Odroid N2 sounds great - am I the only one who thinks that

I got my Ordoid N2 out of the drawer and connected it to the big system (Neukomm CDA126S / PA18 Monoblocs, Piega Coax 90.2). I was suprised what I heard when I listened to some good recordings. The Odroid N2 produced a better soundstage, better transients, cleaner bass than my optimized Audio PC with a jCat Femto USB card (also with Volumio). I am floored by the sound quality.
Has anyone else noticed that the Odroid N2 sounds extremely good?

Yep, It should as every DAC connected to the Odroid N2+ sounds terrible. There is a awful amount of noise on their USB ports.

Take form their website,
Sound DAC
ODROID-N2 has an on-board high quality 384Khz/32bit stereo audio line output.
Dynamic range and SNR is near 100dB and Total-Harmonic-Distortion is lower than 0.006%. You can enjoy Hi-Fi sound quality without an external expensive audio DAC.

Signal to Noise Ratio : 1KHz (384KHz, 32bit, 2-ch)

THD + N Ratio : 1KHz (384KHz, 32bit, 2-ch)

Frequency Response : 20Hz – 20KHz(384KHz, 32bit, 2-ch)

Noise on the USB ports, but you are showing graphs of audio lineout to prove it? :wink:

Don’t have a spectrum analyzer here.
The screenshots are taken from herdkernel’s website, from the audio jack. Testing the noise over USB is pretty simple. Take a random song, put to pause and crank up the amplifier. noise/cracks starts here at -22dB. All rPi’s I have (3) stay silent up to 10dB. Even the Wyse :slight_smile:

[Edit]
As my own post started to annoy me, as I can’t recall that it was this bad.
Seems something messed up my PSU. A very cheap and crack free one: The PSU from the Nintendo Wii

Actually I meant that the Odroid N2 sounds great driving a USB DAC
:grinning:
I will check USB noise following your setup tomorrow

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ok, I checked USB noise and I heard nothing at all up to 100/100 volume on my preamp. For casual listening I am at 55 and the volume curve is relatively flat up to 60, then it becomes much steeper.
USB noise doesn’t seem to be an issue to me.

I repeated that test a few moments ago, indeed nothing noticable with volume at 100% with a Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital.
But, I’m using a well rated linear power supply for the N2, could make a difference I suppose.

On the other hand, it is not only Hardkernel with the Odroids N2 (and C4), Khadas also appears to deliver with amlogic based boards and excellent usb performance.
Listening experience is very personal, I can’t exclude usb noise (and the influence of it) as I have no equiment to measure, but with my listening experience I have not noticed anything wrong with Volumio based amlogic usb devices. No stuttering, no dropouts, no glitches. For me that counts as prio 1. Listening experience may very well be guided by it.