Building a Raspberry Pi-based streamer - a guide for the nervous

The PCB itself is probably designed for 50 Ohm, you might want to check with HiFiBerry.

Edit: HiFiBerry has responded to a similar query prior:

And even Baldr has some comments on the 75Ohm/50Ohm (on the Yggdrasil):

 

Aaah thanks @Grahad2 - I'd seen the Hifiberry thing, but not @baldr's comments. It's funny that the Hifiberry guy isn't completely categorical either, but notes that 50 Ohm will "work just fine". Clearly there's some confusion in the water.

I've been using the Hifiberry-supplied bling-bling one and getting excellent performance, but you know how it is, if you think there's something that's non-optimal... It's nice to know that I don't have to desolder anything.

I guess the rates are so low that the effects of a mismatch aren't crippling anyway- compared to HD SDI and the like.

(Bonus, TIL to look at the dielectric in both the socket and plug. My fairly new Gungnir Multibit also appears to have a 50 Ohm connector, too, despite what the manual says.)

 

So I tried this setup last night and it worked without a hitch. Thanks for the write up kattefjaes. I noticed that the restart after the kernel update took a long time, I thought it wasn't going to boot but it eventually came back. Seems to be a quieter background than when I was running of USB.

I put together a rather lengthy how-to over on head-fi on how to setup a pi as your source and thought I would link this thread so people could have a setup with coax/optical. No dice, taken down in about 2 hours. Even when providing information that could improve someones experience (for cheap to boot) Head-fi censors it and removed my post.

 

I wonder what exactly the thought is over at Head-Fi. That if someone looked around at SBAF their whole house of cards could come falling down? I don't know, maybe something else.

 

Edit - probably an unwelcome thread derail.... Never mind (though it was kinda funny).

 

You're welcome, glad it was helpful! I'm terminally impatient, too, so am usually pinging the machine and fretting a bit, even after a normal reboot.

Don't do that. Jude is very weird about this site. Just keep your head down.

It would still just attract lots of weenies boasting about their daisy-chained USB decrapifiers that cost more than their DACs, anyway. Head-Fi gets a bit tiring like that.




Oh yeah, I updated the posts a bit, with some info on 0.4 beta. It's looking really good now, and works well. The Digi+ Pro is supported out of the box. It requires finding a slightly buried menu option, and an extra reboot, but it's nice and easy. Also, 0.4 fixes the annoying "Add, replace and play" bug. It seems as reliable as 0.3 now for me, at least with the subset of functions that I use. When it 0.4 comes out of beta, I'll try to remember to update, so it only covers 0.4, for simplicity and readability.

 

Hi!

I can not mount my NAS music folder on a mac: mount error(22): Invalid argument Refer to the mount.cifs(8) manual page (e.g. man mount.cifs) .

I changed the directory name several times but it did not work.

Fileshare Protocol: SMB/CIFS
IP: 192.168.0.103
Remote Directory: Music

Hast it something to do with the "cache-none" entry in advanced options? I don't know. What should I do?

Everything else is just working fine. I appreciate any help that you can provide.

 

That's not really anything to do with the subject of this thread- just a problem involving your Mac and NAS. Have you tried googling for the support forums of your NAS manufacturer, in case someone else had the same problem, and there are some workarounds for the (notoriously hit and miss) MacOS CIFS client?

 

@Teddy, does the directory name have any spaces, punctuation characters or accented characters in it?

The other thing you could do is open a terminal window and type:

Code:

tail -f  /var/log/kern.log 

and see if that at least tells you what the invalid argument is.

 

I finally got it to work! (After 5 hours of modding the fstab)

@Kattefjaes, there should be one, if more people run into this kind of stuff.

This killed my soul, atleast it sounds stunningly jitter free with all the customizations. Great write-up. Thank you all for your replies.

 

Yeah, Apple's approach to CIFS is unusual, to say the least. Mac users at work have loads more trouble with SMB/CIFS shares from both Windows servers and Samba servers than the Linux/BSD/Windows users, as a rule.

Sorry you got bitten. Maybe update your post above to indicate what change you made, just in case anyone else has the same problem (despite having told you to sod off with your threadjack ). Really glad that you're up and running.

 

Added a section on cloning a live system.

 

This thread inspired me to pick up a Digi+ Pro kit and an iPower PSU to build a Roon endpoint for my Yggdrasil. Looking forward comparing Plex streaming through my Nvidia Shield TV (via USB) to Roon streaming through the Digi+ Coax.

 

@Kattefjaes et al, I am thinking about upgrading Digi + to Digi + Pro and soldering in BNC connector for Gungnir Multibit. Do you think this is a substantial upgrade or just a side grade?
I am also debating getting a used Aries. I know to Aries is a superior device but it is a lot more expensive and I am using a CDP for the majority of my digital listening.

 

I've never had the non-pro Digi, so I can't really comment how easy the difference would be to hear.

Having two sets of reasonable clocks (for 44.1 and 48 multiples) and transformer isolation are certainly extremely desirable features though- pretty much must haves, where possible. For the price of a Digi+ Pro, it's a bargain.

I'll be honest and say that I didn't notice an obvious difference with the BNC connector- theoretically it reduces reflectance, but eh. I'm not going to indulge in convincing myself of things that I can't hear (too much of that around). However, that nice Mr. Moffat says that it's the best option, so that's good enough for me.

On top of my clock speed tweaks, disabling all wireless/HDMI and using a low noise PSU, it's probably the cleanest source I'm going to get for that sort of money, just don't ask me to pick out each change blind

$40 on a Digi+ Pro while you look for a killer deal on an Aries might not be an outrageous extravagance, perhaps? You could always sell the Pi setup as a going concern to a Modi Multibit owner after- the stable clocks will make a hell of a lot of difference to them.

 

@Kattefjaes are you aware if this build is compatible with Airplay? If so, is a wireless USB dongle required?

I'm looking for something, as cheap and reliable as possible, that will support airplay with a coax-out...

 

Yes, Airplay is supported out of the box - it's just a matter of throwing a switch on the web interface to turn it on.

I don't use it much, as it's the least useful option for my purposes, but it worked when I tried it.

Edit: Hey @msommers - it looks like picoreplayer also has shairport-sync (open source Airport receiver). If all you want is Airport, it could be even better for your needs. It supports the Digi+ Pro OOTB too. Booting from a ramdisk and being more minimal means it might be quicker and more robust (if you don't mind having a go for yourself).

 

Wow, i can't believe how easy it was to get my Pi up & running with Roon. Probably took less than 20 minutes to get it in the case and start playing music.

 

Yeah, if you already have Roon, and have a space in your life for extra inexpensive endpoints, it's a total no-brainer. If you can put together Lego, you can build a Pi.

 

FYI, there's a new experimental Volumio image that supports the Digi+ Pro. I'm planning to try it out in the next day or two.

https://volumio.org/forum/hifiberry-digi-pro-and-allo-digione-volumio-special-version-t6849.html