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This seems so weird to me. Does the hifiberry outperform something like an iPod touch which has a really good DAC and gives you a perfect touch screen for $199?

by jiofih 6y ago

binbag 6y ago
You have to have quality on every link in the chain. What's the highest bitrate iPod supports and what are the specs of its DAC?
- jiofih 6y ago
  -120 dBV noise floor, absolutely flat response curve, near zero output impedance, stable voltage, 0.002% THD (-100/120dB), it can play FLAC 24/96 The iPod touch specs are slightly better than an iPhone, and some old classic models were even better. couldn’t find the hifiberry specs sheet to compare. I imagine it’s not necessarily worse, but wondering is the whole setup worth the trouble?
  - binbag 6y ago
    I think you can totally do what you're saying and the user interface will be great, although local to the speakers. I'm not sure if iPod DAC can actually faithfully process 24/96? If so, that's an option via flac. Once you add speakers to your set up, you're looking at the same price as the chain I suggested. The benefits of going the hifiberry route are: - You connect from any device on your network and tell the pi to stream - either from a local NAS or from a hq streaming service like tidal - It can pull and faithfully process 24/96 master streams and MQA - You don't need to use a user interface on the device itself or load files onto it - Bit of hobbyist fun
vineyardmike 6y ago
> hifiberry outperform something like an iPod touch For anyone looking for an alternative to Hifi berry that still uses a pi: USB Dac (eg. from schiit, or toppings). You can get great ones for $100 or drool-worthy ones for thousands... the input is digital so (with some exceptions) they all work well with a cheap pi connected to internet.
- dTal 6y ago
  I use a cheapy USB soundcard that cost about as much as a soup and sandwich. Sounds totally fine, but it has TOSLINK output too so the DAC hardly gets used anyway. I don't understand why anyone would spend hundreds or thousands on media players and soundcards. Save it for the amp/speakers!
dTal 6y ago
Or a Zipit Z2 - same DAC, a fraction of the price, and comes with a keyboard! Sure it's only got 32 megs of ram but how much do you really need to play audio?
GoodJokes 6y ago
Yes it does. You are e paying for a lot more than a DAC with an iPod and a DAC is more than chip.

This seems so weird to me. Does the hifiberry outperform something like an iPod touch which has a really good DAC and gives you a perfect touch screen for $199?

by jiofih 6y ago

This seems so weird to me. Does the hifiberry outperform something like an iPod touch which has a really good DAC and gives you a perfect touch screen for $199?

binbag 6y ago

You have to have quality on every link in the chain. What's the highest bitrate iPod supports and what are the specs of its DAC?

jiofih 6y ago
-120 dBV noise floor, absolutely flat response curve, near zero output impedance, stable voltage, 0.002% THD (-100/120dB), it can play FLAC 24/96 The iPod touch specs are slightly better than an iPhone, and some old classic models were even better. couldn’t find the hifiberry specs sheet to compare. I imagine it’s not necessarily worse, but wondering is the whole setup worth the trouble?
- binbag 6y ago
  I think you can totally do what you're saying and the user interface will be great, although local to the speakers. I'm not sure if iPod DAC can actually faithfully process 24/96? If so, that's an option via flac. Once you add speakers to your set up, you're looking at the same price as the chain I suggested. The benefits of going the hifiberry route are: - You connect from any device on your network and tell the pi to stream - either from a local NAS or from a hq streaming service like tidal - It can pull and faithfully process 24/96 master streams and MQA - You don't need to use a user interface on the device itself or load files onto it - Bit of hobbyist fun

vineyardmike 6y ago

> hifiberry outperform something like an iPod touch For anyone looking for an alternative to Hifi berry that still uses a pi: USB Dac (eg. from schiit, or toppings). You can get great ones for $100 or drool-worthy ones for thousands... the input is digital so (with some exceptions) they all work well with a cheap pi connected to internet.

dTal 6y ago
I use a cheapy USB soundcard that cost about as much as a soup and sandwich. Sounds totally fine, but it has TOSLINK output too so the DAC hardly gets used anyway. I don't understand why anyone would spend hundreds or thousands on media players and soundcards. Save it for the amp/speakers!

dTal 6y ago

Or a Zipit Z2 - same DAC, a fraction of the price, and comes with a keyboard! Sure it's only got 32 megs of ram but how much do you really need to play audio?

GoodJokes 6y ago

Yes it does. You are e paying for a lot more than a DAC with an iPod and a DAC is more than chip.