AirPlay + DAC + AMP, with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a HiFiBerry
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- 3D printed case,
top.STL
(no support needed) andbottom.STL
(need support) - Raspberry Pi Zero W
- A compatible DAC+AMP stack for Rpi. Here are some models compatible with this case:
- HIFIBERRY DAC2 PRO
- HIFIBERRY DAC+ ADC PRO
- InnoMaker Raspberry Pi HiFi DAC HAT, cheapest, comes with a built-in amp, the one that I use
Note that all the listed audio cards are primary designed as DAC only. You may need to add an amplifier if your have a high impedance headphone and modify the CAD models to fit it in. My headphone's impedance is only 55 Ohms so I'm driving it directly.
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Install Raspbian Buster Lite. Note that (1) we don't need a desktop environment and we want to max out Pi Zero's performance, so I use the Lite version, (2)
Buster
is the legacy version, and using the latestBullseye
version may suffer from some compatibility issue. If you use Raspberry Pi Imager, see the following screenshot to find the legacy Raspbian Buster Lite. -
Before removing the sd card from your computer, do the following steps:
-
Enable ssh server at startup. Create an empty file called
ssh
(no extension) at the root directory ofboot:
. -
Setup WiFi connection. Create a text file named
wpa_supplicant.conf
at the same directiory, paste in the following content:country=US ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1 network={ scan_ssid=1 ssid="your_wifi_ssid" psk="your_wifi_password" }
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Depending on your sound card that you choose, you may need to modify the
config.txt
file to make sure audio is enabled. For theInnoMaker DAC HAT
, Add linedtoverlay=allo-boss-dac-pcm512x-audio
under
# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835) dtparam=audio=on
Use
dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus
for HiFiBerry DAC2 Pro,dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusadcpro
for HiFiBerry DAC + ADC Pro. You can find them on HiFiBerry's product data sheet page (e.g. this one)
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-
Plug in the sd card, boot up, wait for a while, then your Pi should be able to connect to your wifi directly. Go to your router setup page to find its IP, or you can try directly from your computer with
ssh pi@raspberrypi
. -
SSH to your Pi Zero, follow this instruction to install ShairPort-sync.
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Reboot. You should be able to find the AirPlay device from your Apple devices.