The ALLO Audio music steamer - Pic heavy review

[ALLO.com]

Hi Richard.

Yes, the kit is supplied with standoffs (see my pics on post #01) so no need to buy any. They are plastic ones.

we are getting metal ones in stock by Jan.

[r100]

Hi All,

I received a Kali + Piano 2.1 DAC just this morning. Initially, I used Moode 3.0 which worked quite well but AFAIKS it doesn't yet have a setting to run the two chips on the Piano DAC. So I reluctantly installed Volumio 2 on a micro SD card and powered the system up.

I'm comparing it directly (using an A/B switch) to an Audiophonics V1 es9023 DAC board with the XO clock option running on a Pi2B

Music material currently is Daniel Lanois / Acadie streamed from a NAS and from various 320kbs Spotify files.

My initial impressions where a little disappointing in that both DACs sounded pretty much the same. I rechecked everything and noticed that I had a power supply on the KALI - AND - on the Pi which is a no-no. (I hadn't read the instructions the good news is that the Pi survived the over powering or maybe it has some sort of protection... anyways, don't do that, only power the KALI with a good 5V/3A PSU which will in turn supply clean power to the Pi.). I had to restart the Pi several times before Volumio would load. I think that also caused some confusion on my part. Somehow, I thought that the Pi wasn't getting any power ...

I'm not sure that this mistake made much of a SQ difference. With the proper power configuration it was still pretty close to the Audiophonics combo. So, I'll just let some more music through it for some hours hoping it would "warm up" a little....

And indeed, several hours later, it's becoming quite evident that the sound stage on the KALI / Piano2.1 combo has something going. It seems to be much better defined with a very "spacial" feeling to it. I'm not sure it's because of the settle in period or because I'm just getting used to the new sound(stage) ? but it is quite easy to make out.

More to come ...

Greetings
Ru

[The Black Adder]

we are getting metal ones in stock by Jan.

Cool

[The Black Adder]

Hi All,

I received a Kali + Piano 2.1 DAC just this morning. Initially, I used Moode 3.0 which worked quite well but AFAIKS it doesn't yet have a setting to run the two chips on the Piano DAC. So I reluctantly installed Volumio 2 on a micro SD card and powered the system up.

I'm comparing it directly (using an A/B switch) to an Audiophonics V2 es9023 DAC board with the XO clock option running on a Pi2B

Music material currently is Daniel Lanois / Acadie streamed from a NAS and from various 320kbs Spotify files.

My initial impressions where a little disappointing in that both DACs sounded pretty much the same. I rechecked everything and noticed that I had a power supply on the KALI - AND - on the Pi which is a no-no. (I hadn't read the instructions the good news is that the Pi survived the over powering or maybe it has some sort of protection... anyways, don't do that, only power the KALI with a good 5V/3A PSU which will in turn supply clean power to the Pi.). I had to restart the Pi several times before Volumio would load. I think that also caused some confusion on my part. Somehow, I thought that the Pi wasn't getting any power ...

I'm not sure that this mistake made much of a SQ difference as it was still pretty close to the Audiophonics combo. So, I'll just let some more music through it for some hours hoping it would "warm up" a little....

And indeed, several hours later, it's becoming quite evident that the sound stage on the KALI / Piano2.1 combo has something going. It seems to be much better defined with a very "spacial" feeling to it. I'm not sure it's because of the settle in period or because I'm just getting used to the new sound(stage) ? but it is quite easy to make out.

More to come ...

Greetings
Ru

Sounds positive, Rupert.

Arrgh! - lol, glad it survive but next time 'read the manual'.... lol

The stage is the thing that is seemingly expanding in my case. No loss of anything, everything is snappy and clear and the bass is bonkers sometimes. lol - Makes me grin, even when I'm doing my ironing. lol which is always good

[ALLO.com]

No the wallwart isn't needed if you use a 19v supply as it powers everything.

I didn't order the wallwart but it came with one anyway which was handy as I ended up not using the Volt or the Capacitance device.

Hi to all.

Funny nick names that our Capacitance Multiplier board is getting
odd board ; capacitance thingy hehe


yes, the CM board filters the noise and ripple generated by the 19V power supply for the VOLT amp to negligible levels.
i just wanted to clarify that the 19V power supply feeds only the AMP... you still need a 5V PSU for the KALI.

[ALLO.com]

Sounds positive, Rupert.

Arrgh! - lol, glad it survive but next time 'read the manual'.... lol

The stage is the thing that is seemingly expanding in my case. No loss of anything, everything is snappy and clear and the bass is bonkers sometimes. lol - Makes me grin, even when I'm doing my ironing. lol which is always good

great feedback Rupert!

[mikeyb]

Rupert, make sure you check the alsamixer settings by SSH into the Pi and turn the analogue outputs up to max and make sure you have the digital output at your preferred setting too. Mine is set at 0db currently. But I have previously run it at -3db.

If these are set right then you'll find a decent jump in output quality.

[The Black Adder]

+1

[r100]

Rupert, make sure you check the alsamixer settings by SSH into the Pi and turn the analogue outputs up to max and make sure you have the digital output at your preferred setting too. Mine is set at 0db currently. But I have previously run it at -3db.

If these are set right then you'll find a decent jump in output quality.

Hi Mike,

Where do I do that ? I get these values with the amixer command. Do I have to edit a file ?
thanks

rupert


volumio@volumio:~$ amixer -c 0 contents
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Route'
; type=INTEGER,access=rw------,values=1,min=0,max=2,step=0
: values=1
numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Switch'
; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
: values=on
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=-10239,max=400,step=0
: values=-2000
| dBscale-min=-102.39dB,step=0.01dB,mute=1
numid=5,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
; type=IEC958,access=r-------,values=1
: values=[AES0=0x02 AES1=0x00 AES2=0x00 AES3=0x00]
numid=4,iface=PCM,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
; type=IEC958,access=rw------,values=1
: values=[AES0=0x00 AES1=0x00 AES2=0x00 AES3=0x00]

[mikeyb]

Ah, don't use Volumio so I'm not sure, sorry