05-24-2021, 03:06 PM
I think I did a lot to cause "problems for audiophiles" with my pi4 in the past days/weeks. I used various different USB- and network cables, connected the pi to a router, to a switch, used two types of wifi dongles, attached a SSD to the SBC to store data on it and I connected the network player to three different DACs - from a Topping DX30 pro over a FXaudio DAC X7 to a Cambridge Audio CXA61.
The sound always was perfect, which makes 100% sense because the data to the DAC is transferred in a digital way, and there is zero chance any passive element in the chain is able to decode the streamed data, modify it in any way and change the sound (e.g. enhance the bass). Anyone who thinks this is possible is hearing a placebo effect.
As long as you don't generate a ground loop which totally destroys the sound you can use any kind of hardware. WiFi and Ethernet both sound identical. A SSD attached to the SBC is absolutley fine.
The only way to change the sound quality is to use a different transfer method, e.g. instead of an USB cable using a SPDIF hat on the raspberry, which forces the network player to encode the sound using a different method. Then you can hear a difference.
The sound always was perfect, which makes 100% sense because the data to the DAC is transferred in a digital way, and there is zero chance any passive element in the chain is able to decode the streamed data, modify it in any way and change the sound (e.g. enhance the bass). Anyone who thinks this is possible is hearing a placebo effect.
As long as you don't generate a ground loop which totally destroys the sound you can use any kind of hardware. WiFi and Ethernet both sound identical. A SSD attached to the SBC is absolutley fine.
The only way to change the sound quality is to use a different transfer method, e.g. instead of an USB cable using a SPDIF hat on the raspberry, which forces the network player to encode the sound using a different method. Then you can hear a difference.
