[SnowRang3r]

The primary reason I'm asking about streamers is that the guy I bought my cables from said streaming from a computer sounds lifeless, and a streamer makes a huge difference in that regard. Granted, most of you are gonna see "cables" and read "snake oil"—that's fair enough, but selling cables doesn't make him a liar about everything else

Do people with a Bifrost 2 generally prefer a streamer even though that means using S/PDIF over Unison USB?

Unison especially on BF2 and up (since you get galvanic isolation) is a really good USB interface but that doesn't mean the source doesn't matter at all. Go even read Mike's thread where he says Unison out (from the Schiit Urd) to Unison sounds better than his streamer.

There still can be improvements from going to less electrically noisy sources. A cheap-ish way to check is to build a Rasberry Pi 4 based streamer and check. But a Pi 4 + iFi iPower (can use any 5v switcher with the Pi but the iFi has been measured to be lower noise than the cheap ones and it's not crazy expensive) did sound better to me than from my gaming computer.

Now I have a Pi2AES on order (I'm sure some fancy USB based streamers from Sonore or SOtM feeding Unison would be even better but those are a lot more costly than the Pi2AES).

This video might help: also iiWi Reviews has a bunch of good videos on Pi based streaming.

 

[Ableza]

My recommendation is to not use the same computer you use for any other purposes as a media server nor as a player. Use dedicated devices for best results.

 

[Ripper2860]

Agreed!!

Anyone want to start a GoFundMe so I can have a Bluesound Node 2 for my home office??

 

[Ableza]

Agreed!!

Anyone want to start a GoFundMe so I can have a Bluesound Node 2 for my home office??

https://www.paypal.com/ppcreditappl...XKbWFNayh1GKMEzrJuwaAtx7EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Ripper2860]

Not the same as FREE, but an option.

I actually have a RPi with a Digi+ board laying around somewhere. I'll dig it up and try a Roon end-point compatible OS build sometime.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

That should take you what, 10-20 minutes? Why haven't you done that already? Get to work!

https://ropieee.org/

Now that you don't need a Node 2i you can use that money for a Nuc to run Roon ROCK.

 

[datoolguy]

I used to be a newspaper editor and have done a ton of hiring.

One of my all-time best hires was a perky-to-the-point-of-annoying young woman with zero experience, a masters in a different area of journalism than what I was hiring her for and some of the roughest writing I'd ever seen.

I hired her after a 30 minute interview the day she came in.

She was quiet, unassuming, and we called her "mouse."

Yeah, except that "Mouse" had a spine of absolute steel, not a single ounce of give when she was right, could get ANYONE to open up to her in an interview, and a killer instinct when on a story.

My boss thought I was nuts for hiring her at the time.

Six months later "how in the HELL did you find this one!?!"

Always go with your gut.

 

[SnowRang3r]

Agreed!!

Anyone want to start a GoFundMe so I can have a Bluesound Node 2 for my home office??

The new Bluesound Node (no number after it) that just launched will be getting USB audio output with an update. No idea how it compares to its coax SPDIF output but nice they give you options.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

The internal DAC/analog output of the Node 2i actually sounds pretty good FWIW.

 

[Plautus001]

Welcome to the foolishnes, frivolousness, and general nonsense of the thread, @cakewalk101 . Once downtown opens up, I'm hoping a Schitt-CanJam-Meet can eventually organized for us Canucks. Perhaps in the distillery district...

Or Yeast Vancouver.... Vancouver Ale Trail

 

[Zachik]

Today friends are stopping in for a comparison between ZMF Verite opens and Focal Utopias

For me, there is no competition! ZMF Verite wins by a mile
But as usual it is very subjective... I always found the Utopia "too detailed". Auditioned it during several CanJams on several top-tier amps, mostly in the "quiet rooms", so the usual "show floor conditions" did not really apply. I can see how some would prefer this uber-detailed and analytical (IMHO) sound signature.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[cakewalk101]

Welcome to the foolishnes, frivolousness, and general nonsense of the thread, @cakewalk101 . Once downtown opens up, I'm hoping a Schitt-CanJam-Meet can eventually organized for us Canucks. Perhaps in the distillery district...

I’m in the GTA so yah, that would work - post lockdown take 4, 5, etc. . I noticed you have a Pi4 and HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro listed in your signature. How do you like it? And reason why you landed on the Digi2 Pro, vs. another SPDIF hat like Allo’s Digione? I have a Pi3 and Pi4 and figured a making one a streamer could be fun.

 

[Ripper2860]

That should take you what, 10-20 minutes? Why haven't you done that already? Get to work!

https://ropieee.org/

Now that you don't need a Node 2i you can use that money for a Nuc to run Roon ROCK.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Seems my RPi has a bad wired Ethernet port. Internet is required to complete Roopieee install and config Wifi, etc. Just an endless re-boot cycle, so it's a no-go for now.

So.... RPi 3+ or 4?? And I realized that I have a Digi Pro HAT w/ only Toslink and S/PDIF coax out. Any suggestions on a HAT to get RCA analog out to Valhalla 2?

 

[Ableza]

The best laid plans of mice and men...

Seems my RPi has a bad wired Ethernet port. Internet is required to complete Roopieee install and config Wifi, etc. Just an endless re-boot cycle, so it's a no-go for now.

So.... RPi 3+ or 4?? And I realized that I have a Digi Pro HAT w/ only Toslink and S/PDIF coax out. Any suggestions on a HAT to get RCA analog out to Valhalla 2?

 

[earnmyturns]

Bear with me, as again I might be missing something obvious here. If I'm running a playback software in exclusive mode, Windows won't have access to my audio stack regardless of whatever decision it's going to make about system services and the like. How is it going to affect my sound if it can't access anything that relates to it?

I don't use Windows these days, but I've used pretty much every OS created since the 1980s, and for professional reasons I have had to learn more than a bit about OS innards. The playback software shares resources (processor, memory, storage access) with other app and OS processes running on your PC. Those other apps and processes need their share of those resources. Depending exactly on which software and which configuration, a high-priority process may preempt the player process's access to one of those shared resources long enough that the player can't keep the audio output buffer filled to avoid glitches. That's common for instance when people use high-end graphics software while simultaneously listening to music on a work Mac or PC. It's possible to configure a PC or a Mac that is used only for music to minimize the chance of some other process preempting the playback process, but it's not trivial to do so.