Pi DAC, External, Digi+ ?

Audio Gear DACs
1

Hey All,

New to Raspberry Pi, had experimented a bit with an Arduino years ago. Poor soldering skills, but have Linux skill.

I’ve been doing research to see if I can make a Wifi NAS music player using Raspberry Pi that may be as good as a more traditional home audio component network music player like the Marantz NA6005 ($650). Any thoughts on this? will never compare to that? or can sound better? I have good stereo equipment, should benefit from small improvements.

The main question of this post is: Which option should I go for of the below options? I will be using the iFi power cable.

  1. Raspberry Pi DAC such as Mamboberry (I like what I hear about the benefits of separate power and this comes with separate power connector already soldered in)
  2. Raspberry Pi USB output to external DAC (I’ll be looking at external Topping D30 DAC or SMSL Sanskrit 6th DAC)
  3. HifiBerry Digi+ Pro output to external DAC using high quality 75ohm mono rca cable

Thanks for any opinions and suggestions!
-Deonild

2

Hi! I think the best option for you is the RPi3 with Allo Digione or 502DAC from Pi2Design (it has a balanced AES/EBU and BNC coaxial outputs and PCM5122 DAC either). I’ve already ordered the second one to replace my old Hifiberry Digi+ with it.
pi2design.com/502dac.html

Frankly if you will go for 502DAC then there is no need for you to waste your money on SMSL Sanscrit or Topping or other DACs of such level because there is no noticeable difference with PCM5122. You can use 502DAC as streamer with DAC, and if you’ll deside to go further, you always can buy a serious dac and feed it from 502DAC via AES/EBU or BNC. And forget about iFi wall charger - it’s a crap. Will be much better if you’ll add extra 50$ for proper linear PSU with Talema transformer.
For example this one
ebay.com/itm/XMOS-TALEMA-Li … 1884774518

Cheers!