Dummies Guide to Pi2AES! Throw away your PC or laptop.

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Jan 29, 2020.

  1. leafy

    leafy Facebook Friend

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    I use the LHY that outputs duo 24V, the sound is beautiful.
     
  2. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    That is enough to run the PI2AES. It might not be enough to also run the pi, so try powering the pi separately and remove the pi_pwr jumper on the PI2AES.
     
  3. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    So with Jumper removed, I will still send 12v or shall I send only 5v to Pi2AES HAT ? Also will the power adapter of Pi in anyways pollute the Pi2AES HAT even if HAT is separately powered by LPS?
     
  4. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    12V to the PI2AES, 5V to the PI. This will actually reduce the noise from the PI a little.
     
  5. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    But try it also powering both (jumper installed). 12 W is likely more than enough to power both 3B+ and HAT (been using 24 V 500 mA = 12W myself with a 3B, which has slightly lower power consumption than the 3B+, without any problems). Some listeners report differences (and different preferences) with a single supply vs separate Pi & HAT power, so you might like to play around and see what you think.
     
  6. dericchan1

    dericchan1 Acquaintance

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    I have tried 1) powered mine with an Afterdark LPS 24V1.67A with jumper installed 2) Same Afterdark LPS to power the PI2AES and a IFI power x for the RPI4 without the jumper. I honestly could not hear any differences. its more work to turn on and off two devices VS 1 device tho.
     
  7. ColdsnapBry

    ColdsnapBry Almost "Made"

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    Sorry, this might be an incredibly dumb question, but I'm a bit new to streaming music.

    I've got a small office / music room. One corner sits my desk with a simple desktop headphone setup for work and games. On the other side of the room I'm putting a rack with big boy gear. I'm just working out how I can play music that's stored on the computer on the other side of the room and possibly control song selection and playback through something like a tablet on Foobar. Will the Pi2AES with the right OS allow me to do this?
     
  8. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Pretty much, yep! I just have the one desk so don't strictly need wireless functionality but have been looking at this pretty closely just to break away from relying on motherboard USB for sound quality. Also, just being able to shoot instructions from my phone would be an immense quality of life improvement.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-to-pi2aes-throw-away-your-pc-or-laptop.8878/

    From the OP (emphases by me):
     
  9. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Not sure if Pi2AES is affected by this, but the current shipping pi 4 (revision 1.5) have a HAT power delivery issue that makes them incompatible with stuff like hifiberry Digi+ pro that gets power from the pi.

    Since Pi2AES can get power separately I imagine this wouldn't be that big of an issue, but something to keep in mind.

    Learned this the hard way after hours of troubleshooting last night and this morning. Finally found a blog post by hifiberry detailing the issue.

    This was after hours of troubleshooting just to get it to boot moOde. Apparently you need updated boot files, so I copied them from the latest Raspbian release and overwrote the ones in moOde.
     
  10. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Well now, that’s what you get for using one of our competitors! ;)

    seriously though, thanks for the info and you are correct that it won’t impact our board.
     
  11. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Very true Michael. I really respect you and your company but I can't bring myself to spend Pi2AES money.

    Also to be fair, I did buy the hifiberry hat back in 2019 before I even knew about pi2design.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2022
  12. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    @Michael Kelly could this be used with the Pi2AES? You mentioned it is 5V and this comes in 5V (or any customizable voltage), and is for DC devices and seems more robust than a NoiseNuke and also cheaper than I paid for my NoiseNuke build due to custom case work.

    https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOq3cKY

    If it would work, it's only $50 and could be a nice answer for people wanting a power supply for the Pi2AES . It also comes with a 2.5mm barrel connector which I think is what would fit the Pi2AES.
     
  13. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    PI2AES requires a minimum of 19V and a maximum of 32V.
     
  14. albert cheung

    albert cheung New

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    An update on my i2s experience with the pi2aes and gustard x26 pro. I managed to find a shorter 1 meter hsmi cable made by d-link that i was using on my bllu ray player. When i compared the i2s connection vs the aes, i now prefer the i2s connection. The i2s connection now sounds more detailed, better separation with more punch.The is2 connection sounds a touch louder in volume which could effect my impressions.Even though the differences between the two inputs are not huge, it is noticeable, Now to try better hdmi cable. Has anyone tried the audioquest cables?
     
  15. miter53

    miter53 Friend

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    That's $50 + $50 shipping. I got this one for $80 total
    https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002281487107.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.0.0.21ef1802pJJByn
    and it's working fine. It's 30w vs 120w, but 120w is kinda overkill I think.
     
  16. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    I would be very, very surprised if what is considered a “better“ HDMI cable makes any audible difference. The thing to understand is that I2S over HDMI has a maximum frequency of approximately 25 MHz. Standard HD video over HDMI is over 1 GHz! It would be very hard for any cable to ruin those signals.

    As always, beware the placebo effect.
     
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  17. haywood

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  18. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    things to consider are:

    1. Quality of capacitors

    2. Wire gauge being sufficient to deliver current

    3. Proper grounding and protection circuitry around high voltage AC input.

    Buying a high-quality toroid of a similar size to what’s in that power supply is about half of that price. At $50 there just isn’t enough money to buy the better parts. I’m not talking nosebleed priced parts, just solid commercial temperature/voltage rated components.
     
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  19. dericchan1

    dericchan1 Acquaintance

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    Michael brought out some truly epic points when it comes to power supply. It is definitely something you do not want to cheap out on. You are much better off just using the stock meanwell psu which is already pretty decent solid and low noise.

    Deric
     
  20. Wobbletits

    Wobbletits Facebook Friend

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    I was going to use the stock meanwell psu but I have unused transformers and pcbs and some time before my pi2aes hat will ship so I'm thinking I will try out this goofy chassis that I am considering for another project and comically overbuild a psu while I am waiting. I can always change out the toroids and voltages and use it for something else later.

    Additionally I've never seen one of those cheap chinese R cores that didn't overstate their VA rating, though this is with a sample size of 5.
     

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