Nuprime Stream-9 Streamer

On another Audiogon thread, a user said he contacted Tim Connor at Holo Audio and this was Tim's reply:  "Personally I’m all about i2s. It’s the best all around. With a good Hdmi i2s cable it’s definitely a step up. The aes/eBu is as good as spdif gets bit imo Spdif is a bit dated. We have overcome a lot , if not all usb shortcoming and i2s is just beyond that. I personally use i2s always".  

I’ve found a cheap I2S solution, that being an RPi with a Pi2aes HAT which has an I2s output.  I run it into my PS Audio Directstream DAC via Hdmi and the sound is is great!  I think it sounds better than Usb personally.  I’m using the MoOde operating system and use the Rpi as a Roon endpoint with Qobuz.  

@doni Hi, can you tell me the manufacturer name and brand of the RPi streamer?

Below are the response I received from Nuprime:

Stream-9 is able to work with Roon (we have Roon server in our lab), it is not Roon ready in that it won’t show up as a Roon end-point device, but performance wise these is no difference. Our firmware supplier is working on Roon ready integration but we can’t guarantee a release date.

2.  Is the HDMI i2s output on the Stream-9 compatible with the following DACs: Holo Audio May,  PS Audio Directstream and SMSL VMV D2?

Rpi is just the Raspberry Pi, and I use a 3b, not the current 4 version (runs a bit cooler).  The Pi2AES just plugs into the top of the Rpi board, and provides a bunch of outputs (though not USB), such as I2S, AES, Toslink, and Spdif (RCA). I use MoOde operating system, and have to download some Roon Bridge code to get Roon to see the Rpi as an endpoint.  Let me know if you need more info.

Oh, should have mentioned the Pi2AES is made in the U.S. by Michael Kelly, and if you google it, you'll get info on how to order.