Upgrade DAC - Swara to Thyaga (Acoustic Portrait)

[mbhangui]

The OP wants USB output. The Swara is a nice DAC and streamer but it has only analog output.

Ok. So what the OP has is actually a raspberry PI3 with a dac connected to the GPIO pins. A The raspberry PI3 has 4 usb 2.0 ports. The OP can connect the thyaga dac to the USB port and get the sound. Since this is a RPI3, it will be running linux and most probably it will be running mpd.
If it is running mpd, then any mpd client (like mpdroid on android) will work and will show the thyaga dac connected to the usb port and he should be able to chose the output (whether it goes to the current RCA out or to thyaga dac). Worst case if the existing device is not running mpd, he might have to connect a monitor once to the HDMI port and login to the streamer and configure it.

@aurobindosaha If you speak to Shiva, I'm sure he will guide you how to connect the thyaga DAC to the existing USB port on the streamer.

EDIT: If you are interested, I too can guide you. I'm very familiar with these SBCs (Single Board computers) and all my bedrooms have these to play music. It is really not rocket science to connect any usb dac to the device.

 

[aurobindosaha]

Do post on the thread in case of any update. In my opinion, Shiva built a dac module on the pi. Removing the dac section would only leave pi. While you can use just a raspberry pi for streaming and get USB output from it, dedicated streamers are better in performance.

I will keep you posted. In Allo USBridge Signature, besides RPI board, there are electronic components that makes the digital output cleaner through USB. Their website explains why only RPI or a computer or an Android device can not match their quality. I am not sure what these other components are, one may be a pure linear power supply (Shanti). Anyway, I will ask Siva and get back if he plans to build a dedicated streamer. Last time I checked some months back and there was no such plan.

Ok. So what the OP has is actually a raspberry PI3 with a dac connected to the GPIO pins. A The raspberry PI3 has 4 usb 2.0 ports. The OP can connect the thyaga dac to the USB port and get the sound. Since this is a RPI3, it will be running linux and most probably it will be running mpd.
If it is running mpd, then any mpd client (like mpdroid on android) will work and will show the thyaga dac connected to the usb port and he should be able to chose the output (whether it goes to the current RCA out or to thyaga dac). Worst case if the existing device is not running mpd, he might have to connect a monitor once to the HDMI port and login to the streamer and configure it.

@aurobindosaha If you speak to Shiva, I'm sure he will guide you how to connect the thyaga DAC to the existing USB port on the streamer.

EDIT: If you are interested, I too can guide you. I'm very familiar with these SBCs (Single Board computers) and all my bedrooms have these to play music. It is really not rocket science to connect any usb dac to the device.

Thank you so much. Let me privately message you, and once I get a clear understanding, I will post the solution in this thread.

 

[mbhangui]

I will keep you posted. In Allo USBridge Signature, besides RPI board, there are electronic components that makes the digital output cleaner through USB. Their website explains why only RPI or a computer or an Android device can not match their quality. I am not sure what these other components are, one may be a pure linear power supply (Shanti). Anyway, I will ask Siva and get back if he plans to build a dedicated streamer. Last time I checked some months back and there was no such plan.

Sure. The usb ports of computers (including RPI) are noisy. There are ways to clean them.

1. USB Regen - https://www.stereophile.com/content/uptone-audio-usb-regen (but this will be costlier than usbridge), but cheaper or almost the same as usbridge + shanti
2. Audioquest jitterbug https://www.headphonezone.in/produc...xUHER4ivbmPw_h2U9pHb2ewcHqemvuhYaAgg5EALw_wcB
3. Usb isolator - https://www.amazon.in/Isolation-Iso...?keywords=usb+isolator&qid=1639993881&sr=8-15 based on adum4160. Another one based on the same chip https://doukaudio.com/products/adum...-eliminator-1500v-digital-isolation-modul-101

I have usb regen and the usbridge + shanti to drive usbridge and allo revolution dac + allo nirvana ps to drive RPI. The usbridge solution is cheaper and better. It has based on RPI3 compute model and so will have the same power as your existing swara streamer. The audioquest jitterbug is not costly. It will be much cheaper than buying usbridge and can be used with any computer.

 

[mbhangui]

Sure. The usb ports of computers (including RPI) are noisy. There are ways to clean them.

1. USB Regen - https://www.stereophile.com/content/uptone-audio-usb-regen (but this will be costlier than usbridge), but cheaper or almost the same as usbridge + shanti
2. Audioquest jitterbug https://www.headphonezone.in/produc...xUHER4ivbmPw_h2U9pHb2ewcHqemvuhYaAgg5EALw_wcB
3. Usb isolator - https://www.amazon.in/Isolation-Iso...?keywords=usb+isolator&qid=1639993881&sr=8-15 based on adum4160. Another one based on the same chip https://doukaudio.com/products/adum...-eliminator-1500v-digital-isolation-modul-101

I have usb regen and the usbridge + shanti to drive usbridge and allo revolution dac + allo nirvana ps to drive RPI. The usbridge solution is cheaper and better. It has based on RPI3 compute model and so will have the same power as your existing swara streamer. The audioquest jitterbug is not costly. It will be much cheaper than buying usbridge and can be used with any computer.

Forget about USB regen. I always wondered why it never worked and why usbridge sounded better than it. It is definite that usb regen is snake oil

Uptone ISO Regen Review and Measurements

In the last few years the floodgates have opened to all manner of digital audio tweaks. One of the ones in vogue now is "cleaning" the USB data bus. It makes "intuitive sense" with USB being connected to a noisy computer which conveys that noise to the DAC and hence, damages the sound...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Analogous]

@aurobindosaha this review may help.

Allo USBridge Signature review | Darko.Audio

A more advanced Raspberry Pi-based network streamer.

darko.audio

 

[aurobindosaha]

I have heard the Thiyaga DAC and I do believe its right up there with the really good ones and you may not need to upgrade post that. The source is absolutely crucial and you need to put the best there and in my opinion will never regret it.

From what I have heard Acoustic Portrait sounds the best as a system ie with all AP components. the new price on Sale definitely makes it worth it.

Add:
On streaming, it should be possible from a phone , which I would assume will be far better than a 15 year old PC , using any OTG cable, only problem would be convenience !

HiI have finally decided to buy Acoustic Portrait Thyaga V2 DAC. It's a upgrade from Swara Streamer+DAC. I am still going to use the Swara Streamer as source. One of the reason, I use streamer is Spotify gives options to explore new tracks. As I hear from experts that Spotify quality is not the best, but for that is all I have to get the flexibility.

 

[Nikhil]

Congrats Aurobindo! The AP Thiyaga is a great DAC.
This is a great time to buy local and AP gear is one of the best available.


.

 

[headcase]

Hi...don't know much about AP streamers.
Does it have streamer that support music streaming services. And does it hv airplay? I'm looking for a stand alone Network player/streamer with airplay capability.

Thnx

 

[mbhangui]

Hi...don't know much about AP streamers.
Does it have streamer that support music streaming services. And does it hv airplay? I'm looking for a stand alone Network player/streamer with airplay capability.

Thnx

The AP streamer is based on Raspberry pi. It runs linux and hence can support airplay. https://acousticportrait.com/product/swara-m2rpi/
It could be doing airplay out of the box, but i don't know for sure as I don't have this device. Even if it doesn't support airplay out of the box, you just have to login to the box using ssh and install shairport-sync. Best is to contact Siva of AP and ask him

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install shairport-sync

Other that AP, you have the allo streamers availble easily through fabtolab and warehouse. The allo devices are also manufactured in India. The allo based streamers are also RPI based and one can install multiple software bundle on linux (volumio, moode, dietpi, max2play, picore player, etc). During shipping you can chose hwich software bundle to be installed. All these software bundle include ability to play with airplay, spotify, tidal. With picore you can additionally play to chromecast, chromecast audio and android tv too.

I have lot of experience with the allo devices and I have installed my own software stack on it instead of the volumio, moode, dietpi, etc. I don't have the AP streamer (m2rPi) devices, but looking at it, it is clearly RPI based and hence can do everything that the allo streamers can do provided you get your hands dirty.

 

[aurobindosaha]

Do post on the thread in case of any update. In my opinion, Shiva built a dac module on the pi. Removing the dac section would only leave pi. While you can use just a raspberry pi for streaming and get USB output from it, dedicated streamers are better in performance.

Hi

Some months back I bought Acoustic Portrait Thyaga DAC V2 , and it was the last piece from the first edition. Now they sell the second edition of that DAC.

USB from Swara Streamer (DAC hat on RPI 3) connects to the Thyaga DAC, thus using only the RPI streaming function from that.
I find the sound quite pleasing.

Siva suggested two changes, to make the set-up better

1. Change Swara Streamer to player (JRIVER) on LINUX-based computer or NUC
2. Eletro-Harmonics 12AU7 gold vacuum tubes

By the way, thanks to the forum, especially to @mbhangui , for the suggestions about changing the Volumio setting I2S off to show AP DAC in the list.
Kind regards
Aurobindo

 

[aurobindosaha]

Hi...don't know much about AP streamers.
Does it have streamer that support music streaming services. And does it hv airplay? I'm looking for a stand alone Network player/streamer with airplay capability.

Thnx

No, as far as I am aware AP streamer does not have Airplay option.

 

[mbhangui]

No, as far as I am aware AP streamer does not have Airplay option.

You can easily have airplay option. All you have to do is login to your ap streamer and run the below command. The AP streamer is nothing but a raspberry pi with a I2S dac attached to it.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install shairport-sync

 

[SwaroopKS]

Hi

Some months back I bought Acoustic Portrait Thyaga DAC V2 , and it was the last piece from the first edition. Now they sell the second edition of that DAC.

USB from Swara Streamer (DAC hat on RPI 3) connects to the Thyaga DAC, thus using only the RPI streaming function from that.
I find the sound quite pleasing.

Siva suggested two changes, to make the set-up better

1. Change Swara Streamer to player (JRIVER) on LINUX-based computer or NUC
2. Eletro-Harmonics 12AU7 gold vacuum tubes

By the way, thanks to the forum, especially to @mbhangui , for the suggestions about changing the Volumio setting I2S off to show AP DAC in the list.
Kind regards
Aurobindo

Hi,

If I could add a third point, I would say try dedicated streamers like Allo USBridge or Digione (already mentioned in another post above) to improve sound quality. You are essentially using USB output straight from Raspberry pi which is better than computer USB as source in many cases. But the Allo products are a notch above.

If you get a chance, try them in your system and take a call.

Thanks

 

[aurobindosaha]

Hi,

If I could add a third point, I would say try dedicated streamers like Allo USBridge or Digione (already mentioned in another post above) to improve sound quality. You are essentially using USB output straight from Raspberry pi which is better than computer USB as source in many cases. But the Allo products are a notch above.

If you get a chance, try them in your system and take a call.

Thanks

I am interested and trying Allo.com but they are out of stock for DigiOne Signature Player. It costs about 486 usd with Shanti Power supply, then why not NUX 10 or 11 with Linux?

 

[SwaroopKS]

I am interested and trying Allo.com but they are out of stock for DigiOne Signature Player. It costs about 486 usd with Shanti Power supply, then why not NUX 10 or 11 with Linux?

I don't know what NUX stands for. I was not referring to the Signature versions but the original Digione and USBridge which are comparatively cheaper. I haven't heard the Signature ones but from feedback they seem to perform even better. For realistic INR pricing, check Fabtolab and Diyaudiocart. I found Fabtolab is usually has better price but Digione signature seems to be out of stock for now

 

[powerslave]

On a slightly different topic has anyone compared Thyaga and say Denafrips Pontus II ? Any impressions ?