What is it

Amped Esparagus is the next step in the Esparagus media center line of devices. It is a device based on PCM5100 HiFi DAC (just like HiFi Esparagus) but adds a powerful and efficient D-class amp (TPA3110D2) so it can drive speakers directly. It has similar power capabilities to the Louder Esparagus, but it is much simpler to setup and use, since this DAC doesn't need any configuration steps to get going, just a valid I2S audio stream. Since it has an analog stage, you can use it either with a built-in amp or with an external amp, if prefer so.

It is highly efficient, but demanding for power when cranked, therefore it uses either a USB-C Power Delivery to pull up to 65W from the wall power adapter or external power source for NOPD variant.

It can be used both with Wi-Fi and Ethernet (to make sure bad Wi-Fi would not interrupt the stream)

Motivation

I did few audio projects in the past, some using ESP32, some using larger Orange Pi and Raspberry Pi devices. Each has its pros and cons, and with each iteration, I'm trying to focus on the details that were working best for me, while actually using them.

What I like about ESP32 is how lightweight it is. It barely draws power, so you may not care to turn it off at all. It boots in seconds and is ready for use in a snap. Still, it is capable and works at par with Linux SBC solutions for audio applications, while costing a fraction of their price. Combined with a proper Hi-Fi DAC you would not tell a difference to commercial devices standing side by side and costing much more.

Over the last few years, I have seen a few amazing software products created to deliver audio on the ESP32, like squeezelite-esp32 or  euphonium. Esparagus media center devices are designed specifically to run these great pieces of software and bring a new life into aging audio equipment that most of us have at home but do not use that much these days, since it is not working with Spotify and the family.

Use cases

Amped Esparagus is a flexible, open-source audio platform designed to fit into both smart homes and custom audio projects.

• Smart Home Audio & TTS
  Integrates with Home Assistant and Music Assistant for high-quality audio playback and text-to-speech announcements. Perfect for notifications, voice alerts, and whole-home audio driven by your smart home automations.
• Multi-Room Audio with Snapclient
  Use Amped Esparagus as a Snapclient endpoint to create perfectly synchronized multi-room audio systems. Ideal for distributed music playback without proprietary lock-in.
• Standalone Player with Squeezelite-ESP32
  Run Squeezelite-ESP32 for a self-contained network audio player supporting Spotify Connect, AirPlay, and Logitech Media Server (LMS) — no external computer required.
• Educational Projects & Teaching Platforms
  A powerful tool for schools, universities, and technical education. Amped Esparagus can be used to teach embedded systems, digital audio, networking, and open-source software — ranging from simple audio playback labs to advanced DSP, streaming, and real-time systems projects.
• Research, Prototyping & Experimentation
  Well-suited for rapid prototyping of audio devices, proofs-of-concept, and research projects involving DSP, low-latency streaming, wireless audio, or human-machine interaction.
• A Foundation for Custom Products & DIY Builds
  With all firmware and tooling fully open source, Amped Esparagus is an ideal base for custom audio devices — whether you’re building a personal DIY project, a small production run, or a community-driven product.

Features

⚠️ Amped boards can't drive headphones and speakers at the same time (unless you modify them)

💡 Don't need to connect speakers? Check out HiFi Esparagus

💡 Don't need to connect headphones or an external amp? Check out Loud Esparagus and Louder Esparagus

💡 Looking for a more cost-efficient version? Check out Amped-ESP32 / Amped-ESP32-Plus

Onboard PSRAM

Audio streaming requires proper buffering to work, even with ESP32 500K of RAM it is a challenging task. Esparagus HiFi MediaLink is based on a WROVER module that has an onboard PSRAM chip.

Board Pinout

Audio

Peripheral - OLED Screen and W5500 Ethernet (Amped Esparagus)

Software Options

• Home Assistant smart home audio and notifications. Start from the web-installer, as soon as you configure WiFi, the boards will be discovered by the ESPHome add-in automatically. Dedicated configs can be found in the documentation for simple and stable media-player, experimental sendspin protocol, and experimental snapclient component
• Squeezelite-ESP32 Spotify Connect, AirPlay, Bluetooth or Logitech Media Server. Flash directly from your browser using the web-installer. Configure WiFi using Hotspot (default password: squeezelite). Don't forget to exit Recovery mode when done.
• Snapclient multi-room audio streaming with snapserver. Flash directly from your browser using the web-installer, as soon as you configure the WiFi board will discover the snapserver automatically
• Snapclient (edge) - developer version. Developer's version of the snapclient, less stable and more feature-rich for those who cannot wait for new features to be released. Installed via web-installer, similar to standard snapclient
• Apple AirPlay 2 with multi-room sync. Use Platformio IDE to build and flash the AirPlay2 firmware. Pre-configured configurations and web-installer is a work in progress, but you can get it working by providing board configurations and building firmware yourself.
• Your own software. Use Arduino IDE or Platformio IDE and the provided software samples

Using with Home Assistant

Both HiFi Esparagus versions were created specifically to be used with Home Assistant via ESPHome integration. For both boards, rich configs were pre-created with hardware configuration for common use cases. These include

• media_player component for simple and robust media playback and TTS announcements (with ducking effect)
• Sendspin media player – new experimental protocol for multi-room sync with media controls and more
• An experimental snapclient component that allows near-perfect multi-room sync and seamless integration with Music Assistant
• Another snapclient fork with an implemented 15-band software equalizer and a rich set of EQ presets
• Voice assist config does not exist for Amped Esparagus yet, since it required S3 version of the ESP32. It is as work in progress.

Configurations are being actively maintained and upgraded, new experimental components added for you to test and enjoy

Hardware

Please visit the hardware section for board schematics and PCB designs. Note that PCBs are shared as multi-layer PDFs as well as Gerber archives.

Boxed

Amped Esparagus NOPD

PCB

Amped Esparagus

Amped Esparagus power considerations

The Amped Espragus can be quite a power-hungry device, simply using 5V over the USB-C is clearly not an option. The intention for using a PD-enabled power adapter to run the board is simplicity and ease of use for customers. Ideally, you should supply a 20V 3.25 Amp capable power source, which is common for modern laptops (Dell, HP, and Lenovo have all tested and work perfectly). However, pretty much any 9V/12V/20V PD-enabled power adapter will work, most typically phone chargers with a quick charge option. The smallest of the family is a 25W model, which is plenty enough for a living space.

The interesting part was all the phone and laptop chargers I used for the test (around five different makes of each), sounded great, with no hissing, no popping. (Apart from the Apple ones, they didn’t work. Likely they have Apple-specific PD protocol). This is probably because modern devices have become so noise-sensitive that manufacturers have been forced to do good work on noise levels.

Because USB-PD is a bit of a Wild West in terms of standards, sometimes not everything goes as designed. Some people have run into this with power adapters that aren’t fully PD-standard compliant. In most cases, the worst that happens is the PD chip doesn’t trigger the 20V mode, so the Esparagus runs at around 5W per channel (which you might not even notice). One person reported that an older adapter somehow triggered just 1V on the USB-C power line, shutting down the Esparagus shortly after plugging in. Thankfully, we’ve confirmed that it works correctly with newer laptop adapters.

Amped Esparagus NOPD

The “hammer-style” solution I came up with is a new NOPD version of the Amped Esparagus that lets you use a barrel power jack to supply raw voltage directly. The catch? Standard 2mm pins can’t handle high currents, so I’ve gone with a 2.5mm pin instead — it’s a bit unusual but still common enough in the laptop world.

With this setup, you can supply more than the 20V limit of PD, giving you a bit more power for the speakers. You probably won’t hear much difference (thanks to the way human hearing works), but it could help larger speakers that need a bit more to really “open up." Other than that, the NOPD version works just like the PD version — no software changes are needed.

Amped Esparagus DUAL

In May 2025, I came up with a power mux schematic that is designed to automatically switch between an external power source and a UCB-PD-enabled power source, depending on which one provides higher voltage. So you can either use an external power adapter over the barrel jack and use USB-C for programming-debugging, or simply use USB-C for both power and data.

This eliminates the need for PD and NOPD revisions, so I will slowly replace all products with a single DUAL option.

External voltage selection

The power adapter specs depend on the speaker you're planning to use. DAC efficiency is close to 100%, so just take the power rating of your speaker (say 2x10w), and impedance (say 8 ohms) and you'd need at least 9 volts rated at 1.2 amps per channel, round up to 3 total amps.

It is not recommended to go beyond the voltage your speakers can take, otherwise, the amp will blow your speakers in no time.

The absolute maximum voltage for the TAS5805M DAC is 30V, but it is not guaranteed to be thermally stable in this condition.

Restocking & Availability

New restock batches are regularly ordered from the factory, and I plan to keep all versions available at least until the next board revision is released.

USA shipping Update

Due to the new tariffs introduced by the Trump administration, standard shipments are temporarily on hold. However, shipping to the US has now resumed via UPS, though rates are currently quite high. I’ll fully resume regular shipping as soon as the restrictions are lifted

Sponsorship & Community Support

If you’re working on an open-source project, an educational initiative, or any pro-bono/volunteer effort, feel free to reach out for sponsorship details. I’ll do my best to provide discounts or even free boards.

Custom Design & Consultation

If you’re interested in a custom design based on or inspired by my boards, I also offer contract design work and consultation when needed.

Most orders are shipped the next business day morning. All shipments are tracked. Delivery time in the EU is 3-7 days, outside 2-3 weeks, depending on the distance. After 30 days, the package is considered lost - reach out for a refund or replacement.