SPDIF Transport: Allo Digione or Allo Digione Signature Bundle (seeking opinions)

[raghupb]

I wouldn't bother with BNC-RCA digital coax in Digione setup. A good quality BNC-RCA digital coax will cost more than RPI+Digione put together and no matter what, I am not a proponent of spending more on cables than the equipment itself. A good 75Ohm RCA coax cable with right terminations around 1-2K should work well.

It was just a suggestion for folks who want to experiment.

In my rig, I just use whatever is available at home (in my cable box/carton)
Old MX RCAs, some old component video cables, and now a set of cables from Allo (cheap stuff, but firm contact)
Speaker wires are Finolex 2.5 sqmm
Banana plugs from MediaBridge

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[amit11]

You already have a RPi. So, just buy a Digione HAT for ₹5.5k , install Moode or Volumio on RPi3

My rpi version is 3B and not 3B+.
So that should be ok, right?
Also i get a feeling on reading few posts that though the signature version is better but it is not worth it. the sound quality improvement is not that much.
Also, one needs to buy shanti power for signature, else it will not sound good. due to this the total cost increases three to four times

 

[raghupb]

My rpi version is 3B and not 3B+.
So that should be ok, right?
Also i get a feeling on reading few posts that though the signature version is better but it is not worth it. the sound quality improvement is not that much.
Also, one needs to buy shanti power for signature, else it will not sound good. due to this the total cost increases three to four times

Why don't you write to Allo. They have a Bangalore based design and production team.
You may get this query answered.
There is also an ultra low noise SPMS called Nirvana; it is cheaper than Shanti LPS.

As for whether one needs a different PS is dependent on your system/ears/content etc
I am using stock PS and find it acceptable; no negatives. YMMV

Cheers,
Raghu

 

[shyamv]

My rpi version is 3B and not 3B+.
So that should be ok, right?
Also i get a feeling on reading few posts that though the signature version is better but it is not worth it. the sound quality improvement is not that much.
Also, one needs to buy shanti power for signature, else it will not sound good. due to this the total cost increases three to four times

Yes, Digione works with all Rpi versions. Regular Digione HAT should do. Signature would be useful only if the rest of the sound chain is revealing enough.

 

[Kannan]

If you guys are in 3b+, ditch the SD card route and boot from hard disk or a high capacity pen drive. It is natively supported in MoOde. Either expand storage to fill all your music files or create a separate NTFS partition to store and playback music files. Volumio is only supported on Berry boot which is a bit complex to achieve

 

[amit11]

Did anyone have raspberry pi and then he upgraded to Digione?
Example:
Previous: RPI usb out --> DAC
or Previous: RPI usb out --> usb-to-spdif convertor --> DAC

and now:
Digione spdif out --> DAC
or Digione signature spdif out --> DAC

 

[shyamv]

Did anyone have raspberry pi and then he upgraded to Digione?
Example:
Previous: RPI usb out --> DAC
or Previous: RPI usb out --> usb-to-spdif convertor --> DAC

and now:
Digione spdif out --> DAC
or Digione signature spdif out --> DAC

I didn't use a RPi before but I did get a RPi, Digione HAT, Digione Signature HAT, Volumion sw, power supplies and put it all together? Any questions?

 

[amit11]

I didn't use a RPi before but I did get a RPi, Digione HAT, Digione Signature HAT, Volumion sw, power supplies and put it all together? Any questions?

yes.. my confusion is how much of a upgrade digione (or signature version) would be over my current setup. I am currently using Rpi with airplay ---usb out to D10 ---> and then coax out to Dac. Since D10 is already in the picture my guess is, it is better than rpi direct usb to any usb dac. D10 is isolating the DAC from the noise of rpi usb since it is in between. so whether i should upgrade to digione or not.

another doubt is, whether to get digione or the signature version. signature version is not useful without linear power supply and that will add to the cost. And if i get the normal digione version, it may be similar to my current setup. i may be wrong however.

 

[shyamv]

If you guys are in 3b+, ditch the SD card route and boot from hard disk or a high capacity pen drive. It is natively supported in MoOde. Either expand storage to fill all your music files or create a separate NTFS partition to store and playback music files. Volumio is only supported on Berry boot which is a bit complex to achieve

Getting Volumio on a SD card is super simple. Just install Etcher, download Volumio image, flash It via Etcher on the SD card, pop-in the SD card in RPi, power it up, go to http://Volumio.local and you get the startup wizard. Plug in an Ex-Fat or FAT32 SDD or HDD of 1TB or less with your music, restart Volumio, leave it to scan your music (might take 15-30 mins the first time) and your music library is all set.

 

[amit11]

One more point. I have the raspberry pi 3B version. (not 3B+).
Until now i used to connect it to network via wifi. Very gradually over the months i realized it was fatiguing. Initially it was wow but i am surprised it took me months to realize that it was causing fatigue and i gradually started to avoid listening to my music system. And then i started connnecting my ipad directly to amp via the headphone out. That was sounding non-fatiguing and very musical to me.

Few days back, i switched off the wifi of raspberry. I am now providing network to it via ethernet cable. I have put a repeater on its side and connnected via ethernet cable. And to my surprise the fatigue reduced very much.. i now find it very good. The wifi was causing noise in the usb transmission to the D10 convertor. I am also now confused whether to really upgrade to digione (or signature) or not.

 

[shyamv]

yes.. my confusion is how much of a upgrade digione (or signature version) would be over my current setup. I am currently using Rpi with airplay ---usb out to D10 ---> and then coax out to Dac. Since D10 is already in the picture my guess is, it is better than rpi direct usb to any usb dac. D10 is isolating the DAC from the noise of rpi usb since it is in between. so whether i should upgrade to digione or not.

another doubt is, whether to get digione or the signature version. signature version is not useful without linear power supply and that will add to the cost. And if i get the normal digione version, it may be similar to my current setup. i may be wrong however.

Even the regular Digione would be a decent upgrade. As I said earlier, you won't need Signature unless your entire chain is very revealing. You have too many conversions and devices in your chain. Generally shorter the chain, cleaner it will be. I am sure Digione will do a much cleaner job of I2S to SPDIF conversion than RPI USB to SPDiF in Topping D10.

RPI USB itself is noisy and Digione HAT will avoid that path. Topping D10 is primarily a DAC not a dedicated SPDIF digital transport like Digione. I am not sure how much attention they would have paid to the SPDIF conversion or noise isolation over USB.

 

[shyamv]

One more point. I have the raspberry pi 3B version. (not 3B+).
Until now i used to connect it to network via wifi. Very gradually over the months i realized it was fatiguing. Initially it was wow but i am surprised it took me months to realize that it was causing fatigue and i gradually started to avoid listening to my music system. And then i started connnecting my ipad directly to amp via the headphone out. That was sounding non-fatiguing and very musical to me.

Few days back, i switched off the wifi of raspberry. I am now providing network to it via ethernet cable. I have put a repeater on its side and connnected via ethernet cable. And to my surprise the fatigue reduced very much.. i now find it very good. The wifi was causing noise in the usb transmission to the D10 convertor. I am also now confused whether to really upgrade to digione (or signature) or not.

Your call. I can only share my experience. If you are happy with the current setup, no reason to upgrade, right?

 

[Kannan]

Getting Volumio on a SD card is super simple. Just install Etcher, download Volumio image, flash It via Etcher on the SD card, pop-in the SD card in RPi, power it up, go to http://Volumio.local and you get the startup wizard. Plug in an Ex-Fat or FAT32 SDD or HDD of 1TB or less with your music, restart Volumio, leave it to scan your music (might take 15-30 mins the first time) and your music library is all set.

You completely missed my point here

 

[shyamv]

You completely missed my point here

Sorry. What was your point?

 

[Kannan]

Sorry. What was your point?

Having both boot partition and the music data in a single drive is better than booting off SD card.

 

[shyamv]

Having both boot partition and the music data in a single drive is better than booting off SD card.

Got it. Is retrieval of music data faster this way? Does this work with NTFS as well on Moode? Volumio does not play well with NTFS from what I have tried.

 

[Kannan]

Got it. Is retrieval of music data faster this way? Does this work with NTFS as well on Moode? Volumio does not play well with NTFS from what I have tried.

Yes. I have a thread on how to do it with MoOde

 

[Kannan]

Digione / Digione Signature / USBridge Signature - USB Mass Storage boot support

We are booting distros like Volumio/MoOde and other mpd based linux distros off SD card with digione and other raspberry pi based transports, with the music files residing on a separate drive. There have been issues of library management, crashing of library, slow rebuilding process etc. With...

www.hifivision.com

 

[premoddev]

One more point. I have the raspberry pi 3B version. (not 3B+).
Until now i used to connect it to network via wifi. Very gradually over the months i realized it was fatiguing. Initially it was wow but i am surprised it took me months to realize that it was causing fatigue and i gradually started to avoid listening to my music system. And then i started connnecting my ipad directly to amp via the headphone out. That was sounding non-fatiguing and very musical to me.

Few days back, i switched off the wifi of raspberry. I am now providing network to it via ethernet cable. I have put a repeater on its side and connnected via ethernet cable. And to my surprise the fatigue reduced very much.. i now find it very good. The wifi was causing noise in the usb transmission to the D10 convertor. I am also now confused whether to really upgrade to digione (or signature) or not.

There is a hifiberry digi pro hat in the sale section, from FM shyamv, not sure how it compares to Digione. Maybe @shyamv can tell about it...

 

[shyamv]

There is a hifiberry digi pro hat in the sale section, from FM shyamv, not sure how it compares to Digione. Maybe @shyamv can tell about it...

HifiBerry Digi+ Pro (not the regular Digi+), that is for sale, has a slightly different presentation from Digione. Both are good, depends on what one likes and partnering equipment. Digi+ Pro is more warmer/easy on the ears and Digione sounds more brighter/cleaner. Maybe because Digione overall has lower noise, it appears less warmer with my equipment as compared to Digi+ Pro.

With my CA CXA81+ MASilver RS6 combo, Digione becomes almost analytical and less musical. HifiBerry Digi+ Pro sounds musical. On CA CXA81+Spendor A4, Digione sound more detailed.