Allo DigiOne board

Thanks. You guys give really good customer service!

Well, my replacement board arrived today and is happily playing away. Thanks Johan and the whole Allo crew!

With my newly purchased coax spdif cable, I now have it running with both outputs cabled up to the rca and aes inputs on the Devialet.

I grouped the zone for the first time today with another RAAT pi hat zone. I figured I might need to tweak the sync delays for the spdif signal buffering, but it worked ā€˜straight out of the boxā€™. Perfect sync. Primary mission accomplished.

Initial listening impressions is perhaps a subtle but deeper bass presence via the bnc>AES route, but otherwise little to separate the two Devialet inputs, and little again between them and Roons AIR. More to report later once have had it in for a while and done some extended listening.

[edit]

Having had it playing a few days, Iā€™ll cut to the chaseā€¦

I feel the digiOne is, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from Roonā€™s AIR implementation over Ethernet.

I think thatā€™s pretty high praise bearing in mind the feedback so far for Roons AIR being fairly unanimously good - a step up from Devialetā€™s own implementation.

Ok, so if thereā€™s any downside it was more my understanding/hope that - having read other peopleā€™s opinions about the Devialetā€™s spdif/AES inputs fed by the likes of a Mutec - that the digiOne stood a chance of putting me in audio nirvana. That didnā€™t really happen.

Throughout my evaluation there were times when I felt the digiOne had more textured or deeper bass presence, or was easier to listen to, but this was squashed when I got confused about which source I was listening to - and at the point I was congratulating myself on correctly picking out the digiOne, I realised I had the Ethernet source playing. So perhaps there are differences, but in my setup, room, system, ears, etc, they are too similar to separate.

I donā€™t have any USB sources now to compare too, and I never went back and did a direct comparison of the ā€˜oldā€™ AIR.

Still I think this is high praise indeed. To match the best AIR implementation yet, at Ā£100 is pretty remarkable - incredible value. Add Alloā€™s fantastic customer service, and whatā€™s not to Iike? Just be careful swapping cables overā€¦

I tried a Linear PSU on it (eBay Chinese USB one ā€˜jays audioā€™), just because I had it unnecessarily on a raspberry pi upstairs. As far as I could tell it made no obvious difference to the sound.

So it achieved its goal and more. I now have a zone I can group with my kitchen, which was the primary goal, and the bonus is I donā€™t have to sacrifice any SQ. I may just use it as my primary source, but since Roon added native AIR streaming the same week, I have a choice. :grinning:

Iā€™m leaving the Linear PSU on it purely because itā€™s setup and I can convince myself itā€™s better served on the main hifi even if it makes no difference. The Allo supply is now on the hifiberry, and it does seem to cure ā€˜hifiberry buzzā€™ - something that the standard pi supply didnā€™t.

So thatā€™s it for now. Itā€™s a great device, but if I want the epiphany others have had, I guess I need to look more at my room/speakers. I feel another set of measurements coming onā€¦

[just to add, for cable freaks, I used pretty stock cables: the BNC supplied by Allo, into a Neutrik BNC>AES adapter (no BNC on the Devialet), and a tm3 connections (via eBay) spdif - Canare 75ohms plugs and Belden wire (Ā£20) ]

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Thx you Steve for your honest and to the point review.

I think that every hardware (DAC) has implemented the inputs in different ways. While I donā€™t own a Devialet , I heard lots of praise for this brand (I believe they cost 1500-2500Eur )

The fact there is not much difference between AIR and DigiOne tell me one thingā€¦the AIR/Ethernet implementation (hardware wise) must be excellent in Devialet , prob some type of reclocking or asynch transfer .

So yes in that case both inputs should be equal.

We are honored to be in such company.

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The Devialet Expert Pro line cost between roughly Ā£5,000 and Ā£23,000. The 250Pro (used here) sits around Ā£12,500 new.

ā€¦wow.

That seems like audio Nirvana

Yeap we are really happy to be (around) the same league.

Thx you Steve :grinning:

@allo.com
Allo DigiOne arrived yesterday.
But, I think my DigiOne is a defective product.

The sound quality is bad, and the PCB soldering is also strange.
Component soldering seems to be wrong.

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I found similar on my board just received today :cry:

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Is the sound quality good?

I had already PMā€™ed Johan about that earlier today before your post, but since youā€™ve now reported something similar, I can say I wasnā€™t too impressed with the sound :cry:

Itā€™s amazing how many times the crowd who get those audio epiphanies seem to find a ā‚¬500 cable that takes another veil off / makes old setup sound broken/ lowers noise floor/ makes sound more analogue etc.

.sjb

guys checking with the factory, will update.

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Iā€™ve great admiration for allo, own a sparky and have experienced their excellent customer service.

This thread and the issues occurring reminds me of the saying that " it is easy to build a good amplifier itā€™s to build 100 that sound the same that is the problem "

.sjb

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I own a Sparky, a Boss Dac, a Kali, a Piano 2.1, a Volt, a Capacitance multiplier and a Digione. Apart from a case that was broken in shipping and promptly replaced, the Digione being DOA is my first real problem. I am sure the replacement will be fine. I took a quick look at the faulty one and it didnā€™t look at all like the photos above so hopefully it is an isolated batch.

I will continue to support Allo and hope they continue bringing products to market at reasonable prices.

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Thank you for the information.

Thank you for the information

Hi James

factory is askingā€¦do you get correct sound (but not audiophile) out or garbled sound . What DAC are you using. BNC or Coaxial

Hi Johan,

I know youā€™ve asked James for more info but please see my photo above also, with the same soldering quality issue

Iā€™m using digital coax (RCA) and the sound isnā€™t great, but itā€™s not garbled either :cry:

Sorry for the late reply.

I am not fluent in English.
So there may be wrong expression.

The sound is not good, but it is not garbled sound.

The small sound makes it sound properly(not good). But in the loud sound, there are distortion and noisy.
My English is hard to express.

I connected the DigiOne to the NAD C390dd.
Connecting the HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro to the NAD C390dd is OK.
PS. I connected both BNC and coax, but the sound is similar.

James , you have a faulty unit. There can be no distortion or noise. Clearly its faulty hardware

Checking with factory on the reason of the resistor addition.

Sean , I assume there is no distortion ? How about the sound quality compared with anything elseā€¦

Hi Johan, no distortion or noise. I really donā€™t want to be too rude but since you asked, I have a Digi+ Pro like James and the DigiOne sounds worse :cry: going to a DirectStream DAC

It appears I have the extra resistor too, close to the RCA connector.