and it seems to be occurring very quickly, see the DietPi thread linked above. Once DietPi includes provision to install an NAA then you can simply select Digi+Pro, Roon Bridge and NAA in the menus for DietPi.

You don’t need to install your HQP licence on the RPi in order to run the NAA. All HQP licences include provision for NAAs.

You continue to use your usual installation of HQP to configure upsampling, filters, convolution etc. Instead of sending output to your DAC, once the NAA is installed and operating you will see the appropriate entries come up under Backend and Device in the HQP control panel.

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