Raspberry Pi 5 - The audio interface situation

I am usually doing a little regression testing on new hardware and new software, simply to see if my own operating system works flawless.

Over years this business was stable. With the introduction of RPi5 things changed.

The brandnew RPi5 RP1 I/O controller brought in a lot of new options. And lot of changes too. In conjunction with the RPI5 there have been serious changes on the OS side.

Which means especially 3rd party devices and 3rd party device drivers might face some serious challenges. 

Now. I did some testing over the last couple of days.

Let me quickly summarize the situation. 

Basic DACs, like USB DACs, basic I2S HAT DACs or interfaces should work.

However. 

Certain HAT DACs that require I2C communication for configuration and management purposes, seem to have serious problems. My entire Allo collection is simply not working. I am in touch with RPi folks over that at github.

There are manufacturers out there using the Allo device drivers as base for their DACs. These will also fail. 

One example is the IMO excellent DAC HAT from Innomaker. It's still sold all over the place at around $/€60.   It's their DAC Pro HAT with ESS Sabre DAC. The issue: Innomaker is using the Allo Katana driver. Consequence: It doesn't work on the RPi5 - at least for now.

There are scenarios where the old DACs simply no longer work. E.g. if the HATs onboard firmware would have to be updated. If the manufacturer disappeared - like Allo. Or if a manufacturer simply do not want to grant lifetime support for their devices.

If things can be fixed on the OS side this could become a community effort in some cases. In other cases the pretty skilled RPi folks help out. In other cases you simply end up with a bricked device.
Or you stick to your old RPi platform.

This situation now shows that one of the huge RPi selling points over all these years - the well working  3rd party HAT business - gets currently challenged. I hope that the RPi folks get their act together and come up with a certain compatibility layer for the ten-thousands of old and still useful devices out there.

Now. If you wondering why your HAT is not working on the RPi5 - you got a clue.

Enjoy

PS:

I'd love to have some more common DACs at hand - especially those that'd need a dedicated driver with I2C communications - from e.g. iqaudio, hifiberry and audiophonics to be able to do a little more testing. Unfortunately I can't afford and I am not willing to buy all these gadgets for testing purposes only. It was it is.