Pi3 Audio: Hint for DIY ES9018K2M I2S Decoder Boards..

hi there,
just received a ES9018K2M ES9018 I2S Input DAC Decoder Board Support IIS-32bit 384K / DSD64 128, directly from china (see picture 1),

tried Runeaudio, Moode, this Dietpi->only got a heavy distorded noise on the right channel…(other users said the same)
tried as dtoverlay hifiberry-dac, sabre-2km ->same result/only noise on the right…
tried then “RPI-DAC” over Dietpi-Config…
WORKS fabolous !![/i_]

so, as a hint, this board (with 9-25 V) only works with rpi-dac-dtoverlay (the audiophonics es9018k2m seems to have a little bit different configuration) (EDIT II.: sorry…just have seen that the dtoverlay=“i-sabre-k2m” is for the Audiophonics ES9028 !!")

by that, before, i had an ES9023 decoder board , sounds also nice (but much much more crappy)->that one runs out of the box with the “hifiberry-dac”-dtoverlay…(picture 2)

just for info…_

tried then “RPI-DAC” over Dietpi-Config…

Hi,

Thanks for the info and guide to getting this card working. I’ll see if I can get one of these ordered, where did you order from (gearbest)?

Many many thx to You !!! for your wonderful,wonderful Dietpi !!! so great !!, really :slight_smile:

no, bought the 2 on ebay-> http://www.ebay.com/itm/ES9018K2M-ES9018-I2S-input-DAC-decoder-board-for-Raspberry-Pi-/332008203526?hash=item4d4d3b2506:g:6r4AAOSwHMJYCH87 → 12,50$

and->http://www.ebay.com/itm/ES9023-24Bit-192KHZ-Decoding-Board-I2S-Input-DAC-Decoder-Module-For-DIY-Use-K3V9-/172451317939?hash=item2826e648b3:g:dOEAAOSwo4pYV-LX ->8$

the thing about the “sabre”-sound is this high-analytic, spaciousness and vividness (sorry for my bad english, im german(sorry about that :wink: )…

In the high-end hifi area its meanwhile the way to go…some little small factories use only this chips (XMOS-Chips, Gustard, Schiit, and so on)…

I myself for example, just bought a Cambridge Audio Dac Magic 100 of about 150$, it has Wolfson/BurrBrown Chips inside…normally this is “high class” but compared to the sabre-sound its absolut flat, less spacious- and vivid…
I couldnt believe it by myself, but they found really another “approach” of converting (its maybe this delta-sigma converting)
someone said:“forget about dual mono BurrBrown/Wolfson, this new unit shows what the ESS Sabre chip is truly capable of…
Just fantastically detailed all along the entire frequency range, wide open, huge soundstage and separation, no noticeable coloration, but slightly warm and ultimately spot on timbre. There’s more than sufficient dynamics and air. A very worthy musical experience…”

curiously, this ES9023 for about 8$ has more spaciousness, but is really “crappy”, u get a lot of distorted noise because its got the 5V from the Pi…(but curiously II: with the ES9023 u maybe get a better “idea” of the Sabre-Sound->absolut unbelievable spacious,vivid and analytic…)
The 12,50$ has its own power supply/needs 9-25V and is really “high-end”; absolut no noise and such things…it has a SNR of 127 !! db; and that for 12 bucks…unbelievable…

but soo many thx again for your wonderful,wonderful Dietpi !! :slight_smile:

PS: (software-things):

I recognized that the Alsa-stream plays max 192khz over ympd with the rpi-dac dtoverlay…(although the settings in the wonderful justboomdietpi-config are set to 384 khz ? is “show alsa information”: “watch -n1 cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params” ?)

or is it the new update to v150 ? (and/or other packages ?)

i guess/read Dietpi changes just the alsa-configurations to 384khz…

where can i do that by myself ? or is the rpi-dac dtoverlay limited to 192 khz ? (can i modify the dtoverlay by myself ?)

and another thing is (as suggestion) why is gvfs-backends not in the standard install ? are there, for me, any unkonwn disadvantages ?

u dont have to answer :wink: ; just a few thoughts…

but as said, many many thx again :wink:

Alsa stream cmd we use

cat /proc/asound/card*/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params



i guess/read Dietpi changes just the alsa-configurations to 384khz…

We patch ALSA for 384KHz in our kernel, and we patched pcm5102a codec to 384KHz used by some dtoverlays.

where can i do that by myself ? or is the rpi-dac dtoverlay limited to 192 khz ? (can i modify the dtoverlay by myself ?)

If its limited in the dtoverlay/codec/driver, a patch + kernel re-compile would be needed.

and another thing is (as suggestion) why is gvfs-backends not in the standard install ? are there, for me, any unkonwn disadvantages ?

Should be fine without it. DietPi will always install required packages during software installs, as needed.

no, bought the 2 on ebay->

Nice, and cheap aswell! Will see about getting one ordered.

many many thx “Fourdee” !!

rpi-es9018k2m-dac.c
(found btw. this: https://github.com/luoyi/Rpi-ES9018K2M-DAC/blob/master/rpi-es9018k2m-dac.c)

EDIT II.: sorry…just have seen that the dtoverlay=“i-sabre-k2m” is for the Audiophonics ES9028 !!"

Yep, AudioPhonics are working on this board at the moment, I believe :slight_smile:

sooooo sorry,
just saw that this a “stone-old”-topic about this es9018k2m driver support…
https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/716
sorry again… :cry:

Hi,

I believe that information is outdated. I was informed recently by Audiophonics the provided driver only supports their in-devolpment card “Audiophonics I-Sabre 9028”, which is TBA.
When I get my hands on one, i’ll be able to confirm :slight_smile:

okay,
for everybody who got here via google->i found a way to play/upsample to 384khz with this ES9018K2M-Board…
try picoreplayer->audio-options->use “Generic/simple es9023”->advanced->“Audio Card Control”->check “dt-overlay parameters 384k”…
let “onboard soundcard” enabled (had problems with it changing, but try your luck")->check the output with->sudo cat /proc/asound/card1/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params (or …/card0/… if u unchecked onboard sound device)…
additionally change upsample setting to “X” (upsample to max device capacity) and set alsa settings->sample format to 24 (had problems with 32)
so you´re done !!!

(by that: i love Dietpi meanwhile soo much; for me (soundwise) the best audioplatform on a pi so far but with only this “RPI-dac”-overlay compatible with the ES9018K2M)i got 192khz. max and i searched google/dtoverlays for months… :wink: )

many greets and thx again to the Dietpi-founder (Fourdee) !! :slight_smile:

(PS.: I´ve just have seen that this thread is now first in the list, and so i had an idea: i´ve “extracted” the simple-es9023-audio, simple-bclk-64fs etc…from the “overlay”-folder from the picoreplayer (6 files and newer imo), copied it it into the overlay-folder on the dietpi, changed in the config.txt dtoverlay to “simple-es9023-audio” but in the sound configuration of the dietpi is still the rpi-dac (clear) and unfortunately there is no option to select the “simple-es9023-audio” overlay…also clear, has to be added to the list…found now not the appropriate thread for “extending” the available audio dtoverlays-list…
by that i dont know if thats all that would/should be done or if we need some kernel-patches/or other changes)…
so many greets from here !! :slight_smile: )