Tindie

This fits the purpose exactly. The case is very thick, solid and holds together very well. No complaints from me..

Aaron | Feb. 10, 2015

great sound!

Hi there, got my IQaudio DAC+ and Cear case in two weeks sent to Australia. I connected it up with my Pi-2 following the instruction, took about 5 minutes, its as easy as putting together LEGO, and tried Volumio 1.55...It
all booted up nicely (first go), I was impressed with the 'beefy' sound the DAC produced via my PrimaLuna Integrated valve amp...

The headphone amp sounded pretty good as well, not as spacious as my PONO player, it would be good if the headphone amp switched off external speakers when you plug in headphones, but I imagine thats a software thing...?

All up an excellent product, highly recommended!

Stephen | Feb. 3, 2015

Amazingly hardware for an awesome price

Delivery 100% as promised.
I bought the DAC+ and the matching AMP+ from IQaudIO and first impressions were of superbly designed and solidly build pcb's with top quality components. Incredibly easy to load up software and test on a RaspPi B+ and over the last month I've been constantly blown away by just how good this combo sounded. Its almost shocking how well these units are comparing against my real hi-fi setup considering the vast difference in price. I'm already looking at my next project that I can use more of these units with and can 100% recommend these units. Gordon from IQaudIO also responded to any email questions I sent in super quick time so top marks for after sales service too.

Scott | Jan. 1, 2015

Pi-DAC+ w/ Volumio and Pi

Love it. It just works and it sounds awesome. It's as big as it needs to be and not a millimeter more. Took 7 days from Scotland to Vancouver - not bad at all. There was bit of confusion on my part related to the + versions' compatibility with Volumio, but a quick search of their forum fixed that.
I would order this product again in a second.
Thanks!

Balraj | Dec. 17, 2014

Very nice looking case

I have the clear case and it looks good. Case is a little tricky to put together. Only minor issue is the Pi in the case is not super secure, one end slight droops in the case.

Balraj | Dec. 17, 2014

Pi-Dac Great Dac

The DAC worked as advertised. Very good build quality. Has both RCA and 3.5mm jack for output. Sounds great after I run for a few hours (might have been the quality of the music I played earlier). I'm running Volumio on the Pi + Dac. Now the kids and wife can use the tablet to play their songs.

Damiano | Dec. 17, 2014

Instant installation

Really easy to add to the Raspberry card, in a minute you get a really audiofil player.

Thomas | Dec. 15, 2014

Excellent Product

I'm using this DAC on my raspberrypi over ssh with cmus, in my opinion the best cli audio player out there. I love the setup and the sound quality. Thank you for this .

Mark | Dec. 15, 2014

its good

I bought two Pi B+ and one HiFi Berry+ and one IQaudio DAC+.
The IQaudio beats the HiFiBerry in terms of clarity and "air" and "spaciousness" around the music.
Identical PSU and interconnects to a NAD amp into NS1000M speakers.
Its a few more bucks than the HiFiBerry but for the extra euros you get a headphone amp and better sound quality.
Just need to get a case to jazz it up make it all beautiful :)

Simone | Nov. 15, 2014

A little jewel

Easy to mount, it plays very well all my hd music, also 24/192! A must have for all rpy audiophilies!!

Franz | Nov. 10, 2014

PiDAC+ against a NAIM streamer - or David against Goliath..

I could not believe what I heard - fed from an upnp server in my local net and attached to a densen full class-A-amp driving two audio physics speakers: incredible good !

The software in use is Volumio from Italy - the boards Raspbi B+ (!!!) , attached PiDAC+ from Scotland and a 2AMP power supply. At the beginning it took me some time to install and configure the Linux-based Volumio - but after bringing the board to sound via the earphone-interface I attached the PiDAC+, reconfigured the Volumio interfaces - worked!

Highly recommended. Now I am thinking on giving the boards as a gift to my 16 year aged nephews to onboard then to DIY electronics world ...

Matthew | Nov. 8, 2014

Very nice product

Sounds fantastic. A++

Luke | Nov. 6, 2014

An amazing bit of kit, sounds wonderful.

I was looking for a small footprint audio solution that would allow me to do away with all my CDs and have instant access to my whole music collection without sacrificing sound quality. Enter the Raspberry Pi, which I had not previously been aware of. Without any add-on, the sound from the Pi would not be exceptional, so I discovered. This Pi-DAC came highly recommended, and it has even surpassed my expectations - it amazes me that music can sound this good from something so small! Top marks to Gordon and all at IQaudIO for making such a quality product and keeping it affordable. A very satisfied customer.

Luke | Nov. 6, 2014

Great protective housing for the Pi/Pi-DAC+

For IQaudIO.com Pi-CASE (ONLY suitable for previous Raspberry Pi and Pi-DAC)

A little on the pricey side perhaps for what it is, but it is the only bespoke case available for the Pi/Pi-DAC+!

All-in-all, a very well made and easy to assemble bit of kit, looks great and will last forever. Really like the matt black acrylic.

Timothy | Nov. 2, 2014

Nice little case for my piCore player

Simple to assemble. Nice and neat. Does the job nicely.

Timothy | Nov. 2, 2014

Excellent product, great sound quality

This is a fantastic little board and excellent value for money. I am no great electronics wizard but after some fiddling about I managed to solder the header onto the Raspberry Pi. The rest of the assemble was very straightforward.

I then used the piCore player software which could not have been easier. I did try an alternative before this but couldn't get to work at all. piCore worked first time and the web interface is so simple. I am delighted with my low cost player which I have attached to my main stereo in the dining room. The sound quality is absolutely first class.

Chris | Oct. 22, 2014

Pi-Dac+ sounds wonderful and is a snap to install

I purchased the Pi-dac+ to go with the raspberry pi b+ and volumio 1.41 (beta)
I live in the USA so, as expected it took a little while to arrive, but once it got here things went really well.
The "HAT" configuration is very easy to install. My 4 year-old daughter and I did it together.
I followed the PDF instructions which were emailed with the order and the volumio 1.41 beta thread in the forum and it worked fantastically. I'm now happily listening to my CD collection or to my iTunes via airplay or Amazon collections via android over UPnP. It even plays the high bandwidth recordings sampled at 96kHz or 192kHz and 24bits.

Gordon, the gave super fast responses on email as well.

John | Oct. 21, 2014

Great sounding DAC - I'll probably buy a few more

This is a fantastic DAC for your Rpi B+- I've got mine set up using Rune Audio, and I really enjoy the difference in sound quality this DAC has to offer. I have some 256kbps AAC files that you can hear "jitter" in the backing guitars on many devices; not so with the Pi-DAC+. The AAC files sound much closer to the source material (CD) with no detectable digital artifacts. FLAC files sound awesome.

I've got an idea for a car audio player using the Rpi as a base, so I'll be picking up another one or two in the near future.

Shipping to the US is a little scary - I'm sure the Royal Mail is just fine, but my local USPS carrier is a bit of an idiot. I'd love alternate carrier options if they become available.

I wholly recommend this DAC.

Nikodemus | Oct. 19, 2014

Great sound and quite easy installation

Great sound and easy installation, didn't found any instruction for how to install, but on the other hand it was very easy to figure out on you own!

Thanks!

Response from IQaudIO.com | Oct. 19, 2014

Hi Niko, all user documentation is on the website www.iqaudio.com, let me start adding pointers in each shipped product as a few people have missed this. I do link to the documentation on every ship notification email. Glad you were up and running quickly.

Gordon@iqaudio.com

Mika | Oct. 19, 2014

Really recommend

Only used for a little time but was really impressed with the quality of the sound and was of installation. I use it for squeezelite.

Alex | Oct. 9, 2014

Bought two so far -more to come

I've been playing music through Squeezebox systems for many years. Now that logitech have dropped the product line, there is a great open-source community providing software that enables us to listen to high quality music. Several of my friends have asked if they can join in the Squeezebox experience, and I have tried several ways of building players for them. So far the best solution I have found is the Rpi with a IQaudio DAC attached. I've built a couple of players using pi B's. Now the latest a piB+ with a IQ DAC+, mounted in an IQ case, provides high quality sound in a package that looks good in a domestic environment. It runs cooler than the original Rpi. I use picoreplayer which is easy to setup, and supports the latest DAC+ at version 1.18.
About to order some more.. Highly recommended.
Alex

Ian | Oct. 4, 2014

The best of the i2s DAC's for Raspberry Pi.

I use my PiDAC in a 2 box streaming system based on a Raspberry Pi Server running Squeezeplug OS which manages a 1TB USB library running Logitech Media Server. It runs 24 hours consuming only a few watts of power. My PiDAC is connected to a separate Raspberry Pi running PiCorePlayer OS. The current version of this magnificent OS is only 60MB and runs Squeezelite player which is configured via a PC. Setup is simplicity itself. With PiCorePlayer 1.18 the analogue output can be custom set to any voltage to match amplifier input. I have mine set at about -3dB to match my Icon Audio valve amplifier. Controlling the output can be done by any number of iOS or Android devices and apps. I use my old Logitech Squeezebox Touch set to Squeezelite Player which reads the network LMS server and controls playback - I use the SBT because it is a familiar interface and was made redundant when I started this project. My system does lot lag and new additions to the music library are available instantly on the player.

My two box Raspberry Pi Streamer was developed because I didn't like the idea of a single Raspberry Pi running both server and player software ( as with the Wolfson application which requires considerable overclocking). Server and player run 24/7 and consume very little power.

The sound quality is nothing short of remarkable considering it's relatively low cost it easily performs as well as many DAC's costing £ 00's. I play 16 and 24 bit flac audio files up to 192Khz and the system never skips a beat. This system could easily be extended with the addition of extra players located around the house connected to the server either by ethernet or wi fi over my home network.

Before I started this project I had no prior knowledge of Linux and only basic knowledge of home networking. I have thoroughly enjoyed this project and would recommend the Raspberry Pi/PiDAC project to anyone considering streaming audio from network server.

Hats off to Gordon and all at IQaudIO for producing an excellent i2s DAC which ticks all of the right boxes as far as value for money and sound quality go.

Ronald | Sept. 30, 2014

Pi-Dac+ and Rasberry pi B+ Excel

Well, this must be one of the bargains of the year.
I never had Lego as a child (I'm too old for that, it was all Meccano).
This combination beats both of these for ease of construction and certainly knocks them into a cocked hat for sound quality.
Using the new v1.18 piCorePlayer image I was up and running in less than ten minutes.
Rather, up and streaming.
The Pi-Dac+ is superb with regard to sound quality and the combination with the 'pi B+ is so 'Reet-Petite', in fact so is the 'pi B and its dedicated board.
If one wants good sound from ones streaming network then this combination is the answer, especially considering the low cost of the items.

Oh, and no question is too daft or simple for the IQaudio support,they answered all of mine with aplomb!

Go on!! buy one and enjoy!!

Alex | Sept. 9, 2014

Good sounding product with a tidy case

Using this with Squeezebox systems. Together with a Rpi model B, a copy of picoreplayer and the acrylic case provided by IQaudio it makes a good sounding player which doesn't look out of place in the domestic environment. I can't distinguish the sound quality between this Pi-DAC player and my expensive CDplayer. Soldering the connector on isn't too difficult.
I've built two of these so far and have orders from friends for 2 more. Waiting for the new DAC+ to arrive so I can try it with a Rpi B+ model - of course this will eliminate the need for soldering..

Beau | Aug. 26, 2014

very nice sound good product

It's so nice to put in the work and get a very good resalt i could not be happer with my networked sound system now I have fitted pi-dac to all my nodes (rpi-model B) iqaudio makes good stuff.

Alexander | Aug. 12, 2014

Great addition to the Raspberry Pi

In my opinion the sound quality is superb. My own music is encoded in FLAC format. I usually use an 'audiophile' stand-alone DAC made by Meridian in the early 1990s to play streaming audio. I prefer the Pi-DAC's sound quality, which I find subtler and sweeter.

Shane | Aug. 7, 2014

Great in theory but compatibility issue

I have discovered that my Raspberry Pi isn't compatible with the Pi-DAC card. It's not a B+, but it is a very early model. I pre-ordered it before any were released back in 2011. It looks like a model B, with two USB ports and an ethernet port, but it doesn't have the holes to solder on the 2x4 female header.

However, I was able to pick up a model B locally, and I'll put it together tonight, hopefully for a happy ending.

UPDATE : All soldered, installed in case, looking and sounding terrific!

Response from IQaudIO.com | Aug. 7, 2014

Shane, sorry to hear you have an incompatible Pi. We try to make it obvious to our customers that you need a pi with the P5 header ("The IQaudIO Pi-DAC is suitable for all Raspbery Pi’s with the P5 Header.")

This is something which effects all i2s based audio solutions for the Pi not just the Pi-DAC.

If you've now got a more recent pi you are only a few hours away from enjoying great sound quality going forward.

Btw, you should be able to pick up a usb sound card for your old pi - will not sound as good but will get you going.

Anyone reading this review - make sure your Pi has the P5 header. If unsure drop us an email at info@iqaudio.com

Best regards,

Gordon

Kerry | July 29, 2014

Great sound and works out of the box