Allo Digione Signature

[dmormerod]

20 hours ago, keihin said:

 

I don't know whether this would have helped you, as it sounds like more of a space/packaging issue inside your shared enclosure, but there are alternate power cables available with USB Type-C plugs.  If for no other reason but to eliminate the messy adapter use and overly long cables that were packed with the Weiland, I've ordered a cable from Ghent Audio to take power from my Weiland Audio LPS to the DigiOne Signature board. 

 

In my case, the cable is a Ghent model number DC36 (Aviation GX12/GX16 to USB DC Cable) with these options:

LPS-end Connector: Aviation: GX16-2(1+): pin1(VCC +), pin2(GND)
Allo-end Connector: USB: Type-C
Cable Length: 0.5m

 

It has not yet arrived.  I'll post about it once it's installed.

 

Thanks this is really useful, I'll look to order the same once my LPS arrives.  (It should ship today)

[linuxfox]

On 1/6/2019 at 10:20 PM, nbpf said:

Some energy consumption figures: in my setup, the dirty side (RPi running MinimServer, upmpdcli and MPD at fixed 1GHz in a minimal Raspbian system) requires between 500 and 800 mA at between 4.80V and 4.91V while transcoding 24bits/192kHz .flac files stored in a 1TB Samsung T5 SSD drive connected to the RPi via USB to .wav. This is far less than the 2.5 to 3A made available by popular SMPS like the Allo or the ifi iPower. Measurements with  https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01NAWYSVK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

 

 

Thank you for your measurements: you gave me the idea to try the AQVOX 1A power supply in the dirty side.

Unfortunately I didn't get a big sound improvement (it actually was a sidestep), but it was nice to try.

 

[keihin]

12 hours ago, Shangri-La said:

Is it okay to use a normal Android phone USB charger on the dirty/clean board, in terms of +/- polarity? My 18650 batteries are not great so when I use the box as Airplay/uPNP endpoint, I hope I can use an external power supply. 

 

It should be fine.  The phone charger should send 5V +/- to the proper pins, as specified in the USB spec.  I have used an Apple 5V/1A charger for the clean side, and an Anker 24W USB Type-C charger for the dirty side.  The Anker is currently in use. 

 

Interestingly, the Anker is capable of Android "Quick Charge 3.0" charging at higher voltages, but it only delivers the higher voltagesif the receiving device confirms that it can use them. This query/response exchange occurs when the receiving device is first plugged into the charger.  I believe it uses the data lines (not the power lines) for this exchange. If the receiving device doesn't respond, the charger just defaults to sending 5 volts. Given this, the Anker is sending 5V to the dirty side of the Allo DigiOne Signature, and all is working well.

 

The clean side does like clean power, so you may notice some subjective sonic degradation when using a less ideal power supply.  YMMV.  Try it and see.

[Shangri-La]

5 hours ago, keihin said:

 

It should be fine.  The phone charger should send 5V +/- to the proper pins, as specified in the USB spec.  I have used an Apple 5V/1A charger for the clean side, and an Anker 24W USB Type-C charger for the dirty side.  The Anker is currently in use. 

 

Interestingly, the Anker is capable of Android "Quick Charge 3.0" charging at higher voltages, but it only delivers the higher voltagesif the receiving device confirms that it can use them. This query/response exchange occurs when the receiving device is first plugged into the charger.  I believe it uses the data lines (not the power lines) for this exchange. If the receiving device doesn't respond, the charger just defaults to sending 5 volts. Given this, the Anker is sending 5V to the dirty side of the Allo DigiOne Signature, and all is working well.

 

The clean side does like clean power, so you may notice some subjective sonic degradation when using a less ideal power supply.  YMMV.  Try it and see.

 

Thank you. I tried to use the power supply that comes with the ALLO to charge my phone, and it worked. So that kind of reversly proved that the phone charger will work (has the same +/- polarity) with the Allo. 

 

Yeah when I use the Allo as the streamer then good/clean power on the clean board does make a difference. But when use it as a uPNP render it shouldn;t matter, as least I think that's the theory.

[nbpf]

5 hours ago, Shangri-La said:

 

Thank you. I tried to use the power supply that comes with the ALLO to charge my phone, and it worked. So that kind of reversly proved that the phone charger will work (has the same +/- polarity) with the Allo. 

 

Yeah when I use the Allo as the streamer then good/clean power on the clean board does make a difference. But when use it as a uPNP render it shouldn;t matter, as least I think that's the theory.

I frankly do not understand what you mean and which theory you are referring to. If you select the DigiOne Signature as an output in a rendering program like MPD, the quality of the power of the clean side will have a significant impact on the output of the DigiOne Signature. If you select a device that is connected to the RPi that hosts the DigiOne Signature via USB as an output, the quality of the power of the clean side will likely have no impact. But in this case there is no point in using a DigiOne Signature or in powering its clean side!

[kotlarix]

On 1/7/2019 at 3:05 PM, analogmusic said:

So allo confirmed my DigiOne Signature is shipping today

 

I am really looking forward to it.

 

Did they send you your Digione Signature? I'm being flushed with answers like "let us check what happening and you will get answer soon"

 

I really don't like it that they can't admit that stock is empty and we need to wait probably few weeks more before they produce it

[RX8R3ROD]

Hope you get your Signature really soon! 🤞

 

I know it’s really frustrating waiting for a much-anticipated product to arrive, but Allo is a younger, growing company ...

 

 

 

[kotlarix]

17 minutes ago, RX8R3ROD said:

Hope you get your Signature really soon! 🤞

 

I know it’s really frustrating waiting for a much-anticipated product to arrive, but Allo is a younger, growing company ...

 

 

 

 

We are human beings😊 and I would understand explanation "sorry buddy we are out of stock, your order will be delivered approx ...."

 

Worst thing is no info just cheap excuses "we will check it and give you answer" and three days nothing (my order was placed 22 December)

 

Or they should put info on their website like f. ex ODROID did

 

[Emcee]

After no news I finally received a reply reassuring me that it would ship on Jan 8. One day later and still no shipping confirmation. What pisses me off is that I paid extra for fast shipping so I would get it before I return to work next week. Just hoping it lives up to expectations and is a noticeable improvement over my base model DigiOne.

[RX8R3ROD]

Sorry to hear about your problems, and hope you get sorted quickly, but IME it’s very much worth the wait when moving from the standard DigiOne

[Spenagio]

13 minutes ago, Emcee said:

After no news I finally received a reply reassuring me that it would ship on Jan 8. One day later and still no shipping confirmation. What pisses me off is that I paid extra for fast shipping so I would get it before I return to work next week. Just hoping it lives up to expectations and is a noticeable improvement over my base model DigiOne.

More importantly just hope it’s not faulty like the one I just shipped back. Appreciate these companies are reasonably new, and production is handled elsewhere, but they should by now have QC in place similar to the companies they are looking to compete with, otherwise mainstream folk like me will just return to Auralic or Bluesound (reluctantly).

[nbpf]

2 hours ago, Spenagio said:

More importantly just hope it’s not faulty like the one I just shipped back. Appreciate these companies are reasonably new, and production is handled elsewhere, but they should by now have QC in place similar to the companies they are looking to compete with, otherwise mainstream folk like me will just return to Auralic or Bluesound (reluctantly).

My impression is that Allo are trying to do far too many things at the same time. I found that the standard DigiOne was a fantastic value, the DigiOne Signature less so, in spite of its very good sound quality. The lack of a reliable quality control and of suitable support channels independent of this forum, the inconsistency of the documentation (e.g., about the suitable voltages for powering the clean side), the mess with USB C connectors and adapters, the ambition of selling transports, DACs but also amplifiers, cases, power supplies ... that's a little bit too much even for a new company. I wish they would take a break, make the point of where they are and where they want to be in a couple of years and come up with some realistic roadmaps for what they consider to be their most defining products. The way audio companies are throwing products at the market while failing to bind customers through understandable price policies and reliable product roadmaps is just ridiculous. Allo could play a decisive role in putting an end to this madness and start building a more solid basis of loyal customers. Or just go bust as many others.      

[Tintinabulum]

45 minutes ago, nbpf said:

My impression is that Allo are trying to do far too many things at the same time. I found that the standard DigiOne was a fantastic value, the DigiOne Signature less so, in spite of its very good sound quality. The lack of a reliable quality control and of suitable support channels independent of this forum, the inconsistency of the documentation (e.g., about the suitable voltages for powering the clean side), the mess with USB C connectors and adapters, the ambition of selling transports, DACs but also amplifiers, cases, power supplies ... that's a little bit too much even for a new company. I wish they would take a break, make the point of where they are and where they want to be in a couple of years and come up with some realistic roadmaps for what they consider to be their most defining products. The way audio companies are throwing products at the market while failing to bind customers through understandable price policies and reliable product roadmaps is just ridiculous. Allo could play a decisive role in putting an end to this madness and start building a more solid basis of loyal customers. Or just go bust as many others.      

 I think they are great. Different style and culture yes. It clearly doesn't suit you. Suits me though, happy to get my hands dirty, I enjoy learning. If I had to pay double to get seamless sales and back up it wouldn't add up for me.

 

I hope they succeed prosper and evolve. I hope they don't go bust because their business model doesn't suit you. It takes all sorts to make the world go round. I think they are a part (good part) of the democratisation of high end hifi- making it affordable, keeping other guys on their toes, competition, helping move things forward.

 

I'll keep buying, happy to tinker a bit and learn, I think it's fun but different strokes...

[Tintinabulum]

Also sometimes it almost seems like people use these forums to almost blackmail companies into action. I'm not sure if that what these forums are here for.

[kotlarix]

9 minutes ago, Tintinabulum said:

Also sometimes it almost seems like people use these forums to almost blackmail companies into action. I'm not sure if that what these forums are here for.

 

Let's see. I'm not and I think the others do also not blackmailing Allo.

 

But I think all of us deserve to treat us as a adults at the end there are we who pays for it.

 

Someone can say it's cheap and I was thinking the same but actually it's not cheap if you want to have it with decent LPS and in better case/ box.

 

So for me now (digi one signature/ raspberry pi 3 b+/ sd card/ LPS/ batteries with charger/ component alloy case/ wires/adapters and lot of time) it's around 900$

 

Worst is that ppl who works for allo starting to lie or just don't answer emails. I bought directly, they collected money after two days from the day I placed order. It's almost three weeks now and nothing happened and that's bad I think.

 

Maybe you paid for the product and you received it in reasonable time. I paid upfront almost 300$ and after three weeks have nothing, even proper explanation why.

 

[Emcee]

2 hours ago, nbpf said:

My impression is that Allo are trying to do far too many things at the same time. I found that the standard DigiOne was a fantastic value, the DigiOne Signature less so, in spite of its very good sound quality. The lack of a reliable quality control and of suitable support channels independent of this forum, the inconsistency of the documentation (e.g., about the suitable voltages for powering the clean side), the mess with USB C connectors and adapters, the ambition of selling transports, DACs but also amplifiers, cases, power supplies ... that's a little bit too much even for a new company. I wish they would take a break, make the point of where they are and where they want to be in a couple of years and come up with some realistic roadmaps for what they consider to be their most defining products. The way audio companies are throwing products at the market while failing to bind customers through understandable price policies and reliable product roadmaps is just ridiculous. Allo could play a decisive role in putting an end to this madness and start building a more solid basis of loyal customers. Or just go bust as many others.      

I don't want to be too harsh against Allo but I would tend to agree with you. Reminds me of restaurants with extensive menus but with total chaos going on in the kitchen.

[Reverso]

I am in the same boat as @kotlarix and have not received any response from Allo regarding an order that was placed in the last week of December.   

 

I remain optimistic and am giving Allo the benefit of the doubt they are working their way through a back-order.  

 

For those that have placed an order and are awaiting shipment, does your order status read "Preparation in progress"? 

[nbpf]

6 hours ago, Tintinabulum said:

 I think they are great. Different style and culture yes. It clearly doesn't suit you. Suits me though, happy to get my hands dirty, I enjoy learning. If I had to pay double to get seamless sales and back up it wouldn't add up for me.

 

I hope they succeed prosper and evolve. I hope they don't go bust because their business model doesn't suit you. It takes all sorts to make the world go round. I think they are a part (good part) of the democratisation of high end hifi- making it affordable, keeping other guys on their toes, competition, helping move things forward.

 

I'll keep buying, happy to tinker a bit and learn, I think it's fun but different strokes...

I actually very much sympathize and support Allo's style and culture and I would be happy to support and fund more attempts at building devices that can exploit open source software and computing platforms like the Raspberry Pi. 

 

What I am (benevolently) criticizing is Allo's quality control, documentation and communication. In these areas, I think that they can improve without or with little costs. 

 

With respect to the communication of timelines and roadmaps in particular, Allo is behaving exactly as every other manufacturer of so-called high-end components: Naim, Chord, Linn, etc.

 

These companies typically do not provide perspective customers and owners with any information about their plans for the development of their product lines. Thus, just to make an example, Naim have never made any official statement on whether they are going to develop a successor of their 10 years old nDAC or not. For nDAC users, this is a very strong incentive to move away from Naim. 

 

In much the same way, Allo has thrown at the market their DigiOne Signature without having communicated any roadmap, not even to current DigiOne customers. I understand that they adopt the same policy for most of their products.

 

While I understand the need to somehow protect projects and plans and prevent being anticipated by competitors, I believe that a better communication with customers could help new companies like Allo to build a more loyal customer basis.

 

Generally speaking, I think that the need to avoid the communication of timelines and roadmaps at any price is overemphasized and leads to rather silly communication policies and practice.

[nbpf]

6 hours ago, Tintinabulum said:

Also sometimes it almost seems like people use these forums to almost blackmail companies into action. I'm not sure if that what these forums are here for.

I do not think that it is a problem for a company if forums are used to put forward requests, e.g., for new products or for improving current products. Companies can take advantage of these information and gauge the sentiment of users and perspective customers.

 

There are forum rules and I understand that the OPs have means to moderate the discussion and prevent threads from going off-topic or worse.   

[kotlarix]

2 hours ago, Reverso said:

 

For those that have placed an order and are awaiting shipment, does your order status read "Preparation in progress"? 

 

"Preparation in progress" status is not changing since the beginning (moment I placed order)

[Reverso]

12 hours ago, kotlarix said:

 

"Preparation in progress" status is not changing since the beginning (moment I placed order)

 

I received a shipping confirmation and tracking number for my order this morning. The order was placed on 12/28. 

 

This is pure speculation, but perhaps they had a large backlog of holiday orders to process.

 

@kotlarix, I hope your order is processed soon!

[kotlarix]

4 hours ago, Reverso said:

 

I received a shipping confirmation and tracking number for my order this morning. The order was placed on 12/28. 

 

This is pure speculation, but perhaps they had a large backlog of holiday orders to process.

 

@kotlarix, I hope your order is processed soon!

 

Same here "in transit", but first I got email that my order is canceled so I wrote again and my digione signature is on the way to me 😉

 

Rest of a stuff coming Tuesday so when I'll be ready with drilling I'll share pictures

[clipper]

GentooPlayer sounds REALLY GOOD with the Pi/Signature.

 

I am running Squeezelite-R2 on it, sending music from Roon Server running on another machine.  

 

My current settings -  Kernel choice #10 (Realtime Kernel RT1 for Rpi-3B+), Ramdisk mode 1, HDMI turned off, Linux console disabled.

 

I can access everything via ssh.

 

See 

and 

https://www.nexthardware.com/forum/pc-top-software/90075-gentooplayer-immagini-x86_64-raspberry-pi-3b-3b-allo-sparkyusbbridge-beaglebone-black-botic-driver.html (which is in Italian).  Look for the GentooPlayerRaspi image to download.

 

 

 

 

[RX8R3ROD]

9 hours ago, kotlarix said:

 

Same here "in transit", but first I got email that my order is canceled so I wrote again and my digione signature is on the way to me 😉

 

Rest of a stuff coming Tuesday so when I'll be ready with drilling I'll share pictures

Great to hear the deliveries are coming through. Enjoy! 😊 

[kotlarix]

That was fast five days from India to Norway😊

 

Next week putting everything together and send pictures of allo streamer deluxe 😉