Allo Sparky USBridge

[Allander]

I took delivery of the Allo bridge yesterday and have had it in my system since. Sounds beautiful, in chain with Allo-Singxer su1- LKS da 004. As @Kirbyt reported I too am able Dsd 512 (Roon-Hq player) with no adaptor. 

However I continue to run into a function problem when selecting a track, skipping a track or a new band in Roon library where the new track will not play and eventually I get an amber message on the Roon remote

 

Transport: Roon lost control of the audio device. 

 

I am posting here as opposed to the Roon forum as I haven't seen this happen before with a Micro Rendu or Ultra Rendu used in the same system. 

 

Admittedly I took the Allo out of the box, plugged it in and went for it. I'm not sure if more configuration was required or not as I do notice it is also picking up all the other USB outputs in both Roon and Hq player. 

 

Has anyone else come across something similar? It seems to lose signal and then Roon loses the connection?

 

 

Thank you all. 

 

[Allander]

@pgbcincy   Thanks for your reply. As you described, this is exactly my experience as well. I wonder if the fix would be with the USB bridge or Roon itself. I thought I would start here as I haven't run into this with either the Micro or Ultra Rendu. Hopefully it's a simple solution with USB bridge itself as it really does seem like a fantastic unit so far and I haven't even ventured the power options yet. 

 

Functionally though, for me, It's a real Achilles heel as it takes out Roon Radio and any playlist with Tidal tracks. Really any sort of continuous play at all, let alone the moving through tracks or artists. 

 

The Lks dac also goes through a process trying to lock the signal where for a few seconds you experience some pretty tough to listen to feedback. Normally I have only experienced this on the initial start up. Now it seems to happen every time the signal is lost. Increasing the BW on the LKS seems to have helped for now. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Allander]

@pgbcincy Absolutely! 

One of the reasons I jumped in on the USB bridge, these guys seem to be all over the support on all fronts.  

 

 

[Allander]

@allo.com

Are the functionality issues with Roon/Hq player NAA a Roon issue or is it likely a diet Pi issue with the two programs? 

 

Again this issue wasnt experianced with 

a mR or and uR which is why I posted here first. 

 

Thanks for for your efforts. 

[Allander]

@allo.com Is anyone experiencing issues with the new update?

 

I was attempting to create a bug report as per above and thought I better update the unit prior. On the GUI I received a message stating Successful update and to now reboot. I attempted to reboot and the unit went into thinking (orbiting circle) for 20 min. I tried again and the same result. I went to shut down instead and it would not respond to that either. Now I cannot even log into the GUI? 

 

Has this update erased the GUI from the unit? 

 

A suggestion at this point as the unit  itself sounds great however a more outlined, step by step guide to where things have evolved to this point would be of benefit. Searching through the thread and trying to figure out where a received unit is at and what is required is very confusing.  I know another user who replaced his image with the micro sd card in order to update to the GUI the other day only to realize it was already installed on the unit. 

 

A lot has been accomplished and clearly things have evolved. The communication of which seems to be causing some issues. 

 

Thanks for for your efforts. 

[Allander]

@allo.com Great news on the manual. 

I pulled the power from the unit and did get it to reboot. Thus I now have access to the GUI page online again and can confirm v157 is active. 

Unfortunately the result is I have no sound output in PCM or DSD whatsoever at any sample rate. My dac does confirm signal at the appropriate sample rate and I get a pop through the speakers when trying to play anything initially and that's it. 

 

Is this v157 known to be functional? At this point am I waiting for the new version to come out to restore function and hopefully also correct the prior issues? 

 

Thanks. 

[Allander]

I have completed the v158 update successfully. The unit rebooted successfully. 

V158 shows as active. The issue of scrolling through artists and music seems to be functioning. However this has not restored my sound from when I first updated to v157. 

Just a recap....unit shipped with v156 and played great with the function issues, attempted to update to v157 and have had no sound since, including now with the update to v158. 

 

I am using Roon offloading upsampling to Hq Player as Naa 

 

Is there a setting that needs to be updated after an update or am I missing for this set up or something?

 

It literally went in the system and played with no problem out of the box. 

 

At at this point the Dac shows the appropriate signal and distinction between Dsd and pcm. I have now tried all on v157 and v158 with no success. My Singxer Su1 also shows signal. 

 

I get a pop through speakers on track selection and occasionally as it runs the track. 

 

Thanks. 

[Allander]

@pgbcincy followed your directions and am back up and running here. No idea what happened but the uninstalling and reinstalling of Linux sound system seems to have fixed it. 

Thanks so much for posting, I have been down for almost a week and was getting twitchy just holding on for v158 in hopes of a fix. Greatly appreciated!

 

V158 seems to have fixed the functionality issue as well.

Works and sounds great!

 

Thanks again.  

[Allander]

8 hours ago, Daniel Knight said:

Hi,

Loss of sound during the update can be related to:
- USB DAC powered off, or disconnected during the update = DietPi will re-scan and apply the USB DAC to `/etc/asound.conf`, if its unavailable, it will reset to onboard sound. Please ensure DAC is connected and power on, before updating.
You can also select another soundcard, then reselect USB DAC in the Allo GUI to re-scan USB DAC.

- Saved output frequencies and bit depths are also reset during the update. This is due to updated configuration files that need to replace existing ones. So please ensure you reapply the required bit depth + output frequencies to required software (where available).

 

This must be where I went wrong, thanks for the direction. Good to know for next time. 

The unit is up and sounding/functioning beautifully with Roon-Hq Naa at Dsd 512 no adaptor. 

Your help is greatly appreciated, 

Thank you. 

[Allander]

@tboooe

 

I have  successfully been using USBridge with ROON-HQP-dsd 512 for a few months now. Similar set up I7 computer-Netgear 108- fmc-fmc-singxer Su1-Lks Da004

 

In contrast I chased the same issues you are discovering for almost a year with both a micro rendu, ultra rendu and SMS 200, I then switched to the Usbridge and it’s worked flawlessly. Around the same time Sonore came out with an update and I made some changes to my Hqp settings and was able to get both the Ultra Rendu and Micro Rendu playing Hqp Dsd 512 at that point. 

(Upsampling through Roon to Dsd 512 was never an issue with any unit) 

I decided to keep the Usbridge to these other units. 

Im not sure if it’s related but the solution for the Rendu's seemed to be turning the max volume down to -6db and the delay back up to 50ms in HQP. Again though these settings didn’t cause an issue for the Usbridge and with an update from Sonore around the same time I can’t be certain it was the issue. 

 

My my understanding is upsampling the higher Rez dsd rates is far more consuming then upsampling pcm -Dsd or Lower Rez Dsd. So with that thought are you potentially maxing out your computer doing the upsampling?

 

Not sure if any of that will help but I would have tried anything at that point. Hopefully it is just some settings. 

 

[Allander]

3 minutes ago, tboooe said:

So you are able to play DSD512 without having to use a USB-Ethernet adapter?

 

My computer seems to be fine playing DSD source files converted to DSD512.  CPU load is about 50%.  I am able to play DSD512 without any issues using a windows based PC acting as NAA.

Correct, no USB - Ethernet adaptor, Allo had literally just started offering them after  I had added the Usbridge. 

A friend of mine bought the unit first, he had my micro rendu at the time to see if he  could get a different result. Same issues in his system. When the Usbridge functioned at dsd 512 in his system through Hq player, I bought one. 

 

We both continue to have the same results, no adaptors. 

 

It was shortly after this that the update came out and I got a reply from Sonore and on their recommendation changed some Hq settings. 

 

Does Roon upsampling to Dsd 512 work? 

I didn’t have an issue here. 

 

Have you tried changing any of the settings in Hq player? 

I had the buffer turned all the way up thinking this would help and initially had max volume set to -3db. 

 

- buffer time to 50ms and max volume -6db along with the update from Sonore and both the Ultra Rendu and Micro Rendu(still at my friends place) would play no problem. 

 

Computer direct also worked for me. 

At the time I was using a Gustard X20 pro, it was questionable weather it would actually do Dsd 512 or not as it won’t display the correct sample rate. 

Computer direct seemed the best way to rule all other variables out and just listen for the difference. 

[Allander]

@tboooe 

The  poly-sinc-xtr-mp filter was no issue over here. I went through all the -2’s filters and no glitches or performance issues. No issue at a friends place with the Usbridge and those filters either. 

Both using data base and tidal. 

I will try and track down some higher Rez Dsd and see if that creates an issue. 

[Allander]

33 minutes ago, tboooe said:

HQP played from Roon.  Never had a problem.  My wireless is AC so I know network speed is not an issue.  When I play from Roon to my other endpoints like Sonos I also don't have an issue so this is most likely a USBridge problem.

I must have missed something along the way. Wirelessly? Or have I misinterpreted?

 

Is anyone doing this successfully upsampling to Dsd 512 using HQP/ROON and streaming it wirelessly to Usbridge? 

 

Using an Aries Mini in a second system I have successfully done dsd 256 through Roon but that’s a long way off. 

 

In my system, If possible,  it would eliminate the use of two Fmc’s, 1 Lps an Lps1 if not 2 of each depending on weather an ISO Regen is necessary at that point. Not to mention the associated  obvious cables in use.