PI2AES Digital Audio Shield for the Raspberry PI

[odessamarin]

Thank you Michael,
I will post what issues I had with standard power adapters.
Also looking forward for Aamir input (from measurment).
I really advice him to do so carefully, because what I hear.. (somehow, i do hear things). This digital source going to change everything! It's just unbelievable how holographic it reproduce sound-stage. Amazing.

 

[Soniclife]

For power supplies obviously a high-quality linear or the battery power as you have seen does provide the best performance.

Why can you not make the device perform at it's best independent from the supply quality?

 

[odessamarin]

It's impossible.. It's all start from power supply and will strongly influence all the rest.
But as it is now, it's already solved (at least for me). Battery is the most universal and stable DC source you may get. And just think of it..
Digital source (starting point for any gears..), in this configuration is complementary 100% isolated from AC and anything else..!
Files comes by air (WiFi), power from battery. No wired connections to anything. Just think of it.
And yes, I agree to recharge once a week. No problem at all. But the sound.. hmmmh.
And +1 spare battery, done.. non stop!
Simple and so efficient approach.
Again, no problem for more comfort to use good power supplies. But out of box unit + battery - done! Isn't it cool?

 

[Michael Kelly]

Why can you not make the device perform at it's best independent from the supply quality?

Indeed that would be the goal. However, practicalities such as cost, size, and availability must be taken into account . Any reasonably sized and/or priced power solution on the board is still going to be somewhat sensitive to the noise coming in. The amount of reduction that we can get is significant but not infinite. Once the production version is out there for testing with the new lower noise LT3042’s we will have a better handle on how close we have come to the ideal.

 

[Veri]

after I used simple 12V lead-acid battery (12V 6Ah), it's change everything. It has sound I never ever heard before in my life.

So my massage to other testers and eventual users... before invest to power supply, you may try just standard 12V lead-acid battery first. Amazing sound-stage!

Is this some kind of ASR+head-fi alternate reality? God damn, lead battery = better sound stage?

Enough with the superlatives

 

[Soniclife]

Indeed that would be the goal. However, practicalities such as cost, size, and availability must be taken into account . Any reasonably sized and/or priced power solution on the board is still going to be somewhat sensitive to the noise coming in. The amount of reduction that we can get is significant but not infinite. Once the production version is out there for testing with the new lower noise LT3042’s we will have a better handle on how close we have come to the ideal.

Do you have measurements of the two versions that show improvements?

 

[Michael Kelly]

Do you have measurements of the two versions that show improvements?

I will have them next week when I get the final version in hand from my manufacturing department.

 

[odessamarin]

Is this some kind of ASR+head-fi alternate reality? God damn, lead battery = better sound stage?

Enough with the superlatives

Not alternate anymore. In reality.
Always, so many skeptics out there. I describe what I heard. And you reply, I am just stupid..
I just sorry for you, you have no idea what i am talking about. Thanks for the comment anyway.
I am sure not the last one in this genre... )

 

[Veri]

And you reply, I am just stupid..
I just sorry for you, you have no idea what i am talking about. Thanks for the comment anyway.
I am sure not the last one in this genre... )

I am not calling you stupid, I just do not understand what you are doing at audio science review spouting such a thing, without any methodology of how you would even claim such a thing! This device isn't even operating under the analog domain, why would using, specifically, a lead battery with a digital digital converter change your perception of sound stage??

You have to admit that would make the average person highly skeptical. This is not head-fi, this is not SBAF, this is a forum consisting of people why would, yes, call you out on something like that.

 

[BillG]

Always, so many skeptics out there. I describe what I heard. And you reply, I am just stupid..
I just sorry for you, you have no idea what i am talking about.

Since this forum is full of people with science and engineering backgrounds, subjective assessments will be dismissed in short order, as none of us will entertain them without actual performance measurements to verify the supposed results.

Sorry, homie! That's just how it works around here...

 

[odessamarin]

Since this forum is full of people with science and engineering backgrounds, subjective assessments will be dismissed in short order, as none of us will entertain them without actual performance measurements to verify the supposed results.

Sorry, homie! That's just how it works around here...

Fully understand. Promise will not bother much with my unmeasurable impressions.
But let me go on with some feedback that I think may be useful for somebody else In in this forum...
and who dont like it, please just ignore. Thanks
At the end its not that bad to have in one place measurement and listening feedback.
Let's try at least..

 

[Soniclife]

Fully understand. Promise will not bother much with my unmeasurable impressions.
But let me go on with some feedback that I think may be useful for somebody else In in this forum...
and who dont like it, please just ignore. Thanks
At the end its not that bad to have in one place measurement and listening feedback.
Let's try at least..

Make your listening impressions useful for us and perform a controlled listening test, those results will be of value.

 

[Krunok]

Is this some kind of ASR+head-fi alternate reality? God damn, lead battery = better sound stage?

Enough with the superlatives

I think we still need to give him credit for being original - I don't remember seeing something like that before!

 

[odessamarin]

yes.. thanks. you see.. you can always keep it just for fun if you wish
time will show.

@Soniclife .. yes, will do. And any advices how to do it best are very welcome.

 

[Michael Kelly]

yes.. thanks. you see.. you can always keep it just for fun if you wish
time will show.

@Soniclife .. yes, will do. And any advices how to do it best are very welcome.

It is my understanding that he documented his testing. he showed the various digital boards (our Pi2AES, our 502DAC and the Allo Digione Signature) along with the various DAC's he used. Perhaps he needs to create a matrix of his listening impressions and document if it was blind testing. Perhaps that would allow all of us to draw more useful conclusions.

 

[odessamarin]

Yes, will do this for review. It was just a post to say testing is going on.. and to exchange some points that may help me for testing as well.

 

[Soniclife]

yes, will do. And any advices how to do it best are very welcome.

Level matching should not be a problem with these devices, so the main thing to control is that you have no idea which device is playing at a time, and it needs to be double blind.
Can you list the kit you want to use and test. Do you have some initial ideas on how you can have a device playing without knowing which is which?
Do you have a device with multiple inputs that can switch between them to test the 2 devices? Can you use roon or similar to sync playback to both devices at the same time?

 

[odessamarin]

Up to now, to compare this 4 boards, I used Dave DAC.
Yes It has many inputs to rapidly change them. 4x BNC, AES, Optic..
Blind test, need to wait for my son coming back from vacation. Will be done but later. Also curious..
The main issue I found is to give similar good power source for all candidates.
Even someone here not believe me... 2 normal 12v adapters just fail, i was colse to write to Michael that PI2AES is nothing special.
I gave it last chance and just plug to 12v battery. To my surprise it worked our perfectly.
Overall this is power settings at the moment:
Digione - 5V power supply from Allo
DigiOne SIgnature - 4x li-ion battery pack (Allo) for board + 5V power supply from Allo
DAC502 - 5V power supply from Allo
PI2AES - 12v battery (PI2AES+RPi)

 

[Soniclife]

Yes It has many inputs to rapidly change them. 4x BNC, AES, Optic..

Any way you can think to sort of randomise which input is active at a time? If you can be set up to switch between 2 inputs on a single button press then pressing that button a bunch of times might get it so you don't know which is active, especially if you can master half pressing the button so it only sometimes works. I prefer to not have to bother another human for this sort of thing, so I can do it when I want to and not when they are available, but it's not often possible.

 

[odessamarin]

Any way you can think to sort of randomise which input is active at a time? If you can be set up to switch between 2 inputs on a single button press then pressing that button a bunch of times might get it so you don't know which is active, especially if you can master half pressing the button so it only sometimes works. I prefer to not have to bother another human for this sort of thing, so I can do it when I want to and not when they are available, but it's not often possible.

Yes, I can take identical BNC cables and randomize them at the DAC input part. This way I should not know who is who.. do listening and write down preference for ch1 and ch2. then see. And repeat. Should work.
To play same track I use Volimio same vertion for all units. And try to stream same track simultaneously by WiFi. Works well.