my experiences with two usb-dacs and nanosound DAC2

Audio Gear DACs
#1

Volumio works great with my ARCAM rdac und Topping D50s. They´re recognized automatically and everything runs stable. When I depower the DACs, volumio tells me that theyre not recognized but after repowering them and save settings again, everything is fine.

Nanosoung doesn´t work the way I wish. Runs only with the volumioversion with integrated nanosound from nanomesher. Installation as plugin doesn´t work (newest volumio, Raspberry 4, nanosound DAC2).

The powerbutton needs to be powered directly by the usb-plug on the nanosound board. Only powered by the raspberry it doesn´t work.

After switching the dac off and then on again the system doesn´t work and has to be booted again.

Can´t recommend the nanosound DAC2.

#2

Update:

If you take certain things into consideration, it works:

  • you have to power only the DAC on the outer USB-Connector by 5 V with at least 2,5 A
  • don´t connect any other device to the Pi at the same time.

After I got these hints, my system (Pi 4, DAC2 Standard newest volumio with nanomesher plugin) works at least. The power-button on the DAC2 switches the whole system and the sound is really good.

The case I ordered with the DAC2 is a little too tight. Soldering points on the back of the Pi-card scratch an buckle the bottom plate. To my mind no big deal if you can get a good networkplayer for only 140 EUR incl. case, Pi and customs.

#3

I agree with you. Nanosound DAC2 works perfect with older versions of Pi.
But with Pi4 it needs a 5V/3A power supply. Also if you have issues with the sound worth changing the boot config file

 sudo nano /boot/config.txt
change from

dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus
to

dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus,slave=on