Can’t stop myself from mention this, but I’m amazed now. Forgive me, if it looks advertisement, it really isn’t. The ebay link below is just to show what I’m talking about, I did not get my device from there, nor have I any monetary interest in selling this device.
Since a while (well, over a year now) I have a Raspberry 3B+ hidden in my living room. It works as a media player (Kodi of course :D), it is hooked up to my TV via HDMI. Easily plays usual fullHD contents.
I have also tried a number of USB DAC’s to hook it up my Hifi, which is basically just an old amplifier, which drives a pair of Wharfedale Crystal II 40.
About the setup, so there will be something Linux related in this post:
Pulseaudio runs as system daemon on the (headless) Pi.
Snippet from /etc/pulse/daemon.conf:
resample-method = speex-fixed-3
avoid-resampling = true
flat-volumes = no
default-sample-format = s16le
default-sample-rate = 48000
alternate-sample-rate = 44100
default-sample-channels = 2
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right
default-fragments = 2
default-fragment-size-msec = 400
Snippet from /etc/ulse/system.pa:
#!/usr/bin/pulseaudio -nF
load-module module-device-restore
load-module module-stream-restore
load-module module-card-restore
load-module module-cli-protocol-unix
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so
load-module module-udev-detect
.else
### Use the static hardware detection module (for systems that lack udev/hal support)
load-module module-detect
.endif
.ifexists module-esound-protocol-unix.so
load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
.endif
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
load-module module-default-device-restore
load-module module-rescue-streams
load-module module-always-sink
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
###bluetooth
.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
.endif
set-default-sink alsa_card.usb-VIA_Technologies_Inc._XZD_D2-MINI-00.analog-stereo
load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1;192.168.1.0/24
So that it works as a networked soundcard via pulseaudio.
On client machines (which send sound to this endpoint) have an additional line in /etc/pulse/default.pa:
load-module module-tunnel-sink-new server=tcp:192.168.1.8:4713 sink_name=Butyok sink_properties=device.description='Hifi'
To avoid stutters especially on 2.4GHz wifi, I modded /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to look so:
resample-method = speex-fixed-3
avoid-resampling = true
flat-volumes = no
default-sample-format = s16le
default-sample-rate = 48000
alternate-sample-rate = 44100
default-sample-channels = 2
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right
default-fragments = 4
default-fragment-size-msec = 200
We listen mainly to Spotify, but other sources appear occassionally too. (My family uses this too, not just me)
Back to the story, I tried, a number of DAC’s, including Asus Xonar U3, Blaster Play! 3, and also some no-name stuff at the beginning.
The last one I tried was a Sharkoon Gaming DAC pro.
All of them sounded somewhat OK, but none of them made me really-really happy. The last one, the Sharkoon was almost there…
Ysterday I got for testing a so called D2 mini USB DAC.
Its price is really cheap, actually cheaper than the Sharkoon.
I’m surely going to buy this test piece.
This sounds AMAZING!!!
If anyone is looking for “the bang for the buck”, this an excellent piece of cake.
Fourplay on Spotify reached quality level of their CD (‘Heartfelt’) I have…
Diana Krall sings nicely and lively again, East Village Opera Company’s La Danza from their 2004 album La Donna finally blows my ears (and my mind as well 
) 
