Allo Sparky USBridge

[jtwrace]

USBridge is in the house and playing music!  Took all of 3min to get it up and going.  

[mikey8811]

jtwrace, looking forward to your comparisons to the SMS 200 and thoughts vs mRendu and Auralic Aries.

 

Thanks

[ted_b]

Nice. Are you going to be able to subjectively (for now) compare to Aries or Sonore?  Also are you able to try the j28 jumper tweak to power top and bottom separately? Look forward to your comments Jason. ?

[DarwinOSX]

The DarKo review of the DigiOne pushed me over the edge and I just ordered a USBridge using the 10% off code.  It will connect  to the USB port of my Kef LS50W's which I'm currently using with a SonicTransporter.

It seems this is at least the equal of some devices that are 2 or 3 times as much.  Of course they have the advantage of using off the shelf software and being made and sold from India.

[DarwinOSX]

20 minutes ago, mikey8811 said:

jtwrace, looking forward to your comparisons to the SMS 200 and thoughts vs mRendu and Auralic Aries.

 

Thanks

 

Me too.  The Darko review says the digione is better than the Aries mini so this should be at least as good.

[franz159]

48 minutes ago, DarwinOSX said:

The DarKo review of the DigiOne pushed me over the edge and I just ordered a USBridge using the 10% off code.  It will connect  to the USB port of my Kef LS50W's which I'm currently using with a SonicTransporter.

It seems this is at least the equal of some devices that are 2 or 3 times as much.  Of course they have the advantage of using off the shelf software and being made and sold from India.

10% off code? 

[k-man]

ROON10

[DarwinOSX]

21 minutes ago, franz159 said:

10% off code? 

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/allo-audio-boards-10-code/17519/23

[mikey8811]

Just to clarify. Volumio is the OS for the USBridge. Is a server side software like Minim server or LMS needed?

 

If not, does Volumio work on 32 bit machines?

 

My library consists of files on USB drives attached to an old MacBook running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and a Windows Vista PC. Both are 32 bit machines. These are on my LAN.

 

Thanks

[k-man]

22 minutes ago, mikey8811 said:

Is a server side software like Minim server or LMS needed?

No such requirement. You just point the network IP and directory, and enable the network share protocol on your MacBook network settings. I have used NFS sharing with decent success.

 

Minim server and LMS can work if you like, based on DNLA/UPnP configuration. But that's another step in configurations.

[mikey8811]

1 minute ago, k-man said:

No such requirement. You just point the network IP and directory, and enable the network share protocol on your MacBook network settings. I have used NFS sharing with decent success.

 

Minim server and LMS can work if you like, based on DNLA/UPnP configuration. But that's another step in configurations.

Thanks for getting back.

 

So Volumio is the server side software as well. Does it need to be installed on the computers where the music library resides or does it work like Auralic's Lightning Server ie. it is on the streamer / player with no installation necessary on a computer.

 

It will not have problems accessing library files on 32 bit computers correct? I cannot use Minim and the latest LMS as they only work on 64 bit computers. I know my 'puters are due for an upgrade.

 

Thanks

[k-man]

Volumio is the Music Player Daemon server/player that locates your network music drive via network sharing, so no need to install any program like this on your Mac. So it's only needed on the Sparky end. I don't think the 32bit/64bit should be an issue, only how your USB drive is formatted i.e FAT32, MS-DOS-FAT etc).

[allo.com]

32/64 bit does not matter .

[Mark V.]

I have ordered a USBridge with DietPi as today. I have Roon running on my Mac Mini and would like to use the USBridge as Roon end point.

 

My Mac Mini is connected to my internet router via Wifi (no other possibility), but I would like to connect the Mac Mini to the USBridge via LAN as I think that gives the best sound. Is that possible? Or shouldn't I bother and connect everyting via Wifi?

 

Thanks for advise.

[allo.com]

LAN is best.

[jtwrace]

12 minutes ago, allo.com said:

LAN is best.

This is good to know as I was going to ask.  Can you tell us why that's the case?  

[Mark V.]

51 minutes ago, allo.com said:

LAN is best.

O.K. but is it possible to have the USBridge connected via LAN to the Mac Mini while Roon and Remote for Roon running on Android phone are connected to Wifi network?

[k-man]

It sounds more simple for the Mac Mini and USBridge to be connected to a new router (LAN connection) that can be joined to the existing internet router via Wifi (or bridged mode).

[jtwrace]

@allo.com

 

Can you also explain how you test the mV on the USB?  I'm referring to the comments below that I've made bold.  

 

How about RPI? RPIs are great and very energy efficient, but on USB they have 2 major flaws. First is that bandwidth is shared between the 2 USB ports (so in fact there is only one USB), and second is that ethernet is also shared on same bus! Of course, you also have the noise on USB at about 60mV.

 

Maybe Sparky? The 2 USB ports (next to the ethernet port) share one input to the CPU (split by a hub). Noise on USB bus is about 27mV (pretty good) and ethernet is completely apart (bus is not shared). So it's ok, but not great.

 

https://allo.com/sparky/usbridge.html#specs

[Mark V.]

7 hours ago, k-man said:

It sounds more simple for the Mac Mini and USBridge to be connected to a new router (LAN connection) that can be joined to the existing internet router via Wifi (or bridged mode).

I am trying to understand, this way you are making a small network within a network?

 

You are saying more simple, that means there are different possibilities to achieve my goal?

[franz159]

8 hours ago, Mark V. said:

O.K. but is it possible to have the USBridge connected via LAN to the Mac Mini while Roon and Remote for Roon running on Android phone are connected to Wifi network?

 

If all devices are on the same LAN, they "talk" to each other irrespectively of "how" they are connected (wifi or wired).

However, IMO, the overall result depends by the overall quality/effective bandwidth of your network.

If you are afraid that your wifi may not be too good, you should connect both wired to the router

If you have enough free ports on the router (and the possibility to run the wires in your place) you should not need to add a new router.

Otherwise, if maybe you already have a network cable from the router  reaching your system, to avoid adding another cable you could add a simple network "switch" and connect both the mac mini and the USBridge to the lan using the switch.

I'm using this for example

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QR6XFHQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

[Mark V.]

2 minutes ago, franz159 said:

 

If all devices are on the same LAN, they "talk" to each other irrespectively of "how" they are connected (wifi or wired).

However, IMO, the overall result depends by the overall quality/effective bandwidth of your network.

If you are afraid that your wifi may not be too good, you should connect both wired to the router

If you have enough free ports on the router (and the possibility to run the wires in your place) you should not need to add a new router.

Otherwise, if maybe you already have a network cable from the router  reaching your system, you could add a simple network "switch" and connect both the mac mini and the USBridge to the lan using the Switch.

Unfortunately there is no (easy) possibility to wire my mac mini or USBridge to my excisting router.... So in this case the solution as suggested by k-man is perhaps the best for me. I should have a (wifi) router around somewhere. What I would like to avoid is to create problems with my excisting mesh (Velop) Wifi network, as I managed to have this working trouble free. 

[allo.com]

Noise on USB ports was measured using an oscilloscope . I will try to see if we have the captures.

[k-man]

Good luck @Mark V. with getting things up and running. Network configurations is the least enjoyable aspect of streaming, as I get frustrated at times when the network isn't recongnised, or dropouts due to traffic elsewhere. While Roon handles recognition of devices quite well, the internet connection requirements means you need to make the extra step of configuring the settings of the 2nd router. 

[Mark V.]

Thanks k-man, I am already searching for hours to find how to do it... :-( Perhaps someone here can help...

 

I do have a Velop Mesh Wifi network connected via LAN to the Internet Router. I would like to use a 2nd Router, which will be located in my listening room, which I connect with LAN cables to my Mac Mini and USBridge (and my streaming module within my NAD M12). This 2nd Router should connect to the excisting Velop Wifi network, to be able to have access to the internet. However, I don't want to 2nd Router to interfere with my excisting Mesh Wifi network. So: I want to use the wireless section of the 2nd Router ONLY for communication from this Router with the Velop Mesh, it shouldn't connect via WLAN to other clients. (like Smart Phone, etc.)