SPDIF Transport: Allo Digione or Allo Digione Signature Bundle (seeking opinions)

[raghupb]

One more tip for rpi based transports. Boot off an externally powered high capacity hard drive drive with OS and music data on the same drive.
Yes there is one risk of OS getting corrupted means you will need to back up the music partition and then copy it back after reinstall.

But the possibility of corruption is infinitesimal as compared to SD card.

https://www.hifivision.com/threads/...ignature-usb-mass-storage-boot-support.79669/

Thanks.
Will go through the thread to understand more.
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[shyamv]

@shyamv
Wow!! Thanks for the detailed impressions/review of both Digione and Digione Signature.
Most of technical doubts are cleared up for now.
Yet to figure out the availability and pricing of each bundle with the PS flavors.

Both sets of speakers, KEFs and MAs are, I would say on the bright/forward side of the experience.
My rigs are simple, no idea whether they are revealing or not.
One thing for sure they does not tolerate bad recordings or bad quality streaming.
Eg.
The same song on Spotify and Amazon music sound different.
Amazon being more fatiguing.
I guess its because of the nature of how each streaming service sends over the data?

@robin3989
Thanks for confirming the HDD behavior. The one I have is externally powered.

Cheers,
Raghu

Hi Raghu,

I purchased Allo products from fab2lab in Bangalore. They have multiple pricing bundles with Rpi, power supplies and enclosures.

Allo products give the impression of being bright and detailed due to relatively low noise of their designs. Bass becomes taut and defined with no bloom. High frequencies have a little more dry and metallic air. So the partnering equipment becomes important.

I did test my Digione Signature and Digione with various combinations of amps and speakers - Monitor Audio RS6, Dali Oberon 5, QAcoustics 3050i, Spendor A4 and Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers and Cambridge Audio CXA81, NAD D7050 and Arcam SA20 amps.

I found the combination of Monitor Audio and Cambridge Audio (a more brighter, analytical setup) with Digione to be more tiring and not conducive to long listening sessions as per my listening preferences. NAD D7050 or Arcam SA20 with Spendor A4 or QAcoustics 3050i made a more laid-back but still detailed presentation. Your impressions might vary based on your listening preferences.

Your observation re Amazon Music and Spotify is probably more due to the relatively poorer quality of former as opposed to later source. Most of my testing was using hires FLAC on NAS/SDD or Tidal Hifi plan as sources.

Thanks,
Shyam.

 

[Weathered]

Is your HDD externally powered? That might work well with Volumio, but the problem occurs when a USB flash drive or a Portable HDD is connected to the rpi. Volumio takes a while to update the library for scanning through a 64GB flash drive and list 5 - 10% of the content stored.

No, it isn't externally powered. Its a WD My Passport Ultra connected to the USB 3.0 port of the Sparky board. I have turned off scanning/update everytime in Volumio, only update the library manually when I've added new files. It takes barely a few min to scan all the folders and files, then all the content shows up on Volumio interface/MALP app.

 

[raghupb]

More I look at it, the most reasonable solution for my requirement, feature/cost balanced, seems to be Digione (not signature) with stock PS

Quick update:
Called up Fab.To.Lab
Local Bangalore dealer/distributor. They have Digione with stock PS.
It is Rs. 9,685 + 18% GST totaling to Rs. 11,428 (same as what it is on their website)
Enquired about Allo Nirvana. They are yet to receive stock from Allo, so no confirmed pricing yet.
Will touch back with them in a week or so.

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[Weathered]

More I look at it, the most reasonable solution for my requirement, feature/cost balanced, seems to be Digione (not signature) with stock PS

I think this is a very sensible move. Buy the Digione, set it up, connect your HDD music collection preferably wired via ethernet from the router, get going with Volumio, sign up for the Tidal free 3 months posted on another thread along with your subscribed streaming services. If you wish to spend more time, try out different OS flavors as well!

After 3 months, if you don't attain Nirvana doing all this... buy the PS

 

[shyamv]

More I look at it, the most reasonable solution for my requirement, feature/cost balanced, seems to be Digione (not signature) with stock PS

Quick update:
Called up Fab.To.Lab
Local Bangalore dealer/distributor. They have Digione with stock PS.
It is Rs. 9,685 + 18% GST totaling to Rs. 11,428 (same as what it is on their website)
Enquired about Allo Nirvana. They are yet to receive stock from Allo, so no confirmed pricing yet.
Will touch back with them in a week or so.

Cheers,
Raghu

This makes sense. I believe you are referring to Allo Digione Player which is a bundle of Digione HAT with RPi and not just the Digione HAT. You can always upgrade the PSU if you like the overall sound. Happy listening!!

 

[raghupb]

I think this is a very sensible move. Buy the Digione, set it up, connect your HDD music collection preferably wired via ethernet from the router, get going with Volumio, sign up for the Tidal free 3 months posted on another thread along with your subscribed streaming services. If you wish to spend more time, try out different OS flavors as well!

After 3 months, if you don't attain Nirvana doing all this... buy the PS

If I don't get "Nirvana" will use the "There Is No Spoon ...." method

This makes sense. I believe you are referring to Allo Digione Player which is a bundle of Digione HAT with RPi and not just the Digione HAT. You can always upgrade the PSU if you like the overall sound. Happy listening!!

Correct. Allo Digione Player/Bundle.

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[raghupb]

More I look at it, the most reasonable solution for my requirement, feature/cost balanced, seems to be Digione (not signature) with stock PS

Quick update:
Called up Fab.To.Lab
Local Bangalore dealer/distributor. They have Digione with stock PS.
It is Rs. 9,685 + 18% GST totaling to Rs. 11,428 (same as what it is on their website)
Enquired about Allo Nirvana. They are yet to receive stock from Allo, so no confirmed pricing yet.
Will touch back with them in a week or so.

Cheers,
Raghu

Nirvana PS for Allo Digione (price and availability update)
This should be available soon at Fab.To.Lab as a choice of PS
Pricing is INR 3495 + 18% GST (totaling to INR 4125)

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[manniraj]

I think the Allo Digione which has the Pi in-built may have limited support for Linux distros right? I recently found out that the Allo Sparky board does not support RopiexL which is a Roon transport distro for Roon core. Hence I think getting a standalone Pi and then pairing with Allo's digital transports would be a better bet at least with future upgrade and compatibility. What say?

 

[raghupb]

OS choices are:
- DietPi + Allo GUI (apparently this supports Roon)
- Volumio (Spotify/Tidal)
- MoOde
- Max2Play

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[Kannan]

I have a low noise PSU from ALLO on sale. It gives out low noise 5 volt / 3 amps and 19 volt / 4 amps. But it is a little bulky and not the wall wart type.

 

[raghupb]

I have a low noise PSU from ALLO on sale. It gives out low noise 5 volt / 3 amps and 19 volt / 4 amps. But it is a little bulky and not the wall wart type.

That's a nice combo of outputs.
5V for player/dac bundles, and 19V for their amp modules
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[shyamv]

I think the Allo Digione which has the Pi in-built may have limited support for Linux distros right? I recently found out that the Allo Sparky board does not support RopiexL which is a Roon transport distro for Roon core. Hence I think getting a standalone Pi and then pairing with Allo's digital transports would be a better bet at least with future upgrade and compatibility. What say?

From an OS point of view, there is no difference between a RPi bundle with Digione HAT and standalone RPi and HAT. Just that you can order the Rpi+Digione bundle with an OS pre-installed. You can always format and install any other OS of your choice later. Digione works with Ropieee as well and can be installed on RPi3 and above.

Note that Sparky is a different SBC from Allo and may not support every OS that RPi does.

 

[manniraj]

From an OS point of view, there is no difference between a RPi bundle with Digione HAT and standalone RPi and HAT. Just that you can order the Rpi+Digione bundle with an OS pre-installed. You can always format and install any other OS of your choice later. Digione works with Ropieee as well and can be installed on RPi3 and above.

Note that Sparky is a different SBC from Allo and may not support every OS that RPi does.

Yes I think you are right and I was referring to the Allo Sparky, and also the Digione player which are Allo specific SBC I guess and do not support all OSs that RPi supports.

 

[shyamv]

Yes I think you are right and I was referring to the Allo Sparky, and also the Digione player which are Allo specific SBC I guess and do not support all OSs that RPi supports.

One can order Digione Player with either RPi or Sparky. I see that indian websites such as fab2lab usually have the RPi variant while Allo website stocks Sparky variant.

 

[Kannan]

I am not sure if digione will be compatible with Sparky. It is the base unit for USBridge. Better to get clarification from Allo before ordering

 

[premoddev]

Recent purchase of Allo Digione player by one of the FM from fabtolab, confirmed it's RPi4 1GB model. If more RAM is needed, can go for buying separate parts and assemble. Otherwise no need to worry, can go ahead and order from fabtolab.

 

[Navi Kumar]

I am not sure if digione will be compatible with Sparky. It is the base unit for USBridge. Better to get clarification from Allo before ordering

Digione will be working on RPI only not with sparky..

 

[raghupb]

Recent purchase of Allo Digione player by one of the FM from fabtolab, confirmed it's RPi4 1GB model. If more RAM is needed, can go for buying separate parts and assemble. Otherwise no need to worry, can go ahead and order from fabtolab.

Spoke to an Allo tech person to ask some basic queries and understand their ecosystem.
Waretohouse which is another Allo reseller was kind enough to connect me to them.
They have both RPI 3B+ and RPI 4B/1GB versions.
The Allo tech guy said for audio both RPI versions are fine.
RPI 4B runs a wee bit hotter (due to slightly faster clock)

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[premoddev]

For media playing purpose, 4B's heating should not be an issue, it won't come unbearable as there won't be any CPU hungry processes all the time. But it will benefit on dedicated 1G network port and two USB 3 interfaces, where as in 3B+, the Gigabit port speed is limited to 300Mbps (due to sharing of bus with USB) and there won't be USB3 interfaces. There are other differences also, but not much relevant here.. so in my opinion you should go for 4B model only...