Derek, Submitted on 2013/04/09 at 19:58

Sound quality is surprisingly good. After many years of succumbing to temptation when I really should not have I am lucky enough to be able to compare the RaspyFi on several DACs. The Schiit Bifrost, a Muse Mini 24/192 board, the uDac2, a Moon DA-100 and a Bel Canto DAC3. Haven’t yet tried RaspyFi on the Moon or Bel Canto. Of the other three it’s interesting – the Bifrost is an async DAC with, of course, it’s own power supply and has more ‘heft’ than the Raspi- powered Muse and uDAC. Overall, I prefer the Bifrost but there is a ‘rightness’ to the little Muse that is surprising given it’s price.

Will get around to trying the other DACs eventually but I like seeing how close a ‘mini-system’ can get to a bigger, more expensive system. Currently I am using the Raspi with the Muse board into a Trends TA-10.1 Tripath amp. It puts a grin on your face to fit an entire system (except the speakers)in one hand! If you started today you could put together a surprisingly good system for under USD$150 not including speakers. The Raspi is U$35, a Muse MC20 Class T amp is about U$50 and the Muse Mini 24/192 DAC (the one with the two RCA jacks sandwiched in the center by two LEDs) is U$55. Very decent sound for the dollar. AND remote control!!

Compared to my Voyage MPD Alix 2D2 SBC the only thing the Raspyfi lacks is the ability to see all the files on my NAS (it only sees about 10% of the albums) and the inability to play hi-res files. I understand you’re working on both though so I will wait patiently!!

Keep up the good work – a great project for the Raspi.