Which DAC for an RPI 1B? And what else to consider?

[jonez]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking for some advice around DACs and whether it's worth the investment in my case.

 

I'm thinking of equipping my RPi1B with a DAC.. but I wonder how much I can gain, given that the quality produced by the sound system is only as good as its weakest link. I do have some better BOSE Speakers, but I'm not quite sure how good my amp is. It's some older Sony MHC-701 'all-in-one' thing that I use only on AUX these days. Right now, I'm driving this with a pretty cheap Speedlink Vigo USB sound card (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0042RUGLK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It's noticably better than the onboard sound output of the RPi, but that's easy.

 

And which DAC would you guys recommend to equip a RPi 1B with?

From searching around the net, I'm beginning to get the impression that that the 1B is quite 'old' already and many of the DACs currently available out there are (no longer) compatible. Correct?

The only one compatible I've found so far is the HiFiBerry DAC (https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac-rca/).

 

Did I miss any other compatible DAC?

 

I still like the 'old' guy and wouldn't like to retire it already... but are there any trade-offs to be made when running a DAC on the 1B rather than a newer version like the 3B? I would be a bit surprised if there are (given that everything is digital even in the 1B), but maybe I'm missing something.

 

Thanks much & Cheers!

Jonas