07-31-2018, 05:55 AM
I'm on a somewhat different boat.
I have a fairly good standalone DAC / PRE, a NuPrime DAC-10. It is balancedly hooked to his 'brother' a highly reviewed AMP, the ST-10.
The thing is, my RPi3 B with Moode is connected via a regular USB to the DAC-10. I have compared this with airport express connected via optical to the same DAC and the results are practically indistinguishable.
So I am wondering if I am missing something to jitter or other interferences by using the USB connection and I am contemplating the option of something like Katana. My ideal solution would be a good i2s to optical or coaxial board in the RPi and take advantage of the very good DAC I purchased.
But maybe, the Katana is good enough to use it as the DAC and just use the DAC-10 as a pre. Or even bypass it completely. But it's a bit of a gamble and I could end up spending money on something that could provide no improvement whatsoever (or even prove to be even less refined than the stand-alone NuPrime DAC).
So I'm a debating wether it would be a logical move.
Allo (CDS?), care to venture a guess on the perceived benefits of a break through HAT like Katana over a fairly good external DAC? (By the way, I know cost of equipment is irrelevant and not at all a measure of quality, but if both are reasonably priced, it can be a cmparisson tool or starting point... so unless my DAC is a crime complete rip-off - which reviews claim it's not and my ears as well - it's a $1500 DAC).
It does have two nice non-digitized analog inputs which si could hook up the Katana. Not yet sure if I would see any improvement.
Thanks for any feedback, best regards,
Rafa.
I have a fairly good standalone DAC / PRE, a NuPrime DAC-10. It is balancedly hooked to his 'brother' a highly reviewed AMP, the ST-10.
The thing is, my RPi3 B with Moode is connected via a regular USB to the DAC-10. I have compared this with airport express connected via optical to the same DAC and the results are practically indistinguishable.
So I am wondering if I am missing something to jitter or other interferences by using the USB connection and I am contemplating the option of something like Katana. My ideal solution would be a good i2s to optical or coaxial board in the RPi and take advantage of the very good DAC I purchased.
But maybe, the Katana is good enough to use it as the DAC and just use the DAC-10 as a pre. Or even bypass it completely. But it's a bit of a gamble and I could end up spending money on something that could provide no improvement whatsoever (or even prove to be even less refined than the stand-alone NuPrime DAC).
So I'm a debating wether it would be a logical move.
Allo (CDS?), care to venture a guess on the perceived benefits of a break through HAT like Katana over a fairly good external DAC? (By the way, I know cost of equipment is irrelevant and not at all a measure of quality, but if both are reasonably priced, it can be a cmparisson tool or starting point... so unless my DAC is a crime complete rip-off - which reviews claim it's not and my ears as well - it's a $1500 DAC).
It does have two nice non-digitized analog inputs which si could hook up the Katana. Not yet sure if I would see any improvement.
Thanks for any feedback, best regards,
Rafa.
