[Meridian7]

To take your money.

Ok, have a good day...I mean that.

 

[T Bone]

I understand that it can feel strange using a cheaper optical cable.
I have five Kabeldirect cables for various use cases, and all work ok as expected.
I worked 10 years as a cost engineering specialist, and I can understand salesmen trying to encourage you to buy expensive cables, but they are b**lsh*tting you to spend money that you could invest elsewhere.

My comment was directed at the Raspberry Pi / DigiBerry combination. It seemed weird to me to drive thousands of dollars worth of gear from PI based streamer. There are streamers that cost thousands and here I am tinkering with a homebuilt $100 solution that sounds pretty darn good.

 

[Meridian7]

ps. what if I use powerbank with raspberry pi?

Seems only that Bixpower thingy has an unregulated voltage output. We love to see more brands powerbank do that.

I use batts for the reason you mention, but not powerbanks.

And I use toslink too between streamer and MS. We're on the same page actually.

 

[AndrewOld]

My comment was directed at the Raspberry Pi / DigiBerry combination. It seemed weird to me to drive thousands of dollars worth of gear from PI based streamer. There are streamers that cost thousands and here I am tinkering with a homebuilt $100 solution that sounds pretty darn good.

Nothing weird at all. There’s no credible argument that any digital source should sound any different from any other, as long as they are bit identical. What they might do is expose inadequacies in a DAC. In which case you might argue that as the Pi is an inherently low powered processor with no disc drives or overblown operating system it might sound better than a fancy streamer full of electronics.

 

[SteveHulk]

Power supply conditions, all cables (not just the toslink), exposure to electromagnetic radiation sources, AC grid influences, your ability to discern is not a static thing,... what you ate, who you're married to, the pressure of car tires and religion executed

... the phase of the Moon, whether a black cat crossed your path today or not ...

 

[T Bone]

Next I tried streaming different formats of music through it. Everything was fine till I hit 24/192. That wouldn't stream.

• DSD64 (1x)
• DSD128 (2x)
• 24/88.2 kHZ
• 24/96 kHZ
• 24/176.4 kHZ
• 24/192 kHZ

I searched this thread and found other people had success with a different Toslink cable. ...so I ordered a short KableDirect optical cable from Amazon. Hoping that solves the issue.

An $8 KabelDirekt TOSLINK cable from Amazon fixed it. Now my little experiment streams 24/192kHz reliably.
Still impressed by the performance of a little Raspberry Pi / HiFiBerry Digi2 HAT!

 

[GuiltyRocker]

When toslink is used noise is eliminated or any ground loop.
And Chord jitter rejection is very good, so with any decent source you have nothing to worry about.


What other factors are there when you eliminate noise and jitter issue in a DIGITAL STREAMER? Please tell.

I have to agree.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

I understand that it can feel strange using a cheaper optical cable.
I have five Kabeldirect cables for various use cases, and all work ok as expected.
I worked 10 years as a cost engineering specialist, and I can understand salesmen trying to encourage you to buy expensive cables, but they are b**lsh*tting you to spend money that you could invest elsewhere.

Most the time the cables are straight up BS, I have heard some differences here and there, but for what they charge it's really ridiculous and totally not worth it. But, some people create imaginary problems, the human mind needs to solve problems, even when there are none. We are also programmed to focus on what we don't have, rather than what we do have. The hedonic treadmill is real .

 

[Meridian7]

Nothing weird at all. There’s no credible argument that any digital source should sound any different from any other, as long as they are bit identical. What they might do is expose inadequacies in a DAC. In which case you might argue that as the Pi is an inherently low powered processor with no disc drives or overblown operating system it might sound better than a fancy streamer full of electronics.

Bits are bits? No.
The Pi box very good? Yes (13 minits in the vid)
Tells this YT from Goldensound:

 

[AussieMick]

 

[Meridian7]

@AussieMick nice atom bomb on all the certainty of short-sighted naivity.
But its very understandable to be naive about digital, it works sooo wel for data that this data-certainty becomes easily extrapolated towards digital audio.
Nice touch too on over-certainty about toslink.

 

[AussieMick]

I’m pretty boring with my m scaler. USB from Innuis to HMS, dual BNC to TT2. Toslink from TV to HMS. I’ve never tried anything else. It sounds wonderful. I am happy.

 

[Reactcore]

Lovely tunes from 1958 with tape hiss on the background.. Good juice for WTA

 

[Meridian7]

We are also programmed to focus on what we don't have, rather than what we do have. The hedonic treadmill is real .

Unconscious victimism of such exist indeed.

However...

1) It does not restrict to audio and I'm pretty sure if I could examine your life, I could point out to several patterns of looping automated behavior prone to correction.

2) I bought deliberately a glass toslink cable QED while having Kabeldirects working just as well. A deliberate act of hedonism. Feeling good because there's glass in there. Is that foolish? Depends how you think.
Like, why buy a Breitling watch if a 5 dollar watch works just as good?
Yes, sometimes a feeling can be bought, even when its unlogic.
Even animals do sometimes extra effort for seemingly stupid reasons.
It made Mr. Spock famous saying "Thats unlogical." while everyone grins thinking dude you don't get humans.
Like robot Data always trying to bridge logic with human behavior.

So be careful throwing stones unless you're Mr Spock or Data by name

All in a good loving vibe

 

[OneOfTheLastMen]

Part of the problem is that incremental changes are difficult to hear. Only when, after several changes, going back where you started do the differences become obvious.

I started with a Raspberry Pi with a cheap integrated HAT DAC with RCA into my amp playing from Spotify. Then I bought the Qutest with USB from the RPi. Improvement, but not night and day. Then I got the WiiM Pro with optical into Qutest so I had access to lossless streaming (among other things). Clear difference but not blow socks off better. Then I got the HMS, with dual BNC into Qutest. Subtle but obvious Improvement in realism. Just for kicks and giggles I reconnected the RPi back to the amp and compared. Comparing the same tracks on Spotify on RPi with lossless from WiiM and Chord Qutest / HMS was jaw dropping! Almost sounded like different recordings.

As for PSU and cables, I just use those supplied by Chord and WiiM. One day, once I have paid off the PayPal 0% credit I used to buy the HMS, and I can be bothered to spend the time and money...