RPi2+HifiberryDigi+ vs Ubuntu Studio with JACK

[ercalamar]

I have tried both and maybe Ubuntu Studio with JACK and Audacious sounds a little more open.

Raspberry is powered by a portable charger.

I use an old Onkyo amplifier. SPDIF cables are different but I don't think that would make a difference.

Somebody tried this?

[rastus]

[ercalamar]

Xiaomi 10000 mAh battery pack

Onkyo TX-SR600E

[rastus]

I have the Onkyo TX-SR576 (2nd system), nice AVR (runs a little hot though), and different (not better, just different) sound to my Yammie RX-V2065. I was close to buying the Xiaomi battery pack, all the reading I did pointed towards them being very efficient.

Now, I'm not sure what your comparing with the "vs" (RPi2+HifiberryDigi+ vs Ubuntu Studio with JACK). Ones hardware and ones software, am I missing the point? JACK I've read about, but have not used. Ubuntu I've used, but am not proficient with. Ubuntu Studio is an unknown to me, is this software that runs on Ubuntu? Or a version of Ubuntu? "SPDIF cables are different..." Different to what? You have two systems?

With the DIGI you may find that the signal is sent out of the optical and coax at the same time, good for A/B testing. And I think, from what I've read, the coax is the better option... though with my DIGI setup I could not detect any difference between the two.

Please excuse my ignorance, it is I that am confused, not you.

[dunghnguyen]

I am curious as well for what the Ubuntu Studio with JACK?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubunt ... QuickStart

[ercalamar]

What I am comparing is the digital output of two different systems to the amplifier

Raspberry Pi 2 + Hifiberry Digi+ with output transformer + Xiaomi 10000 mAh Battery Pack + RuneAudio

Asus P8Z77-V PRO motherboard + Ubuntu Studio (live USB) + Audacious

JACK sits on top of ALSA and I only managed to make it work once. In theory ALSA could get better latency because avoids JACK on top. Maybe JACK was forcing some settings on ALSA. I specifically achieved 5.8 milisec latency.

In the PC I think that the sound improvement over regular Ubuntu is due to the low latency kernel provided by Ubuntu Studio.

After posting I received a coax cable I ordered. It is an improvement for the raspberry output.

Using ALSA in the PC without JACK, the Raspberry sound has more space but in the PC the individual instruments are more defined.

To test I have been using flac files.
George Winston - Thanksgiving, Carol of the Bells
Avishai Cohen - Song for my brother

I also tried
Hidden Orchestra - Hushed

but it is 192000 Hz and though the front channels of the amplifier are supposed to support it I have no sound.

I also tried a DSD file but I get no sound from RuneAudio

[ercalamar]

Funny thing about the coax cable. Switching the lights in the room interrupts the music not with the toslink from the same Raspberry

[dunghnguyen]

Can you advise how to install the Ubuntu Studio with JACK? I want to compare it vs Pi2 / DAC+ ... Tks to you.

[dunghnguyen]

[ercalamar]