CAPT Deadpool
500+ Head-Fier
Posted similar on the Jason’s thread then I realized that for the digital part here is the better place.
Very interesting interview with a lot of news regarding many products and ideas. For me personally the most interesting part was the USB item. As understood, the ”receiver” part is done and probably the next dacs will have it as USB input. What was more intresting was that also a USB hub is under work so that the other end of the USB chain will be addressed. As i understood the candidates to receive it are the music processor (former Gadget) and a possible transport. Now I have understood that Schiit is not intrested in designing a streamer and I fully agree that is not necessary due to the same reasons expressed by Jason and Mike in the interview. I also noted Mike’s position on the streamers in general (sounding as ass..) but I hope, that at least partially, he will reconsider. Let me explain my case that probably is not quite unique. I do not have a big house, actually due to the work we changed the living place every 3-4 years. Usually we live in rented apartments, not very small but neither big to accommodate a dedicated audio space and most important the apartment is not mine. In these conditions even the CD collection became a burdain and now all of them are safely stored in boxes after they were ripped as flac files and stored on a NAS.
The next issue was that for USB connected DACs, the computer was close to the audio system that was far from optimal (family use, estetic reason, audio quality etc) so I start looking for a solution. I First I’ve look at the dedicated streamers and “audio computers/servers” offers but after deep consideration I was not convinced that deserve the huge prices that are asked. Finally I decided to go with a self built solution so I’ve used a raspberry pi and an Odroid C2 as computers and a Hifiberry Digi+ Pro and a 502DAC HATs. The last two are extension boards for the RasPi or Odroid C2 that use the I2S interface from the Gpio for the audio and output a digital signal SPDIF or AES to the DAC. The device is connected to the network (wire or WIFI) and could function as standalone using either Volumio or Moode players or could act as an UPNP renderer for other players intalled on a PC ( in my case Audirvana on an iMac). I have also in use a Schiit Eitr for the same purpose but it is using the not so good Raspberry Pi USB output. The solution solved many of the problems and is very convenient in use. For ~200usd (Pi, board, software and psu) plus less than 1 hour for installation and settings is great.
Now my point is that will be great if Schiit will design such extention board for Raspberry pi based on their USB implementation. It will not be a streamer to require software development and maintenance except the driver part but this probably is anyhow to be solved if their USB will be used with the Schiit Pi announced to be developed for the internal use in different Schiit digital products (transport, music processor, DACs). Also will be the last piece needed to have the posibility to configure o full Schiit system from the digital source to the amp for the ones that from various reasons could not build/mantain a physical music library (CDs or vynil).
If not asking too much, it will be great if Mike would like to address this idea even in very short form (yes/no).
Thank you and good luck with your very busy plan for the next 10 years. Hopefully many will take much less than that .
Their are a few of us here with either Hifiberry hats or 502DAC Hats, I own the later and I built a Hifiberry based Pi for a friend on here, both running Moode. What PSU did you use? I've just been using a USB cable plugged into a tripp-lite or a Apple iPad brick. I don't know if it is worth the $50 for the ifipower.