Allo Digione Signature

[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

[mothbhai]

7 minutes ago, CrushingIt said:

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

Yes - I have always been powering up the HAT first, and leaving it on for 1+ min before powering up the dirty side. I am pretty sure that the change of PS from powerbank to Allo PS is what did the trick, because I was very careful about changing one thing at a time before testing if that made a difference. 

[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. 

 

[mothbhai]

15 minutes ago, CrushingIt said:

I'm not sure what a power bank is

 

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

[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)

[richard_crl032]

Hi, for use of dac with i2s, is there an easy way to tap out i2s from digione and usb bridge signatures ? Tks.  Richard

[clipper]

On 5/28/2020 at 11:53 AM, n1kcha said:

-I use GentooPlayer with  enabled bubblepnp, Lumin app in ios and  Tidal works.

 

-Anyone knows if there is any upside from upgrading my RPI 3B to 3B+ or rpi4?

 

-Is digione signature i use with rpi3B compatible with rpi4? i know that acrylic  case is not but the board is it?

 

-I recently tried more seriously to get more for my setup (NAIM dac+allo digione signature) and upgraded power to Uptone LPS 1.2.

I use it for less than 2 weeks and its an upgrade! Its getting better by the time also i noticed that needs some hours to reach its best from off. What is strange is that its good only if i use it to power dirty side. Briefly i tried powering clean side but sound was hard and i immediately changed to power dirty side.

On the clean side i was expecting to use battery pack but the one i used destroyed after leaving some smoke in the air...

So i used allo's simple 5V/3A power supply  for clean side and its good, also tried some iphone chargers but were not good enough

If you can, try Allo's Shanti power supply with your Digione Signature.  It is excellent.  

 

It has 2 outputs, and it can power both the clean and dirty sides.  If you're powering the clean side with Allo's switching power supply now, I am really confident that you'll get a significant improvement with the Shanti.

[clipper]

2 hours 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.

The Shanti power supply that Allo sells is great (and perfect for the Digione Signature).

[zacho]

1 hour ago, clipper said:

The Shanti power supply that Allo sells is great (and perfect for the Digione Signature).

Should also check out the Ciunas SuperCapacitor ISO-PS. only 150euro for a dual rail. I use this to power my digione signature and it was a big big improvement over ifi on dirty side and 18650 lipo4 batteries on clean side. 

[RX8R3ROD]

The Shanti is IME very good indeed, and I doubt you'd be disappointed with it. 

 

From my experience (FWIW) the secret to extracting maximum sound quality from the Allo gear is how well regulated the power supply is, assuming it's low noise and can deliver power quickly.

 

IME the battery supply, when well regulated (think super-regs and supercaps) can, at the very, very least, challenge the Shanti, depending on your musical preferences. But the Shanti is of course less hassle.

 

For info, I own a Shanti, and several regulated battery supplies.

 

Have fun. :-)

[reelben]

3 hours ago, zacho said:

Should also check out the Ciunas SuperCapacitor ISO-PS. only 150euro for a dual rail. I use this to power my digione signature and it was a big big improvement over ifi on dirty side and 18650 lipo4 batteries on clean side. 

 

I have see a review on internet..Ciunas SuperCapacitor ISO-PS ... From Google How it is built inside 🥳

That make me not happy 😊. 

 I do not know how it now is..? 

[zacho]

10 minutes ago, reelben said:

 

I have see a review on internet..Ciunas SuperCapacitor ISO-PS ... From Google How it is built inside 🥳

That make me not happy 😊. 

 I do not know how it now is..? 

I think the online photos are of the old Battery ISO-PS. Whifh reviews have you read. there's a thread on pinkfishmedia forum where it compares favorably to the Paul Hynes SR4. And I guess for the price it commands, there can be no complaints. I certainly do not have any. 

[reelben]

1 minute ago, zacho said:

I think the online photos are of the old Battery ISO-PS. Whifh reviews have you read. there's a thread on pinkfishmedia forum where it compares favorably to the Paul Hynes SR4. And I guess for the price it commands, there can be no complaints. I certainly do not have any. 

 

I have see it from Google for a dac ... searching for Paul Hynes psu. 

Now I know I don't believe everything on internet marketing 😅

First I must it self hear and see 🎶

Only I found it here between Google search ..

https://www.audio “science” review/forum/index.php?threads/ciúnas-audio-iso-dac-teardown-and-failed-review.9653/

[sihctr]

Hi all. I've got a Digione Signature/Rpi 3B+ powered by a Shanti and connected to a Naim nDAC. All is working well but I was wondering if I should also ground the Digione via the Shanti grounding connector. Not sure if it is necessary as the nDAC provides the signal ground for the HiFi system.

 

Anyway, in case I want to experiment, what is the easiest way to do so? Going via the GPIO connectors seems a bit fiddly. I was wondering if I could plug in a cheap USB cable in one of the USB ports, dismantle the other side and connect the GND cable to Shanti. Is there any risk or potential issue by doing so?

 

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[suzywong]

So I’ve got USBridgeSig+DigiOneSig+Shanti, connected to my nDAC (with olive XPS) by DC-1 (BNC). The nDAC signal ground switch is set to “Floating”

 

I have a chassis ground strap between the USBridgeSig case and the Shanti case.

 

It all seems to work very nicely.

 

 

[sihctr]

Thanks for the response. Not sure if nDAC can get its signal grounding via the SPDIF connection, and therefore if "Floating" is the "correct" setting. That's probably a question for the Naim forum though! 🙂

 

Anyway, it seems safe to ground the RPI via a USB port as far as I can tell, so I will try it out in due course. The experiment should only cost 2-3 euros for the cheapest USB cable I can find!

 

Cheers!

[suzywong]

5 hours ago, sihctr said:

Thanks for the response. Not sure if nDAC can get its signal grounding via the SPDIF connection, and therefore if "Floating" is the "correct" setting. That's probably a question for the Naim forum though! 🙂

 

Anyway, it seems safe to ground the RPI via a USB port as far as I can tell, so I will try it out in due course. The experiment should only cost 2-3 euros for the cheapest USB cable I can find!

 

Cheers!

 

I've got mine floating because  I read the manual literally, and because there is a Naim CD player connected in the system the UM says "floating". However the CDX is not connected to the DAC so my interpretation may be completely and utterly wrong! Who knows ?? LOL

 

Might be worth trying both settings to see which sounds better - at least we won't do any damage (according to the the user manual). 

 

 

[sihctr]

Ahh, since you have a CDX analog out connected to the pre-amp, this is enforced to be your signal earth reference (no option for "chassis"/"floating" there) so you are right to have the nDAC as "floating". That should be the optimal indeed. Thanks for the clarification!

[Kamuisan]

I have the USBridge Signature + Digione Signature Combo + Allo Shanti. I bought the combo to power my active speakers based on Hypex amplifiers, that have spdif input. Very happy with the performance of USBridge Signature + Allo Shanti - the USB signal quality is fantastic! On the other hand the Digione Signature is so so - very clean sound but thin and lacking body. When I compare it to USBridge Signature + Gustard U12 USB - SPDIF converter, there is no comparison. The Gustard U12 is much more musical, Digione Signature sound "digital" and thin in comparison. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong. I am powering both USBridge Signature and Digione Signature with Allo Shanti. Because of the initial so so impressions with Digione Signature, I did not put much hours on the unit - I prefer using USBridge Signature + Gustard U12. Will "burning in" Digione Signature change the sound of the unit for the better? What else can I do to improve the sound of Digione Signature? I would prefer to use Digione Signature instead of my current setup - one USB cable, power cable and additional box less. I am using Moode at this point, the latest version.

 

Thank you for any advice,

Marcin

[InfinitelyBaffled]

6 minutes ago, Kamuisan said:

I have the USBridge Signature + Digione Signature Combo + Allo Shanti. I bought the combo to power my active speakers based on Hypex amplifiers, that have spdif input. Very happy with the performance of USBridge Signature + Allo Shanti - the USB signal quality is fantastic! On the other hand the Digione Signature is so so - very clean sound but thin and lacking body. When I compare it to USBridge Signature + Gustard U12 USB - SPDIF converter, there is no comparison. The Gustard U12 is much more musical, Digione Signature sound "digital" and thin in comparison. I am wondering if I am doing something wrong. I am powering both USBridge Signature and Digione Signature with Allo Shanti. Because of the initial so so impressions with Digione Signature, I did not put much hours on the unit - I prefer using USBridge Signature + Gustard U12. Will "burning in" Digione Signature change the sound of the unit for the better? What else can I do to improve the sound of Digione Signature? I would prefer to use Digione Signature instead of my current setup - one USB cable, power cable and additional box less. I am using Moode at this point, the latest version.

 

Thank you for any advice,

Marcin

 

So you convert the USB signal from the USBridge to coax SPDIF by using the Gustard U12? 

[Kamuisan]

12 minutes ago, InfinitelyBaffled said:

 

So you convert the USB signal from the USBridge to coax SPDIF by using the Gustard U12? 

Yes. I convert the USB signal from the USBridge Signature to SPDIF by using Gustard U12. I compare the sound of this setup versus Digione Signature mounted on top of USbridge Signature - in both cases powered by Allo Shanti. The endpoint is Hypex FA502 plate amplifier.

 

Thanks,

Marcin

[InfinitelyBaffled]

55 minutes ago, Kamuisan said:

Yes. I convert the USB signal from the USBridge Signature to SPDIF by using Gustard U12. I compare the sound of this setup versus Digione Signature mounted on top of USbridge Signature - in both cases powered by Allo Shanti. The endpoint is Hypex FA502 plate amplifier.

 

Thanks,

Marcin

 

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.)

[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?

[Kamuisan]

I have the USBridge Signature Player

 

https://allo.com/sparky/usbridge-signature-player.html

 

with the Digione Signature addon. So I suppose it has the isolator board and everything is hooked up correctly to provide clean power to Digione Signature. Have not opened the unit, but I can do that to confirm.

 

Thanks,

Marcin

[Boleary3]

Takes the digione sig a couple of weeks of burn in. Also the type of SPDIF cable makes a significant difference.