Which transport product do I need?

[rebbi]

Hello, folks,

This is my first post to this website or this forum! 🙂

I already have an RP4. The project for which I originally purchased it never came to pass, but I am excited about the idea of turning it into a transport for my high-resolution music files. I already have a wonderful digital to analog converter module built into my Vinnie Rossi LIO  integrated amp. I should note that the module will take input via optical, coaxial or USB. 

I am confused about which would be the best product by Allo to buy for my purposes. I am fussy about music and have a resolving system, so I want to get the best results I can.

I have a few albums in DSD format, which is where the confusion comes in to play. If I want to play them on the transport I’d build, it seems the only Allo option is the USB bridge signature version, which does DSD and seems to be the only product in the lineup that does that.

The other alternative is to just haul out and plug-in my MacBook Pro when I really want to listen to one of those DSD albums and use this project to play everything else.

If I go with the USB signature board, though, I’m “wasting” my RP 4 because The USB bridge board (signature) only comes bundled with an RP 3 computer.

I was considering giving up on playing  DSD on this project and buying the digital one signature, but I’m a little put off reading a bunch of posts on this forum of people having trouble getting them to play music consistently. Not to be hyper critical, but the manufacturer usually responds only that a personal message has been sent, which doesn’t help anybody else looking for answers in the forum. So I guess another question is whether the signature model is that much audibly superior to the original model of the DigiOne.

I know this is a super long post and I’ll be extremely grateful in advance to any of you who can give me some guidance on this decision.

All my best!

[allo.com]

If you wish to play DSD , USBridge is the only option . SPIDF output will only go to 24/192Khz PCM

[rebbi]

Thank you for replying! Yes, I understand this. I guess my next question is, is the coaxial output on the DigiOne or Digione Signature that much better sounding than the native, USB output on the raspberry pi 4? I tried it last night with Volumio going to my DAC and it actually sounded pretty good.

[firedog]

52 minutes ago, rebbi said:

Thank you for replying! Yes, I understand this. I guess my next question is, is the coaxial output on the DigiOne or Digione Signature that much better sounding than the native, USB output on the raspberry pi 4? I tried it last night with Volumio going to my DAC and it actually sounded pretty good.

You won't get a consesus answer. Opinions differ and it also depends on your DAC. So what someone else says happens in their setup may or may not happen in yours. 

USB is convenient and gives you high DSD rates. On the other hand, there's really nothing wrong with converting DSD to PCM for playback. Lots of people do it and are very happy with it.

 

Do you need an add on board? I wouldn't tie myself in audiophile knots worrying about it. Is a board going to give you something you really need, or are you just talking yourself into it? 

 

It also depends on budget. Spending up to a few hundred $ to experiment isn't a big deal for some people. For others it is. If you want to try something like the allo or another streamer, you can always sell it and get most of your money back if you try something  and feel it didn't do that much for you. But if it's a significant outlay for you, then just continue with what you have. No reason you can't be happy listening to the RPi4 as it is. What other people do or think doesn't matter. 

[rebbi]

Good, rational advice. :-)

As I said, after hearing so much negativity about the USB ports on the raspberry pi (but I guess this more about models prior to the RP4), I was actually pretty shocked at how good it sounded, and this wasn't even high resolution music files, this was Spotify via Violumio! 

I'm going to hook up a USB hard drive or thumb drive containing some high-resolution files to the raspberry pi and see how those sound before I make a decision.

Thanks for responding here and elsewhere,

Steve