Allo Digione transport to Topping D50 DAC - UNLOCK issues

[bsheckler]

Hello, 

In an effort to improve SQ, I just replaced the Hifiberry DAC+ pro on my Raspberry Pi 3B+ music server with a Allo Digione SPDIF transport , a Topping D50 DAC, and a Signal Cable Silver resolution reference digital coax cable.

I am powering the Topping D50 with the iPower wall-wart.

My music is stored in FLAC format on a Samsung 860EVO.

I use LibreELEC for my operating system.

Once I figured out how and what to modify in the config.txt to make it work, there was an obvious improvement in sound quality. Everything just sounds better, period.

Now for the problem... The Topping D50 DAC looses lock with the Allo Digione several times per song on many or most songs.

The DAC screen actually flashes UNLOCK briefly at the same time the audio output goes to zero.

I did not have this issue at all with two different HifiBerry DAC HATs, which makes me think that the quality of my FLAC files is OK.

I bought a couple 24/192 FLACs as a test, and I get the same UNLOCK issue with them, so I do not think the files are the problem.

I do not have another outboard DAC that accepts RCA Coax digital cable, so I can't just swap and see if that helps with the UNLOCK situation.

Trying the different DAC filter settings did not seem to help any.

The DAC, transport and cable are all new, so they can be returned, but I do not like to scattergun it and just replace everything, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Best Regards,

Bil Sheckler

 

 

[bsheckler]

It occurred to me that I could use a coaxial digital video cable to replace the coaxial digital audio cable for testing if the new cable was  causing the issue.  It didn't sound as quite as nice, but the unlocking issues went away ! 

I will replace the digital coaxial audio cable with one from Blue Jeans.

Best Regards,

Bil Sheckler