Raspberry Pi as Digital server

mkelly99

New Member
Sep 13, 2017
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Hi all, I am new to the forum. I don't see a lot of activity around the Raspberry Pi as a serious component in an audiophile setup. Is there much interest in using the Pi as a digital transport? Add-ons like the HifiBerry Digi+, Allo Digione or Pi 2 Design 502DAC seem to be a very cost effective choice versus a dedicated network streaming box. There are others, but those three offer isolated EBU and/or SPDIF as well as dedicated low jitter clocks. How would folks compare that to a CD transport or a PC via USB? The Pi gives you networking, storage (albeit USB 2.0) and there are a number of players that offer access to internet streams.

My company makes audio add ons for the Pi, but we are new to the audiophile side of things. We are trying to see if pushing the audio quality, both digital and analog, higher is worth the effort. Maybe the Pi is only for DIY'ers and hobbyists, not serious audiophiles? I would love to hear thoughts from more experienced members.

Cheers,
Michael
 

mcduman

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2014
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250
hi michael,

thanks for posting at wbf. I am familiar with your work and closely follow the thread over at sbaf, though i have not had my hands on a 502 yet

i use a headless pi/hifiberry digi+ as my primary source for streaming tidal for over a year now. never have i been more excited about a product in my 20+ years in the hobby. the product is revolutionary and the community is peerless. i take the pi to friends, to audio events and even give it as a present to younger enthusiasts. i am surprised the pi and the hats you have mentioned are not universally embraced as viable alternatives to mainstream digital servers.that is probably because the out of the box experience is not that great and most people are intimidated by the linux stuff. plus you do not see them at audio magazines or hifi shows. and at $100 and without a huge linear power supply, nobody takes them seriously. may be somebody needs to come up and package it more as a finished product without the acrylic case etc but in an aluminum casing and lps.

i have had three generations of totl esoteric cd/sacd transports and yes they look & sound a lot better but i will never buy a 4th one. i am not interested in pi dacs either. pls continue to develop digital hats like the 502 ( i know it is superior to hifiberry) and help the revolution.
 

Alstonroy

New Member
Sep 14, 2017
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I recently bought a raspberry pi for my university project. The purpose was to design a software which automatically detect humans thumbs for the attendance. I am glad i did that project and saw for this first time how a raspberry pi can work in different technologies. Still I am eager to know more about them in details that why I am searching lot in internet even I visit all the first 10 pages of google to gather as much information as I can.
 

wisnon

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Dec 12, 2011
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For audio, the key for absolutist SQ would be separate audio grade LPSUs for mobo, chipset, SSD with OS, SSD with music and USB output. That means 5 LPSUs so not cheap. At a minimum the mobo/processor must be isolated and perhaps an Uptone LPS1 can be used to power the peripherals. HD Plex or Keces for the mobo? Maybe couple LPS1s could do the whole Job at $800 in total, as the pi3 needs only 5v x2.5amps =12 watts.

Edit. Ultracaps LPS1 can only do 1.2amps max short burst 1 amp continuous...so only good for the SSDs and the usb out.
One would need a Keces, Paul Hynes SR3-5, TeraDak or HD Plex or something else for the 25w Rasp P3i.
 
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microstrip

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For audio, the key for absolutist SQ would be separate audio grade LPSUs for mobo, chipset, SSD with OS, SSD with music and USB output. That means 5 LPSUs so not cheap. At a minimum the mobo/processor must be isolated and perhaps an Uptone LPS1 can be used to power the peripherals. HD Plex or Keces for the mobo? Maybe couple LPS1s could do the whole Job at $800 in total, as the pi3 needs only 5v x2.5amps =12 watts.

Edit. Ultracaps LPS1 can only do 1.2amps max short burst 1 amp continuous...so only good for the SSDs and the uzb out.
One would need a Keces, Paul Hynes, TeraDak or HD Plex or something else for the 25w Rasp P3i.

It is a point I am still debating with myself. Why putting such effort in the music server and not just on the data after it leaves the server? Why not working just on the serial data link, destroying all vestiges of the much more complicated server electrical noise? I think audiophiles would not mind if their music was delayed by a one or two tenths of second.
 

wisnon

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I think you cant put the genie back in the bottle. Once you pollute the music signal you can only do so much as some noise remains buried in the music signal itself. No?
 

microstrip

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I think you cant put the genie back in the bottle. Once you pollute the music signal you can only do so much as some noise remains buried in the music signal itself. No?

Not with digital signals. You can completely forget about the history of the signal. Imagine you save the bits coming from the server in a SDD card - the history (noise signature) of the server will be forgotten.
 

wisnon

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Oh, i see what you mean...not a live current stream but a delayed cleanup. You could be right...at least for jitter.
 

microstrip

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Oh, i see what you mean...not a live current stream but a delayed cleanup. You could be right...at least for jitter.

And server noise. It is perfectly feasible to create such systems with an acceptable delay.
 

spiritofmusic

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Jun 13, 2013
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Can you guys please look at the Acuhorn R2R streamer at www.acuhorn.pl > r2r for €3.5k.
It's a one box streamer/R2R dac, using a series of Rasberry Pi's in the server section.
I have no idea what this means, good, bad or indifferent?
And even whether it runs Roon
 

BobShermanEsq

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Sep 28, 2015
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Are there any add-ons like the HifiBerry Digi+, Allo Digione or Pi 2 Design 502DAC for ASUS Tinker Board? Any advantages over RPi?
I do not see advantage to using another board vs the Pi. You really do not need much cpu power to run a Pi endpoint. Also the Pi has excellent software support do to its popularity. With other less popular boards you will pretty much on your own.
 

abrich

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Mar 6, 2012
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In my understanding, Ethernet and USB share the same bus on RPi, and separate on Tinker Board. Not sure if this is significant, but probably is in case, for example, both are using DASD...
 

BobShermanEsq

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Sep 28, 2015
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In my understanding, Ethernet and USB share the same bus on RPi, and separate on Tinker Board. Not sure if this is significant, but probably is in case, for example, both are using DASD...
Yes that is a negative regarding the Pi if you were connecting a USB DAC. When you use a Pi hat the hat is connected using I2S, and the Ethernet post connects to the network so you are not dealing with shared bus.
 

abrich

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Mar 6, 2012
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Thank you, Bob.

Please consider a typical use case when a DASD (USB drive with Hi-Rez music files, e.g.) connected to a USB port and Ethernet port is used to connect a laptop running the appropriate controller app.
In my understanding, Tinker Board based solution, in case add-ons like the HifiBerry Digi+, Allo Digione or Pi 2 Design 502DAC do exist for ASUS Tinker Board, should have an advantage over RPi.
Please somebody knowledgeable help me understand what I am missing...

I am very sorry for asking such trivial questions, but I am not a technical Guru, just want to get a better understanding of the situation...
 

BobShermanEsq

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Sep 28, 2015
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Thank you, Bob.

Please consider a typical use case when a DASD (USB drive with Hi-Rez music files, e.g.) connected to a USB port and Ethernet port is used to connect a laptop running the appropriate controller app.
In my understanding, Tinker Board based solution, in case add-ons like the HifiBerry Digi+, Allo Digione or Pi 2 Design 502DAC do exist for ASUS Tinker Board, should have an advantage over RPi.
Please somebody knowledgeable help me understand what I am missing...

I am very sorry for asking such trivial questions, but I am not a technical Guru, just want to get a better understanding of the situation...
In the case you describe,yes a board with Ethernet and USB not on the same bus on paper looks to be a bit better. But realistically the Ethernet in your case will not have much traffic, you are not streaming any data, just control, so either should work well.
 

abrich

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2012
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Thank you very kindly for your help, Bob!

Still, are there any hats for the Board?
 

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