Today I received my D10. On this lousy pic you can see it attached to the Raspberry Pi 3 B+. As you can see it is still "work in progress" as I'm still waiting for the case to arrive. 
But ok, as everything is fully functional I decided to make a short write up to describe my impressions so far.
As it happens, D10 found it's place near the rest of my AV equipment in the living room, but far away from any comp to be hooked up via USB cable. For that reason I choose to pair it with the Raspebrry Pi running Volumio. This makes it possible to reach the D10 through the UPnP renderer capabilities of the Volumio, which is connected via Ethernet to my home network. On the same eth switch there is a NAS where my music collection is stored, 5GHz WiFi hotspot, internet gateway and some other equipment.
D10 is connected via RCA to my Rotel preamp and via coax SPDIF to my AudioAero preamp. Raspberry Pi is plugged in Orvibo WiWo smart socket so I can turn it off with my mobile after use.
I'm using Linn Kinsky as a player (UPnP control point) on my Win10 laptop and BubbleUPnP on my Android phone. Once I choose what to play those 2 are not really doing anything as UPnP renderer (Volumio running on Raspeberry Pi) is actually doing the playout fetching files from NAS and sending them to the D10 via USB. Kinsky and BubbeUPnP remain in sync meaning you can switch from one to another seamlessly. In my other room I've got Denon HEOS soundbar which I can also use to play music in that room as it also acts as UPnP renderer. I'm using Synology Media server app as UPnP server.
From the D10 perspective everything works nicely without any clicks, dropouts etc. - PCM works fine all the way up to 384/24 and DSD works only as DoP (64 and 128), as Volumio kernel uses ALSA library which requires each and every DAC (manufacturer & product ID) to be entered into it's database so it doesn't recognize D10 as DSD direct capable device.
Now, regarding the sound quality: before D10 I was using SkySong USB bridge which sent audio over SPDIF to my Rotel so the internal DACs were used. Now, as D10 is doing the DA conversion and sending the analog signal via pair of beautifully crafted Mogami cables the sound stage is much wider and deeper, bass got tighter with more definition, mids are much more natural and highs are crisp as.. Huh.. Lost my inspiration here!
Nothing of this holds the truth, of course. The truth is I can't really tell the difference between the Rotels DAC chips and D10. Some 12 years ago Rotel's AKM DACs were considered state of the art technology and while they don't have as fancy specs as D10 they were still doing the job good enough not to be heard. I am, however, still very happy with my D10 as it enabled me to put together the missing link between my Rotel and AudioAero amps and my music archive now residing on my NAS server.
But ok, as everything is fully functional I decided to make a short write up to describe my impressions so far.
As it happens, D10 found it's place near the rest of my AV equipment in the living room, but far away from any comp to be hooked up via USB cable. For that reason I choose to pair it with the Raspebrry Pi running Volumio. This makes it possible to reach the D10 through the UPnP renderer capabilities of the Volumio, which is connected via Ethernet to my home network. On the same eth switch there is a NAS where my music collection is stored, 5GHz WiFi hotspot, internet gateway and some other equipment.
D10 is connected via RCA to my Rotel preamp and via coax SPDIF to my AudioAero preamp. Raspberry Pi is plugged in Orvibo WiWo smart socket so I can turn it off with my mobile after use.
I'm using Linn Kinsky as a player (UPnP control point) on my Win10 laptop and BubbleUPnP on my Android phone. Once I choose what to play those 2 are not really doing anything as UPnP renderer (Volumio running on Raspeberry Pi) is actually doing the playout fetching files from NAS and sending them to the D10 via USB. Kinsky and BubbeUPnP remain in sync meaning you can switch from one to another seamlessly. In my other room I've got Denon HEOS soundbar which I can also use to play music in that room as it also acts as UPnP renderer. I'm using Synology Media server app as UPnP server.
From the D10 perspective everything works nicely without any clicks, dropouts etc. - PCM works fine all the way up to 384/24 and DSD works only as DoP (64 and 128), as Volumio kernel uses ALSA library which requires each and every DAC (manufacturer & product ID) to be entered into it's database so it doesn't recognize D10 as DSD direct capable device.
Now, regarding the sound quality: before D10 I was using SkySong USB bridge which sent audio over SPDIF to my Rotel so the internal DACs were used. Now, as D10 is doing the DA conversion and sending the analog signal via pair of beautifully crafted Mogami cables the sound stage is much wider and deeper, bass got tighter with more definition, mids are much more natural and highs are crisp as.. Huh.. Lost my inspiration here!
Nothing of this holds the truth, of course. The truth is I can't really tell the difference between the Rotels DAC chips and D10. Some 12 years ago Rotel's AKM DACs were considered state of the art technology and while they don't have as fancy specs as D10 they were still doing the job good enough not to be heard. I am, however, still very happy with my D10 as it enabled me to put together the missing link between my Rotel and AudioAero amps and my music archive now residing on my NAS server.
Last edited:
