Raspberry Pi I2S to SPDIF Hat

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Michael Kelly, Apr 30, 2016.

  1. HumanFly

    HumanFly Acquaintance

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    I wonder how much better the 1000euro and up highend streamers sound when paired with the Yggdrasil.
    Just did the math: 38 euros for the pi + about 100 for the touchscreen with housing micro sd and such + 225 for the LPS (which Michael tells me I don`t need anymore) + 140 euros for the 502(shipping and taxes are a b++h)= 503 euros. For a system with 7 inch touchscreen, this many options and a sound that is this good it seems a steal.
    Everything else in that pricerange looks shitty or broken in comparisson.
    I say it seems because I have no idea how much better 1000 or even 5000 euro boxes sound. Are they twice as good? Plus I have no idea how much more resolution I could squeze out of the rest of my system. (502pi > Gungnir > Saga > Jotunheim > X14a`s or Nighthawks(yeah I know but I like em)) Ever since I have the 502 my upgrade path has become uncertain. Maybe I should get a second sub, go multibit or start checking out more headphones. Reading about people with an Yggdrasil liking the 502 makes me lean towards the multibit option.
     
  2. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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    Rpi3 35 Euro
    502DAC 65 Euro
    iPower 45 Euro
    TF card 20 Euro
    Audioquest coax cable 25 Euro

    Total 190 Euros fo me

    1 of the most important is the (lack of) space it takes up and electricity it uses.

    I use both laptop & phone as controller
     
  3. HumanFly

    HumanFly Acquaintance

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    That is what I meant to say. Crazy value! You don`t need the touchscreen or the fancy LPS and that is where most of the money went in my case.
    I already had the power supply so I use it. The touchscreen is actually there so that my little daughter can tap the screen and turn off the music to watch cartoons.
    And same as with the power supply: it was already there so I used it but you don`t need it. Also my 502DAC is pre-kickstarter so that also added some euros.

    But let`s take your setup as a starting point and name something that offers the same sound quality and roughly the same options for under 200 euros.
    Good luck with that one! Even if you add all the fancy stuff to the pi it`s hard to beat.
     
  4. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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    It depends what you are looking for.
    Here in HK you can have the Teac NT-503DAB (dual ak4490) for only 600 Euro. My Rpi3/502DAC + iFi iOne is 400 Euro. I am pretty sure the Teac can beat it in terms of SQ.
     
  5. HumanFly

    HumanFly Acquaintance

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    The teac would cost me 750 euros over here. Still way more expensive and alot less flexible.
    Teac is kinda cool I think. Their stuff looks like you can hit people with it without breaking it :)
     
  6. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    The Teac might beat the DAC part of the 502DAC, but I think most people buy it to use as a transport to other DACs. Especially if you want a balanced transport, you don’t have many options and none in this price range. But the DAC part is nothing to write home about.
     
  7. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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    That's why I say it depends what you are looking for. If you want the best of course u can get the sotm sms-200 ultra.
    I guess the non-ultra is a direct competitor at a higher price.
     
  8. Lasollor

    Lasollor Friend

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    I still don’t understand how the sotm is a direct competitor. It can do nothing that an 502DAC can. The great thing about the 502DAC that you can have RCA, BNC, XLR digital output but still listen to music until you save up for a good DAC. You can buy and use it when you start to build your system and continue to use it later with your multi thousand DAC.
    I do think that an RPi/502DAC (or RPi/Eitr) with a Modi multibit is as good as it gets under 1000 usd for a network player DAC combo.
     
  9. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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    I treat both 502DAC or any digi HAT for that matter and sotm are DDC with network streamer included although they have different interfaces. There just aren't many product in this market.
    Keep in mind usb interface supports higher bit rate.
     
  10. HumanFly

    HumanFly Acquaintance

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    I have not yet been able to hear the improvement anything over 24bits promises.
    So I consider myself lucky for now. Maybe when I get better everything I will hear it but that is still going to take a while.
    But it`s true, if you want the 32bits or the DSD256 files you are stuck with USB.
    But I wonder what would sound better 24bit over coax or 32bit over USB.
    I was amazed how big the difference was(in my case - with my setup) when I said goodbye to USB.
    So I can imagine 24bit over a good coax sounding way better than 32bit over USB easily.
    (This is a wild assumption totally unsupported by any facts since I dont hear the difference anyway)
     
  11. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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    That's okay. In the meantime just enjoy the 502DAC which is beyond expectations.
     
  12. bigbear1997

    bigbear1997 Acquaintance

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  13. t3hwx9

    t3hwx9 Acquaintance

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    @bigbear1997 , Adam A5x features the analog balanced inputs, not AES3.
    The correct example for digital-terminated monitors is Adam S2V.
    502DAC should be connected to one AES input and passed through to another monitor via AES3 output.
     
  14. linh0983

    linh0983 New

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    I replaced this cable with 502DAC .
    https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/6-35...108.1000016.1.66050da6phmSXQ&isOrigTitle=true

    [​IMG]
     
  15. strangecargo

    strangecargo Acquaintance

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    @Michael Kelly
    Hey, I received the DAC502 Pro board a few days ago and finally got around to assembling the RPi3 for it today. I'm having issues with the BNC output cutting out intermittently; neither the Yggdrasil nor the DirectStream seem to be able to stay locked to it for more than a few seconds at a time. I tried with a few different cables, in case that was the issue. The Toslink/AES/analog outputs don't seem to be affected by the same issue. At first, I thought maybe this was the issue:

    [​IMG]

    The solder balls for the mechanical supports on the BNC connector weren't connected to the board and allowed a degree of mechanical wiggle that seemed a little excessive, so I attempted to resolder the balls (turns out there aren't pads for them to anchor to), as well as the actual signal leads for the connector, in case that there was a cold solder joint that was causing the intermittent connection. The connector wiggles less now, but I'm still having the same issue with the BNC output being unreliable. Is there anything else I could try, or should I contact you for a replacement?
     
  16. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    We had an issue with an incorrect resistor value causing the BNC output levels to be low. I thought we caught them all but it’s possible we missed one.

    I am out of stock on new boards for another two weeks. We will dispatch a new unit as soon as we can.

    Cheers,
    Michael
     
  17. strangecargo

    strangecargo Acquaintance

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    Cool. Should I send you a PM with my info, or did you figure out who I am? :)

    On another note, my initial impression is that the 502DAC Pro seems to sound a little better (noise floor seems lower) than the 502DAC when used as an AES source. I'm under the impression that all the parts relevant to the digital outputs are identical, though. Are there any relevant differences between the two that could explain the perceived difference?
     
  18. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Possibly. The 502 DAC uses the PCM5122 to provide the bit and word clocks from the NDK oscillators. On the 502 DAC Pro the WM8804 does that work. Theoretically they should be the same. But.....

    Cheers,
    Michael

    Send me an email to [email protected]
     
  19. kida

    kida New

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    @Michael Kelly @HumanFly I need some help.
    Just received the 502 DAC Pro, running the same touchscreen setup as HumanFly.
    Using Volumio, I couldn't get it to play music through the 502 DAC Pro, getting the "Failed to open ALSA device" error.
    Tried remedies from Volumio forum with no success (turn off i2s, restart, select i2s device again, etc).


    Edit: Nevermind. Got it to work now.
    Fiddling around a bit more and choose Hifiberry Digi+ Pro for playback device out of desperation instead of 502DAC Pro.
    Now coax works.
    For using DAC part, I'm assuming we can choose equivalent DAC HAT if problem persists.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2017
  20. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    I did not realize there was a setting for the 502DAD pro! I'm any case, selecting the Hifiberry Digi Pro yields the correct driver for both the digital output and the analog DAC.

    Cheers,
    Michael
     

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