Arcylic DAC Case

The tolerances seem to be tight making it a bit tricky to assemble this case. The shorter stand offs are 2 different sizes. Its easy to get them mixed and confused and if you do the case cannot be assembled. Once correctly assembled, it's a precision fit and attractive. My only quibble is there needs to be a hole in the bottom of the case to accommodate a heatsink on the bottom chip. I had to swap my heatsink for a shorter one to make it fit and still it bows the bottom slightly. Adding a hole could be a fairly easy modification. I have ALLO, HiFi Berry, and this Innomaker DAC. The Innomaker is underrated in my opinion.

Heavy smokey plastic, easily assembled and fits the described DAC and Rpi4 perfectly. I think it could use a bit more ventilation, but no overheating so far while processing a music streamer (light use). The final "nuts" are a bit unsightly, actually being press-in threaded inserts used as nuts. Something finished, like Acorn nuts, would be better. Good luck though, finding small specialized metric hardware this side of the pond. Thinking about "reversing" the hardware to leave those "nuts" protruding from the blank face and then sticking rubber feet near them and making that face the bottom. I think I will add heat sinks for the Pi to keep it cooler.

Yes, it's a case. But that's it. Nothing special, and even a bit cheap - and it should be like $6.99. If you look carefully at a couple of the crucial joints before assembling, they are quite thin. Sure enough, while assembling, with light but firm pressure, one joint broke (the short side with USB ports). It's okay for me, as I think the extra ventilation will be good, ha ha...! I may even remove the opposite short side for increased ventilation, but we'll see. In summary, the DAC from Innomaker is excellent, but the case is mediocre. It works - just be careful assembling and disassembling at a later date.

tl;dr summary for the DAC and case Nice sounding DAC, better than built-in audio on rPi but not as good as quality USB DAC. Case well built, works for rPi 3 and 4 but has poor quality soft metal fasteners that can strip or be easily damaged. --------------- Now the longer details for those who might be interested. We have a music and video streamer on a small server (Zimaboard). Using Jellyfin for video and Logitech Media Server (LMS) for audio. LMS connects to local media (FLAC, opus, mp3) and qobuz streaming high def audio. We have a rPi 3B+ and a rPi 4 connected to stereos in our living room and family room. The 3 was connected to an old FiiO e10K USB DAC and the rPi 4 to a Topping E10 Lite DAC also via USB. The rPi 4/Topping sounded incredible using moOde. The rPi 3/FiiO, also running moOde, sounded ok, but not nearly as clear or detailed as Topping. Wanted to upgrade the rPi3 and rather than pay $99 for another Topping to pair with the old rPi, decided to go with the InnoMaker HAT and case. Both came well packaged. The case needed to be assembled after getting the paper wrapping off the pieces. Took some time and patience, but they came off. Instructions for the DAC and case were online at the URL in the DAC box. Very detailed and helpful especially since you get 3 different sized standoffs. Only negative was the quality of the standoffs and screws. Very soft metal. The threads either arrived damaged on one of the screws, or else they got damaged when I put the screw thru the hole in the rPi board. Simple contact with the hole in the board should NOT have damaged the threads but they were damaged and with no spares, I had to force thru the bad threads using needle nose pliers and a pair or regular pliers. Unlikely I wlll be able to unscrew it when/if the board or DAC ever dies and needs replacing. Would have preferred nylon screws or some of type of fastener. But other than that, with care, it all got assembled and looked pretty good. Plugged it in. Went to moOde and changed the audio source to Allo Boss DAC and rebooted the rPi 3. It sounds really good. Not as good as the rPi 4 with the $99 Topping DAC but still really good. And much better than with the old FiiO USB DAC. Didn't mention the change to my wife and she remarked last evening that the music sounds better, much more clear. I took that as a good sign as she rarely comments about the quality of the music so for her to notice says something. All in all happy with the purchase. If I had been using a rPi 4 I might have gone for another $99 Topping E30 Lite or the similar quality $79 S.M.S.L SU-1 DAC instead of the Pi HAT for the minimal price difference but I decided to give these a try and am glad I did. I hope this helps.

This case is really designed for the inno-maker dac. It is a great fit. It has the RCA connectors coming out the top and there is a hole for the film capacitors and a little breathing. Is made of a very dark almost black yet transparent plastic. Not required but you should get this thing in a case. It is really just open circuitry and unless you are very careful and like the look of circuit boards, case it for protection. Now I can show it to others without scaring the electronic squeamish!!

Nice design, fits all models with dac hat. However no assembly instructions in package. Found a pic on Google that aided in assembly.

Used to complete a Pi4 + Innomaker DAC HAT build. It was reasonably obvious to me how the different lengths of brass stand-offs should be used to assemble the case properly. The makers web site has case assembly instructions in the owner's manual PDF for the HAT which could save someone time with the assembly. I used three metal heat-sinks on the Pi4. It is not "stressed" running Squeezebox Server and driving a pair of desktop speakers. I don't expect overheating to be a problem. I would recommend getting 4 adhesive rubber or plastic feet for the bottom of the case.

Sin duda el diseño es muy bonito, aunque las huellas quedan cada que lo tocas por el acabado, no impide de hacer su función, me gustaría que al ensamblar tuviera una construcción más solida

Looks good and fits well. I only gave 4 star because I was expecting a cooler running RPi with a case designed by the manufacturer.

当たり前ですが、ジャストフィットでバッチリです。これでホコリも気にならなくなりました。

Fits my Pi 4B and InnoMaker DAC just fine. LED lights are clearly visible. Looks decent with metal standoffs.

Took a while to get here but worth the wait. Looks good and well made