Sounds Great - inexpensive, no fancy computer or power supplies

[firedog]

5 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

 

I am curious regarding streaming, have you ever "tried" any comparison of higher end streamers or the use of SOTM or ultras with power supplies? 

I am keeping my opinon open until I have at least tried and not willing to discount it "may" sound better...but what % better  and what cost.

 

I have tried a few different streaming methods, and given the same source, i haven't noticed any appreciable difference (it already sounds damn good)....but i will reserve the position that an SOTM or RENDU with fancy power supply "may" sound better until i actually try it....

IMO, ethernet to USB streamers have one of the steepest curves of cost to SQ in audio. For very little you can get something very good sounding, and improvements from more expensive devices are small, and sometimes they don't exist.  If your DAC has a well isolated and designed USB input, this is especially true, IMO.

[firedog]

1 hour ago, beerandmusic said:

Thanks for sharing...have you actually tried enet->usb streamers? 

I haven't, but i have used much less expensive streamer solutions.

I believe that if you are using a general use non-optimized windows pc to a good dac, that you will likely get better SQ using a streamer.  I haven't tried enet->usb streamers, but realize these are mostly mom/pop type retailers, and am skeptical that they will sound "much better" (esp for the $) than other much less expensive enet solutions that don't claim you need a high dollar PS for better performance.

1. SBTouch
2. SMS-100
3. mRendu
4. Fanless Nuc running standard Windows 10.
5. Raspberry Pi
6. Bricasti-M5
7. embedded streamer in Matrix DAC

Various power supplies, including some pretty pricey ones,  several different USB "cleaners-regenerators" between streamer and DAC, etc.

I think it's a pretty good cross section of the market over the the past decade plus.

 

Again, IME, the most significant factor is the quality of the USB input on the DAC. The streamers, regenerators, and power supplies made a small difference or not one I could consistently notice with a well engineered USB input. I am presently using a Pi4 fed cleaned up power.  Without comparing or blind testing, it sounds fine. Maybe if I directly compare it to an "audiophile" unit I will hear a difference, maybe not. Without that I'm not conscious of anything lacking. Based on impression, my system sounds no less "audiophile" than it did with a front end costing about 25-30 times the price of the Pi. 

 

I will probably upgrade to a Sonore Optical streamer at some point, or an updated Kii Controller/preamp/streamer if they come out with the rumored device -  even though I'm not 100% certain either will improve SQ . There are, of course, reasons besides SQ to change or upgrade a streamer. 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, beerandmusic said:

 

Archimago doesn't host his own music forums does he?  I know he has his blog that i visit at least monthly and see his most recent blog is about this NC252 amp you speak of....I am not a DIY'er...is that available pre-built?  Looks nice!

There are lots of people building them prebuilt: Nord, Apollon, March, etc. Hypex is a great SQ return on the dollar... and will have resell value when you decide to sell it as part of your hobby. 

[firedog]

6 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

 

wow you have tried quite a few streamers...

so the pi is connected directly to a usb dac, and where is the storage and how do you control it? there is no enet streaming in your current solution?

the storage is a pc acting as a NAS. it streams to the Pi over ethernet, the Pi to the DAC via USB. I use Roon. 

[firedog]

1 minute ago, beerandmusic said:

ok, that makes sense then...it's always been my experience that i get best results when streaming...

 

does raat allow you to fast forward and rewind?  or is it kind of quirky like DLNA?

RAAT works really well. You can do whatever you want with it. Not quirky at all - that's the point.

[firedog]

2 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

Does hardware have to support RAAT to work with it?  I guess I am asking will it work with my marantz reciever or would i have to use roon with dlna instead of raat for it to work?  Not sure if that even makes sense??

Are you asking about Roon or a Pi? To get the full functionality of Roon you need a Roon server and Roon endpoint. That is, RAAT.

Roon can also work with a SB endpoint or a Chromecast  or HQP and an HQP NAA, and Airplay. Ropieee is mainly designed to work as a Roon endpoint, but the XL version will also work with LMS or as an NAA.

With a Pi, depending on the OS you install, you can use just about any server software there is. You pick an OS that has the player available that you want and UI you prefer. 

[firedog]

7 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

The problem with the hobby is that you need 3 computers, one for the player, one for the streamer, one for the upsampling and you need lots of power for the upsampling computer, and then you need to worry about heat, and if it's not quad dsd or better, then it ain't crap.  You also need highend power supplies for each computer and fancy cables, and then you need to make sure that the different vendors play nicely with each other...then everyone has their own opinion, and then when  you spend money and time to try to make it sound marginally better, you are unimpressed, and have to start all over again.  It's kind of tiring....it will be nice once a dac can do what it is supposed to do...to isolate noise and to accurately reproduce an analog signal that was previously digitized....it seems like it wasn't that long ago that if it wasn't an r2r dac it wasn't crap.

Or... none of that is true. Let your listening decide, not what you read. 

[firedog]

9 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

Anyway, I am going to cancel roon trial, because i don't want to pay a subscription...it was a nice interface, but going to try volumio for awhile...anyone know if you can use hqp with volumio?

 

 

 

 

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/hq-player-naa-rpi-volumio-help/81407/10

So it can be done. That thread is already old, there may be an official volumio NAA by now, I can't remember. Look in the volumio interface and see if there is one you can download.