New kitchen set-up, a little advice

Hi there,

I installed an Ethernet connection to my Kitchen recently and I am planning to upgrade from the current Sonos Play 1 currently in use there. So I think I probably need a streamer and DAC or some combination of the two. Ideally I want it to be wires based rather than wireless.

I am quite keen on the Ruark MR1 Mk2s speakers, as they get good reviews, and they are approved by ‘the management’. However they need to be fed via an optical connection.

I have had a good look around but I am not sure what to go for. Does anyone have some suggestions for a cheapish (around £$ 300-400 combined) streamer and/or DAC which could feed the speakers optically?

Thanks

I use a HiFiBerry Digi+ as a decent quality optical feed. All in with case and Raspberry Pi is about £100. Am curious about the Ruark speakers, have been considering purchasing a pair for the home office. If you take the plunge I’d be interested to know what you thought,

Hi @killdozer, thanks for the reply.

In terms of the HifiBerry Digi+ pro, is it just a case of Ethernet into the Raspberry Pi and then Optical out of the Digi+ pro? I have put a Digione from Allo together in the past, but that feeds my desktop DAC in my office. I assume though, that in this case, I do not need a DAC given that I am taking an optical feed, is that right?

If/when I buy the speakers I will give my impressions, no problem.

Hi @tahsu that’s how it’s done connection wise and no DAC’s required as the Ruark master speaker has one built in (I’ve been looking at them for a while). You’ll need Roon Bridge on the Pi, and there’s a few ways to do this. I use Diet Pi and it works well. Whatever bridge you use it’s just a case of flashing an SD card and a little basic config.