Discovery

As this thread has just woken up again, I thought I'd update my position. I now power the Brooklyn Bridge with a Ferrum Hypsos power supply. Very noticeable difference. There is no better upgrade now,

An old thread but just in case it helps someone else... I tried my Brooklyn Bridge powered by a car battery. It's wonderful! The improvement was immediately noticeable, so quite a step change. I tried MQA and non-MQA tracks on Tidal - both benefitted. The 12v power lead was only £3.95 on eBay so the most cost-effective upgrade ever! (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32322354...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1). My battery is permanently connected to a solar panel via a charge controller but that's just a personal choice to give fit-and-forget. Typically, a car battery would only need to be charged once or twice a month, and then mostly to keep battery sulphation at bay rather than to replace the small amount of current used.

I've been interested by all the replies to my initial observation. Given that both players were playing through the same DAC, and I've stated that the Pi sounds the same on all output options, the clues are there to arrive at a sensible conclusion; disappointingly, some haven't. I have nothing further to add, but it would be good to hear from someone with a Pi who has 10 minutes to configure it to run on RuneAudio (with the ACX profile...). No point in just taking my word for it, is there? ;-) All the best.

As it happens, there was a mains conditioner involved for both units too. But, with respect, you're over-analysing this...

Good question. Both were using independent high-quality linear power supplies.

Different connection permutations weren't necessary. The Pi (with HifiBerry Dig+ board) can output on USB, Toslink and RCA simultaneously - I have tried all three on my own system into my MDAC and switched mid-song and they sound identical. The Aries was comfortably run-in.

I visited a good friend today, and took my RPI2, running RuneAudio, with me. My friend has a high-end set-up very similar to mine (Quad Electrostatics, decent power amps, MDAC, etc.), together with his new recent addition, his Auralic Aries Mini. We connected the Pi to the DAC via coax (Digi+ output) and the Aries Mini via USB. I covered the DAC display so neither of us knew what was playing then we both played the same track on our respective equipment and swapped sources. The remote control cycles through the inputs so, after several quick presses, neither of us knew which was selected. Then we started listening. The difference was clear. One was flatter and dull, the other had more life and vitality and a wider frequency response. "That'll be mine then", stated my host. I removed the DAC display cover and, to his surprise and my delight, the Pi was the selected source. I've agreed to build my friend a Pi.

I'm running RuneAudio on a RPi2. I'm using an Audiolab MDAC into a Quad 909 power amp and listening through Quad 989 Electrostatic speakers. The RPI2 doesn't let the side down in this company and sounds great. I don't use a wireless dongle any more - it is far better to use a hard-wired ethernet connection. I use another PC on my home network as a NAS for my FLAC files, which works fine. I've disabled all the unnecessary Rune MPD options to keep the software minimalist but can't say that it made any noticeable difference. I also replaced the standard Pi power supply with a Linear power supply. What REALLY made a difference was adding a HifiBerry Digi+ card (with the optional output transformer) and using the S/PDIF output. The card is good and I initially tried the optical output, thinking it would be the cleanest connection to the DAC. It was Hans Beekhuyzen's review (see HifiBerry's news page) of this hardware configuration that pointed out that the S/PDIF output is significantly better than the optical output. Sceptical as to whether this could be true, I tried it. My system is very revealing and the extra depth in the low frequencies was immediately evident. It was so much better than either the USB output on the Pi2 or the optical output on the Digi+ I have played the RPI2/Digi+ (S/PDIF) output back-to-back with a good PC running Foobar - when switching inputs on the DAC from one to the other playing the same music there is no discernible difference. I can only recommend this hardware configuration - the plain RPI2 without the Digi+ doesn't have the same bass extension on its own. Back to the music... :-)

Hi All, This is my first post and I'm still learning about Linux opportunities. I'd really appreciate some advice about building a customised Raspberry Pi system. I have a Raspberry Pi 2 and have enjoyed getting RuneAudio working. This is playing FLAC files from a USB stick. I have an external Audiolab M-DAC connected via USB which runs straight into a Quad 909 power amp, then on to my Quad 989 electrostatics. RuneAudio sounds good to my ears - I think this is because the RP2 only needs to provide bit-perfect output and the M-DAC handles the quality of the analogue conversion. Prior to this I have been using Foobar on a laptop (with MathAudio EQ) into the DAC , and also stream music on the laptop from Qobuz, both of which sound fine. In a separate attempt, I managed to get Qobuz working on XBMC but it had a simplistic user interface and I couldn't find a way to operate it remotely. I also prefer the standard Qobuz GUI. With the RuneAudio sytem I enjoyed having a headless system with remote control from my phone/laptop so I wonder if it's possible to build a RP2-based system incorporating many of the above features, i.e. - Good quality player (e.g. Foobar, RuneAudio) - Room EQ, e.g. MathAudio, RoomEqWizard - Qobuz, through conventional Qobuz GUI on a browser - Remote control of everything via laptop or phone Is this combination possible? All advice appreciated. Thanks, Trevor