I use the Pink Faun pc card. I power it with an external linear power supply. Excellent product and not very expensive.
I had an issue with my Pink Faun I2S card getting bit-perfect audio to my Direcstream DAC through it. If you have time, could you download one or both of the bitperfect test files here and see if you can get the proper bitperfect text show up on your Directstream"s touchscreen when playing back these files? Hopefully my card had a one-off issue. I reached out to the owner or Pink Faun and we couldn’t pin-point why I couldn’t get bit-perfect audio sent through it. My guess is an issue with the generic driver related to it or that there’s some kind of volume control in the DSP.
Instructions on how to run the test can be found here:
@tapatrick Can you explain why do you have Ian’s isolator + reclocker between Sparky and Audio GD? Can’t you go directly from Sparky i2s to Audio GD?
Hi @spezwend
…to get the best possible sound. Ian’s board are made to very high specs.
I know Ian’s work, but have you tried Sparky directly to Audio GD? Is it a big difference with isolator + reclocker?
It is better with Ians boards but to put things in perspective (in my system anyways) all inputs into my PS Audio Junior DAC are excellent. I just wanted to get the best possible I2S into my DAC as this is the best input.
@spezwend Many of us have experienced very good improvements with several reclocking boards that recondition the numerical signal with better clocks/timing than the output of the SBC (RPI, Sparky or others).
The isolator has the advantage to dissociate the SBC’s PSU to the PSU of the latest stage (the module directly connected to the DAC).
Tapatrick’s solution take the I2S signal directly on the SBC and recondition it with the modules he describes above. My solution (look at Nanopat in this thread) and the one of some others is less straightforward, we use the USB output of the SBC and a dedicated board (like the Armature Hecate) to recondition the signal in I2S.
We use in both cases the AudioGD I2S over HDMI output module.
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Thanks @patr and @tapatrick!
You are welcome!
Thanks @patr, very well said
I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve had tremendous success with my DirectStream Junior DAC and a new Audiophonics I2S Kali LVDS streamer that I got recently. I am using a QED Reference 1M HMDI cable. With a good power supply (I used the Teddy Pardo 5V/3A unit) this thing gives oodles of image width and depth, ambient cues, bass dynamics, detail and most of all, a relaxed sound. Well worth a look for anyone who wants to explore the I2S input. I am using it as a Roon endpoint but it can be used for squeezelite, DLNA etc. I was happily using a Curious USB cable which is a great sounding cable, in isolation. Then I put on the I2S streamer and it was in a different world. A 44.1khz 16bit FLAC rip of Fleetwood Mac CD’s are a revelation (the old, “hearing it for the first” time cliche) and this thing will stream up to 382khz, 32bit!
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Nice thanks for sharing. I use my homemade version with a hard male to male HDMI connector eliminating the cable which improves the SQ for me. Worth a try if you have room behind your DAC.
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good to know, I tried this exact setup but I had a weird effect and had to send the Kali board back. They were working on a V2 of the Kali board is that out yet?
What was happenning in my case: the DS was switching between 44.1 and 48khz sampling rate every second.
no audible effect but I could not stop wondering if it evetually really would fail… and didn’t like it!
I also tried another I2S reclocker (hifiberry digi+ pro) and had the exact same effect!
I since then use the digi+ pro with standard drivers (thus not reclocking) and that works perfectly
Neither Allo not Hifiberry could provide an explanation nor solution to that.
I’m having a similar issue in that my dsj constantly flicks between displaying 32bits and 16 bits. Same core issue with similar but slighty different symptoms I am guessing!
interesting…
I’ve now got a Magna Mano on order. It is of course I2S as well as a coaxial SPDIF. It’s based on a similar architecture to the Audiophonics unit but I think the operating system is more bespoke in that Magna tailor it for your requirements whereas the Audiophonics is very DIY in respect of the operating system.
Mark
Loving my Oppo 203 kicking out i2s into the directstream.
Leaves my previous coaxial hookup far behind, a happy Scotsman here. 
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I have had this problem a few times when making my DIY streamer. Usually it’s because one or more of the I2S wires is loose, disconnected or wrongly wired so the signal is not arriving at the DAC properly.
I set the device to 16bit, 48khz and the popping has stopped. It’s an issue with the Dietpi kernel AFAIK.
Looks like the issue, and solution for the popping sounds has picked up by the Dietpi dev’s and is slated for inclusion in an upcoming build - https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/2101