My Humble CAS, Asus Tinker Board & Teac UD-501 DAC

Asus Tinker Board in it's most basic form

I first experienced CAS in 2010 and quickly adapted to it with excitement back in 2011 in the form of Bryston BDP-1 & DAC-1 combo. It's now more than 10 years since, and at one point, even before I started my hifi sabbatical in 2016, I had already given up on CAS. Somehow, I still prefer physical medium for my emotional connection to music. While the conveniences of CAS and sound quality can be highly achieved indeed, I somehow still have a preference for physical medium when it come to music. Something that you can hold in hands just feels more real. Should you feel otherwise, then to each his own. I am not one who likes to argue and get stressed over hifi matters.

I have also since learned not buy packaged music streamers & DAC sets such as the above mentioned Bryston duo. As technology moves too fast, and so does the rate of depreciation. It's a killer blow, never mind the sound!

Then a buddy of mine, Simon introduced me to this dinky little CPU called Asus Tinker Board, which is the equivalent of the Raspberry Pi CPU. Coupled to Volumio Music Player interface app on one's smart phone, it's an easy & cheap solution to music streaming. Simon says the Asus Tinker Board can be used as a HTPC too, but with different set up & interface app. Now, who wants to play a game of Simon says?

Power supply goes in from side, unused HDMI output, and all other USB inputs/outputs & LAN from the back. Note the blue/black Oelbach USB cable which connects to the Teac UD-501 DAC

Simon had the Asus Tinker Board set up in a small plastic casing with window top. The Asus allows 4 USB input/output, and 1 LAN input. On the side, it has a Type B Micro USB power connector, and HDMI output. The Asus can be powered from any Android phone 5V power supply with the above mentioned connector. While any old Android phone power supply or charger will do the job, the Asus does sound a whole lot better when powered by a 1.2 Ampere, 5V  linear power supply. There are now plenty of such power supply to choose from, mostly China of origin. I got mine from a Asus users group buy sometime back.

The good part about using the Asus Tinker Board or any Raspberry Pi CPU as streamer is that it will adapt to any music storage resolution formats such as WAV, FLAC, or DSD at no extra cost. The only question is, can your DAC process it? With this, I took the opportunity to pick up a used unit of Teac UD-501 DAC, which can do all the resolution format available today, and for a half sized hifi component, it also has XLR analog outputs, which are definitely my preferred connection. Back in 2014, when this unit first became available, I had a go with it and really liked it. A few years later today, the latest Teac UD-505 DAC model revision still bears much functionality and design cues based upon the UD-501.  

The whole CAS set up from left: Teac UD-501 DAC, Multi USB Input, 5V Linear Power Supply(bottom) & Asus Tinker Board(Top) 

I used USB Type A to Type B cable from Oelbach to connect between the Asus & the Teac. With the overall tonal neutrality of the Teac DAC, it was actually the music file ripping quality doing the talking most of the time. The system was totally transparent & highly revealing of the rip quality. Using Cardas Neutral Reference XLR cable from Teac DAC to pre-amp, I did gain back some of that much needed warmth to make some of those busy sounding hi-res audio just bearable. 

For me this very cheap(costing less than MYR3000, excluding cables!) & cheerful CAS set up is all I have to continue with convenience music,or when I just need some back ground music.