A streaming solution giving very good SQ for not much outlay

I recently made some system changes and this resulted in me having to decide how to stream in the future and with what. I though some DIYers who wanted to get a good Streaming solution at a low cost might find this interest.

My recent system changes resulted in the loss of an Audiolab DAC in the 8300CDQ, and left me with a DAC in my Marantz SA-KI SACD player, both use very good DAC's although the Marantz is limited to a max of 24b/96Khz. I had been streaming before using a Sonore microRendu, with linear PSU into the USB of Audiolab DAC which gave a pretty good result, the Marantz is SPDIF optical or RCA only. Before making the changes I tried my previous streaming solution which was a Raspberry Pi 2 with HiFiBerry Digi+(B) going to the Marantz DAC, this gave a reasonable result as expected, but not quite up to the microRendu, but acceptable for casual listening.

If I wanted to listen to streaming at a higher SQ getting more depth and detail I would either need to improve what I had or spend out more on either a streamer to feed the Marantz DAC or buy a complete one box Streamer/DAC solution. After some research I assessed these would require an outlay of anything from £500 to £1K for a decent streamer or up to £2k for an all in one box solution to gain the level of SQ I hoped for, obviously one could spend a great deal more.

At present I do not want to spend much at all and my loving wife is very unlikely to put up with any more spend on HiFi at present, so the question became how could I get the best out of what I had with minimal spend and improve SQ? Based on my existing knowledge, some reading and watching a few videos on the internet I did the following.

I already new that a linear PSU sending 5V DC to a RPI was an immediate improvement so I purchased a inline power adapter(£3.99) and powered the RPI from my Linear PSU have adjusted it to 5V. A listen told me that this had made some improvement in clarity and the soundstage was better defined.

I read up on the HiFiBerry Digi+ and Allo SPDIF cards and whilst an ALLO DIGIONE SIGNATURE might be the easiest route to take it meant a spend of around £195, and that was not on. So it became clear that a HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro was the way to go if I could source one, luckily one came op on Ebay for £19. When it arrived I swap the Digi SPDIF card over and sat down for another listening test, and as several reviewers had said the improvement over the Digi+ to the Digi+ Pro is quite obvious, more depth, detail and control in the music overall, giving a very respectable SQ with a good Hi-Res streaming feed of 16/44.1 or above, certainly sounding as good as a CD player.

I could have stopped at that point but I came across a youtube video by Hans Beekhuyzen, I know some do not like him but he does come up with some good stuff IMO, I have put his video on this below. I ordered a 2mm spaced PCB fixing with screw wire connectors to connect a new cable to for the 5v supply. This morning I mounted the PCB fixing into the P3 connections on the HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro and carefully soldered each connection in place, I also drilled a hole in the end plate of the RPI/HifiBerry box to feed that cable through. I made up the power supply cable with a standard female power supply socket to connect the linear PSU to. Once I had connect the power cable to the new PCB fixing and had the box re-assembled without the top I put a cable tie around it to stop it being on pulled and strained. I would say the modification took no more than 30 minutes and the PCB fixing, cable and female socket cost about £10.

So I excitedly reconnected the RPI/HifiBerry back up to my system, with it now powered directly from the new cable to the Digi+ Pro board, NO power supply is needed to the RPI board, the power feeds to the RPI from the Digi+ board and as Hans Beekhuyzen states this avoids the switching circuitry on the RPI board so the power supply to both is now much cleaner.

The end result was quite a revelation, the overall SQ has taken quite a leap, I put on my usual test listening tracks and was amazed at the level of detail, clarity and depth that the RPI/Digi+ Pro is no giving. I can hear details in the tracks which are certainly as good as on very good CD and CDP, it has great detail, depth, controlled bass, open soundstage and the timbre of instruments sounds truer. A lot of the listening tracks I use I have on Vinyl and what I am now hearing with the streamer is approaching that, I am not saying it is the same as vinyl replay but is sounding more natural, if that make sense. A very enjoyable listening experience, easily as good as the microRendu was, in fact I would go out on limb and say probably better.

There is one other upgrade I could undertake and that would be to completely disconnect the power feed between the RPI and the Digi+ Pro board, this involves bending the appropriated power pins, and I think disconnecting a resistor on the Digi+. You would then power the RPI from its own Linear PSU. This is obviously destructive and until I can find a trusted review saying this is worthwhile I will not be doing so myself.

Summary

So my advice is if you want a simple, cheap streaming solution and already have a reasonable DAC to use this or similar SPDIF card that can take 5V direct to it may be an option to consider. My RPI/HifiBerry Digi+ with box cost me £60 used, the Digi+ Pro was £19, the Linear PSU cost £75 delivered from China, and the recent mods cost no more ether £20, So in all a cost of £174, so cheap IMHO for a great result.


https://youtu.be/L83EEDbAMJI