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Which DAC HAT for Raspberry Pi?

Nic Robinson

Nic Robinson

Moderator
I've bought another pi for the holiday place which will run volumio. The rest of the system is Quad 33/303 and Spendor SP2 - so relaxing holiday listening the order of the day!

Can anyone recommend a suitable dac hat? Just Boom seems well recommended for £30 but I'm in the dark as to the actual SQ credentials of these things.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Nic.
 
I use IQaudio hats and they are very good. Haven't tried Hifiberry or Allo but they are also well thought of. But for the money, just go for it.
 
Thanks guys. I must admit that's the one I fancy...I'll leave it a day to check but will pull the trigger.

What an age we live in!
 
High levels of competition in the market mean there aren’t any bad ones out there. Personally i’d Pay a bit extra and get the Allo Boss 1.2.
 
IQ Audio for me.
Haven't tried a Boss but Piano2.1 and Kali sounded poor to me.

On my recomendation a friend bought an IQAudio DAC Pro and was shocked that it beat his CDP, which has 4 TDA1541s inside!
 
Nic Robinson said:
Have you compared that with any others? Looks impressive and I don't mind spending a bit more...
Click to expand...

I preferred it to the HifiBerry. I haven't tried the IQAudio. As I said, there really aren't any bad ones out there.

A possible advantage of the Allo is the ability to add an Isolator board at a later date to further improve the sound.
 
Whatever one you get, get one with 2x crystals on board, so it can sidestep the normal Raspberry Pi clocking issues.
 
In the end I went for the IQaudIO as a) there was no hassle getting one quickly (24 hours) and b) £30!!

It's now installed and playing through my home system of JVC AX-Z1010TN and Kef 103/2. I'm absolutely delighted with this superb sounding little bit of kit and I know it'll be prefect for the holiday place's Quad/Spendor setup.

What a world we live in when a high quality source capable of playing radio from around the world, plus my flac collection, can be put together for a total of £60!
 
I didn't get on so well with the 7510 when I had one in my (then Linn/Naim) system years ago. I hope I don't find the sound of this thing as fatiguing!
 
I use iancanada's fifopi, dual ess 9038qm and iv board, not cheap but it's almost as good as my Brooklyn at 1/3 the price. With a few mods I reckon itll show it a clean pair of heels.
 
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