VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

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Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Yatsushiro » 02 Nov 2016, 21:40

A bit later than planned, but here are my initial thoughts.

But first, a little background...

I started my RPi Audio journey earlier this year (having never done anything remotely like it previously) with the following:

RPi 1 Model B NAS, running OpenMediaVault over ethernet
RPi 2 Model B, intially with an IQAudio Pi-Dac+, but now with a MamboBerry LS Dac+
YJ Blue TPA3116 amp
Mission 760 speakers
Rune (After starting off with Moode)

I played with some other 3116 amps, then tried a couple of TDA7498s before settling on a modified Audiobah clone. All of this so far was undertaken with little expenditure, as the amps are so cheap.

By now I was very happy with what I had, but the upgrade itch never stops, so I brought some Q Acoustics 3020 speakers, I was now content, and enjoying my music collection much more than I ever had before.

Frequenting a collection of HiFi/Audio fora (diyAudio, Art Of Sound, Audiokarma etc) I became aware of the Allo product range (http://www.allo.com/sparky/index-audio.html); I now have a complete Vana system to build. Before I go that far, however, I wanted to try the Kali reclocker in my current setup, as it is an iteration and any improvement should be readily identified.

The Kali board itself is of a higher quality than a lot of the amps I have bought, neater soldering, components aligned etc. It fits between the RPi and the Mamboberry, using it's own power supply (5v 3A). A jumper on the Kali allows you to power the RPi via the Kali. I decided to power the RPi indepently from the Kali.

Once everything was connected up, I, with some excited anticipation, switched everything on and played some of my favourite 'test' tracks:

Dire Straights - Alchemy
Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Focus - Sylvia
The Who - Baba O'Riley
Sparks - Barbecutie
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Delibes - Flower Duet

Now, if you read some of the other reviews, people have invariably waxed lyrical about the improvements the Kali brings; let me say it's all true. My music has never sounded so good. It's hard to describe, and possibly harder to quantify, but I can sum it up as 'more'; more detail, more expression, more enjoyment.

I'm now intrigued to try the Piano Dac in place of the Mamboberry, the Volt in place of the Audiobah clone; the possibilties and combinations are numerous. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy my 'new' system.

As long as your Dac will work alongside the Kali, it's a must have upgrade...
Yatsushiro
 
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Joined: 11 May 2016, 10:30

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby dror » 14 Nov 2016, 07:55

Hi,

Really nice.
Thank you for sharing your impressions.
dror
 
Posts: 140
Joined: 03 Dec 2015, 10:14

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby matlo74 » 20 Nov 2016, 08:46

Thanks. It sounds interesting.
matlo74
 
Posts: 34
Joined: 10 Apr 2016, 13:18

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Blackfear » 20 Nov 2016, 09:57

Yatsushiro wrote:A bit later than planned, but here are my initial thoughts.

But first, a little background...

I started my RPi Audio journey earlier this year (having never done anything remotely like it previously) with the following:

RPi 1 Model B NAS, running OpenMediaVault over ethernet
RPi 2 Model B, intially with an IQAudio Pi-Dac+, but now with a MamboBerry LS Dac+
YJ Blue TPA3116 amp
Mission 760 speakers
Rune (After starting off with Moode)

I played with some other 3116 amps, then tried a couple of TDA7498s before settling on a modified Audiobah clone. All of this so far was undertaken with little expenditure, as the amps are so cheap.

By now I was very happy with what I had, but the upgrade itch never stops, so I brought some Q Acoustics 3020 speakers, I was now content, and enjoying my music collection much more than I ever had before.

Frequenting a collection of HiFi/Audio fora (diyAudio, Art Of Sound, Audiokarma etc) I became aware of the Allo product range (http://www.allo.com/sparky/index-audio.html); I now have a complete Vana system to build. Before I go that far, however, I wanted to try the Kali reclocker in my current setup, as it is an iteration and any improvement should be readily identified.

The Kali board itself is of a higher quality than a lot of the amps I have bought, neater soldering, components aligned etc. It fits between the RPi and the Mamboberry, using it's own power supply (5v 3A). A jumper on the Kali allows you to power the RPi via the Kali. I decided to power the RPi indepently from the Kali.

Once everything was connected up, I, with some excited anticipation, switched everything on and played some of my favourite 'test' tracks:

Dire Straights - Alchemy
Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Focus - Sylvia
The Who - Baba O'Riley
Sparks - Barbecutie
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Delibes - Flower Duet

Now, if you read some of the other reviews, people have invariably waxed lyrical about the improvements the Kali brings; let me say it's all true. My music has never sounded so good. It's hard to describe, and possibly harder to quantify, but I can sum it up as 'more'; more detail, more expression, more enjoyment.

I'm now intrigued to try the Piano Dac in place of the Mamboberry, the Volt in place of the Audiobah clone; the possibilties and combinations are numerous. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy my 'new' system.

As long as your Dac will work alongside the Kali, it's a must have upgrade...


Hello Yatsushiro, have you already tested Piano DAC, i have same DAC now, first Mambo LS, testing two weeks, and now i used Piano DAC, of course paired with Kali reclocker onto Rpi 3 and supply is provided by IfiPower into reclocker, now using Rune.
My impressions:
Bass: Kali goes little deeper
Mids: +/- the same but kali is more open, litter warmer which creates better stereo imagining , music surrounds you more.
High: I think the same as point above , low highs are slightly more open and separate ...
Overall detail for these both (Mambo and Piano) paired with reclocker is enormous and if you have badly or not very well recorded music (especially sometime metal albums) you will hear all music shortcomings .... :shock:
Blackfear
 
Posts: 19
Joined: 18 Nov 2016, 09:16

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby matlo74 » 21 Nov 2016, 10:00

Hi

I wonder what could be interesting to take ? I have today a digi+ with a class d fx audio 802.

Regards

Mat
matlo74
 
Posts: 34
Joined: 10 Apr 2016, 13:18

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Audiohrdwr » 21 Nov 2016, 16:19

nice to see the positive feedback.
keep in mind that the KALI will work with the DACs that run in slave mode (that dont have on board clocks)
Audiohrdwr
 
Posts: 19
Joined: 23 Sep 2016, 16:06

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Blackfear » 21 Nov 2016, 22:17

Audiohrdwr wrote:nice to see the positive feedback.
keep in mind that the KALI will work with the DACs that run in slave mode (that dont have on board clocks)

Hello, Kali DAC or Mambo LS always should work automatically in slave mode, if i am not wrong :)
Blackfear
 
Posts: 19
Joined: 18 Nov 2016, 09:16

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Vinboy » 22 Nov 2016, 15:27

Blackfear wrote:Hello Yatsushiro, have you already tested Piano DAC, i have same DAC now, first Mambo LS, testing two weeks, and now i used Piano DAC, of course paired with Kali reclocker onto Rpi 3 and supply is provided by IfiPower into reclocker, now using Rune.
My impressions:
Bass: Kali goes little deeper
Mids: +/- the same but kali is more open, litter warmer which creates better stereo imagining , music surrounds you more.
High: I think the same as point above , low highs are slightly more open and separate ...
Overall detail for these both (Mambo and Piano) paired with reclocker is enormous and if you have badly or not very well recorded music (especially sometime metal albums) you will hear all music shortcomings .... :shock:


Hello Blackfear!
What settings you use to enable Piano DAC (with recloker) in config.txt of runeaudio?
Which of the following lines have to uncomment to enable the Piano DAC?

# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-dac
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-dacplus
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-digi
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-amp
# Device_tree_overlay = iqaudio-dac
# Device_tree_overlay = iqaudio-dacplus

Thank you for sharing your experiences!
Vinboy
 
Posts: 7
Joined: 22 Nov 2016, 15:18

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Blackfear » 22 Nov 2016, 15:41

Vinboy wrote:
Blackfear wrote:Hello Yatsushiro, have you already tested Piano DAC, i have same DAC now, first Mambo LS, testing two weeks, and now i used Piano DAC, of course paired with Kali reclocker onto Rpi 3 and supply is provided by IfiPower into reclocker, now using Rune.
My impressions:
Bass: Kali goes little deeper
Mids: +/- the same but kali is more open, litter warmer which creates better stereo imagining , music surrounds you more.
High: I think the same as point above , low highs are slightly more open and separate ...
Overall detail for these both (Mambo and Piano) paired with reclocker is enormous and if you have badly or not very well recorded music (especially sometime metal albums) you will hear all music shortcomings .... :shock:


Hello Blackfear!
What settings you use to enable Piano DAC (with recloker) in config.txt of runeaudio?
Which of the following lines you need uncomment to enable the DAC At the Piano?

# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-dac
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-dacplus
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-digi
# Device_tree_overlay = hifiberry-amp
# Device_tree_overlay = iqaudio-dac
# Device_tree_overlay = iqaudio-dacplus

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

Hello
I have uncomment only one line for iqaudio-dacplus (it should activate any PCM 51xx), and after reboot or switch it off from supply has appeared
iqaudio in the MPD menu (but it seems that it didnt work for the first attempt), when I will be home send you exact config.txt extraction, also I set sound signature on ACX or Um3..., remaining sometimes muted audio output.
But also you can try or you should try first moode player if your DAC works correctly... :mrgreen:

PS: i would like also compare Moode vs Runeaudio software if it has any impact on the final SQ but as I understand Kali Reclocker makes the big improvement of SQ so changing of software or sound signature in Rune should not have any audible impact on SQ maybe sligtly....this is my result when i switched from Mambo LS (ESS9023) onto Kali DAC (PCM5211), my impressions are above in old remarks...Kali is more open, more huge 3D stereo ....briefly said
Blackfear
 
Posts: 19
Joined: 18 Nov 2016, 09:16

Re: VANA compelte streaming system for RPI and other SBCs

Postby Vinboy » 22 Nov 2016, 16:01

Hello
I have uncomment only one line for iqaudio-dacplus (it should activate any PCM 51xx), and after reboot or switch it off from supply has appeared iqaudio in the MPD menu (but it seems that it didnt work for the first attempt), when I will be home send you exact config.txt extraction, also I set sound signature on ACX or Um3..., remaining sometimes muted audio output.
But also you can try or you should try first moode player if your DAC works correctly... :mrgreen:

PS: i would like also compare Moode vs Runeaudio software if it has any impact on the final SQ but as I understand Kali Reclocker makes the big improvement of SQ so changing of software or sound signature in Rune should not have any audible impact on SQ maybe sligtly....this is my result when i switched from Mambo LS (ESS9023) onto Kali DAC (PCM5211), my impressions are above in old remarks...Kali is more open, more huge 3D stereo ....briefly said


Excuse me but I have not understood the phrase " also I set sound signature on ACX or Um3..., remaining sometimes muted audio output"...
Anyway, I would definitely use runeaudio (and I would avoid moode, I don't like it)!
Vinboy
 
Posts: 7
Joined: 22 Nov 2016, 15:18

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