I’ve got a RPi2 HFB Pro+ setup with a separate PSU for the HFB analog stage, and yet I’m curious to know whether the Kali/Piano/PSU combo would sound any better. The obvious way is to spend €140 to provide the kit and then compare the sounds, but… That’s more than the total cost so far, and that’s a lot of money for a leap of faith. So, selfishly, I ask if anyone has already made this leap of faith and is still able to comment on the results?
Thanks in advance,
Chris M
Great question! Very interested as well to find someone that actually did this comparison. Anyone?
I haven’t made the leap either (using a Digi+ and external DAC).
To make it maybe even harder, what PSU’s are you using now? As the impact of the used PSU might be even bigger than switching to Kali/Piano (if that improves the I2S over the HFB). I am thinking about the Sbooster.
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I am obviously biased…and I wont comment on any hardware thats isn’t made by us.
I can only tell you about our hardware.
Kali , is nothing but a (super) clock. We have designed it with one goal in mind. Low jitter. Heavy filtering , Japanese NDK oscilators , 3 LDOs give you a jitter thats better than 4ps.
Piano/ Piano 2.1 has the same philosophy . 2 different filters …one for analog and one for digital. 2 separate LDOs…one for analog and one for digital.
Thin film resistors on analog stage.
Regarding the quality of sound…I think there are many reviews on how our hardware sounds… no matter what you chose, enjoy the music 
Currently, I’m using straight-forward Pi supplies; the one powering the analogous side of the HFB is a cheap&cheerful USB device, since Daniel was kind enough to note that it needs no great amperage…
The available musicality from the HFB caused me to sell the Musical Fidelity V-DAC 2 + V-PSU 2, and the extra analog supply made it sound slightly better. What difference better PSUs would make is now unknown, as I am almost completely lost on the subject. I know I can spend the earth to power stuff but price/performance is an important thing.
“…it seems to be different, bit more clarity.”
This looks like a simple HFB Dac+, not the powered HFB DAC+ Pro I’m using, but even with that I’m unwilling to
more than double the investment simply to (maybe) get a bit more clarity. Does the Kali/Piano combo beat a Chord Hugo or 2Qute? If not, they’d be the next things I’d look at…
Chris M