Post by keithg on Oct 19, 2016 13:46:27 GMT -5
I have been frustrated with my UMC 200 when streaming from my Oppo 103 via HDMI because the UMC 200 drops the first few seconds of music every time there is a resolution change in the stream. That's an issue because my playlists contain resolutions of 16bit/44.1kHz to 24bit/352.8kHz and everything in between potentially in the same playlist. My work around was to use the Oppo's analog out into the UMC 200, but I really prefer the DAC sound of the Emotive better.
So I bought the Big Ego and have been playing music from my Mac Mini using Audirvana witch is fine when I am on the computer, but not in the living room. I was ready to pull the trigger on an Aurilic Aries Mini when I decided to order a Raspberry Pi 3B + necessary goodies to make it work. I started with RuneAudio which worked fine until I shut it down the first time and from then on, I could get no output from the Big Ego even though RuneAudio said it was playing music. I tried getting help on their boards and nothing worked. Again, I was ready to pull the trigger on the Aries Mini and decided to try Volumio and have not looked back. I am currently using Volumio 2.001 released on 10/15/2016 and this is working better than the prior release and has more features enabled.
I do not need a powered hub between the Pi and the Big Ego. I man using a Audioquest Jitterbug between the Pi and the Big Ego because of the Pi's reputation for noisy usb ports. The line out from the Big Ego is going into the UMC 200's analog input. To my ear, the sound quality is music better that either the analog out of the Oppo or the DAC in the UMC 200. There seems to be more resolution from the Big Ego and I can stream tracks above 24bit/192kHz.
All that said, playback is not completely flawless. There are occasional "clicks" at random in 96kHz and 192kHz tracks but they are not as annoying as 3 to 5 seconds of missing music at a resolution change. These just sound like a vinyl record click. Interesting to me is that I have not experienced any "clicks" in 352.8kHz tracks. I understand the the Pi uses a (not very precise) 48kHz oscillator and I would expect there would bee less of an issue with 48, 96 and 192kHz files than 44.1, 88.2, 176.4 and 352.8kHz tracks.
I am sure my Pi streaming setup will continue to evolve over time and I will post updates in this thread.
I
So I bought the Big Ego and have been playing music from my Mac Mini using Audirvana witch is fine when I am on the computer, but not in the living room. I was ready to pull the trigger on an Aurilic Aries Mini when I decided to order a Raspberry Pi 3B + necessary goodies to make it work. I started with RuneAudio which worked fine until I shut it down the first time and from then on, I could get no output from the Big Ego even though RuneAudio said it was playing music. I tried getting help on their boards and nothing worked. Again, I was ready to pull the trigger on the Aries Mini and decided to try Volumio and have not looked back. I am currently using Volumio 2.001 released on 10/15/2016 and this is working better than the prior release and has more features enabled.
I do not need a powered hub between the Pi and the Big Ego. I man using a Audioquest Jitterbug between the Pi and the Big Ego because of the Pi's reputation for noisy usb ports. The line out from the Big Ego is going into the UMC 200's analog input. To my ear, the sound quality is music better that either the analog out of the Oppo or the DAC in the UMC 200. There seems to be more resolution from the Big Ego and I can stream tracks above 24bit/192kHz.
All that said, playback is not completely flawless. There are occasional "clicks" at random in 96kHz and 192kHz tracks but they are not as annoying as 3 to 5 seconds of missing music at a resolution change. These just sound like a vinyl record click. Interesting to me is that I have not experienced any "clicks" in 352.8kHz tracks. I understand the the Pi uses a (not very precise) 48kHz oscillator and I would expect there would bee less of an issue with 48, 96 and 192kHz files than 44.1, 88.2, 176.4 and 352.8kHz tracks.
I am sure my Pi streaming setup will continue to evolve over time and I will post updates in this thread.
I
