i have read a lot of topics and i’m pretty sure i have my answer but to be 100% sure i want to ask it in it’s own context.
I want to connect a poweramp to Roon, as cheap as possible :-), and thought R PI 4B would be easiest to go with Ropiee. This way i can connect WiFi, stream as endpoint. But what i also need is volume control via the app. And if i read all topics right i understand only the 4B will not give me volume control but a dac HAT will. Is this correct? Will adding a dac HAT board onto the 4B solve this? Which means when i have this 4B + dac HAT i can stream, and volume control, my Roon to this poweramp? And if so, does this work with all dac HAT’s? I read a lot about the hifiberry one but want to know if i can just choose what brand/price i like?
That’s not entirely correct. Roon has 2 mechanisms for volume control: the first one is ‘hardware controlled’: this means Roon relies on the hardware volume control in the endpoint. In case of RoPieee this either means a HAT that supports it, or a USB DAC that can do that (very rare).
The second one is ‘software controlled’: which means Roon takes care of the volume control in the digital domain. In this case any hardware will do. In this scenario, for example, you can use any USB DAC as a pre-amp.
In general most of the audiophile world will tell you to go for hardware volume control. But over the last years software volume control has been dramatically improved.
it’s an bedroom installation, that’s why pursuit of excellence is not needed here.
What i am confused about, maybe you know, is the Pi4B board already has an ‘jack out’ on it. I thought i can just put a jack → rca converter in there to connect my poweramp and than use volume control from roon app and it’s done.
However after reading several topics i understand that this will not work and i need to add a dac HAT for using the volume. Am i misunderstanding this? Do i not need the dac HAT?
This will work within the capabilities of the onboard DAC/audio - which is not great. However, I find it perfectly good for connecting to the ‘line in’ of a small DAB radio.
I have two RPi 4’s one with an IQAudIO DAC PRO HAT (now sold as Raspberry Pi DAC PRO) and one just using the onboard audio. With the limitations of the two radios (a PURE Evoke H6 and a RUARK R1 Mk IV), I can’t really tell the difference between the two Raspberry Pi systems. On the PURE Evoke (which, being in the kitchen is in a more noisy environment) I can’t tell. On the Ruark R1 system, the HAT system is probably better but it is still difficult to tell.
On more capable systems the IQAudio HAT is clearly better but it is still far from the best that can be obtained.
Digital Volume (DSP Volume) control on either system works OK within the constraints of the system. I set the analogue volume of the Radio’s to a volume that is just a bit on the loud side so I don’t need to adjust the volume hugely.
Note: I don’t use Ropieee - but that should not make any difference.