“Using this with both RPI3 and a Zero 2W with Picore player software. Both sound good. Had to bend the header pins on the RPI3 to increase the contact friction, did not need to solder to get reliable contacts.”
“Good little DAC. Using a set of spare hammer headers the DAC fits snug on my Pi Zero which is now an AirPlay/Spotify Connect hub with no worry about it falling off.
Quality control could be a little better, upon first use only the left channel speaker was working. Upon inspection one of the connectors for the 3.5mm jack to the board wasn’t soldered down (and the entire jack was actually wonky so assume that was the root cause) but thankfully nothing a little solder didn’t fix and it’s been working great daily since!”
“These 3W shims are excellent for building media streams and updating retro speakers. In most cases, they need soldering, but only the pins that are used for audio and power need to be done.”
“This is a tiny and convenient add-on for any of the Raspberry Pi versions from 2B onwards. It gives a high quality output, and appears to be largely unaffected by the noisiness of the Raspberry Pi 5V supply line. Recommended, particularly as it's capable of high data rates.”
“For a first foray into Pi Audio I'd say this is great. Almost problem free installation on a PiZero/WH using Volumio (so far set up as a HiFiBerry) and it's brought a quality 40-year old HiFi back into service.
The installation problem referred to - and the reason for writing a review - is the fact that the recommended header booster doesn't play nicely with this shim. I also have a WireShare (?) ethernet/USB hat on the Zero and wanted this DAC shim to sit above that clear of the USB port sockets, hence the booster. The friction-fit of the shim doesn't work on the 3mm long pin header though; the pins are a smaller gauge than the Zero board's so there's no contact. You may - as I did - end up having to mount the shim on the Zero's GPIO pins and any other hats above that. (FYI, I don't really need the ethernet hat now anyway: the shim's streaming quite happily over the Zero's WiFi.)
Other than that, a fantastic little thingy which sounds really good. I can't fault the shim for the pin problem so I'm giving it all five stars.”
