Post by jon on Mar 15, 2018 16:45:10 GMT 12
This is going to document my Hifiberry DAC build from start to finish... I'm a little tied up with other things at the moment, so I expect I'll be around 2 weeks start to finish. I've selected to HifiBerry DAC+ Pro board and here is a partial BOM - I chose HifiBerry because it had a bundle offering, there are others out there, and you can even move further up market and buy a more expensive DAC. However as I am just starting out... begin cheaply and upgrade is my motto. | Product | Quantity | Price | HiFiBerry DAC+ bundle
| 1
| $111.50
| HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro
| 1
| $39.90
| | Acrylic case for DAC+ (RCA) and Digi+ (transparent) | 1
| $12.90
| | Raspberry Pi 3B | 1
| $44.90
| | Raspberry Pi power supply 5V/2.5A | 1
| $12.90 | | 2x20 pin male header | 1
| $0.90 |
| Shipping | $29.00
| Total
| $140.50 |
What's missing? Well, the following: External Hard Drive External USB Stick SD Card SD Reader/Writer I already have an external HDD. This gets it's power from the USB port, and as I've seen that that set up can cause issues I am quite prepared to get an external drive with separate power supply. I've cloned my Daphile Music Partition onto the external hard drive. I'll talk about that in a later post. The SD Card and Reader are very cheap here, and I balked at paying a lot for stuff from HifiBerry I could get cheaper elsewhere.   Music for this Post Richard Wagner; Ride of the Valkyries; Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra
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Post by Owen Y on Mar 23, 2018 8:32:28 GMT 12
I've heard good things about the Pi3B + HifiBerry DAC+ Pro. Or Allo Boss DAC. As usual, PSU/s is key they say. Looking forward to hearing about sonic performance.
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Post by jon on Mar 26, 2018 9:59:06 GMT 12
The first thing I have to do is: Clone my current Media Server music drive.My current media server is an HP PC running Daphile, with a full height www.asus.com/us/Sound-Cards/Xonar_Essence_STX/ . It has a 1Tb drive. Small and discrete it is not... I used Clonezilla and put it onto an USB stick as per this: clonezilla.org/liveusb.phpBecause Daphile uses EXT4 as the HDD format, I used Tuxboot [Windows version] I could not do a clone of the drive, for some reason, so opted to clone a partition instead! Handy tip with Clonezilla (as always YMMV): When cloning only plug the external HDD on the source selection screen. Viewing a whole pile of HDDs and not being sure which partition is source and which is target was made easier if you do this.
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Post by jon on Mar 26, 2018 12:23:07 GMT 12
So let's Create the SSD Card. You will need a SSD Card reader and a Micro-USB (8Gb or more is good). I chose not to purchase the 16Gb SSD card from Hifiberry as they charged US32.90. I purchased a card reader and 16Gb SSD card locally for US$12!!! Follow the instructions here: volumio.org/get-started/You'll see the Flashing instructions further down that page. Easy as!!
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Post by jon on Mar 27, 2018 8:10:59 GMT 12
So let's Build the Pi & DAC Hat. The build was fairly simple if a little frustrating... There are no instructions, however if a dunderhead such as I can do it, then you can! First put in the mounting pillars (all 4) onto the Pi board, fasten in place with the long plastic bolts. Mount the hat on the board and lock in place with the plastic nuts fastened onto the projecting lugs. The 20 connector will have a small gap, where you can see the metal pins, this is entirely normal! Once the electronics are built, start to build the case. Build the Case You'll have to build the case with the Pi/Hat boards as one build. You can't build the case then insert the Pi/Hat afterwards. Each of my clear acrylic pieces had a protective film which you should remove! Do be aware that each of the pieces is handed, so when building it a degree of test fitting and swapping bits round to get the right face presented to the inside bits is important. You won't need to force anything if you have the pieces fitting correctly.  Some of you will have noticed that I did not mount the pillars with the long bolts into the Pi board, and once I realised the proper method method I could not be bothered to rectify a trivial mistake. HOWEVER if you do what I did you will have to trim the projecting lug, so that the Pi/Hat can fit into the case.  The only tool I needed (apart from a Kraft knife) where the Jeweller screwdrivers!  The entire unit built with the external HDD attached
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Post by jon on Apr 7, 2018 11:29:08 GMT 12
Right, after life intruded big-time Let's configure the software... Configure Volumio for SpotifyClick on the familiar Cog/Menu settings then on Plugins  This Picture is a Split Screen Once in Plugins you will see a variety of plugins available but most important you will see 2 Spotify plugins. Sadly I could only get the one with the blue arrow working and the other refused...  So do that one. It pauses for a long time at 70%, checking the Show Details shows it is still working and will close out. If it does not close then reload the page will show that the plugin is installed! Once it's installed click on installed plugins select Spotify, turn it on and select Settings. In the account settings screen you should enter your PREMIUM account details.  This Picture is a Split Screen You may need to authorise the Pi to access Spotify, but that's a trivial exercise. Next post will be on how I found it and what it sounded like
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Post by jon on Apr 7, 2018 11:34:29 GMT 12
Hmmm... I lied, it's not on sound Quality!   I'm going to download Max2Play and check it out. The free version, so if I can't do Spotify on that I'll remove it and revert to Volumio Let you know how I get on
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Post by jon on Apr 7, 2018 18:57:07 GMT 12
Well, that was painful... Three to four hours to configure, installing mount points for the local external drive, install ampache and culminating in having to install the Logitech Media server just so I could get Spotify.  I cut my losses, burned Volumio back onto the SSD card and within 15 minutes was back up and running. The relief was palpable and I celebrated with a beer.
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 9, 2018 10:01:52 GMT 12
And I thought that vinyl playing was inconvenient
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Post by jon on Apr 13, 2018 11:15:43 GMT 12
Ok, this has been up and running for 2 weeks, I've played it for at least 3 hours per day and my ears have grown used to the sound.
Compared to the HP PC with the Asus Xonar Essence STX card it is lacking slightly. Not surprising as the STX is a much better card!
My wife commented when listening to Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bach Cello Sonatas that the Berry DAc lacked resonance when compared to the STX card. In all other respects it was fine compared to the STX!
I agree with that assessment it is lacking a little in the bass department, however given it's ridiculously cheap price, it's tiny size and the fact that I don't really listen to it much (I wanted to burn it in and let it acclimatise to the new environment) I'm quite happy with it.
High-end it is not, but in my view it is an excellent low-end player and it's super-tiny size make it a winner!
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 13, 2018 12:29:13 GMT 12
I saw elsewhere that an experienced DAC builder recommended this as a excell performing combo: Raspberry pi3 and an Allo Boss DAC HAT, and run MoOde AudioI know nothing about these devices.
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Pundit
Post by Mike A on Apr 14, 2018 12:33:24 GMT 12
I saw elsewhere that an experienced DAC builder recommended this as a excell performing combo: Raspberry pi3 and an Allo Boss DAC HAT, and run MoOde AudioI know nothing about these devices. Just built Moode Audio on an old Raspberry Pi 1b as Volumio was giving me too many problems and wouldn't play with my Schiit Modi 2. Took 4.5 hours to build but is playing well after a bit of configuration.
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 14, 2018 13:11:02 GMT 12
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Pundit
Post by Mike A on Apr 14, 2018 14:52:57 GMT 12
Owen, theory says that there shouldn't be any difference between Volumio and Moode as they are both using MPD and the settings don't appear to be too different but I think the Moode is a bit smoother and slightly less harsh then the older version of Volumio that was all that would run on my old Rpi.
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Pundit
Post by Mike A on Apr 28, 2018 7:57:47 GMT 12
Just put a touch screen on the Pi and it looks good and works pretty well  Sorry about the poor pic but it is persisting down outside and it is pretty dim inside 
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Post by Owen Y on Apr 28, 2018 9:28:45 GMT 12
Ah BTW, how's the sound of the Schiit Modi 2 DAC? " .... the most affordable multibit DAC with a modern architecture — from any manufacturer, from any country in the world. "
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Pundit
Post by Mike A on Apr 28, 2018 11:44:07 GMT 12
The sound is not bad, a touch thin and a little bass light but far from unpleasant. I listen to internet radio on it in my main system so it is mainly running in the background and for that it is fine but not for anything more critical.
I have used it into a Copland CSA 14 and Usher S520s and it was more than acceptable.
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