DACs

Not knowing much about digital audio converters we started out testing everything we got a hand on.

IQaudIO Pi-DAC+

Texas Instruments PCM5122, 192kHz, 24bit playback, our favorite, made in Scotland (home of Linn),

vivid sound;

onboard headphone amp, hardware volume control (ALSA), easy to add external power.

See our X-7 series mark II prototype regarding a modification we like - a direct supply of 3V3 to the analog power supply pin #8 of the PCM chip elimination the on board LDO.

HiFiBerry DAC+

similar as above, without headphone amp

HiFiBerry DAC Pro

" ... ultra-low-jitter clock ... It comes with its own dual-domain clock circuit which provides 2 separate clocks for 44.1/88.2/176.4 and 48/96/192kHz ...",

It's working well with Volumio 2. One can actually measure the trigger signal for the two clocks...

TecDevice DACBERRY2+ 

Texas Instruments PCM5102A, 384kHz, 32bit, it works, homogeneous sound

TecDevice DACBERRY2+ 

AKM AK4399, 192kHz, 32bit, it doesn't work, needs a master clock (I2S MCK)which raspberry doesn't provide. Let us know if you want it or if you know how to get it to work.

People say it sound really good. Maybe that's because it has two single stage LM317 regulators on board.

PiFi PCM5102 

Texas Instruments PCM5102, 384kHz, 32bit, it works, fit's on raspberry A/B, the sound is quiet and ok.

TecDevice DACBERRY3+ 

Sabre ES9023, 192kHz, 24bit, it works, slight lisp