8xOUT / 8xIN OUT for Raspberry Pi5 Installation guide

[Raspiaudio]

This is the user guide for 8xOUT for Raspberry Pi 5

This DAC offers 8 channels of high-quality analog audio output (4 stereo pairs) via four TI PCM5102A DACs. This innovation is ONLY possible with the Raspberry Pi 5.

Insert the 8xOUT into your RPi 5 like this:

To use it with the official case, first insert the riser:

Then assemble it in the official case

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Automatic installation (tested on Raspberry Pi OS)

1. Update to the latest Pi 5 firmware:
   sudo rpi-update

2. List your audio devices:

aplay -l

You should see something like:

In this example the DAC is on card 2, device 0.

3. Play a simple 8-channel test:
   speaker-test -D plughw:2,0 -l5 -c8 -t wav

   You should hear audio on each channel in sequence.

For applications that only support stereo, you can create four virtual stereo devices and assign each app to a different virtual card.

Quick start guide for the 8xIN 8xOUT

First, a quick hardware note:

• The green jacks are inputs.
• The red jacks are outputs.

Step 3D files

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Driver information

The output section is identical to the 8xOUT board — it uses the exact same driver.

To check if your device is properly detected, run:

arecord -l

You should see something like this:

If you don’t see any recording device:
Your Raspberry Pi OS might be outdated. In that case, run a system update.

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Recording your 8 channels

In the above example, the ADC appears as card 2, device 0.
You can record the 8 input channels with:

arecord -D plughw:2,0 -c8 -f S32_LE -r 48000 test.wav

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Visualizing the recording

You can easily open the recorded file with Audacity:

sudo apt-get install audacity
audacity test.wav

You should see your 8 audio tracks displayed:

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Quick loopback test

You can verify everything works by physically connecting the outputs back to the inputs like this:

Then, run a simple playback and record test:

speaker-test -D plughw:2,0 -l5 -c8 -t wav &
arecord -D plughw:2,0 -c8 -f S32_LE -r 48000 test.wav

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That’s it — you’re now recording 8 channels simultaneously!

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Manual installation

1. Update to the latest Pi 5 firmware:

sudo apt-get install rpi-update
sudo rpi-update

2. Edit /boot/firmware/config.txt:
   sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

3. Remove or comment out the built-in audio line:
   dtparam=audio=on

4. Add the HiFiBerry DAC 8X overlay at the end:
   dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac8x

5. Reboot:
   sudo reboot

Pinout 8xIN OUT

Schematic Pin	Shield Signal Label	Actual Pi Physical Pin	Pi Standard GPIO / Function
1	+5V0	2	5V Power
2	+3V3	1	3.3V Power
3	+5V0	4	5V Power
11	BCK	12	GPIO 18 (PCM_CLK)
12	DIN4	11	GPIO 17
13	GND	14	Ground
14	DOUT2	13	GPIO 27
15	DIN2	16	GPIO 23
17	DOUT3	18	GPIO 24
19	GND	20	Ground
21	DIN3	22	GPIO 25
26	GND	25	Ground
27	EECLK	28	ID_SC (I2C0 Clock for HAT EEPROM)
28	EEDATA	27	ID_SD (I2C0 Data for HAT EEPROM)
29	GND	30	Ground
33	GND	34	Ground
36	LRCK	35	GPIO 19 (PCM_FS)
37	DOUT1	38	GPIO 20 (PCM_DIN)
38	DOUT4	37	GPIO 26
39	DIN1	40	GPIO 21 (PCM_DOUT)
40	GND	39	Ground

Pinout 8xOUT

Schematic Pin	Shield Signal Label	Actual Pi Physical Pin	Pi Standard GPIO / Function
1	+5V0	2	5V Power
2	+3V3	1	3.3V Power
3	+5V0	4	5V Power
11	BCK	12	GPIO 18 (PCM_CLK)
12	DIN4	11	GPIO 17
13	GND	14	Ground
15	DIN2	16	GPIO 23
19	GND	20	Ground
21	DIN3	22	GPIO 25
26	GND	25	Ground
27	EECLK	28	ID_SC (I2C0 Clock for HAT EEPROM)
28	EEDATA	27	ID_SD (I2C0 Data for HAT EEPROM)
29	GND	30	Ground
33	GND	34	Ground
36	LRCK	35	GPIO 19 (PCM_FS)
39	DIN1	40	GPIO 21 (PCM_DOUT)
40	GND	39	Ground