snafu1
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2015
- Posts
- 259
- Likes
- 64
Welcome brother, would love to hear impressions from your Vali 2/Clear setup, also the Raspberry as your source is something I've been toying around with too! I have a Retropie which I'm considering transforming in to a Hfiberry and used as a second silent HTC/Music streamer.
You have gotta get the lads some pics of your setup mate!
I've only has the Clears for about 3 weeks. I really like them. The detail, accuracy & sound stage are just fantastic. Like some of the reviews state they can be a touch bright with some recordings. I decided to try a tube amp like the Vali 2 to see if it would help with that. But, at least with the stock tube it hasn't reigned in the brightness. Again, this is just on a few recordings (e.g. Dire Straits Brothers In Arms, Toto IV). But what the Vali 2 (with the 6BZ7) has done is add some warmth and smoothness to the bass. Very nice
So, recently I've been fooling around with various audio players for the Raspberry Pi and the HiFiBerry DAC+. When I connected it to the Vali 2 - I was very pleasantly surprised. It sounded as good (maybe better) than my Onkyo DP-X1. Due to software issues I gave up on the RuneAudio system and just today, tried MusicBox. MusicBox seems to work fairly well and is more current. I have the RCA outputs from the HiFiBerry going to the Vali 2. Using a web browser or even an Android client I can control the music via the Raspberry Pi. I have it setup to access my music files via a network share. Earlier I posted that the HiFiBerry has a Burr-Brown DAC, but according to their webpage, they have switched over to ESS.
I guess, now it's time to roll some tubes......