seeing processing speed of x23 to x27 when playing upsampled files. Yes, processing is in the core which is an Imac 2013 3.4GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM
I think the core spec is fine, It would seem that the issue may be with the RPi3 or its interaction with the SMSL DAC, but its odd that it was ok last week and not this week. I was previously using a Dragonfly 1.5 Black with no issues (upsampling to max PCM of 96/24)
well I’m not sure its worth a try but a new RPi is not too expensive to troubleshoot with. does the DAC play on with it connected to the CORE mac?
@RBM maybe this issue should be moved off to its own thread?
hmm - haven’t tried connecting direct to Core . May give it a go to see if the DAC is the issue. If I take the “try another pi” route, I’m assuming that a pi2 (model B or not ? ) is the way to go ? Sorry if I’ve hijacked this thread. Its one of those nagging issues that wont go away…
I wouldn’t go the RPi 2B as its a lesser spec device than the 3B I think you said you had… or maybe better to try something like the much better spec Odroid C2 - tho’ I have not used one. DietPi site has some different options showing the comparable SBC choices and some descriptions of pro/con/perf info.
here is the C2 info there in the download info pages
In our eyes, the Odroid C2 is the best ‘all round’ SBC on the market today, and, years ahead of Raspberry Pi in terms of performance. Exceptional CPU and LAN performance which is great for multiple uses. Couple the C2 with an EMMC module and you’ll experience next-level SBC filesystem performance at upto 140MB/s transfer rates. The C2 is innovative SBC perfection, and, because of its excellent all round performance, we even have a few dedicated to daily DietPi testing.
Im going to get a RPi 3B on a baseline DP image and connect my R2R DAC and see if I can get any issues to show up in the DSD usampling to at least 128/256
Might try with the Allo Sparky too
Thanks for the response - will look into Odroid
This is working fine…even on wifi (in close proximity to the AP)
I did upgrade the dietpi image to the latest build tho
When I get time I might try wifi to see if it discounts Ethernet / USB bus as the cause. My diet Pi distro was downloaded yesterday so I assume I have the most up to date version.
A process of testing and eliminating commences, but I think I may end up going the c2 route
Hi @Paul_Butler,
I would seriously suggest to investigate further. I’ve got a RP3 running Linux wired, and a DAC attached over USB. No problem what so ever, with doing 384K and DSD128 (DoP).
I’ve got an image lying around: ArchLinux based, 4.9 kernel, and latest DSD patches applied. It installs without any intervention needed. You want to try it out?
Cross posting this here to see if anyone has ideas as to what is going on with RoonBridge on my BeagleBone Black.
Thanks for the offer. Having changed distro to dietpi that others are reporting no issues with, I am now trying to eliminate hardware. I have a whole range of tests to do, family time permitting:
I think its either a failure in the RPi3 or the SMSL DAC based on the fact that this combination was working perfectly for several weeks upsampling to DSD64. The crackles and pops are now starting to appear on various sample rates…
if its the dac one might expect it to be a similar issue played connected directly to the core if thats possible
Yes, I think you are right. As this is the only major system change recently, it might well be. Which would be disappointing as an ebay purchase with all the return issues that presents…
Ah well, will find out this weekend…
Haven’t completed tests but seems to be smsl dac. Can’t cope with any upsampling now even low pcm rates and slight pops at native pcm rates. Dragonfly upsamples to max pcm rock solid so that’s back for now.
Some incompatibility with dac and DSP or faulty dac. Haven’t done test with core output yet though. My flirt with cheap dsd may be over for now…
Thank you for this excellent guide…ran everything through using the Pi as a bridge to an Audeze DAC/headphone amp.
Only hiccup I ran into was ssh is no longer activated by default and I was doing everything headless with the Pi. Just had to throw an empty ssh named file on the SD and that was that…not sure it’s worth mentioning in the doc.
–David
My sincere thanks for this extremely helpful guide. I configured two “hatless” Pis yesterday for use with USB DACs. They are both working wirelessly with good results.
Two areas where I hit snags, both resolved by searching comments:
Yes, I’d like to try it out. I’m trying to do the same thing, but having issues with some of the patches applying correctly. I’m also not sure which ones are the main ones to use.
If you use dietpi you dont have to worry, it will update to the latest release on install.
My issue is that my DAC only does DSD256 native mode only. Otherwise DSD128 DoP. As far as I know DietPi doesn’t have the patches for native DSD yet. I’m using HQPlayer to upsample and could/have used one of Jussi’s images, but i’m trying to figure it all out just for fun.
you can certainly enable the 384kHz kernel in dietpi-config
I think I what I said above about Diet Pi not having the patches for native DSD was not correct. What I should have said is that the patch for my specific DAC isn’t there. I was able to play Native DSD by applying the specific patch for my DAC on a VM. I wanted to get it working on a VM first (due to the very long compile times for a RPi). I used kernel 4.11-rc5 and just the OPPO HA-2 patch, complied the kernel and that’s it. I’ll try on a RPi, with Arch (not Diet Pi), over the next few days.
