innomakerRaspberry Pi HiFi DAC MINI HAT PCM5122 HiFi DAC Audio Card Expansion Board for Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero 2/Zero 2W/Pi5/PI4

Of all the Raspberry Pi units I now have (11 total), I have had the most fun with this little unit. Coupled with the Argon Pod cases (including the unit that gives me the Ethernet port) and the Innomaker mini DAC unit, this little system plays all my music files and old B & W TV shows with VLC (and even 720p movies without subtitles). Like everyone else, I wish it had 1MG of RAM instead of 512K but the "cuteness" factor of this little system is a 10. I can even run RPI Connect on it, but it's not good for browsing the Internet.

Absolutely impressive.. I must say!! And not because it and the full sized brother, both manufactured by Innomaker, are priced way below what they should be for the quality, but because I’m ACTUALLY impressed with the quality. It also helps that I can build a genuinely HiFi wireless media player using just this guy and Raspberry Pi 5. Or you could make a version with the easily concealable Pi ZERO 2 W and the Innomaker DAC MINI, birthing a bite size version of a HiFi audio receiver that you can also wirelessly stream your audio to from any devices you allow. The money isn’t worth nearly as much as what you are getting in return. Would definitely buy again over other similar products.

I set this up on a Pi 3A+ with Raspberry Pi OS.It wasn't immediately clear which documentation to use because innomaker's site doesn't list this DAC Mini. It turns out to be functionally identical, and sharing the same manual as their HIFI DAC (full size HAT).The manual is pretty clear on setup, but it does require editing a few text files. First you modify config.txt to add 'dtoverlay=allo-boss-dac-pcm512x-audio', and then modify /etc/asound.conf if you want it to be the default audio. I found it adequate to just change the preferred sound device in the GUI.The manual seems very complete. Pinouts were clear when I needed to deal with another conflicting device. It has lots of example setups for various platforms besides raspberry pi os.Audio sounds fine. The board is small and a good match for the Pi Zero. A little pricy compared to basic USB audio devices, but you get a nicer headphone amp, and decent DAC.

Difficult to find information on which driver to use, and it's a bit staticky unless you wrap the whole board in foil tape (use a layer of packaging or capton tape first to prevent shorts)It does play music though and once I sorted the noise issues the audio quality is pretty good

I use this on a raspberry with shairport-sync for the amp and speakers that will be in my garden. The noise floor is especially low, I can't hear any static/hiss even with the amp at full volume. Now I just need a case for it...

You have to get the plugs just right and if you bump it forget it - it'll disconnect from the pi and you have to restart to get it back. There are other options that are more reliable.

👍

This is a great audio HAT for the Raspberry Pi. I set it up on a Pi4 that was already in a case with the GPIO exposed. It’s just a basic sound card that sounds great. You can set it up with many media center operating systems for the Pi, or just set it up to work in regular Raspberry Pi OS (e.g. Raspbian).The card comes with a github address where you can read the various setup methods for various media center operating systems. However, if you’re setting it up in Raspberry Pi OS, it’s very easy. It is natively supported in all versions of Raspberry Pi OS, you just need to activate it so it shows up as a selectable sound card. You just need to add the following line to your /boot/config.txt fileAdd this line: dtoverlay=allo-boss-dac-pcm512x-audioThen reboot, and the card shows up as an audio output device labeled “BossDAC”It’s as easy as that. This card sounds great, but it’s an output-only card. It doesn’t have any input, so you can’t feed audio into the Pi using this. Just be aware of that limitation. If you’re looking to feed audio into the Pi (to make an audio effects unit, for example) then this is not the right card for you. 5 Stars!