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Modest DAC for Raspberry Pi - HAT card or USB?

Ziradog

Ziradog

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have several Raspberry Pi' 3s that I am using as music streamers. Two have Hifiberry Dac+ HAT card DACs, one had a first-generation Dragonfly USB DAC. The Dragonfly is getting re-purposed, so I need to get some sort of replacement. I was using Volumio on some, Rune Audio on others, but am in the process of changing over to an LMS system using piCorePlayer, if that matters. So the question is, should I look at another card type DAC or go with another USB DAC? Not looking to spend a lot, $50-ish or preferably less, these are for garage and bedroom systems, but do want to maximize sound quality within the budget. Probably don't want another Hifiberry DAC+ just because I already have 2, but I would like at least that level of sound quality. Is there an inherent loss in going through USB? Thanks for any input.
 
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An obvious potential improvement would to replace your source-clocked DAC with one that uses destination clocking, to reduce sample jitter.

The hifiberry DAC+Pro provides a clock to the Pi. Or use a USB with an 'asynchronous' data protocol, where the DAC is clock master, and sends data packet requests to the source.

Beyond that fundamental interface difference, you're into the quality of the design and implementation of whatever DAC you choose. Which is independent of the interface type...
 
Yes, I thought about the DAC Pro+ or similar because of the clocking. Price on those is pretty low too. I kind of wanted to try someone else's implementation just to see. Is the destination clocking of a DAC Pro+ inherently better than the asynchronous data protocol of say a Dragonfly USB (admittedly more expensive , using it as a well known example)?
 
Ziradog said:
Probably don't want another Hifiberry DAC+ just because I already have 2, but I would like at least that level of sound quality. Is there an inherent loss in going through USB? Thanks for any input.
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HFB makes nice stuff, but I find that Allo's products sound better. While I use their DigiOne board for use with an external DAC, I know of folks who enjoy using their BOSS I2S HAT.

They seem to get the small details right. Slightly over your budget at $65, but likely better than the others.
 
Ziradog said:
I have several Raspberry Pi' 3s that I am using as music streamers. Two have Hifiberry Dac+ HAT card DACs, one had a first-generation Dragonfly USB DAC. The Dragonfly is getting re-purposed, so I need to get some sort of replacement. I was using Volumio on some, Rune Audio on others, but am in the process of changing over to an LMS system using piCorePlayer, if that matters. So the question is, should I look at another card type DAC or go with another USB DAC? Not looking to spend a lot, $50-ish or preferably less, these are for garage and bedroom systems, but do want to maximize sound quality within the budget. Probably don't want another Hifiberry DAC+ just because I already have 2, but I would like at least that level of sound quality. Is there an inherent loss in going through USB? Thanks for any input.
Click to expand...

For what it’s worth I could not get my Schitt Multibit connected via USB to RPi3 to sound as good as my HiFiberry DAC+. Tried some different USB connects, not much difference.
 
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