Any Ready to Assemble Budget Kits?

[eea123]

I have a friend who is interested in building a player, but doesn't know where to start. Can someone help me find a ready to assemble kit on a modest budget like $100 or less? I could flash the SD card for them, but honestly it would be best if the kit had everything or was even an assembled unit. It seems like most of these types of solutions are more high end and start at $500+. I guess if it were totally assembled I could see them bumping their budget up to a few hundred.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[LeighP]

I recommend finding yourself a Raspberry Pi reseller in your country and have a good look on their website.

A 3B pi is more than adequate if you add a quality DAC to it and then find a form of case to fit.

As for high-end - yes the sky is the limit as to what you can spend whereas why? Ebay can supply equipment at good prices if you are happy to look around - my system here in the UK - Denon and Amp and speakers were around £50 UK Sterling and sound superb.

I admit my next upgrade will have digital inputs to cut out the need for a DAC but again I don't plan on spending a fortune.

Leigh....

[Ears of Tin]

Hifiberry sells bundles of all the necessary pieces. Assembly is trivial and you can flash the card for your friend. Allo sells pre-assembled, software installed packages. In both cases I think you would go over a $100 dollar budget after power supply, case and shipping are added in. Maybe closer to $200.

If you want to go more budget friendly, I would get a pi 3B and a cheaper DAC hat (I use Hifiberry DAC+ with no complaints). Free shipping if Amazon prime customer. Try to recycle a power supply from a cell phone. As for a case, how clever are you with lego?

[eea123]

Good suggestions and pretty much the route I thought he'd have to take. Although it is sacrilege to use Lego for a case . I think Allo might be a good path for a complete kit.

[LeighP]