Hi PatrickB,
I haven’t used any KALI adapter between RPI and the Audio GD Dac, What do you think are KALI benefits are ?
I may be wrong but the I2S bus is much less sensitive to jitter effect than the USB bus, (Data shift is made on BitCLK rising edge while DATA is updated on BitCLK falling edge so half a period of Bit Clock margin) and my RPI is supplied through a floating linear supply to avoid ground loops.
I however reduced to minimum length (0.3m) the RPI connector to I2S DAC input using twisted pair cables for each of the below link.
RPI GPIO 21 J8-40 to I2S DATA on the DAC RJ45
RPI Ground J8-39 to I2S GND on the DAC RJ45
RPI GPIO 19 J8-35 to I2S LRCK on the DAC RJ45
RPI Ground J8-34 to I2S GND on the DAC RJ45
RPI GPIO 18 J8-12 to I2S BCLK on the DAC RJ45
RPI Ground J8-14 to I2S GND on the DAC RJ45
MCLK DAC RJ45 to GND DAC RJ45
I cannot remember what are SIGNAL name and Pin number allocation on DAC RJ45 end, (was given to me by Audio GD) If this is missing to you, I’ll try to find it back or do reverse enginering of the cable I made more than a year ago.
One more last Hint for you. On NFB28 there is a 3 pin connector DSD-CTS. To get the I2S Input working, it is mandatory to have a Loop connector pluged in DSD-CTS socket. This loop connector was supplied to me with the DAC with no details. I lost a lot of time trying to make working the I2S link before pluggin this loop-connector.
Hope this helps