Allo Digione Signature

[Spenagio]

2 minutes ago, dmormerod said:

I've had this before but it was down to the DAC, not streamer. Can you try a different DAC?

I have a Rpi/Kali connected via i2s to the same DAC, which does not suffer from the same issue. Also a Sonos Connect connected via SPDIF does not suffer the same issue.

May have to try a different DAC just to determine what is the problem, but won't be swapping DAC's for the benefit of the DS, as it is a high spec DIY DDDAC 1794 that has outperformed anything else I have had by a long stretch.

 

[RX8R3ROD]

Most of my music is 24/96, but some is lower rate from iTunes, etc and I don’t get any noises when swapping  FWIW 

[Spenagio]

1 minute ago, RX8R3ROD said:

Most of my music is 24/96, but some is lower rate from iTunes, etc and I don’t get any noises when swapping  FWIW 

Do you use Roon via Dietpi? Wondering if I should ditch Dietpi and go with Ropiee, which is what I have on my Kali based streamer

Thank you!

[RX8R3ROD]

I do indeed use Roipee (with Roon) ... might be worth a try like you say, and at least you don’t have to drop heap of cash to do it ...

[RX8R3ROD]

1 hour ago, Tintinabulum said:

That applies to many things (like apple os updates). You could say that they continue to improve a great product or you could say it wasn't ready for market. I think the purpose is to produce great sound, it does that with minor inconveniences. 

That’s very much the angle I personally take on it. And to me the immense opportunity it provides for the customer to improve the product means there will almost inevitably be some problems as well.

 

Thst said, I’ve not really had any ...

[Tintinabulum]

1 hour ago, Spenagio said:

Do you use Roon via Dietpi? Wondering if I should ditch Dietpi and go with Ropiee, which is what I have on my Kali based streamer

I'm using Dietpi and Roon, no issue, no noise changing sampling rates (going into digital actives).

[TomWoB]

Regarding Baby Ambre:

Sorry, but the PCB looks not very impressive !

• SMPS (not good, I prefer "without internal PS", so I can decide to use LPS or SMPS)
• Raspberry Pi
• 2 clocks
• can't identify which S/PDIF transceiver chip is used (picture has too low resolution)
• looks quite normal (nothing special)
• OK ... Roon endpoint !

But DigiOne (Standard) is for me much more impressive, especially the dual FlipFlop output stage with LT3042 (clean part with galvanic isolation) ...

[nbpf]

11 hours ago, Spenagio said:

The issue occurs when there is a sample rate change from one track to the next, i.e. whilst listening to a playlist.

Going from a 44/16 to 96/24 or any other change results in a loud crackle from my speakers whilst using Roon.

 

Sorry to hear that. No issues with a Naim DAC and upmpdcli/MPD. I understand that certain DAC/DS combinations do not work well. This might be a DS problem, a DAC problem or both. 

[linuxfox]

19 hours ago, Orangecrush said:

Still no aluminum case for the sig offering.  Really disappointing.

 

Actually I understand the "acrilic only" choice because an  aluminum case would keep inside the player all the noise generated from the rpi wifi and bluetooth transmitters. The alu case would be an option only for users that do turn rpi wifi and bluetooth off.

[RX8R3ROD]

4 hours ago, linuxfox said:

 

Actually I understand the "acrilic only" choice because an  aluminum case would keep inside the player all the noise generated from the rpi wifi and bluetooth transmitters. The alu case would be an option only for users that do turn rpi wifi and bluetooth off.

And due to the way aluminium appears to handle vibration in my own experiments it is quite possible it may sound worse than an acrylic case ... though I suspect many of us would say it certainly looks nicer 😁

[Orangecrush]

7 minutes ago, RX8R3ROD said:

And due to the way aluminium appears to handle vibration in my own experiments it is quite possible it may sound worse than an acrylic case ... though I suspect many of us would say it certainly looks nicer 😁

My experience is the opposite.  Much better with the case, Herbies Audio Lab Baby Booties and a weight on top.  Relaxes some of that excessive energy that translates into hardness that so many of notice in the Digione.  Don’t have the sig. 

[nbpf]

4 hours ago, linuxfox said:

 

Actually I understand the "acrilic only" choice because an  aluminum case would keep inside the player all the noise generated from the rpi wifi and bluetooth transmitters. The alu case would be an option only for users that do turn rpi wifi and bluetooth off.

I would not buy an aluminium case for the Digione Signature + Raspberry Pi combo for a number of reasons, among others the ones that you mention.

 

On the other hand, I would be very interested in an aluminium case for a stand-alone DigiOne Signature. The connection to its Raspberry Pi host could be done via GPIO ribbon cable. An aluminium box would make a lot of sense for a stand-alone DS: it would shield the device and provide solid connectors to the power supplies.

 

An obvious advantage of a stand-alone DS is that it could be implemented on a single board. This would allow Allo to eliminate the assembly and under-voltage problems that are affecting the current implementation. 

[RX8R3ROD]

3 minutes ago, Orangecrush said:

My experience is the opposite.  Much better with the case, Herbies Audio Lab Baby Booties and a weight on top.  Relaxes some of that excessive energy that translates into hardness that so many of notice in the Digione.  Don’t have the sig. 

I have tried the Signature in a rigid aluminium Douk Hi-Fi enclosure (obviously not Allo’s one 😁) off eBay, against the Allo Signature acrylic case. 

 

The Douk case looks really nice.

 

In both cases with 4 x Sound Damped Steel constrained layer disc feet, and 2 of these on top.

 

The surface was bamboo shelving in a spiked Hi-Fi rack, sitting on more SDS constrained layer disc feet, with the shelves floated on more constrained layer discs.

 

I found the timing was better (in my system) with the acrylic case.

 

Ditto comparisons of power supplies have always sounded better naked, rather than in alu cases, PRaT-wise.

 

As ever, it’s worth experimenting in one’s own system, as it can make a difference ...

 

And the power supplies look so rubbish naked that once I’ve finished experimenting I do plan to put them in a case, and just try to minimise the damage. But then a soldered circuit board sounds worse in my system than a breadboard, too ... as I suspect the breadboard is much better damped.

 

it just goes on and on ... 😄

 

 

[RX8R3ROD]

9 minutes ago, nbpf said:

I would not buy an aluminium case for the Digione Signature + Raspberry Pi combo for a number of reasons, among others the ones that you mention.

 

On the other hand, I would be very interested in an aluminium case for a stand-alone DigiOne Signature. The connection to its Raspberry Pi host could be done via GPIO ribbon cable. An aluminium box would make a lot of sense for a stand-alone DS: it would shield the device and provide solid connectors to the power supplies.

 

An obvious advantage of a stand-alone DS is that it could be implemented on a single board. This would allow Allo to eliminate the assembly and under-voltage problems that are affecting the current implementation. 

That’s an interesting thought ... 👍

[ThenewGearPPK]

I was thinking of buying the Allo Digione Signature as an alternative to using my Singxer SU-1, but not sure how the entire streaming process goes.

 

So am I supposed to just connect an ethernet cable from the Digione to my router & a SPDIF cable from my DAC to the Digione, the what? Do I need to set anything up on my router or fiddle around with the settings?

 

I read I need to download something called a MinimServer on my PC, but after that, can I just play songs off foobar & it will play through the Digione or is it much more complicated than that?

 

 

 

[TomWoB]

Maybe you are interested in my power measurements I did with my "homemade DigiOne Signature":

DigiOne Thread

[rruffin]

Anyone using the Baaske MI 1005 Medical Ethernet Isolator? A friend started using it with an original DigiOne and reported that the musical background became much quieter.

 

http://baaske-medical.de/en/223-network-isolator-med-mi-1005.html

[Tintinabulum]

I'm using a Cisco 2960, the significantly improved clarity and detail. Cheapest upgrade ever.

[Tintinabulum]

4 hours ago, TomWoB said:

Maybe you are interested in my power measurements I did with my "homemade DigiOne Signature":

DigiOne Thread

Good for DIY and improvements but for good order that are a number of hardware improvements in the Signature over the DigiOne, just for clarity...

[Orangecrush]

Very true.  The NDK SDA clocks are an important upgrade to the sig.  

[Orangecrush]

 

5 hours ago, rruffin said:

Anyone using the Baaske MI 1005 Medical Ethernet Isolator? A friend started using it with an original DigiOne and reported that the musical background became much quieter.

 

http://baaske-medical.de/en/223-network-isolator-med-mi-1005.html

Get someone to disconnect the Ethernet cable and listen for any change as it will play for a few seconds.  If no change, adding a Isolator will not do anything.  

 

Better yet, compare Ethernet to Wifi, if both sound the same, then again, no point adding extra stuff.

[Tintinabulum]

3 hours ago, Orangecrush said:

Get someone to disconnect the Ethernet cable and listen for any change as it will play for a few seconds.  If no change, adding a Isolator will not do anything.  

I've heard this proposed before, personally not convinced this test works. I'd be more convinced if someone has unplugged and heard a difference but I suspect the evil demon may have already entered the system...

[the_bat]

On 2/19/2019 at 7:12 AM, ThenewGearPPK said:

I was thinking of buying the Allo Digione Signature as an alternative to using my Singxer SU-1, but not sure how the entire streaming process goes.

 

It would probably be worth your while reading the technical and configuration guides pointed to in the support and downloads section of this page

 

https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione-signature-player.html#downloads

 

before going ahead - it will give you a better  idea of what's involved in setting one up.

 

[Spenagio]

Well, I am still getting the horrible loud crackle during playback in Roon, when a change in sample rate occurs.

Tried using a power conditioner for the connection of the dirty side.

Using batteries on the clean side.

 

Don't know what to try to solve the issue.

Wondering if it might be settings in Roon, is anyone else using Roon that could share settings for sample rate etc?

 

Can someone from Allo assist?

[TomWoB]

@Spenagio

For getting root cause, I think it's interesting which "CPU/Process Load" your Pi has during playing Roon. I use moOde (which doesn't support Roon so far), but on the web interface I can check the CPU/Process load (System Info), e.g. my Pi (listen to radio):

 

C P U    L O A D  

	CPU	%usr	%sys	%idle
	all	1.75	0.00	98.25
	0	6.57	0.00	93.43
	1	0.50	0.00	99.50
	2	0.00	0.00	100.00
	3	0.00	0.00	100.00

 

P R O C E S S    L O A D  

	PRI RTPRIO COMMAND         %MEM PSR %CPU
	 19      - sysinfo.sh       0.2   1  3.0
	 29      - mpd              3.4   3  2.6
	 19      - sudo             0.3   2  0.5
	 19      - php-fpm7.0       1.2   3  0.3
	 19      - php-fpm7.0       1.3   3  0.3
	 19      - worker.php       1.3   1  0.2
	 19      - systemd          0.4   0  0.0
	 19      - kthreadd         0.0   0  0.0
	 39      - kworker/0:0H     0.0   0  0.0

 

I have no idea, how much CPU performance Roon needs to run smoothly, but we should check:

• runs one process always at 100% (in case of it's Roon ... not good) ?
• single/multithreading possible/activated ?
• CPU governor: on-demand/performance ?
  performance runs the CPU always at maximum frequency, which is better for stable audio

Just to clarify if root cause is Pi or DigiOne Signature ...