Hi @Polygonhell,
Can the pi2aes handle DSD64 as DOP stream in Volumio? Thanks for the info in advance!! Cheers!
I havenāt tried it, I do stream DSD, but only from Rune over RAAT.
Voumio has a playback option for DSD over DOP, so I assume it works, I have it set to DSDDirect.
I have not yet built mine, but Pi2AES is PCM only - no DSD, sadly.
I have also heard that the USB on the Pi 4 is good enough to clean up any USB signal. It can also decode DSD through the USB ports.
Since I am waiting on the Pi2AES board to ship [prob. still a month before mine ships], I have a few questions. Maybe someone with experience might be able to answer some for me.
- Can I use both the Pi2AES and the R Piās USB out simultaneously or even one at a time to use the USB port to pass native DSD?
- Is the PSU linked in Zeosās review better than the Meanwell SMPS sold on the Pi2AES site? [I also have an iFi iPower 5v I could use, but if the Linear block PSU Zeos recād is great I might just get that instead. Thanks!
I donāt see why you couldnāt connect both USB and whatever output from the pi2AES at the same time. All the pi2aes outputs are live at the same time, the USB wouldnāt be. Youād have to select them in some way on the pi.
The PSU Zeos linked to looks to be just a cheap option, Iād actually expect the meanwell to be better. Mines connected to an ifi Ipower elite 24V PSU, and while itās certainly a win over the meanwell, Iām not sure Iād recommend anyone else spending that amount on a PSU for it.
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Oh wow I didnāt think there would be someone who paired the ifi Elite with the Pi2AES. That thing costs a pretty penny.
I just took a ifi iPower 5V and itās powering my Pi2AES via the pins on the board (not recommended for people who want a plug and play solution)
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Itās all relative, good power bricks are generally expensive. And there is always the question of how much impact. Mines plugged into an expensive electronics chain, which makes the expenditure less insane.
My take away was that on my chain the difference was clearly audible, surprising me as to how much impact what should be trivial power noise from a source could have.
Itās a pity there arenāt a lot of cheaper power supplies in the 19V+ range the pi2aes requires.
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You are correct, but itās easy to forget that it costs $149 dollars. I think that may be more of a limitation with the Pi than with the hat though.
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Not only does it no longer cost $149 dollars, but theyāre WAY back ordered with no eta on resupply. I suspect given the announcement of their new fully enclosed solution, it may be a while.
@Nick_Mimi the worst timing. lol
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Copy, no problem. Eventually they will be available again. Thank you for checking
I have been back and forth on getting one of these and now they raise the price by 33% for no reason. dangit! Usually when a product sells well and was already priced appropriately they lower the price or keep the same when an upgrade or new product is announced. Kind of shady IMO.
You know thereās a chip shortage across the whole world right? Prices are going up for everything. Itās what happens when the world economy shuts down. Welcome to life.
Sorry for not being fully informed, but no need to be rude. Iām 34 so I have been here for a little bit.
I was only aware of the akm chip shortage and certain graphics card/s that has been hard to come by. It has been well over a year since covid struck, but I guess itās catching up to the industry. I just thought 33% is a little much and that is my opinion. 10-15% seems more reasonable but what do I know I suppose.
Edit: @A_Jedi if that was a joke, then I am the one sorry for being rude and not getting it.
All silicon and offshore manufacturing has gone up in price.
There is a global silicon shortage, most obvious in new Silicon, but itās across the board, it apparently has mostly to do with Auto manufacturers cancelling orders at the start of the pandemic, then paying a premium to buy back manufacturing slots at the silicon foundaries, bumping other companies down the queue. Since a very few foundaries make all the worlds silicon that impacts everything.
Cost of shipping a container from countries like China (where I would guess they get their PCBās are made), has increased by as much as 10x since the start of the pandemic, in large part because of an inbalance in where empty containers happen to be.
Having said that I doubt it accounts for a $50 bump in cost of goods.
But itās not unusual for new small manufacturers to discover their margins are too low for continued growth and they are free to increase prices to adjust that, if the value is there people will continue to purchase, if not they will go out of business.
The pi2AES is absolutely worth $200 IMO, but itās a judgement individual purchasers have to make.
Really appreciate the breakdown, thanks! Ultimately I am still considering purchasing one. With all the positive feedback, you are most likely right that $200 is still worth it for the benefits.
I definitely understand that small businesses increase prices to cover margin as they grow and I am sure they took their selected audience into account when they chose how much to make the increase. I would be curious if anyone here has thoughts or opinions on how much something like this actually costs to manufacture.
Itās hard to put a number on it without knowing how much work is involved in assembly or testing, and what heās paying for either his own time or to someone else to do that.
Unless heās having them assembled in China, in which case the problem just becomes QC.
Parts cost you can look up and you can estimate what heās paying for the PCBās by looking at the batch order places. but itās usually not the actual dominant cost as a business.
100% and I am now just being curious to hopefully get a better understanding of costs, so I appreciate your thoughts. Sometimes its hard to remember that not all these audio companies are massive and need to compete without going down.
how does one go about finding these?
For sure, overhead tends to be the biggest cost.
I think it was one guys hobby company, originally the only way you were likely to find out about it was on the SBAF forums where he was discussing possibly making a few for forum members.
But that doesnāt mean his time or anyone he uses to do workās time is free.
PCBās are charged by the square mm, depending on number of layers, whether the tracks are tinned, thickness of the materials etc. But they also require minimum orders because they are made in large sheets.
There are companies that collect small orders for PCBās, lay out the order on the large Sheet and submit. That would give you some idea. OSHPark is only one Iāve used for prototypes. Buying in quantity will be a decent saving over that.
There are also companies that will do complete assembly for you, which is likely what heās doing at this point. I couldnāt even guess at that, they usually require you send in a copy of the board and a BOM to get a quote. But again there will be minimum orders, and you still have to QC every board they send you, and generally live with the loss from the failure rate.
I know someone that had a first run of production boards made up for a project, when they were delivered every LED on every board (10ās of them in this case) were mounted backwards, leaving them with a pile of junk and no recourse except to manually desolder and resolder every LED on every board.
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Great stuff here thanks!
pain in the arse! Hope it worked out in the end for him though.
My remark was meant in response to your āshadyā comment. I donāt go out to defend other peopleās business - just stating reality which in this case has nothing to do with shadiness.