Allo Digione Signature

[CrushingIt]

Does anyone have a source for the 18650 battery holder? I ordered everything else from Chicago Electronics when the Allo site was down for sales. Now to order the battery pack from Allo (Chicago doesn't stock it) will cost over $20 just in shipping. 

I searched for the DSD tech unit mentioned earlier to no avail. Most of the holders on Amazon are not wired in parallel and will not work.

And then finding one with a barrel connector.......

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

[CrushingIt]

2 hours ago, Gpongracz said:

 

BK-18650-PC8-ND from digikey might work.  You would need to solder on a barrel connector.

Thanks...doesn't say if its in series or parallel but I guess that wold be up to me when I put it together. 

[CrushingIt]

23 minutes ago, ThenewGearPPK said:

Was hoping to connect a DAC with a i2s cable to the Allo DigiOne Signature, would that work?

 

Also it has a aes/ebu output? Where?

The DigiOne takes i2S from the Raspberry Pi and converts it to spdif. It has both an rca and bnc jack to get digits into your dac.

no other outputs 

 

 

[CrushingIt]

I run RoPieee and Roon with mine because I'm pretty dumb when it comes to software. I had had a similar experience that might help. I can see that Roon is playing but no sound. In both cases there was not enough voltage to the clean board. 

Make sure the clean side is powered up first and make sure you have enough voltage going to it. When my batteries get down to 12% or so, it appears to work in Roon, but there is no signal leaving the Allo.

Its a bit of a pain to get up and running (lots of options) but its really sounds wonderful. Way worth the hassle for me.

 

[CrushingIt]

On 5/13/2019 at 2:50 AM, Ian End said:

 

@Audio_Allo is the contact.

 

The final thing they suggested was to change the clean-side battery pack for a mains power supply, just to test.  I did this and now it is working!  So it seems my battery pack is not suitable/compatible.  What clean-side power supplies are other people using?

Also using the battery pack from Allo. Sounds great but won't fit your need for convenience. Every 5-6 days they need to be removed for a quick charge. Don't be tempted to try another all in one battery meant for cell phones.....those things have noisy regulators inside of them. If you want convenience you'll need a really good linear power supply to take advantage of what the Sig does well. Glad it got worked out!

[CrushingIt]

You don't want Moode. Either diet or Ropiee. Ropiee is much much easier. Go to their website :https://ropieee.org/getting_started/ and look for the Beginners Guide.

 Its very easy and there is a support group on Roon's community page. 

[CrushingIt]

10 minutes ago, richard_crl032 said:

Hi Crushingit,

 

Thanks for the advice but I have moode in both the usb bridge  signature at home and also the digione signature helped by a friend as I am a noob in such stuff.

 

I really prefer to stay with moode which works fine until this 5TB hdd which I hope to use.

 

Is 5TB hdd doable on the usb bridge signature's front usb ports or some size limit as I failed to goggle for such info ?

 

The other query is more PC/SBC related which is if i need to connect power for the hdd to also the usb bridge and cannot just power hdd vis separate psu like the ifi usbpower .. some signalling or common ground requirement ?

 

Cheers.

 

Richard

Sorry Richard, my response was meant for someone else...my apologies 

[CrushingIt]

49 minutes ago, WilliamWykeham said:

Digione Signature Player just arrived with the Shanti.  I have everything connected correctly - 5V power set up right; BNC to mscaler; connected to ethernet.  My unit came with Moode, and I'm able to access this via browser, but I have no idea what to do next.  I want Roon to recognize this as an endpoint.  Anyone can help?  I have very little technical knowledge about this stuff and there is no download for Moode support on Allo's website, only Volumnio and DietPi: https://allo.com/sparky/digione-signature-player.html#downloads

You don't want Moode. Either diet or Ropiee. Ropiee is much much easier. Go to their website :https://ropieee.org/getting_started/ and look for the Beginners Guide.

 Its very easy and there is a support group on Roon's community page. 

 

[CrushingIt]

4 minutes ago, mothbhai said:

OK - I got it to work.

 

After fiddling with a few more things, I tried different power sources. What seemed to work is replacing the power-bank to power the HAT with the Allo PS. I used a standard RPi 3A PS to power the dirty side. That did the trick. Somehow the power-bank is not working for the DS. I could see the green light on the top board, so assumed it was working fine, but apparently not. I will find a solution to power the clean side with a cleaner source later, but for now starting the burn in with the Allo PS. 

 

Any advice on what is the cheapest option for a reasonably decent linear PS.

Did you power the HAT first? That is the sequence that must be followed....HAT then RPI

[CrushingIt]

I'm not sure what a power bank is, but if the power drops below a certain voltage, the HAT won't work. I use  a Teradak ups on the Pi (way overkill) and the Allo battery on the HAT. The battery solution is cheap and sounds great. I get about a weeks worth of play from one charge and I just leave it on all the time. The only hassle is having to buy a charger and remembering to charge the batteries so that you don't ruin a listening session. No nasty voltage regulators in the way...just battery. 

I know Allo is working on a more sophisticated battery charging system, but I think its delayed because of the state of the world. 

 

[CrushingIt]

5 minutes ago, mothbhai said:

Oh - I meant a USB charger with a LiPO battery. The kinds used to charge you phone on the go. Like this one:

https://www.ankersingapore.com/select10000.html

Yeah don't use that....very cheap voltage regulators inside that create noise. The HAT is isolated form the RPI to keep noise from the I2S to spdif board... keep it clean. 

In fact, for now just use a cheap usb supply for the RPI...you can always upgrade later...your best bang for the buck is power to the HAT (clean power)

[CrushingIt]

11 minutes ago, InfinitelyBaffled said:

 

I'm guessing the Gustard is adding something to the sound signature that you like. Could be distortion, could be causing a higher input signal level (it doesn't matter if it sounds better to you - that's what is important.) Sometimes a cleaner signal comes across as sounding thinner (primarily because lower frequencies aren't boosted.)

I was thinking the same....I run the old version of the Sig and it doesn't sound thin to me. The new version is kind of confusing to me...you have to hook up an internal cable to provide clean power I believe? And you are using the isolator board?

[CrushingIt]

28 minutes ago, rruffin said:

On both. The Shanti is designed to work with the other Allo products as it has a clean and dirty side connection. Tried switching back to batteries on the clean side, but sounded much, much worse. Did not try using my inexpensive linear power supply on the dirty side instead of the Shanti because it did not seem to matter. Shanti is a great value!

 What kind of batteries were you using?

[CrushingIt]

The 3 is all you need for a DigiOne Sig. If at some point you want to pivot to USB, you should probably get the Allo reimagined 

Pi which would be quite a bit better than any off the shelf Pi. 

Worry about power to the Sig...way more important.

Have fun!

[CrushingIt]

1 minute ago, quanghuy147 said:

After almost a year of using Shanti with Digione Signature. I now try the battery pack for Clean Power and Shanti for Dirty Power on Digione Signature. 

 

The result is mind-blowing, the dynamics and the speed of the sound have improved dramatically, the background is darker. However, the bass and mid bass are leaner and lose impact compared to when using powers from Shanti for both Clean and Dirty Power on Digione Signature. 

 

Could someone explain and help me to get the best of 2 worlds?

What kind of battery are you using? 

[CrushingIt]

49 minutes ago, quanghuy147 said:

I use Allo battery pack. 

This is how I use the digione sig (spdif coax) so its not exactly your use case, but close? 

It's possible that you are finally hearing what your dac sounds like after all the noise in your digital

signal is removed?

I'm feeding a Totaldac D1 dac and I've never been happier with digital. I guess someday I will 

upgrade to a Totaldac server but the Allo sounds so good that I am in no rush. I'm to sure why more folks don't use batteries on the clean side...they last about 6 or 7 days and then it takes 2 minutes to swap out for another changed set....

so easy.

 

[CrushingIt]

11 minutes ago, quanghuy147 said:

 

Interesting idea!

 

Is there anyway old battery pack ruin the bass? Do you think buying 4 new batteries will make a difference?

Old battery pack? I'm not sure what you mean. Its just a 50 cent battery holder, I can't imagine any differences. New batteries should not change anything..only last a little longer. I can't imagine anyway that changing from Shanti to battery on the clean side of an Allo can ruin the bass. But you should ask Allo

[CrushingIt]

3 hours ago, Heckyman said:

 

Interesting, what were the batteries and regulators used and how much extra did the iFi bring? Did you also try Allo battery pack direct with LG LiPO4 batteries?

 

The ifi device is designed to improve cheap switch mode power supplies. Installing one between a simple battery and the Allo makes no sense to me. Why add opamps and other stuff to the equation? 

One of the folks who designs for Allo posts regularly on another forum...if I can find it, I'll share the forum name. He would be better able to answer your question.