Installed Raspberry Pi and DAC inside Crack

[John EH]

Finally received my Raspberry Pi A+ and HiFiBerry DAC+ and installed it in one of my Crack Amps.

Pretty slick.  The Pi emulates an iTunes Airplay device via a program called Shairport so I'm able to stream iTunes directly to the Crack from iPad, iPhone, or Mac computer. 

Listening as I type.  Works great, no interference.  Not depicted in under the hood shot, USB power cable for the Pi, wifi dongle for the Raspberry Pi.

Mounted it on wood computer stand offs. The 3.5mm to RCA and power cable fit perfectly under the base rubber feet.  Later I'll install zip tie stand offs and tie it up nicely.

Really happy with this.  Been wanting to put a Pi inside a Bottlehead amp for ages now.  Finally got around to it.

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hagensieker.com%2Fdownloads-2%2Ffiles%2Fcrack_pi_dac.jpg&hash=ac2b10d87f0b772eecf6339329989c91373f7ff0)

(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hagensieker.com%2Fdownloads-2%2Ffiles%2Fcrack_pi_dac2.jpg&hash=355e38afe8e55051d685ce34c1b5397f7fa94637)

[Hank Murrow]

Really sweet additions to the Crack, John! This is a great example of the Forum 'multiplying factor'. Everybody has a chance to add a bit of something to the Forum.

Cheers, Hank in Eugene

[JamieMcC]

Yep a neat idea and nice execution seen it mentioned a few times so it great to see it done. I bet there will be a few more now.

[John EH]

Observation on the installed Pi and DAC.  Using a JAN 6080 and it's dead silent, no interference, no buzz, no hum.

Pop in a Chatham 5998 which by all accounts should sound better creates the tiniest amount of hum or buzz or something.  No black background.  So it seems some tubes are a bit more EMI / RFI sensitive than others, or something.

Oddly I prefer the sound of this 6080 as well. I have a WE 421A I'll try later. 

Wonder if the metal base of the 6080 has something to do with this?

[John EH]

A couple more observations for anyone else thinking of doing this. For some odd reason, and please bear in mind I live in Japan with 100v of really dirty power.......If I plug in the Raspberry Pi and Crack into the same plug or strip I hear a bit of 60 cycle hum or buzz or whatever you call it.   My house is weird in that everything hums slightly and then about every minute or so it increases in noise. Cyclic, like the refrigerator or something on the grid.

I'm not sure you would have this problem in a three prong home with real grounds and cleaner power.

Another thing I noticed is that if the Pi/Crack is right up against the wall by the outlets I get increased buzz, pull it out a foot and it's gone. Very weird interference.  Again I blame where I am.

And even more oddly enough my daughter thinks this is way cool.  It's actually her Crack I did this to.  She's 16 and is a pianist and prefers quality audio more so than other kids her age.  I put the Crack in her room and she's streaming iTunes Radio to it and really thinks it's cool.  I tend to agree. I have another Pi A+ on order but doubt I'll do this again to my other one.  It's generally fed by a Schiit Bifrost or Modi from my Mac Mini Server so no reason to take a step down.  But I can see me doing this to my SEX amp which I use in the office but that one will probably have to be external.  Not a lot of space under the hood and it's a hotter running amp.   

I strongly recommend that before you mount a Pi inside a crack that you put it in a plastic case and just set the Crack over the top of it. and see where you stand on interference.   If you use a model A, B, or B+ you can use ethernet instead of wifi which will certainly limit interference but it's another wire running out from inside the Crack.   The Pi A+ does not have an ethernet port.

Also you could get an OTG cable and run your wifi dongle out the back of the amp out of sight and that might limit interference if you are experiencing any.  Again I only do when I get to close to the outlets for some really strange reason.

[Natural Sound]

I'm using a B model (non +) with Ethernet (no WiFi) to feed my BH Crack. I did some experimentation and never found a place inside the Crack that was quiet enough for my liking. I ended up mounting the computer/DAC boards in a re-purposed switching power supply enclosure. This sits behind the crack on a shelf out of sight.

I really like the way you mounted the boards. I think if it were me I'd mount it on the opposite side though. That way you could wire it directly into the input jacks (or the Potentiometer) from the bottom.

A quick comment on the sound of the HiFiBerry DAC. Its not my favorite sounding DAC. But it does benefit from some break in time. That said, you get a computer and a DAC that plays 24 bit HiRes files for less than $100. When put in that perspective it sounds damn good. For someone building a budget system the combination gives an excellent bang for the buck.

[John EH]

I'm using a B model (non +) with Ethernet (no WiFi) to feed my BH Crack. I did some experimentation and never found a place inside the Crack that was quiet enough for my liking. I ended up mounting the computer/DAC boards in a re-purposed switching power supply enclosure. This sits behind the crack on a shelf out of sight.

I really like the way you mounted the boards. I think if it were me I'd mount it on the opposite side though. That way you could wire it directly into the input jacks (or the Potentiometer) from the bottom.

A quick comment on the sound of the HiFiBerry DAC. Its not my favorite sounding DAC. But it does benefit from some break in time. That said, you get a computer and a DAC that plays 24 bit HiRes files for less than $100. When put in that perspective it sounds damn good. For someone building a budget system the combination gives an excellent bang for the buck.

Just caught up on this thread as I have been moving from japan back to the US for the last few months.  Sorry for the resurrection.  The HiFiBerry Dac sounds okay but I bought an IQAudio DAC+ which I think sounds better.  Also the HiFiBerry Digi+ with optical is my favorite of the mini Pi DAC boards.