Raspberry Pi 4 looks interesting.

[agent_kith]

Good to hear about the network throughput increase! Curious Agent_Kith if you have tried any hats on either of your Rpis or if you're running straight Usb?

Not yet with the Pi4...

Going to use this Pi4 for development, so gotta save my pennies up to get a second one. I have a HAT somewhere that I can try on then. (I hope everything is forward compatible!)

Will report back.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the reviews I've read on tested spdif hats have been with other software. Knowing the quality (and lack of affordability for me) of some of the usb dacs that have been used by yourself and others it makes me wonder how close something like a digione with just spdif straight to preamp can sound to something like your Accuphase gear. Sorry, run on sentence.

I wouldn't be surprised if the differences are pretty glaring, but curiosity has me wondering just the same. I personally am pretty happy with what I have but that's obviously just what's available to me. I remember a time when I thought my Bose 601s sounded like the bee's knees until i heard speakers with some detail! You get my drift

In theory Pi via I2S out to HAT out should be relatively good. Especially if powered by a good power supply like the JS-2? If it turns out the Pi4 is better than a Pi3B+, that's still a win in my books.