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Review on 🎧 NanoSound ONE Case by Argon - High-Fidelity Raspberry Pi Audio Player with HiFi DAC (Digital to Analog Converter), Argon ONE Case for Raspberry Pi 4 (Rpi4 Not Included) by Charles Adelaja

Revainrating 5 out of 5

I was just looking for a passively cooled Pi4 case; so glad this came up as a suggestion

I was just looking for a passively cooled Pi4 case (that will also fit) when the NanoSound One came up as a suggestion. All of my music is on an iTunes-built NAS, and I half-heartedly looked for a way to connect that storage to my stereo. When this came up as a suggestion I decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. The volumio software is great for my needs and the ability to control the device via web interface or phone app from anywhere in the house is great. Having access to various streaming services on top of my NAS, as well as being able to connect a USB CD player to it via a plugin (I still have some CDs that haven't been ported to the NAS yet) is a bonus. Installation requires some minimal skills (downloading and flashing software to a USB drive, connecting online and installing volumio's NanoSound One plugin), but nothing that anyone with a Pi is already familiar with. The music files I have are mostly ripped from CDs in Apple's lossless format, and the DAC makes them sound great to my ears. The device itself is well designed and looks stylish. It offers easy, discrete access to the status lights on the front of the Pi, a secondary light that indicates when the DAC is in use, and GPIO pins under a removable cover. It's nice that they've moved the USB-C power input and an HDMI port to the back of the unit so that all cables exit from the USB/Ethernet port side of the Pi. The second HDMI port on the Pi4 is sacrificed in this arrangement. An added bonus is the power button on the back of the unit and on the remote that performs a controlled shutdown of the Pi before turning it off, rather than the abrupt shutdown typical of the Pi world. In terms of RCA cables and sizes, it works great with the 3/8" plugs on an old pair of separate monster cables I had laying around, but basic. Anything else would be a problem and would require a separate extension cord. , an impulse purchase turned into an unexpected treat for the whole family.

Pros
  • Easy to use
Cons
  • Concise instructions