What also has changed: no I2S connector for audio chips any more, and I had hoped for a proper 3-lane I2S to be able to do 5.1 HQ audio without relying on either the crappy USB bus itself or cheap quality USB interfaces.
Not to mention that I2S sound is far less workload on the CPU than USB sound.
Oh, and why doesn't the Wifi/BT antenna have an SMA connector for external antennas, e.g. directional antennas?!
Thanks for the information, I was under the impression that the Pi 2 also used P5... but indeed it's on the 40 pin header now (http://www.pagemac.com/projects/i2s_amp)
If you have the technical skills to make it work it might be worth looking into the AC97 interface on some of the Allwinner boards. I'm not sure anyone's tried using it yet and some driver development will be required though.
Was there a seperate I2S connector or do you mean they're not routing those connections to the GPIO any more? I believe this board: https://www.hifiberry.com/ and the various other similar boards just connect via GPIO and use I2S
Doesnt HDMI audio provide as good quality as any i2s connector? Or do you just need i2s for interfacing with your own microcontrollers/older recieviers, which dont necessarily have hdmi (and thus copyright compliance, making it more expensive)?
Last I read Raspberry Pi should allow for 5.1 hdmi passthrough or at least DTS.
HDMI audio requires an extractor (so one more wall wart + device), and I'm using a Pi2 for home cinema. And I'm one of those with an "old" HiFi setup without digital input, just analog.
It does and that's how I have it set up. RPi source to receiver over HDMI. DTS 1080p movies playback beautifully with a slight overclock (on an original B).
Not to mention that I2S sound is far less workload on the CPU than USB sound.
Oh, and why doesn't the Wifi/BT antenna have an SMA connector for external antennas, e.g. directional antennas?!