Raspberry pi and the delights of invisible media!

[SteveW]

Hi Oliver
I’m going to go down the same route with the allo kit.
I’m really interested in the linear power supplies you got
Can you provide a link ?
£50 sounds reasonable enough to have a punt.

Cheers Steve

I've been on a bit of a relentless pursuit of Pi improvement. I started off with a early version of the Allo Boss DAC (not the 1.2v) and a Pi 2, this was enough to convince me that it would be wise to investigate this source more.

I decided to go mad. I bought the Boss 1.2v, Isolator 1.2, Pi 3+ and a Linear PSU.

The results were, In all honesty, staggering.

I'm not joking when I say, it made the Chord Dave pee it's pants with fear.

This whole setup cost me approximately £200. Outrageous.

Based on Jimbo's input, I decided to try upsampling. I downloaded Jriver and set it to something like 32/196. To my ears, it's a horribly shrill sound and removed the bass texture and pure Solidity that had originally won me over.

I spent a few days going down the entire sampling range untill I found 24/96. To me, it sounds superb. Huge soundstage but retained that solidity. Cool!

So what next. Well, more input from Firebottle suggested that using the same LPSU to power both Pi and Allo Boss "Could be a negative" I talked to Jimbo and he'd heard the best way to power this combo was a SMPS for the Pi and the LPSU for the DAC. I tried this but was never convinced that it sounded as clean/transparent.

I went shopping in Chi-Fi heaven and bought a second LPSU.

It arrived at a neighbors yesterday and I've been listening to it this afternoon. OMG. Its transformative in the way of making Eva Cassidy sound like she's in a bloody cavern!

I am really pleased with the second units contribution to this and will be thoroughly enjoying the digital aspect for some time to come.

[Bigman80]

Hi Oliver
I’m going to go down the same route with the allo kit.
I’m really interested in the linear power supplies you got
Can you provide a link ?
£50 sounds reasonable enough to have a punt.

Cheers Steve

Yup, VERY reasonable

Here you go:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F142731699776

[SteveW]

Yup, VERY reasonable

Here you go:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F142731699776

Thought it might be that one, but wasn’t sure. Cheers.
I have a few pi’s in various configurations... but the reviews of allo products make you curious.
Trying to get my head around the difference between Katana and Boss... will have to do a bit more research

Thanks again



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[Bourneendboy]

What benefits does the isolater board bring?

I'm currently using a Boss 1.2 in an aluminium Allo case, don't think there is room for it.

[The Black Adder]

It really makes a difference in sound. It really does tidy the presentation up even more.

The case you have won't fit and I'm not sure if Allo make an aluminium case that fits with the isolator.

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[Pepperamip]

I always wondered if you die hard vinly boys could be won over with a bit of convincing. Looks like this one has. Welcome to the world ones and noughts Ollie

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[Bigman80]

I always wondered if you die hard vinly boys could be won over with a bit of convincing. Looks like this one has. Welcome to the world ones and noughts Ollie

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It's taken a very special (IMO) piece of kit to do it. I'd never heard anything that gave a natural presentation except for maybe a Teradac many years ago but it was hardly ever going to trouble the Vinyl, even then when my vinyl setup was an Inspire Quest with Goldring 2100. (great setup that was)

Systems that have cost more than my house (£150000) have left me cold and bored, yet this little box has blown my thoughts on digital out of the water.

Lampazator, Chord Dave and others have been auditioned but never convinced me that vinyl could be beaten or .

Allo have captured the fluidity that Vinyl is so good at and that's been the biggest factor for me. The ability to just sit and listen to track after track with no fatigue.

Once I started to "believe" Mikeyb was on to something with his setup that I'd loaned, I decided to go the whole hog and see exactly what it could do. IMO, the Allo setup benefits hugely from being able to run on a NAS with software like Volumio. USB input has nobbled the best of digitals offerings so again, another plus for Pi and Allo pairing.

A Bel canto recently went up against the Pi and got hammered. I think a pi with spdif out to the Bel canto would create an interesting test though and solely blame the USB input for its poor showing. However, I still think the pi with its options and superb sound quality will prove too much value for people to ignore.

Once you get over the setup fear, it rewards you with addictive listening.

I have a phonostage coming on trial, built by a friend of mine. Its going to be interesting to see if I can get more from my vinyl setup and open the gap back up from digital.

[mightymonoped]

It's taken a very special (IMO) piece of kit to do it. I'd never heard anything that gave a natural presentation except for maybe a Teradac many years ago but it was hardly ever going to trouble the Vinyl, even then when my vinyl setup was an Inspire Quest with Goldring 2100. (great setup that was)

Systems that have cost more than my house (£150000) have left me cold and bored, yet this little box has blown my thoughts on digital out of the water.

Lampazator, Chord Dave and others have been auditioned but never convinced me that vinyl could be beaten or .

Allo have captured the fluidity that Vinyl is so good at and that's been the biggest factor for me. The ability to just sit and listen to track after track with no fatigue.

Once I started to "believe" Mikeyb was on to something with his setup that I'd loaned, I decided to go the whole hog and see exactly what it could do. IMO, the Allo setup benefits hugely from being able to run on a NAS with software like Volumio. USB input has nobbled the best of digitals offerings so again, another plus for Pi and Allo pairing.

A Bel canto recently went up against the Pi and got hammered. I think a pi with spdif out to the Bel canto would create an interesting test though and solely blame the USB input for its poor showing. However, I still think the pi with its options and superb sound quality will prove too much value for people to ignore.

Once you get over the setup fear, it rewards you with addictive listening.

I have a phonostage coming on trial, built by a friend of mine. Its going to be interesting to see if I can get more from my vinyl setup and open the gap back up from digital.

Then you'll just have to try the Katana Ollie?

[Bigman80]

Then you'll just have to try the Katana Ollie?

I'm going to be trialling a Pecan Pi very shortly and then who knows! I may get the Katana as well so I can A/B them.

[NRG]

Ollie what settings are available in voluminous/ jriver for upsampling? In piecoreplayer you have full control over filter settings and other parameters, I found tweaking these made a large improvement with my Kali/TDA1541 combo