How is the Pi 4?

[numlog]

After bricking a MoBo im considering selling the remaining PC parts and getting a Pi 4 instead.
Compared to previous Pi it seems to be a big step up in quality while still keeping the simplicity.

Anyone have any feedback on it for audio, specifically for standalone use?

 

[numlog]

A few different reasons. while I think a powerful PC has particular benefits for SQ it also clearly/inevitably has flaws.
I don't like how wasteful is to have all that computing power and only use a fraction of it 90% of the time (I dont use oversampling/conversion of any kind), PC components lose value so rapidly it's better to sell sooner rather than later.
It will be interesting to try something different with the Pi... but that depends if people have anything positive to say about, Will probably just pick up another MoBo if not.

One thing that spurred this on though was a recent discovery that basic SD card+USB adapter made an excellent sounding playback drive, even compared to an Optane SSD... After exploring the high power side of computer audio it's time to explore the low power side.

[numlog]

I didn't realise the 2GB version is so inexpensive, it was only priced more than the 4GB on amazon (probably have excess 4GBs to shift) .  It is a no brainer for sure (ordered one on Ali Express)

The dedicated USB3 chip is one of the big improvements on previous Pi s, very nice to see it has its own 25MHz crystal rather than being clocked by PLL from main clock in  the SoC. Should be better for SQ by default but also opens up the possibility of feeding an external clock (can be hit or miss if this works well/at all since most chips arent designed to accept an external clock via the crystal input).
I can not find the main crystal frequency... hopefully it is not some odd value that you wont find in an external clock

The Wifi+BT chip is not really something you would want unless explicitly needed, though apparently the power to this chip can be disconnected by removing a single diode (I'm doubtful how effective disabling the chip in software alone is), if that's true it's a welcomed addition.
Still needs to be confirmed if A. the diode actually feeds the chip and only it (for one, it also powers the power indicator LED) and B. the Pi still boots without power to this chip.

The upgrade from DDR2 to DDR4 is pretty substantial also, RAM is definitely alongside USB for its influence on SQ and this brings it up to spec with current PCs (in fact at 3200Mhz its 50% faster than my desktop RAM!), I'm too young to have ever owned a PC that used DDR2 RAM...
It was suggested before that more RAM in PCs benefits SQ, even if only a small amount of capacity is used, hopefully someone tests this theory at some point with 4GB vs 2GB

Of course the Pis can be powered entirely by HQ power supplies, and could taken further by supplying some or all of the rails externally ( extreme but super low risk for something this inexpensive and simple, as computers go) but the switching DC/DC converters on board are not  much of a concern to me (assuming the converters used are modern/good and well implemented),  It's mostly they would not be as good at regulating/isolating the input as a linear regulator, so not so good when fed by another AC-DC switching supply.
The practical benefits are massive  (An external supply's performance will even benefit from these converters lightening the load compared to feeding more linear regs),.

 

[numlog]

I will definitely try NAS, with both ethernet and Wifi, just never could see how it could be better than standalone. An active LAN /WiFi interface seems like it would be more or less as harmful as active storage device , and then you end up with more stuff to worry about on sending end of the network. It would be very foolish to dismiss without trying it though, especially when so many seem to like it.

[numlog]

Immediate impression of Pi 4, as expected, was the softness to the sound, similar to an underclocked desktop (or the same since the pi 4 has fairly low CPU speed). Like underclocking It's not really good or bad in terms of quality, just a sound character.
After sometime to pick on the deeper nuances of the sound what became apparent were the flaws of the desktop SQ rather than the Pi strengths, Pi just sounds so much more transparent and cleaner. Maybe there is slight extra detail from the desktop in some ways but it's swamped but how less enjoyable it is to listen to, and Im fairly sure this is down to the upgraded clocking in the desktop and would be surprised if the Pi doesnt completely surpass it when it get's the same treatment.
Pi is powered by 5V linear supply (through onboard DC converters). Desktop had CPU, SSD and USB card with direct linear supplies, everything else powered with a good standard ATX supply.