Raspberry Pi Tube HAT - Pi 2 Design

Ah, clear :slight_smile: Thought you would go for two (one for you, one for Roon?) and receive them in July.

Can you (or a colleague) please reach out to them, as they posted in their comments on the kickstarter page they want to be a RoonReady partner but couldn’t find a way how to.

Sounds like an opportunity for @robdarling. I’ll PM him this thread.

Chances are pretty good that it will “just work” with RoonBridge. There’s no way they release that thing without working ALSA support :slight_smile:

Probably, but it would be awesome if they would be a RoonReady partner/endpoint.

So “that thing” + Pi3 + RoonBridge = Wifi enabled Roon endpoint?

Say yes and will signup!

Cheers

Hi Joachim,

I don’t want to say Yes definitively because the product hasn’t been released yet, so no one can say for sure.

What we do know is that the Pi3 + Roon Bridge works as a WiFi endpoint and I can’t see any reason why this HAT would change that.

I put my money down, but don’t want to tell others they can safely do the same until it ships and early users confirm it works.

This might be excessively cautious, but I do have an original Ring mouldering in a drawer.

It’s going to work just fine, I believe. How well it sounds remains to be seen (or heard) until it has shipped. And there’s no way of telling how WiFi will hold up underneath this humongous HAT.

But still – all this on top of a Pi… I think @andybob’s ‘steampunk’ is very apt.

Probably, but it would be awesome if they would be a RoonReady partner/endpoint.

Absolutely :slight_smile:

So “that thing” + Pi3 + RoonBridge = Wifi enabled Roon endpoint?

Assuming you find the Pi3’s WiFi implementation stable enough, sure. I’m still getting better more stability and performance with USB adapters, even on Pi3’s. I assume this will get better as kinks are worked out in the OS + firmware.

I have 2 Rpi-based wireless zones here, and I’m about to add a third. One goes all the way up to DXD formats with a USB DAC, and the other uses an IQaudIO DAC so it’s limited to 192k. Both use the popular $10 Edimax/Realtek USB WiFi adapter. It is a great solution for expanding Roon throughout the house.

Hi, this is Michael Kelly. I am the owner and chief engineer at PI 2 Design. I am so very glad you guys like the tube hat! We have other audio hats as well but obviously the tube is what really caught everyone’s interest!

We just heard about Roon audio today. One of our backers mentioned them and I’m pretty sure they’re on this thread as well. So thank you very much for that.

We do support ALSA so I am pretty confident it will work. But since we have little familiarity with it it may take my engineer some time to install and test.

I look forward to hearing from someone about becoming an official partner. We have another amp hat that we want to use to create active speaker end points.

I can see an entire line of raspberry pi based audio hats running streaming music using Roon audio!

I used our sales email to register, because when you access it it gets copied to a couple of different people. Not trying to hide!

Mike

PS can you imagine a tube hat for the pi zero!? I actually did the design but didn’t release it wanting to do this one first. Plus no one seems to be able to get a raspberry pi zero, still.

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Hi Michael and welcome,

I’ve given you a title identifying your commercial affiliation. We welcome Roon relevant announcements, discussion and involvement on the forum by associated hardware and software developers; @mike may send you a PM with further guidelines about forum use.

The Pi is an odd case so far as Roon Ready partnering is concerned because it has a readily programmable SD card OS instead of firmware. As Brian said, with Roon Bridge installed it is likely to just work.

There are, however, users who might prefer to use an image without installing Raspbian and Roon Bridge. There may also be a possibility of volume control from Roon.

I expect you’ll hear further from the Roon devs shortly, but if that doesnt happen let me know and we’ll make more noise.

Also the other 2 hats look really promising:

35W/Channel Class-D AMP HAT
This is a Raspberry Pi Hat with a Stereo Class-D Amp. Perfect for multi-room SONOS style audio streaming. A 138mw Headphone amp is also included to allow for private listening when you want it.

High-Performance Digital Audio HAT
The 503SPD1 is a Raspberry Pi Hat with a Wolfson WM8804 SPDIF transmitter.

(It would be awesome if the DAC hat will be a POE DAC, so everything (Pi + DAC) can be powered over Ethernet :))

I think you can best start working on RoonReady endpoints (software) for the pi’s with this portfolio.

The answer to this question is always Telefunken, but I like Siemens just as well. Fortunately, the 12au7 is a medium to low mu design that doesnt have the noise issues of the 12ax7. I think I’ve got some NOS Mullard in my girlfriend’s phono stage. She might need some new valves, cos new valves are better than old valves, right ?

They extended their early bird batch as all early bird batches were sold out already.

Also this extended batch is going fast, 30% gone in hours.

So if you still want this extension to Roon and your Pi, you have to be quick to get it for the disounted price.

Backed it (or rather my wife did)!

What is the difference between the two tubes they let you choose from?

The 503HTA supports both 12AU7( ECC82) or 6922/6DJ8 (ECC88) type tubes.

Which sound best combined with what?

The pinout difference between the 12au7 and the 6DJ8 is the 12au7 has a more flexible heater configuration.

Which one to use really boils down to which one sounds best, which has more to do with the manufacturer etc. than the type.

They supply them with new JJ Electronics tubes (as they need a stable supply).

Is that the ‘right’ choice of new tubes to go for or is there a better choice of new tubes at the same pricepoint to supply with the HAT?

Btw they just confirmed on their Kickstarter page in the comments section that they will create RoonReady certified firmware!

JJ have been making tubes since 1994 on the old Tesla equipment in the Slovak Republic. I’ve used their EL-84 in my VTL Tiny Triodes and they’re a good modern tube, I prefer them to Sovtek.

I use the Chinese Psvane (or Pavane, they trademarked an archaic ‘a’ as an ‘s’) 6CA7 in my Manley Snappers and am very happy with them. I would like to try their 12au7-T in this unit (reviewed here and here ) but they only seem to be available at about $70 USD a pair.

One of the things about this HAT using a single tube is that there’s not as big a demand for single old tubes, most people want pairs so singles are something of an “odd lot”. I’ll be looking at Siemens, Mullard, GE old tubes. Tele’s are expensive but good. The main thing to keep in mind when buying old tubes is that fakery is rife. I’ll probably roll some single used tubes through this, rather than NOS for that reason. This eBay page looks an interesting start for single used Mullard.

My guys are looking forward to digging into Roon. Probably week after next. We already told our backers we would be doing this, so we need to execute. We have our rev. 2 boards back and running. Once we iron out a few small issues, we will be able to devote more time on the software front. In addition to Roon we’ve been asked to insure Volumio, OSMC and Picorplayer all run “out of the box” Hopeful you guys are not too jealous!

From the beginning of our entry into the Pi media market, we have wanted to create a platform to take on Sonos. Now with Roon we can do exactly that. Both at a DIY level with the Hats, but also with finished players, DAC/AMPS and even speakers. I used to build speakers myself back in the day. Since I have already surrendered to tubes, why not go all in with the way-back machine!

We are very open to ideas for products and I can assure you that ideas we get from the Roon community will be taken very seriously. In fact the 503SPD1 and SPD2 were designed to meet requests that came from a great little audio forum www.superbestaudiofriends.com.

Let me know what you think, we can even create Roon labelled products for you! :wink:

Michael

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@Michael_Kelly, can you share the components list of the Hybrid Amp, please. We (the community) are more than happy with suggestions on components that may result into improvements.

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