05-28-2021, 03:03 PM
(05-28-2021, 12:28 PM)blarg Wrote: I’ve been running moode on a RPi 3b with a hifiberry DAC+ pro with separate power for several years and was thinking of upgrading to an RPi 4b just because.
At the time an I2S hat with its own power supply was the way to go and I’ve been happy with it. I’m running through an older Marantz analog stereo amp with no digital inputs (from when they were still made in Japan) and a decent set of Polk tower speakers with good speaker wire. My music library is served from a NAS. It’s by no means an extravagant system but it’s nicer than your average dorm room setup.
I know I’m probably not gaining anything by moving to a Pi4b…just needed another pi for a project so I figured why not. I MAY end up running Homebridge on it if I can get moode and Homebridge to run on the same device….but ultimately since moode occasionally requires a re-image maybe not.
It’s really hard to find good recent info on audio setups though. I’ve read that USB DACs are now better than hats, and I’ve read that they’re not. I’ve read that there are DACs that don’t require an LPS and I’ve read that you still need a decent low noise power supply.
So….given what I currently have and that I’m not looking to spend thousands (or more than I could buy a better non pi-based streaming device for) what would be an upgrade in sound from what I have?
I’ve read that the Allo Boss2 is pretty nice, but is it better than a Hifiberry dac+ pro? Is there something else I should look at?
I requested a Pi4b and an Allo Boss v1.2 for a significant birthday in September, mainly to see if I could get it to do what I wanted for future health needs, and I could - It was running into an Anthem MRX500 AVR then PMC GB1 speakers - I read so many positive reviews of the Topping E30, and I found one open box on Ebay for £120, so I bought it and sold the Boss. 99% of the time it streams from Qobuz using BubbleUPnP on my phone, or BBC 6 music via the radio library on moOde, and occasionally local files from a USB stick plugged into the rear of the Pi - sounds absolutely fantastic to my tinnitus-riddled old ears, a big jump over the Boss (which I really enjoyed for the 2-3 months I used it) I had some spare cash and thought my amp/speakers deserved to see what they could do with a better signal, had to remove my ancient paradigm sub from the set-up as there was just too much bass at even tiny amounts of gain on the sub! And it was a big room at 19.5' x 18.5' x 10.25' with compact floorstanders, no room correction and the AVR was essentially in pass through mode, speakers and seating position optimised to the room, Pi4 powered by a USB C/PD charger I had, and the E30 I either run from a powerbank or run it from the USB A socket on the Pi charger as the powerbank doesn't last as long as I'd prefer - sounds fantastic across a wide range of genres, I'm in no rush to change any of it but I am going to buy a cheap LPS as I saw this one recommended in a recent post on here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32811138687.html
The Boss v2 had just gone on sale but there was virtually zero mention of it online, so I paid the extra £20 based on the mass positivity for the E30 - I moved house two weeks ago and still need to set everything up properly, and I had planned to keep it a bare-bones, but I'm going to test my iMac and old Denon SACD player through the E30 and see what it does with them - a Pi4 and a Topping E30 is a proper bargain for the money, more flexible due to the inputs too, depending on your needs of course, but yours sound similar mine.
Only gripes are the display is too bright on it's lowest setting and you can't turn it off, and the range of the remote seems very narrow - no big deal for me as I'm using it as a DAC and not a pre, and I'm not having to change inputs as only the Pi is feeding it.
