Pi2 Design Idiot-Proof Ready-To-Go RPi/AES Streamer

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Michael Kelly, Jan 16, 2021.

  1. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Mercury draws less than 700ma, but that is without SSD and without any devices on the USB port. So 1.1A could work.
     
  2. BlizzardiCleric

    BlizzardiCleric New

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    Having them arrive as one delivery could lower the shipping costs, which would be doubly nice since we pay duties also from the shipping costs. I would be totally fine with waiting a few months.

    PS: I pay attention to the country of manufacture only to get a rough ballpark idea of how closely they work with the people who design the product, or how well they are paid, or how invested they are in the product (not financially, but like having pride in what they do). It's 99% arts and crafts romanticism, I admit. There's so little of it left that you need to cling to what you can. Pi2Design is a "local small brewery" in the audio streamer world. :rolleyes:
     
  3. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I would be willing to wait as well. Two packages means getting slapped with import duties & brokerage fees twice, which is in addition to all the taxes :(
     
  4. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    You are certainly welcome to wait, however I am going to have a limited number of Mercury’s available until the fall and I really can’t predict when I will have the LPS. Certainly in the meantime there are other LPS suppliers that could do the job as well, I would think.

    While I certainly believe our LPS will perform extremely well with mercury, it is not rocket science and there are other options in the meantime. But, as always, it’s your call!
     
  5. ThunderClap

    ThunderClap New

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    Sounds (a little) promising at least. Going to run moode off an SD card, wired Ethernet and AES to Yggdrasil…streaming Qobuz controlled through mconnect.
     
  6. CongoFather

    CongoFather Acquaintance

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    I have been testing Mercury for the last 3 weeks by using Gentooplayer with a Realtime Kernel selected, Ramdisk-enabled (with almost everything on RAM). I use AES output of Mercury and connect it to Devialet220 PRO(use Hifiberry Digi+ Pro driver). My favorite player configuration for Gentooplayer is SqueezeLite-R2 and LMS on Mercury (stored in directly RAM). After I started using LPS instead of its standard power adapter, Mercury becomes more transparent and detailed. I also tried Roon on MacMini with RoonBridge on Gentooplayer and Audirvana(on MacMini) MDPCli UPNP. But it sounds more transparent with Squeezelite-R2 AND LMS when they are stored directly on RAM(RamSystem Mode=5; almost everything on RAM at startup which requires at least RPI4) than the other choices.

    A comparison with the built-in streamer that Devialet 220 PRO(about 7500-8000€) uses with its integrated DAC is not fair. In this case, it also uses Devialet Air protocol and built-in streamer receives the data from the source directly by using the ethernet port (not using AES or USB) and sends it to DAC by using the shortest path(circuitry path). But after I started using LPS with Mercury, these two configurations became very close. The details, instrument separation became almost identical with small differences.

    But there was one major difference which later on I realized that it's completely my mistake. Until last week, I hear that soundstage width and depth is larger with Devialet streamer. But later on I realized that shrunken soundstage depth and width is completely related with the new cheaper jumper cables which I have recently started using(Canare 4S11 – 11AWG - Speaker Jumper Cable). These jumper cables(used diagonal wiring with high-end Echole Omnia speaker cables) give a warmer feeling, more body to the sound(maybe good for vocals). However the soundstage depth and with becomes smaller in size!! I do not recommend them if you have expensive high-end speaker cables. Later on, again I switched back to B&W stock jumper cables(they are just normal) which I feel is much better and Mercury streamer performance comes closer to Devialet streamer performance.

    As a result, I have to admit that Mercury is above my expectations and liked it very much. But I do suggest using it with a good LPS. I have used VolumIO, Moode, DietPi, RopieeeXL, Gentooplayer during my listening sessions. After all, I preferred Gentooplayer between them and paid for its lifetime license.

    My System:
    Devialet220 PRO DAC/Amplifer(has built-in streamer)
    B&W 804D3 with Echole Omnia Speaker Cables, Canare 4S11 – 11AWG - Speaker Jumper Cable
    Sotm SNH-10G switch(powered by S-Booster LPS), Ubiquiti Edge10x switch (fiber optic network connection btw. switches)
    Synology DS214Play NAS (Also installed LMS on Synology but LMS on GentooPlayer RAMDisk sounds better with minimum latency)
    Supra CAT8 Ethernet Cables

    Mercury components:
    Mogami Gold AES-03 XLR Cable
    Supra CAT8 Ethernet Cable
    Supra Lorad MKII 2.5 Power Cord
    ARK LPS
     
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    Last edited: Apr 4, 2022
  7. Zachik

    Zachik MOT XMEMS

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    Michael, any update on the DAC/Amp?
    Do you expect it to be ready to ship around the same time as the LPS?
     
  8. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    Are you guys able to see 5GHz wifi networks? I'm on my third OS, ropieeexl with tidal service installed(works well) and I still can't really see 5GHz wifi networks around me. I have a straight wifi antenna, not a bendable one like on the pi2audio web page pictures
     
  9. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    see if you can grab another one from Amazon. Or we will send you one.
     
  10. Marius Bikelis

    Marius Bikelis New

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    Yes, I was able to connect to 5 GHz WiFi network (my router was showing it is connected to 5 GHz, not 2.4 GHz). I was using moode software if I remember correctly. Everything worked well, large files (DSD) are streaming with no issues. I also have straight (non-bendable) antenna. My routers are Ubiquiti Amplify.
     
  11. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    Can anyone suggest an upgrade antenna that would fit from Amazon?
    My long awaited fully assembled Audial Aya 5 tda1541a dac arrived and the bnc out from the mercury is working great with tidal master/hires output under ropieeexl!

    63A9E6F4-02EE-4039-8E62-D7176AFF5E9D.jpeg
     
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  12. CongoFather

    CongoFather Acquaintance

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    What kind of cable do you use for BNC output? And what's the brand of that cable?
     
  13. Wobbletits

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    IDK if you are specifically asking for the exact cable he is using or you just want to know it's basically expecting the same kind of 75 ohm impedance cable as rca with a different plug ;/
     
  14. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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  15. clipper

    clipper New

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    I'll try an Uptone LPS 1.2 that I have and report back. I don't have an SSD or USB devices attached to the Mercury.
     
  16. uncola

    uncola Friend

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  17. clipper

    clipper New

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    It booted fine and has been playing music for the last 15 minutes or so.

    I'll report back in a few days about whether or not it was stable. It kind of seems like it will be.
     
  18. Baten

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  19. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Mercury Production Update 4/6/22 - First article has been received and tested. There were a couple of minor issues and we will get confirmation from the assembly house to fix them tomorrow. We will also get a new estimated ship date for the balance of 199.

    This first article is now going to @GoldenOne asap.
     
  20. CongoFather

    CongoFather Acquaintance

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    Mercury is cooler with a standard cheap CM4 heatsink. @Michael Kelly, you might consider adding such a heatsink to new developed streamers on-demand.

    [​IMG]
     

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