How-To: Use the Rock64 DAC Shield

by Miguel Alatorre, ameriDroid technician:

As powerful as some of our SBCs may be, there is always room for improvement. The audio output on many boards tends to be limited to HDMI and/or a headphone jack making it difficult to connect many audio devices at the highest quality; however, the availability of digital-to-analog converters (DAC) solves this. While we provide DACs for Raspberry Pi and the ODROID-C2, there is also the ROCK64 Stereo Audio DAC HiFi Shield. [This is also our lowest-priced DAC at only $16.95, and we have a great custom case to house it as well!].

[If you'd like a plug-and-play solution, check out our ameriDAC Audio Box preloaded with Volumio.]

Like many others, this DAC is very simple to use, and works on both Android and Linux OSes. Simply connect the shield to the twenty-two pin connector on the Rock64, then boot the board. After the OS loads, select the I2S device on Linux, or SPDIF Pass through on Android. If there is no audio being sent out, take off the yellow jumper, and connect it like the picture below [with one pin uncovered by the jumper]:

From here, all that's left is putting it to use!

[In addition, this DAC provides a 2nd Ethernet port as well!]

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