Pirate Audio: Line-out for Raspberry Pi

by Pimoroni

Plug Pirate Audio Line-out for Raspberry Pi into your hi-fi amp or powered speakers, then sit back, relax, and soak in the rich, digital audio. It has a high-quality I2S DAC, high-res colour display, and playback control buttons.

This board is perfect for upgrading an existing hi-fi amp and speakers, or a set of powered monitors, with digital audio from local audio files (MP3, FLAC, etc.) or from streaming services. The DAC on Pirate Audio Line-out gives you crisp 24-bit / 192KHz digital audio through its 3.5mm stereo jack.

Pirate Audio is a range of all-in-one audio boards for Raspberry Pi, with high-quality digital audio, beautifully-crisp IPS displays for album art, tactile buttons for playback control, and our custom Pirate Audio software and installer to make setting it all up a breeze.

Features

  • Line-level digital audio (24-bit / 192KHz) over I2S
  • PCM5100A DAC chip (datasheet)
  • 3.5mm stereo jack
  • 1.3" IPS colour LCD (240x240px) (ST7789 driver)
  • Four tactile buttons
  • Mini HAT-format board
  • Fully-assembled
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Pirate Audio software
  • Dimensions: 65x30.5x9.5mm

Software

Our Pirate Audio software and installer installs the Python library for the LCD, configures the I2S audio and SPI, and then installs Mopidy and our custom Pirate Audio plugins to display album art and track info, and to use the buttons for playback control.

Here's how to get started:

  1. Set an SD card up with the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.
  2. Connect to Wi-Fi or a wired network.
  3. Open a terminal and type the following:

    git clone https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio
    cd pirate-audio/mopidy
    sudo ./install.sh


  4. Reboot your Pi

You can find more detailed instructions here: https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio/tree/master/mopidy or get tonnes more info in our Getting Started with Pirate Audio tutorial.

Notes

Note that our installer, linked above, does all of the below for you, but if you're an intrepid hacker then you might need to know this stuff!

  • The DAC can be configured by adding dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac to the /boot/config.txt file.
  • There is a DAC enable pin—BCM 25— that must be driven high to enable the DAC. You can do this by adding gpio=25=op,dh to the /boot/config.txt file.
  • The buttons are active low, and connected to pins BCM 5, 6, 16, and 24.
  • The display uses SPI, and you'll need to enable SPI through the Raspberry Pi configuration menu.
  • If you want to use these boards with a Pibow Coupé case (either for the Zero / Zero W or Pi 4), then you'll need to use a booster header to raise it up a little.

74 customer reviews

2 months ago
I'm a musician and have some live shows coming up where I need to travel light so can't bring my usual sound module for my keyboard, so I bought this so I could make a SamplerBox out of my Pi 3. Super easy to install, and works great - so much better being able to see what preset you're on, which FX are enabled etc. Highly recommended!
by Samuel about Pirate Audio: Line-out for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 months ago
I needed a line-out version of this amazing little board for my workshop speakers and it was an absolute doddle to get working. The recommended mopidy software is fine but too heavyweight for my needs, so I've rolled my own in Python using python-mpv and it's perfect. Clear, undistorted stereo sound across the volume range. Well done (again) Pimoroni, I already have the 3W Stereo Amp version and this is just as brilliant.
by Mark about Pirate Audio: Line-out for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
First, great service from Pimoroni. Second, great piece of hardware, tailored to a specific need. I used the Pirate Audio Line-out option. Third, software and application support made things so easy.
by Antony about Pirate Audio: Line-out for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
I like these running Mopidy/Iris, it’s easy to set up and works great. I use it in my basement workshop and can stream music or load files to play. I notice the line out version has a fairly hot signal but no hi gain/ lo gain switch like the headphone version, but I just backed off the input gain on my powered speakers.
by Jack about Pirate Audio: Line-out for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io

3 user photos