The ALLO Audio music steamer - Pic heavy review

[Kit1cat]

Hi Josie, you did not experience any of the vocal problems mentioned in the roon review? Thanks

[jehojakim]

Hi Jogchum.

On balance I'd say the BOSS because I feel the space it gives and the timing seems to be more apparent which is a good thing and there really isn't much in it between the PIANO/KALI and the BOSS.

OK, thanks, I'll wait for the BOSS!

[ALLO.com]

So what dac chip is it this time Jo?

PCM5122

[The Black Adder]

Hi Josie, you did not experience any of the vocal problems mentioned in the roon review? Thanks

To be honest, no. I've only just read that review actually.

All I can say is that I'm sure the DAC will need a good running in. It sounds a bit odd to me.

[struth]

PCM5122

Audiophonics 32bit/384kHz then.... should work with Moode then easily enough. Never did get the kali to work alas.... Sounds like a winner for you then.:)

[Rothchild]

What did you pay for the Boss Josie?

[ALLO.com]

Retail is 59$ USD

[LC1979]

Thanks for the review, Josie, I was getting very eager to hear it and have just signed up to comment (long time lurker).

Prior to hearing of the forthcoming “The Boss” release (great name!), I was all set to buy either a Mamboberry LS or one of the Piano DACs from Allo, plus a Kali. As soon as I heard about this DAC I held off until some reviews came out, hoping to make my choice easier. But if anything it has made it harder, because now I am wondering if any of these alternatives offer anything ‘better’ than my current IQaudio DAC+?!

Sure, they likely have subtly different sound signatures, but there seems to be little agreement among reviewers, which makes me think that it just comes down to subjective preferences for these ever so slightly different flavours.

A few people who own the IQaudio and Piano + Kali on the Rune Audio forum had suggested to me that the Allo combination was an improvement over the IQaudio. This made sense to me as I had naturally assumed that the reclocking done by the Kali (and now “The Boss”) would automatically elevate these options above the IQaudio that relies on the jittery clock of the Pi. But in your review you seem to imply that you prefer The Boss over the Piano/Kali, but that for some music you still prefer the presentation of the IQaudio?

So I am left wondering whether we can think of the differences in terms of better/best, or whether in fact the quality of these DACs has reached a kind of plateau where the best examples are all basically equally good, with only very subtle differences in audible output?

(I also suspect that psychoacoustics comes into play whenever we add a new component into the system, especially if we expect it to perform better, making it very difficult to accurately judge the subtle differences!)

I was wondering, do you agree at all with that conclusion? Could you possibly elaborate on the differences between The Boss and the IQaudio? I know this is probably very difficult without a means to do quick A-B switching. Would you be prepared to show the courage of your conviction and say that The Boss is definitively better than the IQAudio, or is it just far too comfortable on that fence? ;)

[LC1979]

The TL,DR version

If you could only have one Pi DAC HAT, which would it be?

:)

[mikeyb]

I have used both the IQAudio and the Piano/Kali combo and I have to say in my system the Piano/Kali was a good upgrade, wider and deeper front to back soundstage, better, tighter bass with more kick and overall I thought it sounded much better. So much so that it made me question my vinyl setup.

Mike.

[LC1979]

Good to hear that, Mike, thanks. I admit that I was surprised to hear that The Boss might sound as good, or even better than the Piano + Kali. But would be amazing if so, given the price point.

[ALLO.com]

The TL,DR version



hello, just wondering what TL,DR stands for.
thank you

[LC1979]

hello, just wondering what TL,DR stands for.
thank you

It was a reference to my long and slightly rambling post above: Too Long, Didn't Read.

Apologies, obscure internet acronyms are strictly forbidden by the Plain English Campaign, and rightly so :)

[Rothchild]

Retail is 59$ USD

Given that it's always trade that responds to this question, should this thread be in trade impressions (or at least 'Strokes')?

[mikeyb]

Given that it's always trade that responds to this question, should this thread be in trade impressions (or at least 'Strokes')?
The thread is a review by a private individual, so for me it's in the right place, the replies by the maker are relevant to this thread and the questions asked irrespective of his status surely?

If you wanted this moved you'd need every other individuals review moved too?

If you are still keen to have it moved then just ask a mod to check the thread out.

[struth]

It was a review by Jo re the boss i think. Unless he comes and says i work for Audiohdwr then its best to be here, as its an extention of his first one on the kali ... or thats my take on it at moment. I havent nor will i be reading it all...my lifes gonna be too short as it is :eyebrows:

[mikeyb]

Thanks 😊

[Rothchild]

It was a review by Jo re the boss i think. Unless he comes and says i work for Audiohdwr then its best to be here, as its an extention of his first one on the kali ... or thats my take on it at moment. I havent nor will i be reading it all...my lifes gonna be too short as it is :eyebrows:

Yeah it's a small thing in the bigger scheme but it's never been made clear that Josie actually bought all this gear (Piano, Kalli, Amp thing and now a boss too (rendering piano and kalli 'redundant')) for personal use or if it was supplied by Audiohdwr for her to review, I know it's an old fashioned concept but it would be nice to have any interests declared or disclaimed.

[mikeyb]

Yeah it's a small thing in the bigger scheme but it's never been made clear that Josie actually bought all this gear (Piano, Kalli, Amp thing and now a boss too (rendering piano and kalli 'redundant')) for personal use or if it was supplied by Audiohdwr for her to review, I know it's an old fashioned concept but it would be nice to have any interests declared or disclaimed.
Ah, now I understand 😉

[struth]

Yeah it's a small thing in the bigger scheme but it's never been made clear that Josie actually bought all this gear (Piano, Kalli, Amp thing and now a boss too (rendering piano and kalli 'redundant')) for personal use or if it was supplied by Audiohdwr for her to review, I know it's an old fashioned concept but it would be nice to have any interests declared or disclaimed.

Ive no idea at moment either. People do lent (even lend stuff:eyebrows: )stuff for a review to be done etc. Sure truth will out and if there is any change on the current position as i know it, then it will be relooked at of course. Personally im currently happy for it to be where it is, as members will be interested in this new board i think. Hell, i am too. Lol...

[The Black Adder]

Andre very kindly sent it to me to use and review.

Hope that's okay.

[struth]

Tis ok with me. Ps it was a good review. Have you tried it with moode?

[The Black Adder]

Thanks... Not exactly sure why it should matter anyway. :) I'm not trade, this is an independent review.

Regarding Moode, I tried it but no dice. I'll ask and find out if that's a possibility.

[LC1979]

Thanks... Not exactly sure why it should matter anyway. :) I'm not trade, this is an independent review.

And it's appreciated :)

Hi Josie. I posted a quick question for you on page 26... Any updates/additional comments after using The Boss in your system for a while, especially in contrast to your IQaudio DAC+, would be very welcome!

Cheers,
Luke

[ALLO.com]

Just a few words on the review by Josie.
Yes we are sending units for review by independent members of audio community . Jose in particular , did a great review on our Kali/Piano combo , she is truly an artist . For this reason we decided that any hardware that we release will be sent to her for an honest and to the point review. We don't see the review beforehand and we don't have any saying in her text.
We also understand that there must be a separation between the commercial aspect and reviews of our products and we will keep this section free of any commercial comments . (we will keep separate thread for that).
We appreciate this forum and community.
To Josie , I would like to say that you might be a fan of our hardware but we always wait for your reviews with trepidation . We can see our audio hardware coming to life.
Thx you for that.

[Kit1cat]

I am tempted to give "The Boss" ago, but don't really want to move away from Moode at the moment.

[The Black Adder]

And it's appreciated :)

Hi Josie. I posted a quick question for you on page 26... Any updates/additional comments after using The Boss in your system for a while, especially in contrast to your IQaudio DAC+, would be very welcome!

Cheers,
Luke

Hi Luke... gosh, yes. I didn't see your post.

I'll try and go in to more detail later on if that's okay?

Thanks
Jo

[The Black Adder]

Just a few words on the review by Josie.
Yes we are sending units for review by independent members of audio community . Jose in particular , did a great review on our Kali/Piano combo , she is truly an artist . For this reason we decided that any hardware that we release will be sent to her for an honest and to the point review. We don't see the review beforehand and we don't have any saying in her text.
We also understand that there must be a separation between the commercial aspect and reviews of our products and we will keep this section free of any commercial comments . (we will keep separate thread for that).
We appreciate this forum and community.
To Josie , I would like to say that you might be a fan of our hardware but we always wait for your reviews with trepidation . We can see our audio hardware coming to life.
Thx you for that.

Your very welcome, Andre. :)

[LC1979]

I'll look forward to it, thank you :)

[ALLO.com]

Hi to all and Josie,
We have found a problem in the BOSS unit we sent you for review. From 7k to 20k the signal degrades (slightly) . We rechecked the whole board...and we found that RC filter in the analog stage changed from old datasheet to new one. Unfortunately we used a value (c) from old datasheet and (r) from new...so the low pass filter characteristics changed allowing more noise to pass. Basically the LPF RC cutoff frequency is 15Khz ...we are changing that to 96Khz (old TI datasheet was 73Khz and new is 140Khz) We think that 100Khz is better.
Mass production will have the right LPF, we are thinking to send new unit to review. If you liked the Boss as it was...wait till you try the production one.

Please stay tuned.

regards
Andre

[The Black Adder]

Hey Andre.

Not a problem. Can't wait to hear the updated version. :)

[The Black Adder]

Thanks for the review, Josie, I was getting very eager to hear it and have just signed up to comment (long time lurker).

Prior to hearing of the forthcoming “The Boss” release (great name!), I was all set to buy either a Mamboberry LS or one of the Piano DACs from Allo, plus a Kali. As soon as I heard about this DAC I held off until some reviews came out, hoping to make my choice easier. But if anything it has made it harder, because now I am wondering if any of these alternatives offer anything ‘better’ than my current IQaudio DAC+?!

The ALLO kit is different... I'm not sure if 'better' is simply too subjective for my liking as they are half the same beast in regards to both use the RPI. I personally like the ALLO stuff for my music tastes.

It depends on what you are wanting from your music. For example, lots have said that the bass on the ALLO kit is much deeper, this is true but it's only one aspect in case. So, if you are after more weight then that one thing might be all you need to give one a go but the same goes to that old saying... if it ain't broke... etc.


Sure, they likely have subtly different sound signatures, but there seems to be little agreement among reviewers, which makes me think that it just comes down to subjective preferences for these ever so slightly different flavours.

Well, if you want a wholesome, big fat bottom end (ooer!) with focus then the ALLO stuff is most certainly a different flavour to the IQDAC+


A few people who own the IQaudio and Piano + Kali on the Rune Audio forum had suggested to me that the Allo combination was an improvement over the IQaudio. This made sense to me as I had naturally assumed that the reclocking done by the Kali (and now “The Boss”) would automatically elevate these options above the IQaudio that relies on the jittery clock of the Pi. But in your review you seem to imply that you prefer The Boss over the Piano/Kali, but that for some music you still prefer the presentation of the IQaudio?

In some music I think. I do still like the IQAudio. Whilst there is nothing wrong with the IQDAC+ it's just not as beefy or as open as the KALI/PIANO or BOSS for my liking. But you can bet your pants that on some systems the choice could be very much the pole opposite.

I listen to a lot of electronica, rock, dance and lots of 60's psychedelic stuff and with that extra weight it fits me and my system to which 15" drivers in cabinets the size of wardrobes seem to love.


So I am left wondering whether we can think of the differences in terms of better/best, or whether in fact the quality of these DACs has reached a kind of plateau where the best examples are all basically equally good, with only very subtle differences in audible output?

I've no idea about the DAC's unfortunately, anything technical goes over my head (although always willing to learn). There are plenty on here who could answer that :)


(I also suspect that psychoacoustics comes into play whenever we add a new component into the system, especially if we expect it to perform better, making it very difficult to accurately judge the subtle differences!)?

I was wondering, do you agree at all with that conclusion? Could you possibly elaborate on the differences between The Boss and the IQaudio? I know this is probably very difficult without a means to do quick A-B switching. Would you be prepared to show the courage of your conviction and say that The Boss is definitively better than the IQAudio, or is it just far too comfortable on that fence? ;)

There is always an element of psychoacoustics, we are only human but I always allow kit to get warmed up or (burned-in) before I make a judgement. I think initial impressions can be misleading for sure so I like to live with stuff for a good while first. Sometimes it's not too long before I can either flick the 'YES' or 'NO' buttons but then I always like to understand the reasons behind why (if it's the latter mostly) before I throw it to the dogs. WOOF! :)

[Rothchild]

Andre very kindly sent it to me to use and review.

Hope that's okay.

Thanks for clarifying Josie.

[LC1979]

Thanks for that, Josie. A very thorough reply, I appreciate that it's very tricky to make definitive statements on audio gear where there is so much that is subjective.

I do like the sound of a big fat bottom end, though I am slightly concerned that it might be too much for me. My equipment is much smaller than 15 inches.

Anyway, best to wait and see what people think about this DAC once the wrinkles are all ironed out!

:)

[Fai]

Hi everyone. I'm new here so please bear with me.

I have both the iqa dac+ and now the allo kali piano 2.1 combo. Both are on rpi3.

To be honest I liked both from an SQ point of view. Psycho-acoustically, I think the Kali relocker makes me think it sounds better. Unless I do an AB comparison to the iqa within a short time frame for switching between units, (auditory memory is extremely short lived) it would be almost impossible for me to tell the difference.

However in terms of aesthetics, fit and finish from a product standpoint, the iqa takes the cake. It comes across as a polished product when purchased in a bundle with the beautifully articulated smoked case. This is where allo could improve as the available casings are just too utilitarian.

That being said, my mind (not necessarily my ears) thinks the Kali piano combo sounds better so it's here to stay. Jazz sounds absolutely amazing.

I do have one concern about the Kali reclocker. It adds a 0.7s buffer delay to the music. This is all fine until I use kodi to watch streaming videos. Fixing audio lag by offsetting by 0.7s doesn't seem to help as the audio offset actually varies through the course of a streaming video content. Based on experience the buffer seems to vary between 0.025s and 0.07s range.

Has anyone else experienced this or would have suggestions on how to mitigate this while still retaining the Kali reclocker?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cycleallday]

Hi everyone. I'm new here so please bear with me.

I have both the iqa dac+ and now the allo kali piano 2.1 combo. Both are on rpi3.

To be honest I liked both from an SQ point of view. Psycho-acoustically, I think the Kali relocker makes me think it sounds better. Unless I do an AB comparison to the iqa within a short time frame for switching between units, (auditory memory is extremely short lived) it would be almost impossible for me to tell the difference.

However in terms of aesthetics, fit and finish from a product standpoint, the iqa takes the cake. It comes across as a polished product when purchased in a bundle with the beautifully articulated smoked case. This is where allo could improve as the available casings are just too utilitarian.

That being said, my mind (not necessarily my ears) thinks the Kali piano combo sounds better so it's here to stay. Jazz sounds absolutely amazing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would agree with you on the difficulty between telling the TI based DACs sound quality apart unless in an AB comparison.

I have not noticed the delay with the Kali but strongly agree that it makes a (positive) big difference to the Piano combo. Ironically their new DAC should sound worse than the Kali combo as the whole idea of re-clocking is to improve the sound. A dedicated re-clocker board should really improve on an on board integrated clock chip as on the new DAC.

My main concern with the Allo range is similar to your comment on design. They seem to have paid little attention to erganomics and functionality with cables coming out all sides. It would be far better if cable in/out sockets were kept in line with the Pi. Their boards are generally a smaller footprint to the Pi board so there is space for a better design. Better/stronger RCA sockets would also greatly help as the current ones do seem to twist a bit.

My other concern over Allo generally is their support site is quite poor compared to other popular suppliers. Responses seem to indicate little knowledge of good customer support via provision of quick useful responses. It all seems totally dependent on Andre - who does an excellent job of promotion.

I am not being negative to Allo - I like their products but so far comments in this post have been almost totally on SQ and build, support and usability are also high on my list of measures on product quality.

Mel

[ALLO.com]

Hi to all and welcome to the forum Fai,

Kali has a buffer to store the DATA of about 0.7s . There is no way around it. As you both observed (Fai and Cycleallday) . Allo hardware is very utilitarian , our main focus is sound quality . Regarding our new DAC, yes the integrated clocks are better (or equal) to Kali. In fact on the BOSS page you can see measurement of jitter is about 0.5ps vs 3-4ps of Kali. So it is possible that Boss is better than Kali + Piano combo.
But yes we do understand the need for a nice casing . This is why we have been working on for the past month and we will announce it very soon...

regard
Andre

[Cycleallday]

This is why we have been working on for the past month and we will announce it very soon...

regard
Andre

Andre, in designing your case it would be nice to give some attention to how cables enter and exit it and how the RCA sockets can be supported.

If the case is fully closed then internal fly cables could be used to solve both the above by routing them internally to a single side and providing additional RCA sockets which are fixed to the case side.

If the case is an open dog bone type then additional strength can be given to the on board RCA sockets by making sure the top rests on the sockets or some top packing is provided to reduce flexing in at least one plane.

The sound quality of the Pianos with the Kali is really good and I use the Vana player as my main streamer in my office at present.

For all I've said about leads being on different sides I love the 'quirky' look of the Vana with its separate cap multiplier - it looks really good on my computer desk but not sure it would last long if I moved it to my lounge as my wife prefers nice closed in boxes with as few leads as possible.

Your new board sounds like it should be really nice and I look forward to Black Adders review.

Mel

[Starterman]

Must admit I've gone back to my IQAudio DAC+. I think I wil put my Kali + Piano 2.1 up for sale.
I never got the DSP crossover functionality working. Bit disappointing really, but hey ho.

[ALLO.com]

hello
Latest Volumio image works bug free with Piano 2.1 or similar

[Fai]

I've been experiencing intermittent skipping during playback on the Kali piano 2.1 combo on rpi3. LAN cable connection.

Skips happens when using both dietpi roon bridge and jriver to dlna renderer.

Does anyone else experience it? It's beginning to get quite annoying when enjoying the flow of music.

Regards
Fai


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jonners]

hello
Latest Volumio image works bug free with Piano 2.1 or similar

The settings for the crossover filters for the 2.1 don't yet work as they should though.

[ALLO.com]

Thx you Jonners for finding the bug. There is a dip in the frequency using the LR filters that come in the TI software. We already reported to TI.
Have you tested the new filter?

[jonners]

Thx you Jonners for finding the bug. There is a dip in the frequency using the LR filters that come in the TI software. We already reported to TI.
Have you tested the new filter?

I haven't been able to test yet, basically because installing the new folder was going to take more familiarity with Linux and ssh than I possess (which is very little!). So Jaikumar is going to send me a complete revised Volumio image that I'll be able to install without a lot of hand-holding. :)

[ALLO.com]

OK !

[The Black Adder]

Hot off the press.

After Andre sent me the latest BOSS the other day I've been listening to it today. So far I'm very impressed, the sound stage seems wider and basically sounding more natural and easy somehow. Nice wide soundstage, oodles of detail voluptuous bass.

Had a few things on so far, dance, 60's psychedelia, 90's indie, some Goa and now Semprini.

I've opened a box of chocolates (naughty I know) and enjoying every moment.

[SantanaCorreia]

Hot off the press.

After Andre sent me the latest BOSS the other day I've been listening to it today. So far I'm very impressed, the sound stage seems wider and basically sounding more natural and easy somehow. Nice wide soundstage, oodles of detail voluptuous bass.

Had a few things on so far, dance, 60's psychedelia, 90's indie, some Goa and now Semprini.

I've opened a box of chocolates (naughty I know) and enjoying every moment.
Tested with Kali?

[jonners]

Tested with Kali?

The Boss will not work with Kali.

[ALLO.com]

yes correct, KALI will work only with slave DACs... BOSS is a master as it feeds its own clock.

thanks
Andre

[LC1979]

Has anyone else here bought one?

I was about to take a punt on one but then found out it wouldn't work on my Pi B+, so I would have to upgrade that too, plus a new case. So am keen to hear some more opinions on it first! I suspect it might sound better than my current IQaudio DAC +, but probably not an earth-shattering difference given that they both use the PCM5122. May have to wait and see what the new Kali brings to the table...

[SantanaCorreia]

Does anyone know if the IqAudio dac pro works with Kali?

[jonners]

Does anyone know if the IqAudio dac pro works with Kali?

I don't think it would be just 'plug and play'. It appears to be quite simllar to the Pi-DAC+, in which case it would need to be supplied with 3.3 Volts beacuse the Kali does not pass the 3v3 through to the DAC.
I had my IQAudio Pi-DAC+ working with Kali by using a small regulator that converts 5V to 3.3V.

[tkr001]

I will buy one once the case is released. I already have an IQAudio Dac+ and Vana bundle as well as a RPi with a Hifiberry Digi+ feeding a relatively expensive DAC so will be interested to see how the Boss fares. I preferred the Vana setup to the IQAudio Dac+ but feeding spdif to my external DAC is still the best sound for me. The others work fine in bedroom/office setups.

[Kit1cat]

Updated Boss review at the end of this thread.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/allo-boss-dac-review/20575

[The Black Adder]

Hi all.

Just letting you know that a full review of the boss will be coming soon.

Many thanks
Jo :)

[The Black Adder]

Hi all.

I've now had the updated ALLO BOSS in my system for a good few weeks now and I have to say that its certainly now settled in enough for a more in-depth review.

Firstly, I use it with a PI3 and an SBooster linear PSU. I've had chance to hear this not only through my Croft but a very nice passive preamp too. The results are positive. I've also flipped back to the Piano 2.1 and KALI combo to which yealded different results.

If you aleady have the Piano/Kali combo then here are my thoughts. The differences in the BOSS in this respect are that the scale of the music I found to be more expansive with a much more dynamic nature. Kick drums seem cleaner with more meat on the bones. Powerful and natural. Mid ranges have a slightly more fluid tone. Water droplets for example have a much rounder, more believable tonal quality with space and weight.

High frequencies are handled much the same way with nice, yet not over stated ringing or harshness.

The bass... Well, its simply wonderful. It's fast, dynamic and most of all tuneful. I'm getting controlled sub bass like never before. The BOSS has an air of discipline to how it pulls each range in to focus. I belive its down to timing as well as balancing. For all this to be fitted on to one tiny card is bogglingly lovely.

The BOSS is like no other imo. It's clean and tuneful signature brings it out to be a more sophisticated little number. It's certainly not a boom boxy kind of affair as it can reproduce delicacy as well as raw oomph with ease.

In my last review I ran the IQAudio DAC+ along side of the allo units and came to the conclusion that the IQAUDIO had a more softer, more accommodating quality for classical passages. Well, I feel less of that now. The latest BOSS does it all. There is no need for another now. Imo, its knitted both quality sound and SPPV together.

The music I've been listening to has been a mix of old, new, rock, dance, trance and classical and I've yet to hear a duff or irritating sound.

All in all... It's simply smashing.

Can it get any better? At the moment, I can't think how.

[mikeyb]

Hi all.

I've now had the updated ALLO BOSS in my system for a good few weeks now and I have to say that its certainly now settled in enough for a more in-depth review.

Firstly, I use it with a PI3 and an SBooster linear PSU. I've had chance to hear this not only through my Croft but a very nice passive preamp too. The results are positive. I've also flipped back to the Piano 2.1 and KALI combo to which yealded different results.

If you aleady have the Piano/Kali combo then here are my thoughts. The differences in the BOSS in this respect are that the scale of the music I found to be more expansive with a much more dynamic nature. Kick drums seem cleaner with more meat on the bones. Powerful and natural. Mid ranges have a slightly more fluid tone. Water droplets for example have a much rounder, more believable tonal quality with space and weight.

High frequencies are handled much the same way with nice, yet not over stated ringing or harshness.

The bass... Well, its simply wonderful. It's fast, dynamic and most of all tuneful. I'm getting controlled sub bass like never before. The BOSS has an air of discipline to how it pulls each range in to focus. I belive its down to timing as well as balancing. For all this to be fitted on to one tiny card is bogglingly lovely.

The BOSS is like no other imo. It's clean and tuneful signature brings it out to be a more sophisticated little number. It's certainly not a boom boxy kind of affair as it can reproduce delicacy as well as raw oomph with ease.

In my last review I ran the IQAudio DAC+ along side of the allo units and came to the conclusion that the IQAUDIO had a more softer, more accommodating quality for classical passages. Well, I feel less of that now. The latest BOSS does it all. There is no need for another now. Imo, its knitted both quality sound and SPPV together.

The music I've been listening to has been a mix of old, new, rock, dance, trance and classical and I've yet to hear a duff or irritating sound.

All in all... It's simply smashing.

Can it get any better? At the moment, I can't think how.
Good review, I might try one and ditch the Piano/Kali

[SantanaCorreia]

IMHO, if this is true, and I have no reasons no to believe (great review btw), Allo has made a move that might not be that cleaver. A cheaper product is better than its direct competitor in the same company. KALI and PIANO will suffer a lot. A direct downsell. The only reason why this makes sense is to gain market on Iqaudio or audiophonics. But I really dont know were the KALI and PIANO are when it comes to product cycle.

[struth]

Hi all.

I've now had the updated ALLO BOSS in my system for a good few weeks now and I have to say that its certainly now settled in enough for a more in-depth review.

Firstly, I use it with a PI3 and an SBooster linear PSU. I've had chance to hear this not only through my Croft but a very nice passive preamp too. The results are positive. I've also flipped back to the Piano 2.1 and KALI combo to which yealded different results.

If you aleady have the Piano/Kali combo then here are my thoughts. The differences in the BOSS in this respect are that the scale of the music I found to be more expansive with a much more dynamic nature. Kick drums seem cleaner with more meat on the bones. Powerful and natural. Mid ranges have a slightly more fluid tone. Water droplets for example have a much rounder, more believable tonal quality with space and weight.

High frequencies are handled much the same way with nice, yet not over stated ringing or harshness.

The bass... Well, its simply wonderful. It's fast, dynamic and most of all tuneful. I'm getting controlled sub bass like never before. The BOSS has an air of discipline to how it pulls each range in to focus. I belive its down to timing as well as balancing. For all this to be fitted on to one tiny card is bogglingly lovely.

The BOSS is like no other imo. It's clean and tuneful signature brings it out to be a more sophisticated little number. It's certainly not a boom boxy kind of affair as it can reproduce delicacy as well as raw oomph with ease.

In my last review I ran the IQAudio DAC+ along side of the allo units and came to the conclusion that the IQAUDIO had a more softer, more accommodating quality for classical passages. Well, I feel less of that now. The latest BOSS does it all. There is no need for another now. Imo, its knitted both quality sound and SPPV together.

The music I've been listening to has been a mix of old, new, rock, dance, trance and classical and I've yet to hear a duff or irritating sound.

All in all... It's simply smashing.

Can it get any better? At the moment, I can't think how.

Looks like they have ironed out all the problems now Josie. Glad your appy ;)

[LC1979]

The way that Kali improves the I2S signal from the Pi is different to the method on The Boss, with Kali being theoretically better. It also backpowers the Pi and DAC with cleaner power, apparently. Can this 'better' be heard, that's the question? I think I'll be getting The Boss rather than Kali plus Piano 2.1 or Mambo LS (my previous plan), but more because of form factor than anything else.

[vakharia]

I got the BOSS about 10 days ago and have been 'testing' it out with my Dali Zensors powered by Marantz PM5005.
The BOSS is mounted on a Raspberry Pi 3 and the combination sounds pretty good to me. Overall I am very satisfied.

I do not have an expensive power supply for my RPI - just a normal Motorola charger for which the RPI has never complained.

My source is all digital - mostly FLAC files and also some online radio with bitrates varying from ~40 kbps to 320 kbps.
Some of the low bit rate radio stations also sound quite good to me.

This afternoon, I did a comparison (side-by-side) between this DAC and my FiiO D03K DAC which is connected to my Panasonic Plasma smart TV.

Only on a side by side comparison you can make the difference out.

After listening to various genres of music I could say that the BOSS tends to somehow bump up the lows and the highs.
(I am aware of the 'burn-in' time of about 50 hours - which I have not yet crossed with my BOSS - so I might come back with my observations after some time again)
I do not know if this is called the 'dynamic range', but if yes, then that is higher/ wider.


So, for casual listening the BOSS tends to make the music sound 'punchier'. However the FiiO which costs me half, give a much flatter output. This seems to be better when listening to vocals.

The low end 'thump' is significantly higher with the BOSS - you can really feel that. On the flip side, this sometimes tends to overpower the vocals.



I have not had any experience with other RPI DAC's so, I cannot comment on that part.

Currently using Volumio but waiting to try MoOde.

[LC1979]

I received the Boss yesterday, finally got it working with Volumio (not yet possible in Moode?), and listened to a few tracks before retiring to bed. While I am hesitant to jump to any conclusions based on such limited listening, and especially as people report improvements after 50 hours or so, but I am already very happy with it. Compared to my previous IQaudiO pi-DAC (which I feel was an excellent Pi DAC) it already seems like there's more life to the music at the same volume (I listen at fairly low levels) and instruments are projected a bit further out from the speaker. I wondered about the claims for bass handling that I'd read, and so far I agree. I didn't listen to any particularly bassy music (looking forward to trying some bass driven jazz and reggae) but the piano music I listened to had a lovely realistic timbre to the lower keys. So far so good. Can't wait to listen to a lot more music on it! Will post an update in a few weeks.

[The Black Adder]

Looks like you guys are hearing the same as me. Yes, try some decent Reggae... lol :)

Regarding the PSU. I have since tried the BOSS with the normal wall wartythingie and to be honest it's pretty good. It's not as defined and the bass is less focused but it's still fine to listen to.

[vakharia]

(not yet possible in Moode?

Yes. MoOde 3.5 will have support for this.

[LC1979]

I'll look forward to it, hopefully not too far off.

[LC1979]

Has anyone got 3.5 to work with Allo Boss DAC? I'm using Rasp Pi 2. The image installed and I set it up like I usually do, but no sound at all :(

[mikeyb]

Has anyone got 3.5 to work with Allo Boss DAC? I'm using Rasp Pi 2. The image installed and I set it up like I usually do, but no sound at all :(

I use the Piano 2.1 DAC and it took me ages to get sound from it, but I can't for the life of me remember how I did it sorry. I am assuming the Boss DAC will be the same issue as I had, I know I restarted mpd a few times and checked the alsamixer in Putty.

[struth]

had a couple of issues myself but its working with rpi 2b. it wont run all features though i think, might be a power issue or a processor one. Not really had a chance to run it much to give myself an impression of if its better yet. Been too busy setting up jriver 22 which I think I may buy. I feel although its not finished yet and has some stability problems, it sounds better than 21.

[LC1979]

Thanks both, I will persevere then!

It took me a bit of fiddling to get it working with Volumio, but I spent at least 1.5 hours last night trying all different settings and rebooting frequently, but still no joy. The interface of MoOde seems a bit clunky on the I2S DAC front, with two different places to select which DAC you have: one list doesn't have The Boss, the other does! It's all very confusing!

[LC1979]

After listening to various genres of music I could say that the BOSS tends to somehow bump up the lows and the highs.
.
.
So, for casual listening the BOSS tends to make the music sound 'punchier'. However the FiiO which costs me half, give a much flatter output. This seems to be better when listening to vocals.

The low end 'thump' is significantly higher with the BOSS - you can really feel that. On the flip side, this sometimes tends to overpower the vocals.


I think I disagree with this. Perhaps report back once you have passed the burn in period?

Sure different DACS have different sound signatures and much is down to preference and perhaps matching with the rest of your system, but for me I don't hear any evidence of the U-shape tuning you refer to (often used purposely to make cheaper speakers/headphones sound 'good').

I don't like overly bright sounding components, and The Boss doesn't have this, to my mind.

The bass 'bump' you refer to I actually think is better bass definition and handling. I don't hear anything that shouldn't be there, and in bass heavy music like reggae there isn't any hint of booming or over-emphasis over the vocals. I'm thinking here of well recorded reggae, something like the Bob Marley studio albums mastered by Barry Diament, for example. They sound great through the Boss, and the vocals sound very well tuned alongside the good bass.

Would be great to hear your updated thoughts :)

[tkr001]

You need the advanced kernel and select Allo Boss DAC in the I2S audio device setting. I don't know where else you found to set the DAC. You may also need this to make the Boss show as an audio device

sudo sqlite3 /var/local/www/db/moode-sqlite3.db "update cfg_audiodev set kernel='' where id='1'"

[mikeyb]

You need the advanced kernel and select Allo Boss DAC in the I2S audio device setting. I don't know where else you found to set the DAC. You may also need this to make the Boss show as an audio device

sudo sqlite3 /var/local/www/db/moode-sqlite3.db "update cfg_audiodev set kernel='' where id='1'"
I've tried that method and although the Boss Dac is listed, I can't get any sound from it. I spent about 8 hours on it yesterday and no joy with MoOde or Volumio. It's definitely working as I got it to work with piCoreplayer but I prefer MoOde.

Pretty disappointing to buy something that for the moment doesn't actually work with the main distros, if I'd known I wouldn't have bought the Boss just now.

Will be trying DietPi and RuneAudio today see if any of those work, and then wait on an update for MoOde.

[LC1979]

@mikeyb

I agree about the premature launch of the Boss, could have been more proactive about drivers etc probably. I also recognise the apparent reliance on the good will of the distro devs and community more widely to get these things working, for which I am very grateful.

I'm surprised that you couldn't get it to work on Volumio, that was relatively painless for me and it works pretty well (though I am also keen to see the MoOde bugfix patch).

[The Black Adder]

You need the advanced kernel and select Allo Boss DAC in the I2S audio device setting. I don't know where else you found to set the DAC. You may also need this to make the Boss show as an audio device

sudo sqlite3 /var/local/www/db/moode-sqlite3.db "update cfg_audiodev set kernel='' where id='1'"

I installed Moode 3.5 yesterday but couldn't see the Boss Dac, I installed the RT advanced Kernel but it still wasn't listed. Should the command line you posted fix this?

Thanks

[mikeyb]

I installed Moode 3.5 yesterday but couldn't see the Boss Dac, I installed the RT advanced Kernel but it still wasn't listed. Should the command line you posted fix this?

Thanks

yes it does, just ssh into your Pi and add the complete line including quotes and the Boss DAc will show up in the i2s list, hopefully you'll have better luck with it than me as I can get it output any sound at all even using this method.

To add to my woes, my Pi won't boot up now so trying a different Sd Card in case I've killed the other one with around 30 installs and re-installs etc

[mikeyb]

@mikeyb

I agree about the premature launch of the Boss, could have been more proactive about drivers etc probably. I also recognise the apparent reliance on the good will of the distro devs and community more widely to get these things working, for which I am very grateful.

I'm surprised that you couldn't get it to work on Volumio, that was relatively painless for me and it works pretty well (though I am also keen to see the MoOde bugfix patch).

No joy with Volumio, I even used the latest version too, I could see the DAC but no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to work, don't worry I won't give up yet, just a shame it looks like my mSD card is now corrupted, busy formatting with an overwrite just now to see if can revive it :steam:

[LC1979]

No joy with Volumio, I even used the latest version too... busy formatting with an overwrite just now to see if can revive it :steam:

Grrr! Frustrating. Puzzles me why some have better luck than others with these sorts of things. Hopefully bugfix will be along shortly... :)

[mikeyb]

Grrr! Frustrating. Puzzles me why some have better luck than others with these sorts of things. Hopefully bugfix will be along shortly... :)
I've cracked it, have put how I did it in the MoOde Player help thread 😁

My post here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?p=857540

[LC1979]

Great stuff :)

[The Black Adder]

Thanks for Mike, Moode is now grooving away with the BOSS.. :)

Sounds fantastico :):respect:

[mikeyb]

Thanks for Mike, Moode is now grooving away with the BOSS.. :)

Sounds fantastico :):respect:

Excellent [emoji3]

What settings are you using, I just have mine set pretty basic, but keen to try others to try and improve it.

I'm never sure if Software volume is ok as I thought it was always best to use hardware and use your amp to control volume?

Any chance you could give a rundown on your settings so I can copy them [emoji6]

[LC1979]

I'm also interested in what settings might be tweaked for SQ optimisation. I also presume hardware volume is best, but I adjust with the UI rather than amp knob, just for convenience.

Can anyone perceive a difference between the advanced kernels? And what about​ upsampling, is it worth it? There are also some CPU handling options, the relevance of which I have no idea! :confused:

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experimented and come to any conclusions (I will be trying to do this myself over time, but demands of two young children mean it will likely be a slow process of snatched opportunities).

[ALLO.com]

I'm also interested in what settings might be tweaked for SQ optimisation. I also presume hardware volume is best, but I adjust with the UI rather than amp knob, just for convenience.



Yes hardware volume control is always better, we will release a Relay attenuator that will work with Piano , Piano 2.1 and Boss
We are in testing now , will post as soon as I get updates.

[The Black Adder]

I am now using the RT kernel with hardware... IMO it sounds more dynamic but I didn't give the LL kernel nowhere near enough time so might go back to that later.

Before I got an error message when I changed it to Hardware but I then re-installed Moode and did Mike's instruction list again and it worked perfectly. I didn't get any error message.

So here are Mikes instructions for those wanting to use the Boss with Moode 3.5.

Hi,

Right, I've cracked it.........at last :eyebrows: :D

Here is how I got it to work with MoOde 3.5

1. Clean Install of MoOde 3.5 onto the mSD card and inserted into the Pi, powered on and wait for it to boot up

2. Browsed for the Pi on my phone using FING app to see if it was connected to the network ( noting the IP address )

3. SSH'd into the Pi via Putty using the IP address found with FING (Username for MoOde is pi and Password is raspberry)

4. Copied and pasted this line into the Putty screen sudo sqlite3 /var/local/www/db/moode-sqlite3.db "update cfg_audiodev set kernel='' where id='1'"

5. Rebooted

6. onto the PC now and the MoOde setup page and went to Configure/System and then under System Modifications chose Advanced-LL and clicked install, you need to give it time to install and wait for the reboot message, once this is seen Reboot

7. not sure if this is necessary but I had to reboot twice ?

8. Configure/System make sure under Linux Kernel that Advance-LL is selected.

9. Configure/Audio then choose Boss DAC from the I2S audio device drop down menu, it put Slave Disabled in by default

10. Reboot

11. Configure/Audio and under MPD menu click Restart MPD

12. Reboot

13. Configure/Audio and I set the volume warning limit to 100 but this is up to you.

It's all working now, just need to find out if the DAC only uses software volume or not, I always had previous DACs set to hardware and controlled the volume via the amp.

Happy Days :eek: :eyebrows: :lol:

----
Referencing our Moode thread here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?40322-Moode-Player-Help/page87

[struth]

Not got boss but using the rt kernel too. Seems better for me anyway

[The Black Adder]

Yep, the man from Del Monte says 'Oh aye lad, sithi'

[r100]

quick message to say that there is a volumio img that outputs L mono on one chip and R mono on the other..

https://volumio.org/forum/allo-piano-dac-first-impressions-t5046-350.html

[jonners]

I found a way using Moode to persuade the Piano 2.1 DAC to work in dual stereo mode. (i.e. putting out full audio spectrum L and R through both DACs.)
To do this, select resampling to 24bit, and avoid using hardware volume. In Moode 3.6, I'm using 24bit/*kHz upsampling and Software volume with Advanced Kernel.
Useful if you're bi-amping, or want to experiment with taking L and R out from separate DACs.

[LC1979]

As a final upgrade I am considering buying an IFI ipower smps to power both the Pi and the Boss. It seems that there are some who consider that the best results are to be had from powering the DAC directly, and backpowering the Pi from the DAC.

Thing is, I'm not entirely sure how this is done, and how easy it is to implement - has anyone here tried this or got any info? I think it involves the gpio pins, so would I need to cut the connector off the ipower and solder the connection, or might there be an easier way?

I did read about removing a jumper or resistor from the Boss, but I think this only applies if you wish to use a separate supply for each component, is that correct?

[jonners]

There's information about powering the Boss on the Allo.com website.

[LC1979]

There's information about powering the Boss on the Allo.com website.

Thanks Jonners, but it only shows how to use the j14 connection site and remove the resistor to isolate the Boss from the Pi - it doesn't mention the GPIO pin option, which I know is also possible if you want to backpower the Pi.

[Kit1cat]

Just ordered a Boss plus case, looking forward to trying it with Moode 3.6 :)

[sourplum]

Thanks Jonners, but it only shows how to use the j14 connection site and remove the resistor to isolate the Boss from the Pi - it doesn't mention the GPIO pin option, which I know is also possible if you want to backpower the Pi.
IT is quite easy to use an external power supply.
I connected it to the 1/2 and the 15/16 pins of the J19 connector on the Boss.
Now it is powering the Boss and the Pi.
See also:
https://volumio.org/forum/allo-boss-t5903-90.html

Mark

[LC1979]

Thanks for this Confirmation Mark, much appreciated. But for the benefit of a complete non DIYer like me (at least where electronics are concerned), how does one make the connection? Would I have to cut the connector off of the ipower smps and solder the bare wire onto the Boss pins? Does this automatically backpower the Pi without having to remove any tiny resistors? I'd need to know the precise procedure before risking damaging anything through my inexperience!

[sourplum]

Thanks for this Confirmation Mark, much appreciated. But for the benefit of a complete non DIYer like me (at least where electronics are concerned), how does one make the connection? Would I have to cut the connector off of the ipower smps and solder the bare wire onto the Boss pins? Does this automatically backpower the Pi without having to remove any tiny resistors? I'd need to know the precise procedure before risking damaging anything through my inexperience!
There is no soldering on the Boss required, just use some connectors.
And if you want to use the IFI perhaps some soldering on a connector to connect the two cables to the Boss.
But no damage done to the Boss at all, unless you check the polarity of the IFI ;-)
In my setup it looks this way:
https://markveldman.com/img/bossj19.jpg

[LC1979]

Thanks Mark, that's really useful, especially to see a picture. Still need to make up my mind whether to attempt this, since I have no soldering equipment or skills! I wonder if the difference of powering it this way is really noticeable compared to through the Pi in the usual way?

[The Black Adder]

[QUOTE=LC1979;861259]Thanks Mark, that's really useful, especially to see a picture. Still need to make up my mind whether to attempt this, since I have no soldering equipment or skills! I ]
One thing I would suggest for any future BOSS is to have the same power connector as the KALI. The small USB plug on the RPI IMO is it's weakest point.

I would like to know if powering like above would be sonically more beneficial.

My BOSS is still grooving... very impressed with upsampling set to max too! :)

[Dunluce978]

I've read on another forum some time ago that the RPI has a protection diode in the usb power socket that can drop the voltage slightly. If I recall correctly the guy who had built a PSU had set his output to 5.2 volts to compensate. I'll see if I can find the original post.

[LC1979]

I would like to know if powering like above would be sonically more beneficial.

I thought that I had read people claiming this, but the folk over at DIYaudio seem to think possibly not that noticeable. The real gains more seem to agree on is by isolating them and powering separately. I won't be doing this any time soon, as I have no soldering skills!

[ALLO.com]

hey guys,

i see talks about feeding clean power to the BOSS...
see attached pictures of our ISOLATOR board that does just that!


Also you can see pictures of:
our miniBOSS, a master DAC for the piZERo
the DigiONE, a BNC and coaxial output board



let me know your thoughts!!

these are all under testing , more info about release date soon!

Andre

[jonners]

The Digi looks very impressive, Andre. I haven't got a SPDIF DAC so that's not for me, but I will certainly look forward to having an Isolator with my Kali/ Piano1 setup.

John

[Kit1cat]

The ISOLATOR board looks interesting, the only problem I see is I have just bought a Boss/Case and I can't see the isolator board fitting in the case. I would love to see a Digi input board or DAC with Digital inputs. Must be a reason nobody has made one?

[The Black Adder]

hey guys,

i see talks about feeding clean power to the BOSS...
see attached pictures of our ISOLATOR board that does just that!


Also you can see pictures of:
our miniBOSS, a master DAC for the piZERo
the DigiONE, a BNC and coaxial output board

http://theartofsound.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=20229&d=1494505715
Isolator

http://theartofsound.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=20231&d=1494505975
Mini Boss

http://theartofsound.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=20232&d=1494505977
DIGIOne

let me know your thoughts!!

these are all under testing , more info about release date soon!

Andre

Oooooh! Interesting, Andre... I really like the power connector on the Isolator, hate that fiddly mini USB on the Pi. :)

Can't wait to hear more. :)

Jo

[Kit1cat]

One question, does the isolator feed just the Boss or the Pi/Boss?

[ALLO.com]

thank you Jo for reposting properly :)

in a RPI + Isolator + Boss scenario , you will need 2 PSUs...
one for the RPI and one for the Isolator who in turn will feed the BOSS.
We are working on new cases.

[Kit1cat]

Could be interesting trying to power the pi and isolator/boss from my Anker battery 5v usb outputs.

[jonners]

Could be interesting trying to power the pi and isolator/boss from my Anker battery 5v usb outputs.

I think the Isolator will require more than 5V. Andre?

[ALLO.com]

5.9V min
range is 5.9V to 12V

[Kit1cat]

Lucky, the Anker also has 9/12 volt output.

[The Black Adder]

Your welcome, Andre.

Can't wait to hear what the Isolator does. How can things get any better? lol :)

[Lunicycle]

I just had a strange incident with my Pi3 Kali Piano combo running Moode 3.6. After having been listening happily for about ½ an hour instead of the next track coming on normally I got white noise followed by the track at what sounded like double speed! It was easily stopped by skipping to another tack and then back to the troublesome one. Has anyone had a similar experience or ideas what might have caused it. If it is of any relevance I still get occasional skipping if I run at max oversampling, which I don't for that reason.

[ALLO.com]

Your welcome, Andre.

Can't wait to hear what the Isolator does. How can things get any better? lol :)

the difference will be small, but there will be one.

[ALLO.com]

I just had a strange incident with my Pi3 Kali Piano combo running Moode 3.6. After having been listening happily for about ½ an hour instead of the next track coming on normally I got white noise followed by the track at what sounded like double speed! It was easily stopped by skipping to another tack and then back to the troublesome one. Has anyone had a similar experience or ideas what might have caused it. If it is of any relevance I still get occasional skipping if I run at max oversampling, which I don't for that reason.

hello Lunicycle,
seems like that song was not at normal sample rates that's why the KALI behaved that way.
we support 44/48khz sample rates.

thanks and let me know if you had trouble with any other tracks.
Andre

[Lunicycle]

Hi Andre,

Both tracks, the one playing normally before and the one that went funny, are CD rips 16/44.1 and Moode was not doing any upsampling.

Thanks

Richard

[ALLO.com]

Hi Andre,

Both tracks, the one playing normally before and the one that went funny, are CD rips 16/44.1 and Moode was not doing any upsampling.

Thanks

Richard

hmmm i will talk to the engineers, but its certainly the first time i heard about this.

regards
Andre

[Maikel]

Hi Andre,
Could you please confirm (or revoke, but rather not ;) ) that the Boss DAC is able to run on 3.2V (TTL)
Thank you
Maikel

[ALLO.com]

Hi Maikel,
sorry but i am not sure i understand the 3.2V TTL.
thanks for clarifying.
cheers

[Maikel]

Hi Maikel,
sorry but i am not sure i understand the 3.2V TTL.
thanks for clarifying.
cheers
Sorry, according to pi specs, it needs to be supplied with 5V at the micro-USB power input.
However, because the ic's en electronics used on the pi use digital signals according to TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic; 0=0-0.4V 1=2.4-5V) it actually works with a lower voltage.
That means that in theory (and in real) you can supply power to the pi less than 5V, 3.2V to be exact. This will be fed into pin 2 and 4 of the GPIO port. This is how I feed my pi and it's working great.
Therefore I would like to know if I would use the Boss DAC on top of the pi, the Boss will work with this voltage (3.2V)
Hope it's more clear now. Thank you for your answer.
Maikel

[ALLO.com]

OK got it.
Sorry but it will not work.

[Maikel]

OK got it.
Sorry but it will not work.
That's very much a pity. Sorry but could you explain why it will not work?

[ALLO.com]

Most of the ICs require 3.3V to operate and considering that we have LDOs for filtering we need more than that.
thanks

[Maikel]

Most of the ICs require 3.3V to operate and considering that we have LDOs for filtering we need more than that.
thanks
Ok, now I understand. Makes sense for the majority of people. Thanks for your answer.

[The Black Adder]

ATTENTION AOS MEMBERS

I have recently received the new DigiOne board from Andre.

Thing is, I can't really test it in my system so this is something now open to AOS members.

If anyone is interested please PM me.

Here are the details of the board:

https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione.html

A small review of this would be great.

if you are interested, please get in touch.

😀😀😀😀😀





Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[The Black Adder]

Anyone for the DigiOne?

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[jonners]

Anyone for the DigiOne?

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

I'm really surprised no-one has taken up your offer yet. I certainly would, but having sold my Meridian Director I too have no DAC with a SPDIF input.

[mikeyb]

I'm really surprised no-one has taken up your offer yet. I certainly would, but having sold my Meridian Director I too have no DAC with a SPDIF input.
Same here 😉

[The Black Adder]

John (Emmings) has got first ball with this.

Hope to hear more about this. Should be interesting.

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[ALLO.com]

Thanks for finding it a home!
Looking forward to the feedback.

[ALLO.com]

Hello Emmings,
Glad to see that you will be testing the Digione, can you please share with us your set up ?
Please use this special version of Volumio
http://updates.volumio.org/pi/volumionext/2.203/volumionext-2.203-2017-06-10-pi.img.zip

Let me know if you have other questions.

Andre

PS:
So we sent the ISOLATOR board to Black Adder for review but we also have the USBridge transporter unit. Any USB DACs out there ??

[mikeyb]

Hi,

I'd be interested in the USBridge Transporter, my TQ Claymore amp has a built in USB DAC and I'm looking for an easy way to use Spotify into that input via Volumio/Spotify Connect and the USBridge looks ideal.

Is it one complete unit or would I need a Sparky or Pi to add the bridge to?

[Emmings]

Hi

I've recently moved over to Roon as my music player and have been using this as the source for the VANA player via DietPi configured as a Roon endpoint as my second system.

However I have been using Ropieee (http://www.ropieee.org/) as my current Roon endpoint (Raspberry Pi 2 with HifiBerry DIGI+ Pro) in my main system into which I plan to place the DigiOne.

Ropieee lists the DigiOne as an available board so hoping it is supported and ready to go.

I've just received a Raspberry Pi 3 (bought from Bourneendboy aka Bill) which I've set up with Ropieee ready to take the DigiOne when it arrives.

This will be fed into an M2Tech Young DAC via either BNC or RCA.

Cheers
Dave

[The Black Adder]

Hi Dave.

The DigiOne will be with you tomorrow. Sorry about the delay, I've had so much on, sickly kids, builders. You name it...

Can't wait to read what you think :)

[Emmings]

Josie

No problems - least of your worries by the sounds of things.

[ALLO.com]

Hi,

I'd be interested in the USBridge Transporter, my TQ Claymore amp has a built in USB DAC and I'm looking for an easy way to use Spotify into that input via Volumio/Spotify Connect and the USBridge looks ideal.

Is it one complete unit or would I need a Sparky or Pi to add the bridge to?


Hi Mike,

the USBridge is sold as a complete product that includes the Sparky / USB board / eMMC 16GB / acrylic case / power supply. you can also add the Wifi module.
maybe you can PM me or email me for further discussions.
regards
Andre

[ALLO.com]

Hi

I've recently moved over to Roon as my music player and have been using this as the source for the VANA player via DietPi configured as a Roon endpoint as my second system.

However I have been using Ropieee (http://www.ropieee.org/) as my current Roon endpoint (Raspberry Pi 2 with HifiBerry DIGI+ Pro) in my main system into which I plan to place the DigiOne.

Ropieee lists the DigiOne as an available board so hoping it is supported and ready to go.

I've just received a Raspberry Pi 3 (bought from Bourneendboy aka Bill) which I've set up with Ropieee ready to take the DigiOne when it arrives.

This will be fed into an M2Tech Young DAC via either BNC or RCA.

Cheers
Dave



Hi Dave,

yes Digione is on the supported hardware list of Ropieee.
Looking forward to your feedback!
Andre

[The Black Adder]

Today I've received the Isolator so watch this space for a review.

I need some help with this though, it's a bit confusing in regards to what setting to use and can anyone recommend a decent PSU for it?

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/aJ0DQzHMrj5L1Ch9mfTR3640AEDJEfMbI4gMwGtsTnp?_encod ing=UTF8&mgh=1&ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

[ALLO.com]

Hi,

what we recommend is batteries and a charger
4 x lifepo 18650 batteries that will feed the 6.4V required
but you can also use a power supply
+6V to +15V ~ 3A
you might have one around.
thanks
Andre

[The Black Adder]

Thanks Andre.

Unfortunately I don't have anything here.

Could anyone recommend one?

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[The Black Adder]

Josie

No problems - least of your worries by the sounds of things.

Thanks :) - you should be gettting it today BTW. :)

[Emmings]

And it's here - woo hoo

[The Black Adder]

Lol... Cool. 😀

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[jonners]

Today I've received the Isolator so watch this space for a review.


I'll be interested in your observations. I'm using the Iancanada RPi Isolator from a group buy on diyAudio.

[The Black Adder]

Ah.. Interesting. I just need a Psu for it. All the ones I have are either below or above 3a 😠

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[jonners]

Ah.. Interesting. I just need a Psu for it. All the ones I have are either below or above 3a ��

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

More than 3A would be fine as long as it's 6-15V.

[The Black Adder]

More than 3A would be fine as long as it's 6-15V.
Ah.. Righto. Thanks 😀

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[The Black Adder]

Hi Dave.

How is the DigiOne going?

Could you give us a bit of an update?

Cheers
Jo 😁

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[Emmings]

It was all going well until my Young DAC decided to throw a wobbler about 2 hours ago - nothing plays through the DAC anymore - BNC/RCA/USB - nothing/nada/stuff all.

The original DigiOne unfortunately was DOA but Andre organized a replacement which arrived early last week just ready for me to test after a short holiday.

When the Young was working the DigiOne did seem to provide a wider soundstage and more 'dynamics' to the sound when compared to the HifiBerry Digi+ PRO. But I wanted to do some more listening/comparisons before I made any more detailed findings.

But now - well I dunno. I need to check if the Young will come back to life - which I reckon it wont :(

So I'm stuffed for reviewing the DigiOne - if anyone else wants to take over then I'll happily send it on for someone else but for the time being I can't do anything. Don't have a spare DAC :(

[killie99]

I've been experiencing intermittent skipping during playback on the Kali piano 2.1 combo on rpi3. LAN cable connection.

Skips happens when using both dietpi roon bridge and jriver to dlna renderer.

Does anyone else experience it? It's beginning to get quite annoying when enjoying the flow of music.

Regards
Fai


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have just started using a Kali/Piano 2.1 and Rpi2 and I am having this same problem with skipping - it's very intermittent and it's only a fraction of a second but very annoying. Connected by LAN cable and I'm using piCorePlayer 3.11 audio version. ANyone know what the solution is?

[Yatsushiro]

...piCorePlayer 3.11 audio version...


First thing to do is update your PCP to 3.2, either 'normal', or 'Audio'. Seeing as you use a wired network connection, go for the 'Audio' version.

[Cycleallday]

I have just started using a Kali/Piano 2.1 and Rpi2 and I am having this same problem with skipping - it's very intermittent and it's only a fraction of a second but very annoying. Connected by LAN cable and I'm using piCorePlayer 3.11 audio version. ANyone know what the solution is?

I have had the same skipping problem ever since I got the Kalii/Piano 2.1 and despite trying all different settings in Moode I have never managed to clear it.

Many hours of listening have shown the skipping is not consistent and not related to any track, file format or time playing - it all seems totally random.

I have ruled out the music library and Moode as it causes no problems when I use an Audiophonics v3 card or HiFiBerry card.

Its a shame as the combination sounds quite nice.

[Emmings]

Well surprisingly the Young is now working again this morning. :)

But I have some reservations as to whether it will keep playing or stay stable since I have no idea why it played up yesterday - so for the time being the review of the DigiOne is on hold.

[killie99]

I have had the same skipping problem ever since I got the Kalii/Piano 2.1 and despite trying all different settings in Moode I have never managed to clear it.

Many hours of listening have shown the skipping is not consistent and not related to any track, file format or time playing - it all seems totally random.

I have ruled out the music library and Moode as it causes no problems when I use an Audiophonics v3 card or HiFiBerry card.

Its a shame as the combination sounds quite nice.

For many months I've been using the usb output from the pi2 or analogue out from pi2/iquadio dac and both of these methods have never had this problem. The problem has only occurred since I started using the Kali/Piano combination so I'm 100% certain the problem lies with either the Kali or the Piano. For sake of elimination I will try piCorePlayer 3.2.

[The Black Adder]

Regarding the skipping problem, are you up-sampling?

[killie99]

nope, no up-sampling.

[Cycleallday]

Regarding the skipping problem, are you up-sampling?

No - in fact all is pretty much as loaded except selecting the DAC board.

In a different test I did find some upsampling caused a different type of skip - very obvious rather than a second or two.

The Kalli/Piano can also occasionally just go into a repeat of the same second of music and even shutting down Moode does not stop it - only pulling the power on the Kalli does ; thats also why I consider the problem device related.

[The Black Adder]

Hmm... it does sound device related to me. I've not had anything like that. Might be best to let Andre know.

[Cycleallday]

Hmm... it does sound device related to me. I've not had anything like that. Might be best to let Andre know.

To be honest Ive rather given up on Allo kit and now use Audiophonics kit which I find better and their help/support (company and forum) is excellent.

Allo obviously has Andre to help them but have you ever tried the actual Allo site help and forum - you should it was quite an (-ve) experience for me.

[Cycleallday]

..

[jonners]

I have had the same skipping problem ever since I got the Kalii/Piano 2.1 and despite trying all different settings in Moode I have never managed to clear it.

Many hours of listening have shown the skipping is not consistent and not related to any track, file format or time playing - it all seems totally random.

I have ruled out the music library and Moode as it causes no problems when I use an Audiophonics v3 card or HiFiBerry card.

Its a shame as the combination sounds quite nice.

I've been using Kali/Piano 2.1 with the current versions of Moode and Volumio with no skipping at all. Earlier versions of Moode did produce occasional very short skips, much less than a second duration.
I think Allo's support for their products is pretty good btw.

[Starterman]

I have just started using a Kali/Piano 2.1 and Rpi2 and I am having this same problem with skipping - it's very intermittent and it's only a fraction of a second but very annoying. Connected by LAN cable and I'm using piCorePlayer 3.11 audio version. ANyone know what the solution is?

Sorry to hear this. The Kali + Piano worked faultlessly in my system using a local HDD connected by USB to a Pi2B. I did not try connecting it to my network, except for internet radio where again it worked without any glitches in wireless mode.

[killie99]

Dave, it's not a problem, I suspect it'll be caused by some odd ball interaction between the rpi and the piano. I'm going to get a rasp3 and see how
It goes with it.

[Starterman]

Dave, it's not a problem, I suspect it'll be caused by some odd ball interaction between the rpi and the piano. I'm going to get a rasp3 and see how
It goes with it.

What do you think to the sound?
I think you said you have an IQ Audio DAC+ as well. Am I the only one who prefers the sound of the IQ? :scratch:

[killie99]

In all honesty there isn't much between USB from the pi to MDAC, IQaudio and the Piano - not sure I could tell the difference between iqaudio and Piano. Rpi USB to MDAC sounds different, up for debate what is better though!

[Cycleallday]

Dave, it's not a problem, I suspect it'll be caused by some odd ball interaction between the rpi and the piano. I'm going to get a rasp3 and see how
It goes with it.

It is worth remembering the Allo devices were designed to interface with their own single board computer which copied some of the Pi IO connections and did not necessarily conform to Pi standards and approvals unlike many EU designed and built DACs. They also did not run the PI op systems so it is quite possible there are anomalies when trying to mate with another device.

[ALLO.com]

It is worth remembering the Allo devices were designed to interface with their own single board computer which copied some of the Pi IO connections and did not necessarily conform to Pi standards and approvals unlike many EU designed and built DACs. They also did not run the PI op systems so it is quite possible there are anomalies when trying to mate with another device.

respectfully , we will like to point out that unlike "other EU designed and build DACs" we build not only DACs but also recloakers isolators, transporters , digiones ,amps, relay attenuators and more importantly our own SBCs. In regards to the approvals , please note that we have CE/FCC like all our competitors. It is wrong to suggest "and did not necessarily conform to Pi standards and approvals unlike many EU designed and built DACs"
In regards to RPI OS...I can say that OS has nothing to do with hardware itself. The standards that you refer to do not belong to RPI, they are open standards (like i2s, i2c etc) and we fully conform to them.
At last , if you have a problem with your hardware please send us an email and we will assist you like we assist all of our customers.
We understand the preference that some people might have for units designed and build in EU. Our hardware is proudly build in India with some of the managers and designers proudly from EU. In the end we think that customers are free to buy whatever they want , from whomever they want and hopefully the decision is not based only on the country of manufacturing...but on innovation , good pricing and most important good sound .
My 2 cents.

[LC1979]

Well said, hear hear, +1 etc.

[Starterman]

With respect Audiohdwr, your website states:
"The PurePath software from TI is available for download (registration required) and can be used to create specific filters and other audio functions."

"Registration required" reminds me of the old Haynes Workshop Manuals, where they said "Remove the flywheel nut whilst holding the flywheel still". Easier said that done!!

As somebody who is in the electronics industry I was not able to get approval from TI to download PurePath. They control who can have this software very carefully (confirmed by an ex TI employee who could have got me an old copy). I was never able to create my own specific filters and other audio functions, and since this was on of the main reasons I bought the KALI + Piano, I am disappointed!

[Cycleallday]

respectfully , we will like to point out that unlike "other EU designed and build DACs" we build not only DACs but also recloakers isolators, transporters , digiones ,amps, relay attenuators and more importantly our own SBCs. In regards to the approvals , please note that we have CE/FCC like all our competitors. It is wrong to suggest "and did not necessarily conform to Pi standards and approvals unlike many EU designed and built DACs"
In regards to RPI OS...I can say that OS has nothing to do with hardware itself. The standards that you refer to do not belong to RPI, they are open standards (like i2s, i2c etc) and we fully conform to them.
At last , if you have a problem with your hardware please send us an email and we will assist you like we assist all of our customers.
We understand the preference that some people might have for units designed and build in EU. Our hardware is proudly build in India with some of the managers and designers proudly from EU. In the end we think that customers are free to buy whatever they want , from whomever they want and hopefully the decision is not based only on the country of manufacturing...but on innovation , good pricing and most important good sound .
My 2 cents.

I am sorry if my reply was misunderstood or misread.

To clarify I did not say the Allo Pi related products did not conform to EU build and quality standards;

I stated ..some.. did not necessarily conform to PI standards.

This particular post discussion relates to the Kalli (Reclocker) /Piano 2.1 combination and the sound delivery issues which some of us experience when using it with the Pi.

Your website clearly states the Kalli "does not conform" to Pi standards as it is not HAT compliant.

https://www.allo.com/sparky/kali-reclocker.html

This standard attempts to ensure third party products will work well with the PI.

Quote from the Pi website relating to compliance:

"So yes it is more than the 40 pin connector it includes the size and location of the mounting holes, how the board and its capabilities are identified and software is configured..."

As the Kalli does not comply then the Kalli/Piano package does not comply and therefore I was stating the issue may be with the Pi/Allo interface.

As for your statement that the OS does not have anything to do with hardware then I respectfully suggest you discuss the subject with your designers to fully understand the reason why standards are put in place which are both hardware and software related. One is no good with out the other and hardware and software must interface correctly in order for orderly communication to happen.

Mel

[Cycleallday]

Well said, hear hear, +1 etc.

I suggest you read posts carefully Luke - I am not attacking Allo in the way Andre has taken it and responded.

I was attempting to add to the discussion the reason why I thought there may be problems.

My post was either misread or misunderstood so I have now clarified with links to sites or quotes which backup my statements.

Mel

[Cycleallday]

With respect Audiohdwr, your website states:
"The PurePath software from TI is available for download (registration required) and can be used to create specific filters and other audio functions."

"Registration required" reminds me of the old Haynes Workshop Manuals, where they said "Remove the flywheel nut whilst holding the flywheel still". Easier said that done!!

As somebody who is in the electronics industry I was not able to get approval from TI to download PurePath. They control who can have this software very carefully (confirmed by an ex TI employee who could have got me an old copy). I was never able to create my own specific filters and other audio functions, and since this was on of the main reasons I bought the KALI + Piano, I am disappointed!

I agree Dave, the Piano 2.1 was originally launched with promise of an app or similar to reconfigure the digital filters or amend the bass output channel to something else. This was all very vaguely worded and so was read in different ways by different people.

It never seemed to come to anything and seemed to be ignored in any question to Allo. If I remember correctly various posts can be found early on in this thread and in other Forums. This was one instance where my communication with Allo support was far from good.

However, let me state clearly I like the sound Allo products deliver and its just the issues I experience and the lack of support from Allo itself which is my issue.
My reason for not contuing with their products is only the support issues from the Allo site.

Anybody wanting an example try this recent one:

http://sparkyforum.allo.com/index.php?topic=1922.0

Surely a company who has designed a board using a third party dac chip to enable it to set its own filter settings could answer the question posted and not simply say go to somebody else?

Read others and see how many actually get a helpful solution.

Mel

[ALLO.com]

With respect Audiohdwr, your website states:
"The PurePath software from TI is available for download (registration required) and can be used to create specific filters and other audio functions."

"Registration required" reminds me of the old Haynes Workshop Manuals, where they said "Remove the flywheel nut whilst holding the flywheel still". Easier said that done!!

As somebody who is in the electronics industry I was not able to get approval from TI to download PurePath. They control who can have this software very carefully (confirmed by an ex TI employee who could have got me an old copy). I was never able to create my own specific filters and other audio functions, and since this was on of the main reasons I bought the KALI + Piano, I am disappointed!

Hi ,
We know of quite a few customers that have access to TI DSP file. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/310134-raspberry-pi-piano2-1-dac-dsp-volumio2.html
We are checking the exact steps to do so, but from what I remember you have to go to support forums and request access for it..and you will get it.

[ALLO.com]

I agree Dave, the Piano 2.1 was originally launched with promise of an app or similar to reconfigure the digital filters or amend the bass output channel to something else. This was all very vaguely worded and so was read in different ways by different people.

It never seemed to come to anything and seemed to be ignored in any question to Allo. If I remember correctly various posts can be found early on in this thread and in other Forums. This was one instance where my communication with Allo support was far from good.

However, let me state clearly I like the sound Allo products deliver and its just the issues I experience and the lack of support from Allo itself which is my issue.
My reason for not contuing with their products is only the support issues from the Allo site.

Anybody wanting an example try this recent one:

http://sparkyforum.allo.com/index.php?topic=1922.0

Surely a company who has designed a board using a third party dac chip to enable it to set its own filter settings could answer the question posted and not simply say go to somebody else?

Read others and see how many actually get a helpful solution.

Mel

Hi,

Kali is not hat compliant ..that is correct. HAT compliance needs a specific size and , cutouts and some memory (for automated recognition still not fully implemented)
We have the memory but not the size and the cutout (PCB size)
So while Kali is not hat compliant , it certainly has nothing to do with i2s or i2c protocols. We assure you Kali is fully compatible with i2s , i2c and gpios .The fact that board is bigger...has nothing to do with technical compatibility

Now regarding help on software design of audio biquads, please understand that while we try our best to answer, we are not designers of audio DSPs. Surely TI forums or DIY forums are an appropriate way to get help for specific designs that suit your particular needs and equipment .
Are we being unreasonable ?

[Cycleallday]

Hi,

Kali is not hat compliant ..that is correct. HAT compliance needs a specific size and , cutouts and some memory (for automated recognition still not fully implemented)
We have the memory but not the size and the cutout (PCB size)
So while Kali is not hat compliant , it certainly has nothing to do with i2s or i2c protocols. We assure you Kali is fully compatible with i2s , i2c and gpios .The fact that board is bigger...has nothing to do with technical compatibility

Now regarding help on software design of audio biquads, please understand that while we try our best to answer, we are not designers of audio DSPs. Surely TI forums or DIY forums are an appropriate way to get help for specific designs that suit your particular needs and equipment .
Are we being unreasonable ?

Thank you for agreeing the Kalli does not meet the published Pi standards for interface boards.

I note you avoid the comment on operating system and hardware interface importance.

About technical support - yes I consider it to be unreasonable that you cannot answer a technical question about a product you sell.

In this instance you selected a specific DAC from TI which allowed you to reconfigure the filters (rather than the preset version) and so you have the technical ability to set them yourselves.
Now why can you not help a customer to also reset them especially when one of your sales points was this ability.

Would you buy a car from a garage who sent you back to the engine manufacturer when you asked how to change the oil?

On the point of support I only see you as being the person who can communicate well on this and other forums.

However, looking back at your posts to members who have asked simple technical questions, and which you have then referred to your technical engineers, I see very few if any meaningful response being returned (refer to a range of posts in this thread from 153 to 167 as examples).

Finally, I started posting in this thread as being an enthusiastic user who answered questions or supported posts. From this recent debate with yourself (Andre) and the resulting replies which I then needed to support, I am probably now seen as an Allo beater which I am not.

My only issue with Allo is meaningfull post sales support. Your own website gives evidence to others on whether this can be viewed as good or bad - as can the responses from yourself in this thread for help, support.

I will make no further posts in this thread or any other in relation to Allo products

Mel

[ALLO.com]

Thank you for agreeing the Kalli does not meet the published Pi standards for interface boards.

I note you avoid the comment on operating system and hardware interface importance.

About technical support - yes I consider it to be unreasonable that you cannot answer a technical question about a product you sell.

In this instance you selected a specific DAC from TI which allowed you to reconfigure the filters (rather than the preset version) and so you have the technical ability to set them yourselves.
Now why can you not help a customer to also reset them especially when one of your sales points was this ability.

Would you buy a car from a garage who sent you back to the engine manufacturer when you asked how to change the oil?

On the point of support I only see you as being the person who can communicate well on this and other forums.

However, looking back at your posts to members who have asked simple technical questions, and which you have then referred to your technical engineers, I see very few if any meaningful response being returned (refer to a range of posts in this thread from 153 to 167 as examples).

Finally, I started posting in this thread as being an enthusiastic user who answered questions or supported posts. From this recent debate with yourself (Andre) and the resulting replies which I then needed to support, I am probably now seen as an Allo beater which I am not.

My only issue with Allo is meaningfull post sales support. Your own website gives evidence to others on whether this can be viewed as good or bad - as can the responses from yourself in this thread for help, support.

I will make no further posts in this thread or any other in relation to Allo products

Mel


""I note you avoid the comment on operating system and hardware interface importance.""

Our hardware is working with i2s and i2c protocols. Its fully compatible with those protocols . Not sure why we are talking about OS.
In any case , we apologies if you feel there is a problem with our software support on DSP files. We never intended to say that we will give support on the DSP custom designs.
In any case, this forums is about audio , so lets go back to the music...

[Starterman]

Hi ,
We know of quite a few customers that have access to TI DSP file. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/pc-based/310134-raspberry-pi-piano2-1-dac-dsp-volumio2.html
We are checking the exact steps to do so, but from what I remember you have to go to support forums and request access for it..and you will get it.

It's a bit late for me. i have sold my Piano 2.1 etc.
Anyway, thanks for replying and hopefully it will help those with more staying power then me :-)

[LC1979]

I suggest you read posts carefully Luke - I am not attacking Allo in the way Andre has taken it and responded.

I was attempting to add to the discussion the reason why I thought there may be problems.

My post was either misread or misunderstood so I have now clarified with links to sites or quotes which backup my statements.

Mel

Fair enough Mel. Thanks for clarifying: you've made yourself much clearer in what you meant. The original post seemed a bit vague in exactly what you were criticising, more of a generalised dig at Allo not doing things by the book, so to speak, as compared to "many EU designed and made DACs", as if one minor problem experienced by a few users was symptomatic of wider issues in the quality of their products or approach. I see now that this isn't what you meant to imply :)

[The Black Adder]

Hi guys.

Just to let you know. I'm currently running the Allo Isolator with the Boss Dac.

It's early days but so far it's really very very good indeed. So, watch this space for a full review very soon :)

Josie :)

[LC1979]

So, watch this space for a full review very soon :)

Tease!

[The Black Adder]

Tease!I'm good at that.

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[Bonky]

The Also Boss (+ case) came yesterday and I have left it on all night to 'burn-in'. Initial impressions are very good with a more extended bass but still a little muddled I think when compared to my RPi3+ Audiophonics sabre. Mind you, the Boss is on a Rpi 2 with original PS whilst the Audiophonoics is served by a Linear PS...and different interconnects. The Boss is on Volumio and the Sabre on MoOde...so lots of little differences in set-up that may, or may not, influence the sq. I'll leave it for longer to burn-in. I have a 12v Anker battery somewhere so may try that.

Yours,
Richard.

[Bonky]

I have another 12v battery with spade terminals. Can anyone recommend a dedicated lead that will allow connection to this and the Rpi?
Thanks.
Richard

[Kit1cat]

I have another 12v battery with spade terminals. Can anyone recommend a dedicated lead that will allow connection to this and the Rpi?
Thanks.
Richard

Richard, I hope you remembered that the Rpi works off 5V?

[Bonky]

Yikes! confuseddotcom here; so sorry; yes of course!

(although I have a 6.3V supply at present into my Rpi3 + Sabre DAC - I must have read somewhere that upping the voltage into a unit comprising two modules each of which would cause a voltage drop - is a Good Thing) (?)

Thanks,

Richard.

[Yatsushiro]

I'd seriously consider disconnecting the 6.3v supply ASAP. RPi supply is recommended at 4.75 to 5.25v, with a suggested top limit of ~5.8v. You may be getting away with it, but it could possibly catch up with you...

[Bonky]

Hi, thanks. I believe the 6.3V powers the sabre DAC first (capable of a 9V + feed I believe) and the Rpi is fed a lower voltage from the DAC...but I could be wrong...(?)

Thanks again,

Richard

[Emmings]

System
Roon Server
Raspberry Pi 2 running Ropieee as Roon Endpoint with HifiBerry Digi+ Pro
Raspberry Pi 3 running Ropieee as Roon Endpoint with Allo DigiOne
M2Tech Young DAC
Temple Audio Bantam One
Wilmslow Audio Gemini Speakers

Well it's been a while since I volunteered to review the Allo DigiOne (June - sorry for the delay but read on) but at last I can report my thoughts.

The Allo DigOne is an S/PDIF transport rather than a DAC - it provides the connection between your stored music files and your DAC.
Bit more background info here - https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione.html

Unfortunately the first Allo DigiOne that BlackAdder (Josie) forwarded to me was DOA (which was a shame) but Andre from Allo quickly organised a replacement unit so the testing/listening could start.

And all was going well - the Allo DigiOne when compared to the HifiBerry Dig+ Pro I was running at the time provided more detail and presence.

I have been trying the upsampling capability of Roon and was running at 24/192 quite happily and enjoying the experience.
However when running the Allo DigiOne whilst upsampling I experienced problems after pausing playback. Sometimes the Allo DigiOne appeared to lose 'control' of the connection between Roon/itself and the Young DAC.
And when this happened it was quite difficult to get the system to play properly again - to the extent of re-starting Roon, the Pi endpoints and the DAC.

So there then followed a number of emails between myself and Andre of Allo - who has been extremely helpful and responsive in all my dealings with him.
To the extent that he spent some time with his development team, sourced an older DAC and managed to reproduce the problem. And then produced a solution which resulted in him sending me another updated Allo DigiOne to test.

And I'm glad that Andre and his team went to this trouble because the Allo DigiOne has proved a more than capable device - which is staying in my system. :)

I had been running a HifiBerry Digi+ Pro as a Roon endpoint and was very happy with what I was hearing/experiencing with that unit.

However after running the Allo DigiOne for a few days and trying some A/B testing I have to say the Allo DigiOne edges the HifiBerry Digi+ Pro in terms of musical enjoyment and sonic reproduction.

For example I used Fools Gold by the Stone Roses to compare the two units. In this track there is a snare drum that is quite prominent in the mix - on the HifiBerry Digi+ Pro this sounded fine.
But when playing through the Allo DigiOne the snare became more 'lifelike' - it went from 'oh that's good' to 'blimey - that REALLY sounds good'.
There's just more of a 'crack' to the snare - almost as if you can hear the rattle of the wires on the snare rather than just the striking of the snare skin.

On other tracks cymbals have more life to them, more ring and sparkle/decay, piano sounds more lifelike - that's the best way I can describe the difference between the two units - the Allo DigiOne sounds more lifelike/open.
There's more clarity, detail and seperation to the music when compared to the HifiBerry Digi+ Pro.

So for me anyway the Allo DigiOne is an excellent piece of kit as an S/PDIF transport and I have to say a big thank you to Andre of Allo for all his help and advice.

[The Black Adder]

Hiya guys.

First of all, sorry for the delay in reviewing this. Life is hectic at the moment.

A while ago I was given the Allo Isolator to try.

The isolator sandwiches between the RPI 3 and the Allo Boss DAC. See pic below.

Installation is quick and dead easy. It does however need a separate power supply. This I bought from CPC. (thanks Jez).

It can also be powered by rechargeable batteries to which I've not tried yet. This option is however recommended by Allo. So this is something I would like to try later on.

Once fitted the isolator needs to be powered up first before the Pi.

Once powered up there is no difference to the boot-up time using Moode.

I've been using the BOSS DAC for some time now and I personally prefer it to the Piano 2.1 and certainly find it a good leap forward over the IQ DAC+.

The BOSS DAC is lovely sounding. It's realism and speed is simply superb. So what can be improved on? Well I would have said nothing much but once the isolator was in place I found a very nice step up in clarity and definition.

The timing is also more engaging. Everything snapping in to place and with an impressive bass improvement.

When I first switched on the bass was the most noticeable aspect which I really noticed but after a week, then after two weeks the sound just got more and more lively, more stable and more balanced.

Right now it's opened up so much. It's a much different thing to how it sounded initially so if you purchase one I'd suggest a few weeks burn-in for true lovelyness. [emoji3] [emoji173]️[emoji3]

For now I've had it running with 16bit/*.khz as I always believe in native sampling rates.

Saying that it plays all native bit/sample rates including DSF (SACD) files perfectly which is cool.

So my conclusion with this combo is you have to hear it... It's a magical sound. It's not forced in any way, it's balanced [emoji3], powerful [emoji48] yet delicate [emoji22] and therefore brings out emotion in music.

If you are lacking any of these aspects then I recommend it wholeheartedly.

With all of my reviews I make sure I play my benchmark albums throughout and I also never try to read anyone else's reviews beforehand as I find it can sometimes cloud my judgement. Any equipment that is changed between reviews will be noted for you.

I hope this is helpful to you and as always I'm open to questions. [emoji3]

Btw.. I'm running the latest moode software with the advanced kernel.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170830/ebe7c6336fe3544198b553ec30fd8399.jpg

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[Daru]

Josie, thanks for the Isolator update. I was looking to get one but I read some folks having trouble with the Isolator when resampling is in use. You reported no issues with higher native sampling rates. Can you confirm if your isolator works with resampling turned on in Moode?

[ALLO.com]

Josie, thanks for the Isolator update. I was looking to get one but I read some folks having trouble with the Isolator when resampling is in use. You reported no issues with higher native sampling rates. Can you confirm if your isolator works with resampling turned on in Moode?

hi Daru,
Any isolators introduce a delay in the system in order of ns. In the case of slave DACs , all i2s signals are delayed so overall there is no impact . However in the case of master DACs the i2s signal has to travel one way (to RPI) and second time from RPI to DACs (second delay). Master DACs will then play up to 192Khz. Even then its possible to make a small change in the driver (that takes in account the extra delay) so it can play up to 384Khz.

regards
Andre

[Gazjam]

Sorcery! :eek:


Hiya guys.

First of all, sorry for the delay in reviewing this. Life is hectic at the moment.

A while ago I was given the Allo Isolator to try.

The isolator sandwiches between the RPI 3 and the Allo Boss DAC. See pic below.

Installation is quick and dead easy. It does however need a separate power supply. This I bought from CPC. (thanks Jez).

It can also be powered by rechargeable batteries to which I've not tried yet. This option is however recommended by Allo. So this is something I would like to try later on.

Once fitted the isolator needs to be powered up first before the Pi.

Once powered up there is no difference to the boot-up time using Moode.

I've been using the BOSS DAC for some time now and I personally prefer it to the Piano 2.1 and certainly find it a good leap forward over the IQ DAC+.

The BOSS DAC is lovely sounding. It's realism and speed is simply superb. So what can be improved on? Well I would have said nothing much but once the isolator was in place I found a very nice step up in clarity and definition.

The timing is also more engaging. Everything snapping in to place and with an impressive bass improvement.

When I first switched on the bass was the most noticeable aspect which I really noticed but after a week, then after two weeks the sound just got more and more lively, more stable and more balanced.

Right now it's opened up so much. It's a much different thing to how it sounded initially so if you purchase one I'd suggest a few weeks burn-in for true lovelyness. [emoji3] [emoji173]️[emoji3]

For now I've had it running with 16bit/*.khz as I always believe in native sampling rates.

Saying that it plays all native bit/sample rates including DSF (SACD) files perfectly which is cool.

So my conclusion with this combo is you have to hear it... It's a magical sound. It's not forced in any way, it's balanced [emoji3], powerful [emoji48] yet delicate [emoji22] and therefore brings out emotion in music.

If you are lacking any of these aspects then I recommend it wholeheartedly.

With all of my reviews I make sure I play my benchmark albums throughout and I also never try to read anyone else's reviews beforehand as I find it can sometimes cloud my judgement. Any equipment that is changed between reviews will be noted for you.

I hope this is helpful to you and as always I'm open to questions. [emoji3]

Btw.. I'm running the latest moode software with the advanced kernel.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170830/ebe7c6336fe3544198b553ec30fd8399.jpg

Sent from my 9001X using Tapatalk

[AlfaGTV]

Hi, thanks. I believe the 6.3V powers the sabre DAC first (capable of a 9V + feed I believe) and the Rpi is fed a lower voltage from the DAC...but I could be wrong...(?)

Thanks again,

Richard

Richard, the Audiophonics Sabre REQUIRES 6-9V for operation as it regulates this down to both 5V for the Pi and 3.3 for the Sabre DAC. You can even run it on up to 12V but it will become warm and it wont be able to scrub enough voltage off of those 12v for the Pi and USB power. So you could overload any USB units attached to the Pi.
Oh, and you should NOT supply any 5V via the Micro USB connector on the Pi!

[Bonky]

Richard, the Audiophonics Sabre REQUIRES 6-9V for operation as it regulates this down to both 5V for the Pi and 3.3 for the Sabre DAC. You can even run it on up to 12V but it will become warm and it wont be able to scrub enough voltage off of those 12v for the Pi and USB power. So you could overload any USB units attached to the Pi.
Oh, and you should NOT supply any 5V via the Micro USB connector on the Pi!

Thanks; I'm along way from home at present, but as far as I can recall there is only one ps lead and that's to the Sabre. When I get back I need to compare that configuration with my RPi and ALLO DAC.

Thanks again.