I’ve eventually managed to set up an NAA on a Raspberry Pi (HiFiberry digi+) after running a NUC straight into my Chord Hugo DAC. This has necessitated me moving to optical from USB as my understanding is that the Pi’s USB is not optimal for sound quality.
I’m wondering what other NAAs are being used by us Roonies and what sort of connection to the DAC you have.
SJB.
Microrendu, connected via USB to the DAC, in my main rig.
Sonicorbiter, connected via optical to a Denon receiver in my HT system that doubles as second stereo system.
Both sound great.
An old obsolete Macmini to a lampizator Atlantic. The mini is a bit overdone for this task, but sounds better then the pi.
Microrendu, USB to Lampizator L4G5 DAC.
Prior to the Microrendu I had a Cubox and before the Cubox a Rpi2, both of which connected via USB.
Are we talking about a NAA for roon (roonbridge) or a NAA for HQPlayer?
I use for both purposes a very lightweight Intel NUC with an Intel Pentium N3700 with a max. TDP of cute little 6 watts.
With the Microrendu its simple to switch between HQPlayer NAA and roonbridge.
Both HQPlayer
Thank you both.
Have you compared the MR to a lightweight NUC (or similar)?
I would gladly buy the MR in a heartbeat upon all the very enthusiastic reviews but afaik the MR cannot feed my Lampi DAC with Amanero USB input board native DSD512.
As soon as this is possible I will immediately jump on the MR?
Does anyone know if this will be possible in the foreseeable future?
Sotm Sms 200 and SBooster BOTW P&P ECO to Nad M51 Dac
Maybe you could ask Lukasz if he has experience with the MR?
I have used 3…Pi3, i3 5015u based pc, microrendu. The microrendu sounded the best.
Past tense? What do you use now?
SJB
Well until i can save up enough pennies to buy a microrendu + LPS-1 power supply I will continue to use my i3 based PC.
Another interesting option is Audiolinux running off my i3 computer.
I have 3 NAA:
At the office, I am using RPi2 -> USB -> Uptone REGEN -> QNKTC 1.2 (PCM5102)
At home
I also experimented with Odroid C2. Via USB I couldn’t tell the difference with RPi2/3. I got the HiFi shield 2 and can’t make it work yet, but @Dan_Knight is helping a lot with this at the moment.
BTW, I’m liking the cheap PCM5102 compbined with HQPlayer upsampled to 192KHz a lot.
Intel NUC - Core, RPI3 as Bridge (with wifi turned off), Audioquest Green USB -> Upton REGEN -> Bryston BDA3. extremely quiet/low noise floor, detailed, great sound stage/dimensionality, balanced/smooth presentation.
HI Guys,
I appreciate this is an old thread but just trying to better understand RAA & it’s importance, especially in a bridge ethernet set up & it’s connection to HQ Player.
Cheers
Matt
Sorry for bringing up an old topic.
Has anyone compared an Intel Nuc as an NAA for hqplayer, vs something like an SOtM SMS-200?
I’m using a fanless nuc as an NAA right now and a few sotm have popped up on the used market. Just curious if anyone thought the sotm was an improvement.
There’s quite a bit of stuff between NUC and Rendu/SMS kind of devices. Most NUCs are quite powerful machines with fans and such.
Yep. Just bringing this topic up because I got curious about an sms-200ultra.
Was wondering if there is any benefit to SQ between running a fanless nuc as a hqplayer naa vs the sotm.
Or if they are just being used as NAAs, then both shouldn’t sound too different, or not different at all.
Anyone tried both?
It is very hard to give generic/exhaustive answer to such question. These things depend on many factors and as such tend to be system dependent. Both pieces of hardware have their sides, and these two are quite different. Then there are things in the middle that have some properties of both.