Simple tech question really;
Spotted a nice Eximus DP1 dac for sale (not sure where ) which has an I2s input. Wondered if this could be connected direct to a Raspberry Pi, as from recent advice from Ian this would seem to be the best way to connect a source, avoiding conversion etc.
Anyone got experience of the Eximus dac? Looking for an upgrade to my MDAC, and the fact that the Eximus uses dual 1794 chips would seem that it might have similarities with the DDDac.
Otherwise I’ll be patient and hold out for a DDDac with pi built in via I2s, but that will prob cost a lot more than £800.
Was listening to my old Eximus DP1 at my brother in laws on Monday - sounding really good and it’s so beautifully made.
He just uses it as a dac connected to an Auralic Mini (not i2s) but It also has a seriously good analogue volume control plus an analogue input for your turntable so just add a power amp.
No idea if it can connect to a Raspberry Pi I’m afraid.
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The problem with the Raspberry Pi’s I2S output is that it can’t generate an exact 44.1 KHz clock, so, unless you can slave it to the clock provided by your DAC, you will have a lot of jitter on the clock, and the main advantage of I2S is to remove any jitter introduced by recovering the clock from an SPDIF signal.
What you need to achieve a decent I2S output is something like a HiFiBerry DAC which slaves the Raspberry Pi to an accurately generated I2S clock signal. If you’re going to these lengths, you might as well use the analogue output from the Hi-FiBerry which is rather well regarded anyway.
Either that, or use the async USB input into your DAC, whereby all the clocking will be in the DAC and you’ll have all the advantages of an I2S input without the Pi’s snags.
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Kevin is correct; the Pi I2S output is piss poor. What you need is something like this -> https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/raspdac/raspdigi-lte-lvds-reclocker-kali-streamer-i2s-lvds-hdmi-audio-gd-compatible-p-12031.html
It’s a Pi + Allo Kali reclocker + HDMI I2S output in a nice box. You could DIY similar for less cost.
The Eximus is an excellent DAC but a DDDAC with integrated Pi and reclocker (eg https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac-pro/) direct to the board will be a lot better.
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Thank you Ian, that’s the way I’ll head I think, and as you advised previously I could get a dac for the pi in the interim before I can afford to commission someone to build a dddac.
Yeah the pi needs hardware to work with audio really
The Allo Boss is a good DAC but they are planning to release an ESS9038-based DAC later in the year for less than £250. This may prove to be as good as most people ever need for a simple digital system.
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Sounds like it might be worth the wait, enjoy the sound I have now but for some reason I keep thinking there might be something better. Strange really