Accessing local media files required a change
to the Mopidy config file to reassign the local
directory from the default to our Music folder,
then running a local scan in Iris to find the files.
For Spotify streaming, you’ll first need to
authorise the device via the Mopidy website, alter
the config file to enable Spotify and add your
credentials, and then sign in again via Iris to start
using Spotify from its interface. Tip: if you still get
an error when trying to play files, try restarting
the server from Iris’s settings.
Music to our ears
The good news is that once you get everything set
up, the Pirate Audio board’s 24-bit, 192kHz DAC
delivers excellent sound quality with a warm tone,
plenty of fine detail, and sufficient bass for our
ears. At first, we found it a bit too loud – until we
flicked the switch on the rear of the board from
high‑ to low‑gain (recommended in most cases).
The volume level can be adjusted using two tiny
control buttons on either side of the LCD. The
other two buttons present are for play/pause and
skip to next track in the queue, album, or playlist- there’s no way of returning to previous songs
unless you use the web interface.
We do love that built-in LCD, though, which
shows you the track details on a background of the
blurred album artwork, with a song progress bar
at the bottom.
The front of the board
features four tiny tactile
control buttons on either side
of the colour LCD screen10
Verdict
A little tricky to
get it all working,
but once set up,
the resulting audio
is of excellent
quality and the
LCD is great
for showing
track details
and artwork./
PIRATE AUDIO RANGE
9
LINE-OUT
Aimed for use with powered
speakers or by connecting to a
hi-fi line input, it features line-
level digital audio and a 3.5 mm
stereo jack.3W STEREO AMP
This board features four tiny push-
fit terminals on the rear to attach
wires from passive speakers.
There’s also a switch for stereo and
mixed-down mono modes.SPEAKER
At only 1 W, the small built-in
speaker isn’t very powerful and
sounds rather tinny, but this board
is ideal when you need integral
audio for a portable project.Pirate Audio Headphone Amp magpi.cc 75REVIEW