New Hardware Setup

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
1

Hi all.

I’m thinking about using a Raspberry Pi and Ropieee to create a new ROON endpoint on my home network. I want to use this to feed a Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus.

I am aware that the RoPieee project supports many tailored audio ‘hats’ for the Pi and many of them include DAC capability which I do not need.

So my questions are:

  1. What Pi model is the optimum to use?
  2. What audio ‘hat’ is the best to use for my use case? i.e. has best clock to reduce jitter and clean USB path etc.
  3. What linear power supply is recommended?

Many thanks in advance!

2

All you need is a Raspberry Pi 4B. There’s no need for a hat or or linear PSU. Use a stock switching supply for the RPi, and USB input direct from the RPi to the DacMagic.

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3

Oliver,

I don’t know of a HAT that provides USB output. But for USB out the Pi4b is recommended.

As to LPS - I use a battery (ANkher power bank) to run one into a Chord Qutest and like the effect. I have also used an ifi SMPS. If you’re after an LPS then MCRU are always well thought of

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4

One more data point here:

RPi3B+ might come in cheaper than RPi4 and is absolutely sufficient to transfer up to 768kHz/32bit and DSD512 over 5GHz WiFi or Ethernet wired (Edit: USB to DAC).

Power supply influence on DAC analog out is inaudible and immeasurable, unless something’s broken.

Adding the 7“ touchscreen unleashes more functionality, if desired.

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5

The Pi 4 had some improvements in the USB architecture.

So if you’re using USB it might be a little better.

You can see this in the ropieee guide page 10

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6

Pi4 vs Pi3b? I have both and I don’t hear a difference. Could you (or anyone else) hear a difference? I have no way to know, but I seriously doubt it.

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7

Depends. If you use USB, and the USB implementation on your DAC is not very good, it might make a difference.

In general I advise a Pi 4 because of the (much) better USB implementation.

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8

There is some discussion of the issue here:-

The problem causes drop outs - so will be fairly obvious.

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9

Another way to go is to not use USB and get a HAT like a Hifiberry digi+ pro and run coax or optical to the DacMagic.

Here’s the description from their site:

HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro is a high-quality S/PDIF output for the Raspberry Pi. It uses the I2S sound port that connects directly to the CPU without the need for an additional USB conversion.

It also supports our DSP add-on board now that allows to process your audio before sending it to the output.

The board can be equipped with an additional BNC connector. Note that you have to solder this by yourself.

New board release 2.2 that is now fully compatible with the latest Pi4 hardware (and all other Raspberry Pi’s with the 40-pin header)

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