[rlow]

Damn. I go dark for a couple of days and you all start discussing raspberry stuff without me?
That kind off stings! But hey...I`m the forgiving type.
I`ll say this:
If you want to go pi get the allo Digione or the Pi2Design 502DAC and a nice linear power supply.
I went for the 502 because it is much more versatile and also offers AES (might come in handy later).

Oh that's very interesting, I hadn't seen the 502 before. I don't need the DAC part obviously (love my Gumby) but the digital outs with AES looks intriguing. Have you compared the Digione to the 502 from a SQ perspective?

 

[earnmyturns]

If you want to go pi get the allo Digione or the Pi2Design 502DAC and a nice linear power supply.
I went for the 502 because it is much more versatile and also offers AES (might come in handy later).

A couple of questions: 1) do you know of any comparisons between DigiOne or 502DAC>coax>Schiit multibit DAC vs basic Pi>USB>Schiit Gen 5 multibit DAC? 2) when you say "nice linear power supply," what are you thinking of?

Pi>USB>Gen 5 Bimby sounds definitely better than Pi>USB>Gen 2 Bimby. I have also an Allo USBridge that works well into Eitr. Now thinking that adding a DIgiOne or 502DAC to my Pi-based work system might get rid of any remaining USB concerns, especially as I play with different DACs, not all of which are blessed with Gen 5.

 

[Mike Foley]

The experience might be relaxing you have the physical space to have all your CDs organized neatly next to your system so that you can find them without frustration. But I bet I can find any of the ~1000 albums I have stored as bits much more easily than most people can do with their physical CD collections. Even better, I can search: like wanting to hear some Miles Okazaki, and noticing that besides his two leader albums I have ("Trickster" and "Figurations") he also appears in albums led by Jonathan Finlayson, Steve Coleman, and Dan Weiss. No physical CD arrangement allows this.

My tongue was a little bit in my cheek.

Actually my CDs are all over the place, and sometimes it is difficult to find certain things. I’m getting into streaming music, both from a NAS drive and Tidal ( or Spotify, I am still trialing both), and I totally agree that is a great way to explore an existing collection and discover new music. Having said that it’s easier to get good sound from CD than from a computer audio system, although my first steps are encouraging.

 

[HumanFly]

I got the 502 the week that they introduced the Eitr (I think) so I might have gone Eitr a couple of days later.
But I was growing increasingly weary of USB and all the fixes it seemed to need. So I started looking for options.
I wanted to keep my pi because I really like Volumio and I am a cheap person so I dont want to pay 500 euros for a lifetime subscription (but thats just me, Roon looks sweet enough)
The only three ways I found were the Hifiberry DAC+Pro, The Allo Digione and the Pi2Design. The DAC+Pro needed soldering and for me that is a great way to void warranties so that was a no-go.
The Digi-one and the 502DAC both have BNC and coax out which is what I was looking for. The 502 added the AES option and also has the dac part which might come in handy if I sent Gungnir in for an upgrade.
Also the way the boards isolate the signal from the electrical part is somewhat different. The DigiOne uses digital isolation and the 502 does it by hardware. In theory I preferred the latter.
I read a couple comparissons and they seemed to agree that the 502 was more `organic` sounding and the Digione more analytical but they were no real in-depth reviews. Again this to me was in favour of the 502.
The price also seemed better with the 502 but this turned out to be wrong because after tax and shipping I paid like 20 or 30 euros more for it than the Digione would have cost me.

Over on the other side there is a person that owns both the 502 and the Eitr, so maybe look him up I can`t help you there. Actually the same goes for the Digione. I am planning on trying the Digione when the price drops.
Their Kali board now only costs halve of what I paid so I`m counting on that. It measures really well but there is some discussion on where in the path you should measure So I gues I`ll have to hear it.

I already owned the S-booster BOTW so I still use it. The creator of the 502 states that it is overkill but I think it still adds some ease to my sound. This may be entirely up to placebo-overspending-effect.
But I also had buzzing and hissing from the previous cheap raspberry wallwarts. This is also gone now. BTW the digione takes power from the raspberry. The 502 has it`s own powerinlet you can use so it will feed the raspberry via the GPIO pins.
In previous setups feeding the power through the GPIO-pins really made a difference in SQ because you bypass the raspberries own shotty usb power inlet and power handling.So my guess was that this would also be the case here. I also have my files on a different system so I use the network connection and that too seems to benefit from a stable powersupply. All-in-all I think if you really want to squeze the last drop of SQ from the pi you need a decent powersupply. The IFIpower might do just fine but I decided to go all the way because I like to change things up and some boards really benefit from LPS where others only do marginally so. I think the 502 does marginally so.

So yeah...that is a huge post. Basically I am saying I don`t miss USB at all.
I might eat my words once I hear USBgen5 but my gungnir has the first gen-usb and the difference between usb and BNC was huge.
So that is the only thing I know for sure. The rest is all very subjective and hearsay.

 

[RCBinTN]

The Gen 5 USB made a great improvement to my system's stability, and perhaps to the SQ too.
It beats the Toslink that I was using.

I also have a very nice collection of CD's.
But, my equipment arrangement doesn't lend itself to finding and spinning discs.
It's much easier to use the computer as a digital music server.
For which, a Macbook Pro that is nearly 100% dedicated to music with a 500GB SS drive.
It's very quiet and accurate.
And, it lets me blog on Head-Fi and annoy certain folks by being off-topic

 

[HumanFly]

USBgen5 is one of the very few audiothingies that I have not seen a single negative review of.

 

[RickB]

USBgen5 is one of the very few audiothingies that I have not seen a single negative review of.

LOL, you don't visit Reddit, do you?

 

[HumanFly]

LOL, you don't visit Reddit, do you?

I used to go there alot. But no, I havent really visted in years, I`m not even sure my account still excists.
Are they not convinced? I`ll go and check. r/audiophile I assume?

 

[RickB]

I used to go ther alot. But no, I havent really visted in years, I`m not even sure my account still excists.
Are they not convinced? I`ll go and check. r/audiophile I assume?

Well, I was being semi-flippant. There is a strong contingent of Schiit bashers on r/headphones. I doubt most of them have heard what they're bashing, though.

 

[RCBinTN]

Well, I was being semi-flippant. There is a strong contingent of Schiit bashers on r/headphones. I doubt most of them have heard what they're bashing, though.

Hmmm
Will have to check that out. Thx.

 

[Letmebefrank]

Hmmm
Will have to check that out. Thx.

I wouldn't waste your time. Its a massive hive-mind of confirmation biased schiit bashers.

 

[Ableza]

re: spinning discs. I still do that in my 2-channel system, but I also use and love my music server. I'm using Roon running on a Vortexbox OS, with Sonore endpoints feeding Yggdrasil, and straight from the server feeding Gungnir MB (and Mjolnir 2) for my office headphones. I love the ease and random shuffle play of the server. But there is something nice about sliding a small silver disc into the transport and relaxing with a dram or two of a good single malt while enjoying the full CD... damn, I think it's time to go do that right now.

 

[BagelJoe]

I love the ease and random shuffle play of the server. But there is something nice about sliding a small silver disc into the transport and relaxing with a dram or two of a good single malt while enjoying the full CD... damn, I think it's time to go do that right now.

Reminds me of 30 years ago when we said similar about CD's and LP'S. So much easier to play the whole CD straight without the hassle of flipping the LP. Today I stream from Tidal or listen to my SonicTransporter AP8 and Roon in my office. Seems like ages since I listened to vinyl secreted in my listening room with the lights dim and nice Jack Daniels'.

 

[RCBinTN]

Reminds me of 30 years ago when we said similar about CD's and LP'S. So much easier to play the whole CD straight without the hassle of flipping the LP. Today I stream from Tidal or listen to my SonicTransporter AP8 and Roon in my office. Seems like ages since I listened to vinyl secreted in my listening room with the lights dim and nice Jack Daniels'.

The good old days...
I recommend the single barrel.

 

[RCBinTN]

I wouldn't waste your time. Its a massive hive-mind of confirmation biased schiit bashers.

Thank you, Mr. Bond.

I enjoy reading comments from Schiit and Head-Fi bashers in general.
They reinforce my reasons for being here, and not there.
One competing site that will remain anonymous had a thread dedicated to bashing Head-Fi.
It was a hoot! I read all 60 pages. Most of it made no sense at all.

Anyway, back to The Gadget, cats, cheese and single malt!
And BTW, I haven't seen many impressions of the Loki...anybody enjoying that very interesting device?