The Digione is just fabulous. I really believe that it will never be the weakest link in a system. A resolving system really lets the Digione shine.
My power cable shorted out on the Teddy Pardo, so I had to go back to iFi power supply for two weeks. My wife was constantly telling me there is some magic gone. Finially, I got the replacement cable and using the Teddy Pardo again, and man what a noticeable difference. As my wife says, the magic was back, warmth, texture and increase weight in the low end. Just fabulous.
When I first compared the different power supplies there was a positive difference but not so noticeable as now. Not sure if is that we were not listening for the differences, or if the Teddy Pardo needed time to break in. But in any case, the change is as dramatic as going from a crappy new production tube to one of the finest NOS tubes.
People here have questioned the use of a power supply that is 3 to 4 times the cost of the Digione, but for me, the Digione, with a good LPS, and a good SPDIF cable is one of the best deals in audio.
On that note, with my Bryston BDP-1/2 I noticed minor differences in SPDIF cables. With the Digione, the differences are so discernible.
I think however, that the differences with these things depend on rest of your system and how resolving or transparent it is. Resolution and transparency is a double edged sword. But it’s nice to know the Digione is far more capable then most systems need.
I absolute agree your opinion about DigiOne, perfect S/PDIF player! In my case it goes via
DigiOne -> Chord 2Qute -> Lehmannaudio Linear -> Sennheisser HD800S … sounds very harmonic !
But anyway, I think last weekend I did again a little improvement on my system. I was never happy that the Rasperry Pi is getting the power via a (shit) Mini-USB connector. So I soldered the power of my 5V Sbooster direct on the back of the Raspberry Pi:
Hi Tom, any soldered pics for reference? I wanna try it! But…it will be my first time for soldering.
What’s the difference between your GND and the GND on GPIO?
I guess, there is no difference in the GPIO GND. I assume @Tom_WoB showed a different soldering options as it is easier to solder.
Of course you can also use GPIO jumper cables and just connect it to the pins, but then you can not put an audio board on your pi. Some of the boards also have additional GPIO pinouts, that can be used, too, but not all of them.
@crieke is right: which GND doesn’t matter and I searched for “big free places” for easy soldering and good contacts. That’s why the GND-pin you marked is not a good idea (too close to the 5V-pins). You asked for a picture:
Small detail: for fixing the cable I took a broken headphone cable, cut it (need only the plug), inserted the plug in the “normal headphone jack” of the Pi and fixed the cable to the plug with a cable tie!
Some tips for soldering:
remove all unnecessary parts like DigiOne or Flashcard
The left one, name “third hand”, makes soldering itself much easier, because typically you “have not enough hands”:
one for soldering tool
one for solder
one for fixing Pi
one for fixing cable
So the tool can fix Pi and cable! The Multimeter on the right is to check that you didn’t solder a “short circuit”, otherwise your expensive LPS will die … If you don’t have a Multimeter I suggest the following scenario:
again: remove all unnecessary parts like DigiOne and Flashcard (should be already done)
take a cheap standard USB-power adapter and use the “original micro-USB power plug” (which still works!)
ready for “smoke-test” ??? … btw: what comes now is where the name “smoke-test” comes from
plug in USB-power adapter and see what’s happening …
if Raspberry Pi Power LED is on
if not … oups … maybe you smell it already (in USB-power adapter)
OK, if red Raspberry Pi Power LED is on you can go for LPS, DigiOne, Flashcard …
The only thing you should be aware of: If you power your Pi over GPIO pins, you are bypassing the power protection circuitry. So in case there is a power peak, the pi might get damaged.
That’s right, but I don’t expect “a power peak” on an “expensive audiophile LPS”, like a Sbooster. If this really happens, I assume the LPS is damaged too, which is typically much more expensive then a damaged Pi … so the Pi “is the smallest problem” …
Thanks for such detail explanation and soldering steps!! So, both the two of 5v pin and two of GND need to be soldered?
Btw, my board is rpi3, is its GND position same as yours?
Jim, there is no need to solder two of these “big GND pins”, one should be also fine. I did two because it was “somehow easier”, three I think is not possible (too big for generating enough heat for soldering). But one or two is fine and it doesn’t matter which one you use (of the four I marked above). Yes, all Raspberry Pis have such GND positions! They have two functionalities:
ground connection
fixing the USB-ports (with a Multimeter you can check the connection between these GND pins and the “case” of the USB-ports)
I’ve taken the 6V accessory output from my Arcam amplifier and put this through an ultra low noise LDO to give me 5V. This now powers my DigiOne.
Well, the bass has the most improvement, and there are other improvement in mass and “presentness”.This is quite impressive. Music sounds much more robust and propulsive, soundstage is considerably more open, more revealing of musical textures, more nuance and inner detail, the list goes on.†
Nah!
Happy I did this though as it’s a tidy way to power the RPi.
Edit:
†For those that didn’t get it, this was said with tongue firmly in cheek.
It’s just me who listens to my system. I made the changes to simplify my setup not to improve the audio experience. Indeed, I never expected an improvement on that front; noise really isn’t an issue with a switching supply on an RPi using quality hat. In fact, evidence suggests that the difference between switching supply and battery is negligible*. Nonetheless, I think Allo have done a cracking job with the DigiOne by including linear regulators, low pass filters etc. into the design.
So you have never attempted to listen for a difference? Or just assume they is no difference? Or don’t care if there is a difference? Or compared and found there is no difference?
Not being a jerk, just honestly confused on what your point was?
My personal experience that living with a change for a few weeks and then removing it allows for an immediate impression to be formed. Even better if you can change something with other listeners not knowing and see if they notice a change. Many changes are not noticeable. Some are minor, some are very noticeable. I do this with tube rolling and it’s very helpful.
Of course I listen. There is no discernable difference and I’m not going to spend time pretending there is. The science confirms what I hear.
I get the living away from change thing too. But that’s unreliable. Being away from home for a week I was suprised how good things sounded on my return. It seemed better than my recollection. But that’s nonsense since nothing had changed. I don’t think the human ear is reliable in that scenario.
… Regards Tom
I made the changes to simplify my setup not to improve the audio experience. Indeed, I never expected an improvement on that front; noise really isn’t an issue with a switching supply on an RPi using quality hat. In fact, evidence suggests that the difference between switching supply and battery is negligible*. Nonetheless, I think Allo have done a cracking job with the DigiOne by including linear regulators, low pass filters etc. into the design.