Allo digione signature

[firearm12]

Digione signature arrived today and first impressions are very impressive. Has two power inputs one dirty power and one clean power. Dirty power powers the rpi and clean power powers the isolated digione. I powered the clean power input using a 6v battery. Output is much cleaner than battery powered old digione, less haziness in sound and instruments sound more precise than before. Bass has increased and is very tight now, percussion instruments sound much better and overall instrument separation is much better. All in all looks like allo did it again. Highly recommended. A high quality product but still room for improvement is there, but it's getting near to perfection now..well done allo.

Also able to play hi-res 24/96 and 24/192khz files now which I was not able to do earlier.

 

[newlash09]

Thanks for sharing your experience firearm 12...

 

[firearm12]

Thanks for sharing your experience firearm 12...

I think we will see many old digiones on sale, unbelievable what allo has come up with. Difference is not subtle when compared with old digione. Its improved on all fronts. Only one complain, music has become little bright that's because of clarity I believe, will get used to it I think. Tight slap on extremely pricey equipment that companies sell these days.

 

[newlash09]

Very true firearm12...

Unfortunately I have absolutely zero computer skills... completely zilch, nada

So folks like me are forced to look for alternatives that don't need tinkering with a computer and network to setup.

How would you rate the ease of setup and operation. Would you recommend it for computer dumbo's like myself

 

[firearm12]

Very true firearm12...

Unfortunately I have absolutely zero computer skills... completely zilch, nada

So folks like me are forced to look for alternatives that don't need tinkering with a computer and network to setup.

How would you rate the ease of setup and operation. Would you recommend it for computer dumbo's like myself

I think it should be fine for anyone who knows how to operate a computer, not too geeky stuff. Lots of documentation available.
https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Manual/Quick_Start_Guide is a good place to start and setup initially and connect to home WiFi.

Once it's setup, you can control it using volumio mobile app or a web based interface which is accessible from any browser. You can even ditch the volumio gui if you don't like it and control it using Android mpd clients e.g. m.a.l.p. you just need to know the ip address of the volumio player in your home WiFi and add it to m.a.l.p.

I have compared the 'old' digione to my Cambridge audio stream magic spdif out and also to toslink out from Chromecast audio connected to an lps, it simply was far better than any of these no comparison, and that was the old digione, so you know what level of quality are we talking about here for the new one.

 

[newlash09]

Wow great...thanks again firearm12. Very glad to hear that, the allo will easily outperform the Chromecast audio which is my present main streamer.

Will surely give it a try and see then. Thanks again

 

[heliumflight]

newlash09 A streamer is also a good option as it is very user friendly. I use CA cxn.

 

[newlash09]

Thanks helium flight. Been considering a streamer for some time now. But not too sure I will take the plunge anytime soon. Too many options and everything seems to be changing so far. Difficult to net the ball when the goal posts claim to be moved with every new iteration of a steamer

Besides , I don't have downloaded music as such. I listen to loads of Gaana and tidal. And as of now, only Chromecast audio is supporting Gaana. So that is another bummer to spend a hefty wad of cash to just listen to tidal. And iam not even sure if there are sonic gains . Will be helpful if forum members can confirm that there are sonic gains on tidal with a dedicated streamer. That might help me to just give it a go

 

[Kannan]

Thanks helium flight. Been considering a streamer for some time now. But not too sure I will take the plunge anytime soon. Too many options and everything seems to be changing so far. Difficult to net the ball when the goal posts claim to be moved with every new iteration of a steamer

Besides , I don't have downloaded music as such. I listen to loads of Gaana and tidal. And as of now, only Chromecast audio is supporting Gaana. So that is another bummer to spend a hefty wad of cash to just listen to tidal. And iam not even sure if there are sonic gains . Will be helpful if forum members can confirm that there are sonic gains on tidal with a dedicated streamer. That might help me to just give it a go

You can play anything from your PC/laptop or android phone as dlna rendering is configured be default in Volumio.
All you need to do is install a system wide audio streamer in your windows machine like 'Tuneblade'. It will automatically detect Volumio as long as it is in your network.
So now whatever you play in your windows machine will be streamed to Volumio.
The sound quality will depend on the DAC you are using.

You can also take the bubblepnp route to bypass windows mixer

 

[firearm12]

Thanks helium flight. Been considering a streamer for some time now. But not too sure I will take the plunge anytime soon. Too many options and everything seems to be changing so far. Difficult to net the ball when the goal posts claim to be moved with every new iteration of a steamer

Besides , I don't have downloaded music as such. I listen to loads of Gaana and tidal. And as of now, only Chromecast audio is supporting Gaana. So that is another bummer to spend a hefty wad of cash to just listen to tidal. And iam not even sure if there are sonic gains . Will be helpful if forum members can confirm that there are sonic gains on tidal with a dedicated streamer. That might help me to just give it a go

For Gaana, Chromecast audio should be enough, not sure for tidal though. There won't be a world of difference for Gaana if you go with a dedicated streamer. Though the difference that you will get will also depend on the dac/amp/speakers that you have.

 

[haisaikat]

For Gaana, Chromecast audio should be enough, not sure for tidal though. There won't be a world of difference for Gaana if you go with a dedicated streamer. Though the difference that you will get will also depend on the dac/amp/speakers that you have.

A few words of cautions, i have volumio on RPI3 with Allo Digione. The image is a beta version of MyVolumio which brings in built Tidal plugin. This plugin is capable of streaming upto 24/96 only. While most files on TIDAL are 16/44.1 , only TIDAL MQA ones go upto 24/192 so the same will be downsampled to 24/96. However the digione board (not signature) is capable of accepting files upto 24/192 and outputting the same, cases where you have them on your LAN and you are streaming. For Allo UsbBridge the additional problem is MyVolumio image for Sparky is still not ready so native TIDAL support is not there and hence alternate mechanisms need to be tried, but do not think they may support MQA. MQA is only working now in Windows app of TIDAL.

So anyone planning to venture RPI / Digione route be aware of this.

 

[haisaikat]

Digione signature arrived today and first impressions are very impressive. Has two power inputs one dirty power and one clean power. Dirty power powers the rpi and clean power powers the isolated digione. I powered the clean power input using a 6v battery. Output is much cleaner than battery powered old digione, less haziness in sound and instruments sound more precise than before. Bass has increased and is very tight now, percussion instruments sound much better and overall instrument separation is much better. All in all looks like allo did it again. Highly recommended. A high quality product but still room for improvement is there, but it's getting near to perfection now..well done allo.

wondering for AlloUSBridge if i add a separate power source for the PI board if that can improve things

 

[rikhav]

A few words of cautions, i have volumio on RPI3 with Allo Digione. The image is a beta version of MyVolumio which brings in built Tidal plugin. This plugin is capable of streaming upto 24/96 only. While most files on TIDAL are 16/44.1 , only TIDAL MQA ones go upto 24/192 so the same will be downsampled to 24/96. However the digione board (not signature) is capable of accepting files upto 24/192 and outputting the same, cases where you have them on your LAN and you are streaming. For Allo UsbBridge the additional problem is MyVolumio image for Sparky is still not ready so native TIDAL support is not there and hence alternate mechanisms need to be tried, but do not think they may support MQA. MQA is only working now in Windows app of TIDAL.

So anyone planning to venture RPI / Digione route be aware of this.

Even roon plays MQA tidal with it's latest update

 

[haisaikat]

Even roon plays MQA tidal with it's latest update

Isnt Roon a 2 box solution? behind the scene your roon server gets the tidal stream and then stream to the Allo using their proprietary streaming protocol? Similar is also possible for Volumio via the Bubble UPnp route and a few other alternate routes that folks have tried and posted on forums. Also roon is quite costly 119 USD / year while Volumio tidal plugin version comes for starting of 2.99 EUR / month. Of course i am keen to try roon may be sometime in future, hopefully they start supporting UPnP for devices that will not have options to add Roon client softwares / apps

 

[rikhav]

Isnt Roon a 2 box solution? behind the scene your roon server gets the tidal stream and then stream to the Allo using their proprietary streaming protocol? Similar is also possible for Volumio via the Bubble UPnp route and a few other alternate routes that folks have tried and posted on forums. Also roon is quite costly 119 USD / year while Volumio tidal plugin version comes for starting of 2.99 EUR / month. Of course i am keen to try roon may be sometime in future, hopefully they start supporting UPnP for devices that will not have options to add Roon client softwares / apps

Yes with a SBC it becomes a two box solution and also yes to roon being expensive
But bubble upnp, LMS can't stream mqa tidal which roon can, that is what I wanted to add

Also if you go to see tidal is also very expensive for something like 19 USD for master streaming

But apart from all that , for local file playback by any player, any protocol digione signature seems to be a step up in all departments, at least from reading what all has been changed

 

[firearm12]

wondering for AlloUSBridge if i add a separate power source for the PI board if that can improve things

Yes there is an improvement if you power the boards separately and use lps while the jumper was removed.

 

[firearm12]

But apart from all that , for local file playback by any player, any protocol digione signature seems to be a step up in all departments, at least from reading what all has been changed

Yes new one is a step up in all departments, soundwise also i also preferred old digione to usbridge, software for sparky was always a pain and more buggy than software for rpi. People say spdif has its limitations but seeing what they achieved with digione signature, it's really astonishing what spdif could achieve.

 

[haisaikat]

Yes with a SBC it becomes a two box solution and also yes to roon being expensive
But bubble upnp, LMS can't stream mqa tidal which roon can, that is what I wanted to add

Also if you go to see tidal is also very expensive for something like 19 USD for master streaming

But apart from all that , for local file playback by any player, any protocol digione signature seems to be a step up in all departments, at least from reading what all has been changed

We entered into tidal family plan , with some friends and paying 6 USD per head. Allo seems topped the prices of digione signature quite high thereby making it no longer a cost effective solution

 

[haisaikat]

Yes new one is a step up in all departments, soundwise also i also preferred old digione to usbridge, software for sparky was always a pain and more buggy than software for rpi. People say spdif has its limitations but seeing what they achieved with digione signature, it's really astonishing what spdif could achieve.

You would be surprised that the tidal ready myvolumio beta image is more buggy than sparky volumio. The usbbridge lent from a friend still require burnin though

 

[Kannan]

Does digione signature ship with the latest Raspberry pi board?