I received my PI2 streamer yesterday. It is a DIY order (you assemble the case and connect PI2 to a Raspberry PI by clipping it onto the GPIO pins) It took me less than 30 mins.
The PI2 is a digital streamer that sits on top of a Rasberry PI - It uses the I2S protocol to take the stream from a Rasberry PI and output simultaneously to a number of isolated outputs (can google but I2s, Optical,SPDIF and a few others)
I then used a power modification I had read about on another reviewers website - I bypassed the internal power switching (also voiding the warranty
) and connected two pins directly from my Linear power supply (photos to follow).
So it is a streamer that uses the Rasberry PI to feed it a signal.
I have tried the Audio GD DI20 streamer previously (which will cost about R10K landed) - This was a small improvement over the normal Rasberry PI but not substantial enough to warrant spending the money.
The PI2 hat now goes for $250 a case is another $25 and a power supply is $30. with duty it cost around R4800 landed (I paid $200 for unit- it went up)
The difference was immediately noticeable - better separation, improved depth and definition of the soundstage. Usually digital improvements are incremental, this was not it was a big increase.
I am sharing as I think this is a very worthwhile upgrade especially given the cost.
There will be a pre-built streamer released soon (called the mercury) for those without a DIY inclination
The PI2 is a digital streamer that sits on top of a Rasberry PI - It uses the I2S protocol to take the stream from a Rasberry PI and output simultaneously to a number of isolated outputs (can google but I2s, Optical,SPDIF and a few others)
I then used a power modification I had read about on another reviewers website - I bypassed the internal power switching (also voiding the warranty
) and connected two pins directly from my Linear power supply (photos to follow).So it is a streamer that uses the Rasberry PI to feed it a signal.
I have tried the Audio GD DI20 streamer previously (which will cost about R10K landed) - This was a small improvement over the normal Rasberry PI but not substantial enough to warrant spending the money.
The PI2 hat now goes for $250 a case is another $25 and a power supply is $30. with duty it cost around R4800 landed (I paid $200 for unit- it went up)
The difference was immediately noticeable - better separation, improved depth and definition of the soundstage. Usually digital improvements are incremental, this was not it was a big increase.
I am sharing as I think this is a very worthwhile upgrade especially given the cost.
There will be a pre-built streamer released soon (called the mercury) for those without a DIY inclination
