Raspberry Pi music player with I2S out over HDMI

Audio Gear DACs
21

I’ll tell you my experiences in this field because I think there are people who are interested in this subject (I was - and this thread helped me).

I was interested to get I2S audio out of Raspberry because I have PS Audio Directstream dac (with I2S input). I wanted to build a streamer that plays Tidal and sends it through I2S signal to DAC. I followed directions from “linvincible” with Audio-gd HDMI-output module, but nothing happened. I tryed to set “generic I2S” -driver from volumio and other programs. linvincible PM:t to me that he used PiCorePlayer also. I tryed that and it’s generic I2S driver did the trick - red light in Directstream DACs I2S input turned to green! Connection established! But PiCorePlayer is just a “player” that need Logitech Media server, it didn’t really help my goal (alltough I did try LMS an another Raspberry and it worked, but was a kind of complicated).

Then kind of funny thing happened. I booted PiCorePlayer to Raspberry (with generic I2S driver) and green light was on in my DAC. I turned off PiCorePlayer with it’s shut down -command. Green light was still on even when I cisconnected power from Raspberry. Then I booted Raspberry with Max2play -program (sorry Volumio - but it has LMS). Now it recognized Audio-gd module and I could set it as audio output! …And music played beautifully from Tidal!

Haven’t tryed it with Volumio yet, but I belive it may work too!
20150802_193951.jpg

22

Hi Guys,

This solution seems very nice to me (i’m using an Audio-gd DAC with I2S input on my main system).

We still have to find a way to feed “DSD on” signal to ES9018 chip for native DSD decoding.

I’ll take a look a that.

23

Here it is: GlassWare audio LV-regulator as power supply, Raspberry 2 connected to Audio-gd I2S output module. It’s working great and sound is good!
yhdistetty.jpg

1 Like
24

A very nice looking project harbapapa :slight_smile:

Are you still using PiCorePlayer with the generic I2S device setting?

I’ve been testing Volumio and Moode (my preferred player) but none of the I2S drivers are working on them…

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25

Hey member “mrcrowley”. seems that I can’t answer your private message (haven’t been enough active here).

But yes, There is only Glassware LVregulator kit and transformer from glassware store (and power switch).

26

Hi harbapapa!

Would you mind sharing the partslist (details plz!) for this build?
I would really like to duplicate this…! :smiley:

What case did you use? Did you order it with the correct holes or did you make them yourself?

Thanks,
Fredrik

27

I am interested in the same project, as I have a Rasberry Pi 3B and a PS Audio Nuwave DSD. Have people been able to get DSD output working? I see that the Nuwave only does pcm over spdif coax, and I have DSD I want to play.

Has anyone used the new JRiver Id program? My dream would be to connect the Pi to my Nuwave not over the USB, because it sounds awful. I have used Rune, which outputs DSD to the dac over USB but there must be jitter problems or something, because it sounds hollow, lifeless, not
Hifi at all. I’m feeding my Nuwave with an old laptop over USB and it sounds great, but I’d rather use a quiet solution like the Pi rather than spending more $ for a silent HTPC.

Thanks for any help!

2 Likes
28

Hi all.

1st post here.

REALLY interested in the progress of this thread.

I’ve just got my hands on an Audio-GD NOS-11. and went for the I2S/HDMI option.

I’ve going to give the JumpBOX a try to replace a Linn MajikDS, and use the RCA-out for now, but would very much like to have a HAT option of HDMI/I2S.

I suspect there’s a market here…

Cheers for now…

29

Hi There

I saw you have used AUDIO GB input module and I ve found the mapping fro raspberry

But what about the mapping of pins on the AUDIO GD module? Do you have some scheme?

Thanks

30

^
Rashdown_online,

For sure there is a market, after all, we were happy to pay $500-1000 for our I2S dac and will probably pay a comparable amount to supply these with an I2S LVDS signal!

Ther are many of us running single board computers and we try out $50 hats just for the fun of it. All that somebody had to do is pre-solder a hdmi-out module onto an off-the-shelf digi+pro or similar and we will pay whatever they ask :neutral_face:

Anything to avoid soldering :blush:

31

Thanks Invincible!!!
This hack probably saved my system! I had to send in my PS Audio Stellar DAC for repairs, and it came back with a new mainboard, which PS Audio says, “has issues” with Volumio. The issue - it won’t connect via USB with Volumio!
With your pin mapping and that Audio-GD module, I got it to work in glorious 11.2MHz DSD and up to 352.8kHz/24 on PCM. It only does 24 bit on PCM, but Volumio’s resampler takes care of the 16 bit files.
Thanks again!

RPI 3B+ with I2S over HDMI.jpeg

1 Like
32

Would this board be a better way of achieving this these days?

I’m looking for something that does s/pdif and i2s to allow some flexibility in which external DACs i connect it to.

33

That should work and skips having to find the right pin mapping between GPIO and GD Audio’s board, also less/no soldering. No idea if the I2S output will suit your DAC, but that’s for you to try out.
Another option is IanCanada’s HDMI Transmitter board - works fine if you don’t need an MCLK signal or if you can provide the MCLK over U.FL coax.
Do note - running Volumio you won’t get more than 192kHz/DSD64 over GPIO/I2S due to kernel limitations - everything else gets resampled/transcoded.

1 Like
34

Volumio was tricking me about the higher sampling rates (MPD does downsampling/transcoding without reporting it to Volumio’s UI). Now that I have a MCLK signal, my DAC shows the rate on screen, up to 192kHz / 64 DSD. Any higher rates are converted to 192 kHz.

1 Like
35

how did you get mclk in your case? (which board did you change to etc)

36

I have a IanCanada Ultimate FiFoPi between the RPI3B+ and the IanCanada HDMI Transmitter. The FiFoPi provides the MCLK signal via U.FL from two on-board oscillators.

1 Like
37

Check out Pi2 designs Pi2AES. It has multiple outputs including I2S over mini hdmi. Expensive though. I use mine with SPDIF outs. Sounds great.

38

Thanks Terrydactyl for sharing this info, this could be an interesting upgrade for my
Hifiberry DAC+ I use now, I am looking for a 24/7 low power consuming “Roon Endpoint with RopieeXL” that I can connect to my Audio-Gd Master 7 - I2S DAC

I will check it out,

Best regards,

Audio Dandy

39

Looks good! I think it actually ends up being cheaper than the FiFoPi, as it already comes with built-in SPDIFs, and NDK oscillators limited to 192kHz/DSD64 (maybe DSD128?), while the FiFoPi only comes with basic ones to check for proper operation. It does let you change oscillators for reaching 768kHz or DSD1024, but changing oscillators is at least 60 EUR more, plus the hassle - particularly if you have to do SMD soldering!

40

Hi
I have a Project Audio RS DAC that has I2S in through RJ45.
Can anyone please tell me which pins on the pi4 to connect to my ethernet cable to get I2S output from the pi4 Through volumio, or another os?
Thanks and good day