Looking into Raspberry Pi with a digital Hat, likely HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro, and am reading varying opinions regarding power supplies. Advice? I don’t see myself soldering anything. Ultimate goal is to replace Sonos Connect to Schiit Modi Multibit & then to a Rega Ear headphone amp.
I’m very happy with the Pi 2 Design Pi2AES powered (with the Pi) by their recommended Mean Well 24V SMPS; the Pi2AES includes a voltage converter to give 5V to the Pi. I’ve used it with both coax S/PDIF and with AES3 XLR cable (for Yggdrasil). The Pi2AES is not the cheapest HAT around, but its accurate clocks and low noise make it as good or better than everything I’ve used before, including several >$1000 streamers.
I would recommend getting it working with the standard (switch mode) power supply - they’re cheap and guaranteed to work. Then, while listening to your PI, you can read the forums and build an opinion, possibly looking at a linear PSU as an upgrade option. Personally, I view a $500 PSU for $30 computer at bit of a stretch, the first thing the supply see’s on the board is a DC to DC converter (switch mode) anyway, but you’re obviously free to make your own conclusion.
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I have the Pi 4 and the official Pi power supply, mostly because I am of the opinion that this is powering the ‘dirty’ end of things anyway. I can see the point of powering a SPDIF isolated HAT separately but not a computer board really.
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I use an iFi iPower 5v to power mine, then I use a USB tweak after which I run on battery and which don’t use any power from Raspberry. With that setup, I doubt a better power to Raspberry would add much.
The iFi iPower is only 2.5A, but seems to work good anyway.