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Ideas for a custom pi case

killie99

killie99

pfm Member
Looking to make a case for a pi (with the ability to change HATS) including a linear power supply, and possibly an SSD, all in the one box. Anyone made one, just looking for some ideas before I dive in? There are a myriad of cases available on Aliexpress but it's choosing the right one!
 
I did a pi in my preamp case but now looking to do just the pi to give me a bit more flexibility when I swap stuff around. Hoping someone might post a picture of what they've done and give me an idea or inspiration!
Cutting metal and making things fit is the easy bit.

dcg3-inside-small.jpg


dcg3-rear-small.jpg


dcg3-front-small.jpg
 
Ah, so no longer using the DCG3. Any reason why? I ask because I have two of the DCG3 boards and two PSUs sitting in the PCB bin waiting to be built.
 
I still have the DCG3 but it’s not in use at the moment, using the benchmark as a pre for the time being
 
That's a cute little build, and I'm sure sounds great.

I've got the Allo USBridge Signature with the DigiOne Signature, all powered by the their Shanti power supply. I've never been one to believe that a transport could make much difference to the sound, but I was quite amazed at the contrast between my current setup a Squeezebox Touch (with all the software tweaks). It allowed me to do a true A/B test, as I could sync the two players, and toggle between them with my DAC. The Allo combo was clearly better: much more fluid and "analog" sounding.

BTW like you, I'm using a Benchmark DAC2 HGC as DAC+Pre. I used to run it through a Naim NAC52+Super, but I tried plugging it directly into my NAP135s one day, and immediately sold the Naim combo! :D

My current power amps are Avondale NCC300 monos, which are spectacular. However, @paulski (not @James) mentioned the Neurchrome Modulus-686 the other day, which got me curious and I gave into temptation. I just received the modules from Tom today, and have a bunch of other parts on the way.

Long story short... my system could soon be remarkably similar to yours. If you tell me that you're running Ergo IX's, I'll die from shock. o_O
 
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I’m running Ergo IX’s…






Couldn’t resist, no I’ve got Monitor Audio PL300’s. My 686 dual mono build is on the 686 thread on DIY audio with some pics
 
Having gone to the expense of getting a DigiOne Signature for clean S/PDIF output, have you considered using impedance-matched cables / plugs / sockets for the output? Not sure how much difference it would make in the real world, but it might…
 
I used the same type of cable for the short internal cable as I have for the connection between this box and my DAC. Other than that I’m too much of a sceptic to believe anything else will make any difference.
 
At the risk of going down a rabbit hole (moi?), there may be some relevant material here. My thoughts would be that if you have a DAC which is relatively jitter-immune, then you'd probably be right to be sceptical, but in that case, why go to the trouble of reclocking at the RPi? For me, it's the wrong place to be sorting out the digital timing… why reclock and then transmit the resulting RF through a series of impedance-unmatched cables and sockets? Surely better to reclock at the DAC. It's like using voltage regulators with low output impedance, and then hanging loads of cable on the end of the regs to increase the output impedance again… yes, I'm looking at you, Naim.
 
Mike Hanson said:
That's a cute little build, and I'm sure sounds great.

I've got the Allo USBridge Signature with the DigiOne Signature, all powered by the their Shanti power supply. I've never been one to believe that a transport could make much difference to the sound, but I was quite amazed at the contrast between my current setup a Squeezebox Touch (with all the software tweaks). It allowed me to do a true A/B test, as I could sync the two players, and toggle between them with my DAC. The Allo combo was clearly better: much more fluid and "analog" sounding.

BTW like you, I'm using a Benchmark DAC2 HGC as DAC+Pre. I used to run it through a Naim NAC52+Super, but I tried plugging it directly into my NAP135s one day, and immediately sold the Naim combo! :D

My current power amps are Avondale NCC300 monos, which are spectacular. However, @paulski (not @James) mentioned the Neurchrome Modulus-686 the other day, which got me curious and I gave into temptation. I just received the modules from Tom today, and have a bunch of other parts on the way.

Long story short... my system could soon be remarkably similar to yours. If you tell me that you're running Ergo IX's, I'll die from shock. o_O
Click to expand...

Mike, I have the Allo transports as well. The Allo DigiOne Sig with the Shanti PSU beats the pants off the streamer in my Naim Atom for SQ. More detailed and wider sound stage, more organic and less digital glare. The only problem I have with the RPi is the software available for it. For me my music source is tidal plus a bunch of radio stations and the only RPi software that allows Tidal support is either Roon or Volumio. Roon doesn't appeal to me, too complex for my needs and Volumio is ok ish there their subscription fees are a bit silly. And I do like the Naim software from a usability point of view.

But the Allo products betters most other streamers for SQ. You probably have to go to well into four figures to get something similar!

What software do you use on your RPi's?
 
OzBrit Audio said:
Mike, I have the Allo transports as well. The Allo DigiOne Sig with the Shanti PSU beats the pants off the streamer in my Naim Atom for SQ. More detailed and wider sound stage, more organic and less digital glare. The only problem I have with the RPi is the software available for it. For me my music source is tidal plus a bunch of radio stations and the only RPi software that allows Tidal support is either Roon or Volumio. Roon doesn't appeal to me, too complex for my needs and Volumio is ok ish there their subscription fees are a bit silly. And I do like the Naim software from a usability point of view.

But the Allo products betters most other streamers for SQ. You probably have to go to well into four figures to get something similar!

What software do you use on your RPi's?
Click to expand...
I'm still firmly in the Squeezebox world (six in the house), with Logitech Media Server at the centre of it all. Therefore, I'm running PiCorePlayer on my USBridge Sig.

I believe LMS has a Tidal plug in, although I've never used it. I'm not a streaming customer, as I think it completely rips off the artists, and I've already got LOADs of music in my own collection.

For when I'm on the road, I run MadSonic (a fork of SubSonic) on the same system that hosts LMS. I forward port 4040 on my router, and run DSub on my phone to listen to my entire collection. DSub caches the last bunch of stuff I've listened to, in case I can't access the Internet.
 
Mike Hanson said:
I'm still firmly in the Squeezebox world (six in the house), with Logitech Media Server at the centre of it all. Therefore, I'm running PiCorePlayer on my USBridge Sig.

I believe LMS has a Tidal plug in, although I've never used it. I'm not a streaming customer, as I think it completely rips off the artists, and I've already got LOADs of music in my own collection.

For when I'm on the road, I run MadSonic (a fork of SubSonic) on the same system that hosts LMS. I forward port 4040 on my router, and run DSub on my phone to listen to my entire collection. DSub caches the last bunch of stuff I've listened to, in case I can't access the Internet.
Click to expand...

Like you I had a squeezebox touch until I managed to connect it to a 12v supply in error. Funny it didn't like that and ended up being consigned to the bin :). Not a bad box for its time though especially if you used the USB out into a decent DAC!

But I do like the Allo streamers like you. I know you don't like tidal but try a free account for a month and listen to the tidal masters and the SQ is very impressive indeed. You don't even need a MQA DAC to listen. Use this download if your interested to use tidal connect on RPi and control it from the tidal phone app

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62703-tidal-connect-on-raspberry-how-to/#comments

The great thing about this it supports first unfold of MQA to 96K 24bit on the pi. No need for MQA support on the modem.

Easy to try out. I just downloaded Volumio which is a simple 5 minute setup. Enable SSH access, here's a link showing how

https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Manual/SSH.html

Then terminal to the Rpi and run the instructions on the audiophilestyle.com link and in another 10 minutes you have a tidal connect server. Control from your phone and hear your streamer really sing. The masters library on tidal now is pretty impressive
 
Mike Hanson said:
I'm still firmly in the Squeezebox world (six in the house), with Logitech Media Server at the centre of it all. Therefore, I'm running PiCorePlayer on my USBridge Sig.

I believe LMS has a Tidal plug in, although I've never used it. I'm not a streaming customer, as I think it completely rips off the artists, and I've already got LOADs of music in my own collection.

For when I'm on the road, I run MadSonic (a fork of SubSonic) on the same system that hosts LMS. I forward port 4040 on my router, and run DSub on my phone to listen to my entire collection. DSub caches the last bunch of stuff I've listened to, in case I can't access the Internet.
Click to expand...
Oops wrong emoji on the consigning my Pi to the bin. I wasn't happy that happened, Was quite fond of it actually. And these days they go for good money on eBay!
 
OzBrit Audio said:
Like you I had a squeezebox touch until I managed to connect it to a 12v supply in error. Funny it didn't like that and ended up being consigned to the bin :). Not a bad box for its time though especially if you used the USB out into a decent DAC!

But I do like the Allo streamers like you. I know you don't like tidal but try a free account for a month and listen to the tidal masters and the SQ is very impressive indeed. You don't even need a MQA DAC to listen. Use this download if your interested to use tidal connect on RPi and control it from the tidal phone app

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/62703-tidal-connect-on-raspberry-how-to/#comments

The great thing about this it supports first unfold of MQA to 96K 24bit on the pi. No need for MQA support on the modem.

Easy to try out. I just downloaded Volumio which is a simple 5 minute setup. Enable SSH access, here's a link showing how

https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Manual/SSH.html

Then terminal to the Rpi and run the instructions on the audiophilestyle.com link and in another 10 minutes you have a tidal connect server. Control from your phone and hear your streamer really sing. The masters library on tidal now is pretty impressive
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info, but I really have no need, as I own all the music I want to listen to. If I want to listen to something new, then I buy it in a way that gives the artist as much as possible. My current preference is Bandcamp, but that's somewhat limited.
 
OzBrit Audio said:
Oops wrong emoji on the consigning my Pi to the bin. I wasn't happy that happened, Was quite fond of it actually. And these days they go for good money on eBay!
Click to expand...
I've got four working Touches myself, and my wife has the Boom in her office. I've also got an SB3 in the garage, and I use another for testing speakers occasionally. I've also got a couple of Duets, some SB2s, probably an old SB1 collecting dust.

I had two of the Radios, but they kept going on the fritz, and I finally gave up on them. They were good in my bedroom and the kitchen, but I've upgraded those two systems since moving away from the SB Radios. (That's where I use two of my Touches now.)

I suppose if someone offered by buy one of my older Squeezeboxen, I would agree, but I'm not going to go to the trouble of selling them myself.
 
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