Inno-maker HiFi DAC Pro HAT - first impressions

[TheOldPresbyope]

My interest in this DAC (HiFi DAC Pro) was kindled by a recent post from @the_bertrum which referenced a blog posting by Archimago. The majority of that blog post (but not the reason it was cited by the_bertrum) was devoted to a review by a technically minded user comparing the Inno-maker DAC to the Khadas Tone 1 USB DAC. I have the later and like it a lot. Still, I decided to buy the Inno-maker DAC as well because

• the performance was reported as comparable (and great!) both in measurements and in listening --- both are based on the ESS SABRE ES9038Q2M chip,
  
• the HAT configuration meant I could avoid the extra box and cabling I'd need for a USB DAC (target: a headphones-only build)
  
• The Inno-maker is selling for just USD60 on Amazon at the moment, a quarter to a third less than the Khadas Tone 1 currently sells for in various places
  

The Inno-maker user manual says in the moOde setup section  to "select ‘allo-katana-dac-audio’ for DT overlay." It goes on to say

Do not select ‘All Katana DAC’ for Named device. Otherwise the Moode system will be breakdown and only re-image. There may be a BUG for moode. [English is not their first language.]

Hmmm.

The DAC has arrived and I have mounted it on a Pi4B. I chose to power the DAC from the Pi but optionally could have powered it separately. I connected the unbalanced audio output to a headphone amp, and booted 64bit moOde 8.3.2. As prescribed by Inno-maker, I selected the allo-katana-dac-audio DT overlay, kept all other moOde audio settings at their default values, and rebooted.

With my hardware and my aging ears, the audio is indistinguishable from that with the Khadas Tone 1.

Notes:

• software volume control only
  
• the interface does not report DSD as a supported format so moOde in Native DSD mode transcodes DSD to PCM during playback
  
• the oddity - the software volume control functions on PCM-encoded tracks but not on the transcoded DSD tracks; full volume regardless of volume control setting (so downstream volume control still essential for DSD tracks)
  
• the Allo Katana DT overlay and driver expose a selection of four different oversampling filters but without the extra coding of the Named I2S device setup, they aren't available as chip options in the moOde WebUI. They can be changed, however, with alsamixer or amixer from the command line as demonstrated in the blog post measurements. (It's a moot issue for me; with my ears I can't distinguish between them.)
  
• the weirdness - if I choose instead to set Named I2S device to "Allo Katana DAC" it does indeed bork the install.
  

I'll be exploring this last point on the Support sub-forum.

As an aside, The reviewer in the Archimago blog post said he was unable to get DSD to work in his setup (with Ropieee). I on the other hand seemed to have some success with setting MPD to DoP instead of Native DSD mode but experienced some inconsistent behavior I haven't run to ground yet.

More later, including the usual reports from aplay, amixer, etc.

Regards,
Kent

[josh2000]

Hi Tim,

i just received the board and have to confirm what Kent is saying .
What could be the magic why it is running well with Volumio and not with MoOde?

Best Regards
Josh

[Tim Curtis]

I have no idea. It's the manufacturers responsibility to troubleshoot issues with their board.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Hi Tim,

i just received the board and have to confirm what Kent is saying .
What could be the magic why it is running well with Volumio and not with MoOde?

Best Regards
Josh

What exactly is it you are confirming? Did you read the accompanying thread in the Support subforum? That explained what was happening in moOde 8.3.2 regarding use of the Katana DAC definition on a Pi4B. Tim subsequently adjusted the backend code and with the moOde 8.3.6 player in front of me I can select the named I2S device "Allo Katana DAC" in audio setup and drive on.

Here's the audio playback information I get while playing a radio station via the Inno-maker DAC Pro DAC to a set of earphones

Code:

INPUT / OUTPUT
Source http://subfm.radioca.st/Sub.FM
Encoded at VBR compression
Decoded to 24 bit, 44.1 kHz, Stereo, 192 kbps
Output rate 32 bit, 44.1 kHz, Stereo, 2.822 Mbps
Output mode ALSA Default
Output chain MPD -> plughw -> Device
DSP OPERATIONS
Resample rate Off
Quality Off
Selective Off
CamillaDSP Off
Chip options Apodizing Fast Roll-off Filter, De-emphasis=Bypass, DoP=on
Volume  type Hardware (On-chip)
AUDIO DEVICE
Device Allo Katana DAC
Mixer name Master
Chip ESS Sabre ES9038Q2M
Interface I2S
Formats S16_LE, S32_LE
Platform Pi-4B 1.1 2GB

Things are working pretty well, although the driver is still not reporting any DSD-related formats. [No loss for me; I have no DSD material beyond the few test tracks I've downloaded in the past.] Note that using the named I2S device definition, moOde now reports hardware volume control.

The crux of the matter for moOde was that the Inno-maker crowd was too <lazy? cheap? hardware-oriented? what?> to write their own driver; they piggybacked on the Allo driver. Allo, in turn, hasn't been reliably keeping up support of its own work* let alone a third-party's product.

Regards,
Kent

*At least this has been my impression. Happy to be corrected if I'm mistaken.

[Tim Curtis]

@TheOldPresbyope I do recall doing something for "Katana" around the 8.3.2 timeframe but is there a link?

[TheOldPresbyope]

@TheOldPresbyope I do recall doing something for "Katana" around the 8.3.2 timeframe but is there a link?

Have a look at https://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread....2#pid46602

and the subsequent git commit 178e8aa8413d99ae89ff5998233faf2119450de0

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Right, I remember that. It was a commit to address the Allo Katana board but it would also possibly let other boards that use the Katana driver to at least do something.

As far as Innomaker goes its up to manufacturer to support people that bought their boards if they don't work right on some software player.