Have been looking at Raspberry Pi, HiFiBerry and 7" display and was thinking of giving myself a project of sorts and my question is,
1 - What is really involved putting together these three items
2 - At the risk of sounding stupid will there be any soldering or re jigging of wiring involved
3 - will it be just a case of connecting all three into respective casing then installing the software
It could be either RoPieee or RoPieeeXL along with a Pi 4 with a DAC board connected to my amp. Have been reading through the " RoPieee guide for beginners " that seems to be fairly straight forward to me at least. The one thing that concerns me is the section on Raspberry 7” Display Tips regarding the wiring and separate power supplies for the Pi and display or does it look more complicated than it is?.
As I said this is more a bit of tinkering but who knows I might enjoy it and go on to better things?. So if anyone here has put together something similar would love your input. Thanks.
Many thanks for you input. Will definitely go ahead in the next couple of weeks or so when I have read through the beginners guide a few times and put a list together of what units + parts are needed.
RPi 3B/+ uses less power and is easier to find the case with display setup. I run mine wifi now as its less ugly cabling wise, and I dont stream more than 24/192 on the USB or I use a HAT
@wizardofoz Can you recommend a 3B+ case that will accommodate a Pi/Highfiberry Digipro combo? I would love to add a display but not sure what case would work.
RS Online have a nice one as do Element14 at least in Asia…maybe others like DFRobot have something to or PiHut but none will support a HAT and Display out of the box without some mods.
It’s easier to use as separate installs perhaps and get the HAT case for Pi only from the HAT shop. The Design Spark one at RS might take a HAT too with case mods…it also can hang on a wall which might be handy and is easier to get at the internals than the E14 one I have. I used an IQAudIO DigiAMP+ HAT with an E14 one and had to make a lot of mods…but its going to really depemnd on the HAT how much effort is needed to make the connectors fit.
Note Pi3 and 4 cases are different.
Nice thing is with Ropieee it can display any zone not just the one its connected to. so I have no need to use my display pi as an endpoint - its just a nice little display.
These may be worth considering, if you are wanting to use a HAT as well.
Do keep in mind what @wizardofoz says however: the display can be used to view another Roon zone, and thus can be placed for optimum viewing rather than close to your audio equipment.
Not sure about the Lego panels there but having exposed boards is a bit of a problem for me, not just aesthetics wise. for the cost of an extra Pi and a proper HAT specific case, separates are the best option IMHO
I was wondering whether it would be possible to connect a Pi 3 directly to my amp via an adaptor lead, Stereo out to phono and what the sound quality would be like?.
You need a DAC with RCA out ideally…The onboard 3.5mm jack is PWM and absolute rubbish for audio out other than a speaker buzz noise…and thus it is not enabled. you can look at basically any DAC hat or go with a cheap USB DAC like older DragonFly with 3.5mm output even.
So as there is no confusion say for example I had a Pi and HAT connected to my amp I could then use the display separately to control and view album art whilst using said combination.
Exactly the way it works but you need 2 RPi set ups to do that one as the endpoint and the other as a display, but both can still be endpoints if you need to have another where the display is.
I have one pi with display and an amp hat that has speakers attached directly, so it’s all 3 - pi + dac amp and display, another I have pi and dac amp no display and another pi with just display, plus another pi plus display that’s got a usb connected AV processor.
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