NanoSound uses Texas Instruments PCM5122 DAC (Burr Brown 112/106-dB Audio Stereo DAC) It is also accompanied by Hifi grade capacitors from EVOX RIFA, WIMA and ELNA.
I like the design/option of separating power supplies for the Pi and DAC. So I can plug a linear PSU to the DAC for a quiet background. Just wondered if you have tested the operations of the buttons and display of the Pro version and see if they would cause any noise?
How about the on-board WiFi, have you tried to use it for network connection? Or it should be disabled. Instead, a WiFi dongle / or Ethernet should be used to avoid interference, similar to HiFiberry?
Hi Daniel, thanks for your interest. Yes, we are also looking into using the same design minus the dac. The challenge would be physical integration with other i2c dacs. We are looking at a stackable solution. Stay tuned
Quiet background is good. As far as noise coming from onboard WiFi interference is concerned, the WiFi noise issue on HFB DAC is pretty straightforward. WiFi on = noise; WiFi off = no noise. While I will hold my judgement until I hear the sound of the synergy of the components of this DAC, I wondered if the following would make this or future campaigns more attractive:
A metal case option
An option of Sabre DAC chip with a higher price point
2 and 3) Thanks for your suggestion - The current version is already very capable audio quality wise and we will get it independently reviewed. But Yes, we will still consider a higher end version, likely reusing the same physical design so that customers already with current version don’t need to replace the case when they upgrade DAC.