Pi2AES Mercury Streamer

[Grover Gardner]

I just wanted to document my experience with this:

https://www.pi2design.com/mercury-streamer.html

A some of you may know the original Pi2AES hat for RPi was a smashing success due to it incredible low-jitter I2S output. This device takes things even further and can be converted into a full-fledged streamer/server. It has an NVME slot so a compatible drive (i've seen up to 8TB now) can be installed and used to store and play music.

I'll cut to the chase and say that the key to unlocking the full potential of this device is gentooplayer:

gentooplayers.com

GP has options for MPD, Audirvana, any UPnP/DLNA client, HQPlayer, Roon, LMS, just about any one you please. You can easily format the NVME drive and desgnate it as a music source. There is also a wealth of tweaks, from kernel selection to CPU tweaks to loading the system into RAM, whatever. It's $75 for a lifetime subscription with incredibly quick support from the forum on Audiophilestyle.com.

Next long story short, what I'm using now is Minimserver and BubbleUPnP enabled in gentooplayer and a 1TB NVME drive as local music storage. I drop albums in via Samba (my collection is too large to store but I can drop in selections for the evening). I use the Lumin app on my iPad to control playback, update the library, and stream Qobuz.

An added bonus to improve Qobuz streaming is this:

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/dxe-iso-plus-2

Again to cut to the chase, a single one of these in line with the Mercury ethernet input makes Qobuz sound much more natural and analogue.

1) I will never go back to USB.

2) For $675 this is, IMO, a fantastic "budget" answer to digital playback and streaming needs.

The downside is getting one. Mike is a great guy, struggling to maintain his supply chain, and now he says he may have to reconfigure it accomodate these issues. But if you can order ahead, stay in touch and be patient, this is a fanstastic device.

PS. I have the original Pi2AES renderer here. It's not at the level of the Mercury but it's still damn good and musical as heck. It's running gentooplayer. Anyone wants to try it, I can send it along. Beats USB hands down, IMO.

[Stuart Polansky]

Thanks Grover. Sounds like a very cost effective solution. What does one use as a DAC (with an I2S input)?

Stuart

[Grover Gardner]

Thanks Grover. Sounds like a very cost effective solution. What does one use as a DAC (with an I2S input)?

Stuart

The coax, BNC, optical and I2S all operate at the same time. Coax appears to have the lowest jitter. I think the Holo DACs have I2S input, so do a number of others. But coax is an easy option for most DACs.