To get started, you’ll need to connect the DAC Hat to your Raspberry Pi and configure it.

Power off your Raspberry Pi, and then attach the DAC hat to the GPIO pins. Once connected, you can power the Raspberry Pi back on.

If you’re following our Complete Guide to creating a Headless Plex Server with Plexamp endpoints using a Raspberry Pi you should already be familiar with how to SSH into your Raspberry Pi, but if you need a refresh you can visit the guide How To SSH or Secure Shell into your Raspberry Pi

On your computer, launch your command-line interface app (Terminal, in my case) and enter the following command, where username is the SSH username and hostname is the hostname you created in Raspberry Pi Imager:

ssh username@hostname.local

Then hit Enter and follow the prompts as you normally would.

To add the InnoMaker RPI HIFI DAC hat option to the Raspberry Pi you will need to add a line of text to a configuration file.

Use the following command to open the config.txt file

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Scroll down to the bottom of that file and add the following text. Make sure it’s pasted exactly as you see it in the screenshot:

dtoverlay=allo-boss-dac-pcm512x-audio

With that new line added, hit the following key command to Write Out and save the file:

Control + O

Hit ENTER

Then exit the config file with the following key command:

Control + X

This is a good time to reboot the Raspberry Pi with the following command:

sudo reboot

Hit ENTER

Then SSH back into the Pi:

ssh username@hostname.local

Hit ENTER

You may also need to re-enter your password.

With the DAC hat attached and enabled we’ll just need to find the device number. Check the device number with the following command:

aplay -l

Hit ENTER

This should show you an initial list of devices. For the InnoMaker RPI HIFI DAC you’ll want to look for the BossDAC listing.

NOTE: sometimes this command returns an error instead of a list of devices. I’m not sure why, but if you see an Invalid argument error that suggests removing or fixing ALSA, go ahead and remove it with this command:

rm ~/.asoundrc

If you are asked to confirm the deletion, type yes

Hit ENTER

Then run the following command in Terminal:

cat /proc/asound/cards

Hit ENTER

This will pretty much just confirm the device number of the DAC. You can see in the screenshot that the device number in my case is 3

Now we’ll sent the device number we found as the default soundcard, which should automatically select the DAC as our output device each time you launch the Raspberry Pi.

Use the following command to create and open the sound config file:

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

Hit Enter

Now, paste the following code block at the bottom of the file:

pcm.!default { type hw card 3 } ctl.!default { type hw card 3 }

Remember to replace the card number with the device number you found in a previous step.

With that new line added, hit the following key command to Write Out and save the file:

Control + O

Hit ENTER

Then exit the config file with the following key command:

Control + X

This is a good time to reboot the Raspberry Pi with the following command:

sudo reboot

Hit Enter

Then SSH back into the Pi with the following command ( you know this one by now 😊 )

ssh username@hostname.local

Hit Enter

Now you’ll set the newly added DAC as your default audio output in the Raspberry Pi configuration menu.

Use the following command to open the Raspberry Pi configuration UI:

sudo raspi-config

Hit ENTER

Select System Options → Audio

Select BossDAC from the output list, then select Ok

Important: The device number in the audio output settings should match the device you set as the default soundcard. If it doesn’t, reboot the Raspberry Pi again and re-check sudo raspi-config

Once the default audio output is properly set, you’ll need to reboot the Raspberry Pi with the following command:

sudo reboot

If you’re using a Headless Plexamp player, you should now see the device in your list of Audio Device options.

Note: I’m assuming here that you have your Headless Plexamp configured to launch automatically when you boot up your Pi. If not, you’ll need to launch Plexamp manually.

To launch Plexamp manually enter this command in Terminal:

node plexamp/js/index.js

Hit Enter

Then navigate to:

http://#.#.#.#:32500

Remember to replace #.#.#.# with your Pi’s own IP address, which you can find with the following command:

hostname -I

Navigate to Settings → Playback → Audio Output → Audio Device. From there you’ll see the list of devices configured for your Plexamp Player.

At this point your Raspberry Pi should self-select the DAC hat, by default, each time you power up the Pi. You can test this hooking the output of the DAC to your AMP (or plug in your Headphones) and start streaming.

If that’s not the case the first thing you should do is reboot the Pi:

sudo reboot