Tír Na HiFi

Anyone know what the difference in sound might be had by using mini coax to hook up I2S verses regular wire. I think RFI is likely to be spewed all over using regular wire. I would think it would have an impact on the sound. Any thoughts? John do you know?

mjock3 wrote:Anyone know what the difference in sound might be had by using mini coax to hook up I2S verses regular wire. I think RFI is likely to be spewed all over using regular wire. I would think it would have an impact on the sound. Any thoughts? John do you know?

In theory coax would be better, but in reality I suspect only over longer runs. Molex micro connectors and so on would be the optimal way to go about it. When I finish experimenting and nail down a final implementation I will look at this, but for evaluation a bit of wire will do on a short run of 50mm or so.

Yes that is the same thinking I have. I wired it up and am running I2S right now. I need a little more time to evaluate it before I comment. But certainly much better than USB. And it is an attractive sound. I had the WaveIO wired using mini coax, that is one of the reasons for my question.

Mark do you have any DSD files? If so are you able to play them?

Well just in case anyone wants to know what I think. The Raspberry PI set up with Volumio and just plain wire for I2S really is amazing. I like the tone better than using WS2012 R1 and Audiophile. The ease of listening is quite nice. Set up the way it is has me curious if it might beat out windows. Though right now for the best sound my windows machine is better. The soundstage is certainly better, placement of performers is better. And with MQn they are things that are just amazing.

The RPI setup though with the Buffalo III is simply amazing. I cannot believe what you get for the money. Can't wait to try the BBB and I2S set up.

Mark

mjock3 wrote:Well just in case anyone wants to know what I think. The Raspberry PI set up with Volumio and just plain wire for I2S really is amazing. I like the tone better than using WS2012 R1 and Audiophile. The ease of listening is quite nice. Set up the way it is has me curious if it might beat out windows. Though right now for the best sound my windows machine is better. The soundstage is certainly better, placement of performers is better. And with MQn they are things that are just amazing.

The RPI setup though with the Buffalo III is simply amazing. I cannot believe what you get for the money. Can't wait to try the BBB and I2S set up.

Mark

You need to reassess that view Mark I think you are jumping enthusiastically in too early you could end up being left with 2 boxes of EMI paper as we disappear off to buy volumio things and buffalo's!!

Tony,

Actually I did think of that before posting. The point I was trying to make is these little linux units are an astounding bang for the buck. At this time I have not heard what one can get out of windows. Though tonally the linux I think is better and it gets you a good portion of the way for very little out lay. Though mind you this is only if you go I2S. Using USB it is not anywhere near approaching windows.

Mark

mjock3 wrote:Tony,

Actually I did think of that before posting. The point I was trying to make is these little linux units are an astounding bang for the buck. At this time I have not heard what one can get out of windows. Though tonally the linux I think is better and it gets you a good portion of the way for very little out lay. Though mind you this is only if you go I2S. Using USB it is not anywhere near approaching windows.

Mark

Are you not using a zuma? It will be interesting to see if your experience holds firm with others especially Nigel who has invested a lot of effort in zumaland. Anyway we can always use the EMI paper like Adam (i.e. wallpaper)

Not exactly a zuma. I have an Asus P8Z77 Pro-V using a low wattage 4 core I5 processor, PP USB, SS HD with separate PS. I also have some of PP sata cable. So it is tweaked, I have Batteries for the SS HD, though I do not always use them. I have some nice Linear supplies for both PP USB and the SS HD. So considering what I have into the Windows unit the RPI comes a long way. Don't get me wrong it does not arrive at least not yet. And accessing music can be taxing on the RPI.

As for the EMI paper, I did what Adam suggested and put it on the door of my circuit breakers and found I could take it off. So I only had a small amount left to use on my computer. Looking forward to it coming in.

I am very much looking forward to what Nige and Aleg have to say once they start checking it out.

rpi + i2s dac+ volumio battery powered would not sound unlike daphile on my audio pc it
just lacks detail and focus what is missing is very small micro details that give a sort of 3d/reality effect

some of the detail in mqn is so good you can begin to notice an odd minor minor fault in vocal or instrument youve never heard before
this makes it real and true
these details cannot be heard with any other system atm

volumio or rune would need to do a similar player as mqn with all the testing etc, but a complete hardware solution should be the ultimate

mjock3 wrote:Yes that is the same thinking I have. I wired it up and am running I2S right now. I need a little more time to evaluate it before I comment. But certainly much better than USB. And it is an attractive sound. I had the WaveIO wired using mini coax, that is one of the reasons for my question.

Mark do you have any DSD files? If so are you able to play them?

Hi Mark

I have never found any DSD files of music I want to listen to, so never really bothered. I have a fair few 24/192 albums and those sound very good - but so do 16/44.1 files. I don't think DSD is working in this setup yet. It is something Russ White want to resolve and I believe is working with the Volumio and Rune guys to progress. It just needs someone to write the right drivers into the Linux system.

I am not currently using either of those players, though. I have piCorePlayer running, using the LMS server I installed on the office pc for JLP as library. This means only a tiny Linux kernel and Squeezelite are running on the RPi. I still say this knocks MQN and Windows All Comers into a cocked hat but I probably never invested the time to optimise as much as some of you guys with server core and such.

I read a report from one of the develops (I think) saying that measurements had shown that RPi was significantly worse in terms of electrical noise on the I2S lines than the BBB. I may explore isolating the earth on the Pi from the Buffalo, but moving to the BBB is probably the better solution.

Glad you're liking what you hear though.

Maybe I should start trying to get Gordon to ditch all this faffing with Windows KS and get down to reworking Squeezelite on Linux. :-)

Mark