IQaudIO.com

1,647 orders since Mar 29, 2014

Cricklade, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Ships from United Kingdom.

Custom Work Available

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Sorry, we're no longer selling on Tindie. Come over to www.Pi-Shack.com to buy IQaudIO products.

Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.89)

Documentation: (4.37)

Shipping: (4.56)

Communication: (4.66)

All Reviews

Richard | Oct. 18, 2014

Great audio quality

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

The improvement in audio makes this a must buy for anyone building an audio systems. I have my RPi playing musing in my bathroom but even with this modest speaker and amp setup the audio quality improvement was very noticeable. No more hiss on the quite tracks.

Matthew | Oct. 17, 2014

Superb Mini Audio Streaming Treasure Chest

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

This raspberry pi music streamer is the best on the market with the super sounding PCM5122 Burr Brown DAC, it's smooth detailed and looks great.
Capable of Hi-Res 24bit/192khz playback, stream to apple devices and android and so much more thanks to the many music distributions available to playback music the way you want to access it.

George | Oct. 16, 2014

Spectacular audio card for the Raspberry Pi b+

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

Not only is the IQaudio Pi-DAC+ a spectacular audio card for the Raspberry Pi b+, but the level of support is excellent. The do it yourself audio player offered by Volumio is my choice as it is not only easy to use, but the community of members supports a quality forum with answers to questions and an area to contribute directly to it's success. Everything is open source! The IQaudio PiDAC+ has a built in headphone amplifier along with line out to feed external amplifiers and speakers. The audio is HD quality. Shipping is from Scotland via Royal Mail. Delivery was fast all the way to Hawaii, less than one week. Do make sure that an adequate power supply and cable is used to power the Raspberry Pi b+, 5V @ 2 amps is recommended. That way USB hard disk drives and USB WiFi adapters will operate properly. Technical audio analysis is available on the IQaudio web site. This product receives my WoW award!

George | Oct. 16, 2014

Spectacular audio card for the Raspberry Pi b+

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

Alistair | Oct. 16, 2014

A great little addon for your Pi B+.

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

I finally got round to buying a Raspberry Pi when the B+ model was released. I had only one plan - to use it as a music client attached to my hifi in order to pull in ripped CDs that live on my server located in my workshop.

Configured as a headless device running Raspbian and MPD and with the B+ having improved audio from earlier models I was pleasantly surprised. The audio output from the B+ is perfectly listenable even through my ageing A&R Cambridge A60 amp and Arcam One speakers. However, lower frequencies were somewhat 'woolly' and the high end wasn't as crisp as I was used to from a CD source. While many may find the audio from the B+ adequate for their needs, I wanted more so when new PiDAC+ was announced by IQaudio, I quickly preordered one and awaited delivery with eager anticipation.

It turns out it was the best £30 or so I've spent for a long time. Bass has been tightened without losing the warmth my A60 amp is reknowned for. Meanwhile the high end is presented with a most impressive clarity that has left me with very satisfied grin on my face. And this is from music encoded as 256K mp3 files. I've yet to experiment with higher bit rates or lossless formats.

The husband of a friend spent thousands on a Linn based digital music system that, quite frankly, doesn't show any benefits over what I have. Certainly, in terms of 'bang for buck', there is no comparison. My amp and speakers are over 30 years old; my music is stored on a dell PC that was donated to me and runs Ubuntu server; and the Pi B+, USB network dongle and PiDAC cost less than £80. To say I'm delighted with what I have is an understatement.

All I can say is go buy one.

One last thing and a minor gripe: it came with absolutely no documentation. A spot og Googling soon had me up and running but for those who are new to the Pi and new to Linux some instructions might prove useful even if it just points to where on the web info can be found.

A minor detail that doesn't spoil the product. It is a delight to use and has revolutionised the way I listen to music. I say again, go buy one.

Alistair Hamilton

Response from IQaudIO.com | Oct. 16, 2014

Hi Alistair, glad you have it all up and running and are enjoying your music.

The documentation is linked of the IQaudIO.com web site which is pointed at on the Tindie advert page - I'll try to make it more obvious going forward.

The current documentation is linked here for your information....
http://iqaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IQaudIO_Doc.pdf

Best regards,

gordon@iqaudio.com

Ezio | Oct. 12, 2014

Very nice case

For Pi-CASE+ for Pi-DAC+ or Pi-DigiAMP+

This case is very nice and well built and sturdy.

Ezio | Oct. 12, 2014

The best dac for Raspberry PI

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

The best dac for Raspberry PI, I use it with MacIntosh and Magneplanar, Yamaha and B&W, at last with Sennheiser Momentum. The sound is beautiful!

Alex | Oct. 9, 2014

Bought two so far -more to come

For Pi-CASE+ for Pi-DAC+ or Pi-DigiAMP+

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

Jason | Oct. 7, 2014

great product

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

The DAC is super easy to install, and sounds great. I am using it with Volumio 1.41 without any problems. I currently have the DAC connected to an external t-amp and I control the volume on that device (I did lower the volume a tad in ALSA as suggested by a few online forums). If you want to control the volume of the headphone amplifier you will have to get hardware volume control on the DAC up and running, and instructions are provided in the documentation to do that.

Emailing the developer results in a speedy and very informative response. I feel this support (as well as the sound) may be the killer feature for this DAC.

I look forward to trying out the IQaudio amp in the future.

Ian | Oct. 4, 2014

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

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

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

For Pi-DAC+ Full-HD audio card

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!!

Matt | Sept. 11, 2014

Great product, sounds great.

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

First things first. The sound is great. So small but really nice sound when driven by my old NAD amp.
Installation was dead simple. I used an old plastic container that had screw's in it to house it. It now lives out of sight behind the amp.
Hardware volume control from BubbleUPnP is great. Volumio needs to get the scaling right though.
The only downside is the shipping. It's expensive, slow, and once it leaves the UK there is no more shipping information. There needs to be more options here.
All in all. Very happy and would definitely recommend. Review Image

Response from IQaudIO.com | Sept. 11, 2014

Hi Matt, glass you like the sound quality.

Really sorry about the post but it's pretty much outside our control. We use signed for and tracked where the destination country supports this. We are looking at using FedEx/UPS or similar so you can get the product quicker but this will only increase the price.

If you know of anyone who would like to act as a distributor for our products in APAC then please let me know.

Once again, thanks for your custom.

Gordon@iqaudio.com

Alex | Sept. 9, 2014

Good sounding product with a tidy case

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

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..

Alain | Sept. 8, 2014

Wow ! Just wow !

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

I wouldn't have imagined that this little DAC could sound so nice on my Arcam FMJ A19 for such a low price ! Just let it warm up and then just feed it with your favourites !

Beau | Aug. 26, 2014

very nice sound good product

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

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

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

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

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

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

Pedro | Aug. 4, 2014

Very good product, right documentation and communication

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

Installing it was easy except to solder the connector, the sound is really good to my ears and the connivance with Volumio is excellent

Oluwole | Aug. 1, 2014

Overall experience with product and service

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

I was really impressed by the speed of response by support.

It was prompt, helpful and concise.

Product information contained in the documentation on the site is easy to follow even for a Linux noobie like.

The only point of struggle for me was with soldering the DAC board connector to my Pi (my resident expert (thanks Ayoms) took care of that for me).

The sound quality from the addon board is on par with the HDMI connection.

Overall a very pleasant experience from purchase to installation.

Kerry | July 29, 2014

Great sound and works out of the box

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

My first experience of high res audio... and it was great! Took 10 mins to solder (it's been 20 years since I picked up a soldering iron). It worked straight away with both picoreplayer and volumio. The sound of Norah Jones at 192Khz / 24 bit played through my cambridge audio 840a amplifier was truly amazing. I'm hooked. Can't wait for a version that works on the Raspberry pi B+ (presumably without soldering) and I'm also eagerly awaiting IQaudio's Pi amplifier. These things are forming the core of my multiroom audio experience!!

Patricia | July 16, 2014

Superb piece of kit

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

My husband put it on the RPi with solder and said it was straightforward. We have an open sided case from Camac which adapted well to the new board once we cut off the plastic screw holder above the phonos.
I use squeezebox so picoreplayer is a good match for the hardware.
It recognised the DAC immediately and sounded good.
Definitely recommended. Review Image

David | July 15, 2014

Well designed product

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

Very good sound with a very low noise floor
Buy the case as well - the clear one so you can see all the Rpi indicators.
It doesn't come with instructions but these are available on the IQAudIO website.
The delivery was very quick - mine came with a few bent pins - A couple of pieces of the pink anti-static foam would protect the connectors during shipment.
Works very well with Volumio 1.4 as the I2C drivers are preinstalled.

There is a section in the documentation about getting the Volumio volume control to operate. Do this first before using otherwise everything will happen at full volume - as I found out!

David | July 15, 2014

Stylish Case

For IQaudIO.com Pi-CASE : CLEAR acrylic

It's like one of those Mensa puzzles trying to put it together - finally did it - and then found the comprehensive instructions on the IQaudIO website.
I bought the clear one as I wanted to be able to see all the RPi indicators.
I've added some stick-on rubber feet - this would be a nice finishing touch to the supplied kit.

Response from IQaudIO.com | July 15, 2014

Thanks David, there are some small clear rubber bumper feet supplied with the Pi-CASE bolts. If you never received yours then please drop me a PM and I'll sort it out.

Gordon@iqaudio.com

Mario | July 14, 2014

A great product

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

Nothing much to say except "it works as advertised". My soldering skills are very rusty, but it was easy to solder the included 8-pin header and do the physical mounting. After that it worked out of the box in Volumio, and also in XMBC, after some minor tweaking. The sound quality is excellent.

The one suggestion I would have is regarding the metal spacer and two short screws, because while it does much in terms of mechanical sturdiness, it occupies one of the Raspberry Pi mounting holes, leaving only one free so it's impossible to fix it with only one screw. It would be much better to include only one screw, but much longer, which would reach down both through the spacer and the Raspberry Pi board, so it could be used to fix all at once.

Response from IQaudIO.com | July 15, 2014

Hi Mario, we use standard M screws for the spacer so any custom lengths you need should be easily found on your favourite auction site :-)

Best regards,

Gordon@iqaudio.com

William | July 12, 2014

Great Audio. Great Price. Just perfect!!

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

I am very happy with the IQauduiO Pi-DAC. I have been running Xbmc since the original xbox. I just replaced the Xbmc/Linux box that ran our home audio system with a Raspberry Pi/IQaudiO Pi-DAC/Raspbmc and it is just great. It is so good it inspired me to go back and re-rip my entire CD collection into a no loss format. Thanks so much. I expect I will buy another one for the office. This is probably the best and most stable media server I have had and certainly the least expensive. Thank you very much IQaudiO.

Richard | July 4, 2014

Real nice for the price

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

Installed it today and its playing away as we speak. very impressive, easily as good as the usb dac its replacing and the HiFiberry in my other unit

Andrew | July 2, 2014

If you can solder you're there

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

The DAC arrived promptly as promised, I even had a phonecall from the supplier to confirm delivery details. I have soldering skills and the right tools so fitting this item was straightforward for me. Make sure you have a soldering iron with a very small tip before you get started.

Once installed I powered up, made the appropriate selection on the Volumio web GUI and everything just worked. Sound quality is way above that of the Raspberry Pi analogue output and, with Volumio 1.4 installed, stability is much improved (only 1 reboot since installing - following a power outage).

In summary, excellent service, excellent product, excellent sound quality.

Can't wait for the cases to be in stock!

Matthew | June 23, 2014

I bought the clear case as i needed an enclosure for the Pi-

For IQaudIO.com Pi-CASE : CLEAR acrylic

I like the smoked effect of the case, its still transparent so you can see the innards, but it is classy looking.
At dusk the lights on the pi and dac are visible adding to the appearance of the player.
In short, I really like the design and fits right in with my other audio equipment.
It complements the effortless sonic ability of the Pi-Dac. Review Image

David | June 20, 2014

Good case makes Pi with IQaudio card look great

For IQaudIO.com Pi-CASE : CLEAR acrylic

A substantial well designed case. Fits together well and shows off the hardware and status lights.
Perhaps put the name and Made in Scotland on the top rather than the bottom because anybody seeing it will want to know what it is.

Ivan | June 18, 2014

Quality sound: 10/10

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

I'ts a great sound card, the sound is amazing, i use a volumio distro and is easy the installation and configuration :) thanks for this DAC

Andrew | May 1, 2014

Awesome DAC for your Raspberry Pi

For IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC audio card

This little DAC has an amazing sound quality. Sure enough, it won't replace a $1K setup, but it also comes at a fraction of the price.
Combined with a Raspberry Pi and Volumio this guy fills my house with music every day.
Thanks Gordon!

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