![]() Things got noticeably better, actually listenable. For a moment I thought that it was due to the SACD’s mastering (the CD layers of SACDs are rumored to be mastered intentionally bad so as to give the impression that the SACD layers sound even better than they actually do), but that changed when I switched to the Squeezebox. Its output sounded coarse, strained, tiring. It had been a while since I had listened to it through its s/pdif output so I was in for a bit of a shock. The DAC’s output goes through a Salas DCG3 preamp into my Hypex amp.įirst up was the Pioneer. Output from the s/pdif transports went into an AK4118-based s/pdif receiver of my own design which in turn feeds my dual mono AK4493 DAC. The music used was Dire Straits’ SACD album (having selected its CD (and not SACD) layer) which was also accurately ripped to my NAS. Pitted against that I had my Logitech Squeezebox Touch running the EDO plugin for up to 192K s/pdif from its coax output and my relatively pricey Pioneer DV-LX50 Universal Player (using its coax s/pdif output). ![]() No audiophile ethernet switches were employed. ![]() My RPi stack included an RPi 3 with the DigiOne, powered by Salas’ new L-Adapter power supply and running Archphile. The answer is, surprisingly well for the money. An LT3042 regulator is used to power one of the most critical parts of the circuit: the flip-flops that do the final reclocking. Following this converter there exist a large number of LDO regulators and filter components. The entire isolated part of the board is powered by a DC-to-DC converter that offers galvanic isolation. The output of the oscillators is put through NB3L553s for buffering and isolation. There exist two oscillators, one for the 44.1K family and one for the 48K family of sampling rates. There the signal is reclocked by a high quality flip-flop clocked by high quality NDK oscillators (housed inside a metal box, used for shielding against EMI/RFI). The WM8805’s s/pdif output goes through an Si8641 150MHz galvanic isolator and is passed to the “clean” side of the board. The WM8805 is clocked by the same oscillators that are used to reclock the s/pdif signal. The WM8805 is run in master mode, so as to minimize jitter due to the RPi’s problematic I2S clocking scheme. The DigiOne utilizes a WM8805 to convert the RPi’s I2S signal into s/pdif. Plus, it is designed to be powered by the RPi via the GPIO header, so no need (or provision) for an external power source. It is intended to be plugged-in directly on top of the RPi, with no need for an isolator HAT. ![]() The DigiOne is a HAT compatible with most if not all RPis and supported by most if not all audio distributions. It turns out it can be pretty damned good! But I’m getting ahead of myself. First off, I’m ashamed to admit that I had this little gem in my possession for about 2 years before I finally got the chance to put it through its paces.Īfter all, it’s just a s/pdif output device for a Raspberry Pi, right? I mean, it’s just s/pdif, how good could it be? ![]()
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