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More details of our new HiFiBerry DAC+
We successfully tested the prototypes of our HiFiBerry DAC+ for the Raspberry Pi model B+. We use the new B+ board features to do a complete redesign of our board. It provides the same superior sound quality as our existing DAC. While best sound quality is still our priority, the DAC+ comes with several improvements compared to the existing HiFiBerry DAC:
- No soldering anymore. The new module just plugs onto the new 40-pin header of the Model B+.
- Volume control. The new DAC+ used a Burr-Brown DAC chip with a hardware volume control. This allows it to connect the DAC to an external power amplifier without the need of an additional pre-amplifier or volume control circuit.
- There are solder pads to add another 40-pin header that gives you access to the all GPIO pins. Note that some of the pins are used exclusively by the HiFiBerry DAC+ and can’t be used to connect other hardware, but there are still a lot of unused GPIOs for your projects. We will show you how to connect an IR receiver, LCD display and a volume control knob.
- Comes in 2 versions: with RCA output connectors or a slim version with a 3.5mm phone jack. The phone jack version is very slim and will therefore fit in some available cases.
- Access to the GPIO headers: For people who want to connect additional hardware (buttons, LCD displays, IR receivers) to the board we provide access to all of these pins on the new board. You don’t need stacking headers anymore.
- Auto-configuration. With the onboard EEPROM the board can tell your Raspberry Pi which modules to load. Note that this feature still needs some software development in the Linux kernel by the Raspberry Pi foundation. It will be available later. Our board can be upgraded by yourself.
We expect to ship the first batch of boards in the second half of August. Pre-order it here to be one of the first users of this new DAC model.
Some users already asked about a case. We will announce a new case soon. It will be similar to our existing case for model A/B.
August 15, 2014
