Raspberry Pi2 and Hifiberry Digi+: A cheap transport that made me happier

Noise problems Galore

https://support.hifiberry.com/hc/en...-HiFiBerry-Digi-Pro-beta-test?page=3#comments

 

Really?
As I stated previously with less than optimal psu my digi+ was making a lot of noise.
With the worst smps I have around while the digi+ gave me lots of noise and horrible SQ the speed2 prototype had great SQ and pitch black background.
Don't know exactly what Micheal's secret sauce is (something between proper grounding and the onboard regulator, I guess) but at this point buying a digi+\pro, even with the double clock, is a waste of money IMHO.
I'll have my friends waiting for the final release of the speed2. You do as you like

 

No need to reiterate that! I think everyone here's on the same page. Having a bit of friendly fun re: hifiberry (just looking at the board we knew it'd be no better)...

And in the mean time, not everyone has a SPD2 (think there's maybe 2 prototypes out there and you have 1 of 'em)

 

so digi+ pro is a bust? What is this spd2 prototype?

 

A bust??? Huh??? Actually sounds very good in my system. Looks like a person had noise issues, but that might system specific.

 

Hi I have no noise problem with my Digi+ Pro.
SQ is very good.

 

Generalization or personal experience won't gather what I said...

I was referring to digi+, not digi pro. Digi pro doesn't seem to improve in psu noise filtration from digi+ or at least it still lacks an onboard regulator.
All I said was that IME (and I did try several ways to power the Pi) powering the digi+ with less than good PSUs can lead to noise issues. I had those issues. They went away using better PSUs and they were replaced by good sound. The speed2 instead gave great sound even with the shittiest PSU I had.

So... Digi pro is no bust, and it will sound good if you have or can put together a decent PSU.
If don't have it or don't wanna get it, I'd stick with Micheal's board, which also happens to have a tonshit of extra features. So why bother in the first place?

 

A proper PS with Digi will be key, I agree. I am looking forward to Micheal's board also.

 

I use ifi iPower with my Pi3

 

Guys, I don't get all the fuss about power supplies...

I have a Digi+ and RPi2 and using old LG cell phone charger and micro USB.
I have ZERO noise issues. I think @Merrick said the same in a previous post.

 

I don't detect noise on mine either, not using an LPS, but that doesn't mean there can't be improvements. Once I get Michael Kelly's hat it won't matter anyway.

 

Does choice of storage (usb stick, usb-powered hard drive, wall wart powered hard drive, all NAS via wifi) have any bearing on noise and SQ when running these Pi plus SPDIF hat setups?

 

I have to say, as much as I like the sound from the Pi with a hat, at times it feels needlessly complicated to get the thing working. I finally got broadband internet at my new place and one of the first things I did was try to set up my Pi 2. After a lot of trial and error I discovered that for some reason plugging my powered USB hub into the Pi before turning it on shuts off the wifi adapter (which never used to happen), and now despite the fact that I have everything set up correctly in the playback section of Volumio, I'm getting no sound whatsoever over SPDIF. I haven't changed any of the playback settings so I cannot figure out why that's happening.

 

I wrote a clean image onto the SD card and now I can't even get it to connect wirelessly. There must be a better way.

Edit: Finally got it working, but jeez, that was way too much work.

 

From the distributions I tried Moode Audio worked best.

I'm using the ifi ipower and it sounds better then the stock Pi psu. The onboard wifi off does also help (Moode audio has a setting to turn Pi3 wifi off).
I'm waiting for the speed2 board now, experimenting with the Pi-Digi is pretty timeconsuming a costly.

 

And now it's back to not connecting today. Am I going to have to get a Lynx with a Thunderbolt enclosure to get satisfying and consistent digital audio? This little box shouldn't be so frustrating.

 

You might not hear it as noise per se, but electrical noise disturbs the clocks that get power from it, which translates into higher phase noise -> higher jitter -> poo.

The fact that Hifiberry HATs don't have much filtration / regulation between the clock and the power source make it very dependent on said PSU quality.

 

I hear the effect of the noise as less separation and positional information: as if my DAC has been downgraded half a generation or so. If I hadn't heard the same setup via SPDIF I'd be sure there was nothing wrong with USB from the Pi.

 

Hi guy,
I don't know what is the speed 2 board ?

 

Got time to read?
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/raspberry-pi-i2s-to-spdif-hat.1990/

Long story short: It's a digital audio hat designed by Micheal Kelly with some request from this community to address some issues with other Dig. Audio Hat and improve the sound and the features (onboard low noise regulator, double clocks 44.1\48 khz, BNC\AES EBU connectors...).