mash
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- Oct 8, 2020
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I recently ran across this article on John Darko's site:
https://darko.audio/2021/03/12-more-thoughts-on-the-raspberry-pi-as-spotify-connect-endpoint/
In particular, his point 3, "Using one of the more carefully engineered S/PDIF DDC HATs will deliver superior sound quality to the Pi4’s USB port when feeding the same DAC" struck me as odd. Beyond the point that most DACs support better Hi-rez functionality through their USB interface, I would think that my high performance DAC can deal with most/all issues in the RPi USB stream and using a HAT to add an extra transform into the path would add as many potential issues as it would solve.
Glossing over the fact, that I shouldn't be spending time reading main stream review sites......I'm wondering what people think the best option for using an RPi streamer is.......HAT with S/PDIF out to your DAC or simple RPi (no HAT) USB out to your DAC?
https://darko.audio/2021/03/12-more-thoughts-on-the-raspberry-pi-as-spotify-connect-endpoint/
In particular, his point 3, "Using one of the more carefully engineered S/PDIF DDC HATs will deliver superior sound quality to the Pi4’s USB port when feeding the same DAC" struck me as odd. Beyond the point that most DACs support better Hi-rez functionality through their USB interface, I would think that my high performance DAC can deal with most/all issues in the RPi USB stream and using a HAT to add an extra transform into the path would add as many potential issues as it would solve.
Glossing over the fact, that I shouldn't be spending time reading main stream review sites......I'm wondering what people think the best option for using an RPi streamer is.......HAT with S/PDIF out to your DAC or simple RPi (no HAT) USB out to your DAC?