Allo USBridge board

Damn you Gerald, you’ve probably just tipped me over into trying the dual supply option as well; another £50 ‘down the drain’!

wrt Dragonfly Red noise at 24/96:
One workaround, while this is getting looked at by @allo.com, is to upsample everything to 96/24…this means you only get the buzz on the first song, and it is fine from there on(Only endure the noise once every listening session)

Obviously it means you need the DSP engine on.

Great Gerald, I felt too it was a great improvement. I have another two IFIPower at home for other purposes, perhaps I may change the one of Sparky as well, if I see any difference I’ll come back

haha yeah I am running it this way too…I run the PSU supplied with the USBridge into the Sparky, and a cleaner linear PSU into the USBridge.

Not sure if a linear PSU into the Sparky would improve it even further as I don’t have another one to test with…if someone has tried it let me know.

I shouldn’t ask this question as no doubt it will cost me but…which linear supply are you using for the USBridge

Mine is nothing spectacular: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-out-DC-5V-9V-12V-15V-AC110V-220V-25VA-HIFI-linear-power-supply/1000004741091.html

I would love an Sbooster or Ultracap(https://uptoneaudio.com/products/ultracap-lps-1) , but probably overkill for USBridge.

@Phil_Wright

I got this LPS from Music Direct, “open box” for $239…

https://ciaudio.com/product/vdc•5-mkii-upgrade-power-supply/

I connected the LPS directly to the USBridge, not to Sparky.

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Thx! @Wouter_du_Toit I’ll give it a try

BTW I just plugged the Dragonfly in the USB 3.0 and works flawlessly with any frequency, I suppose there should be a decrease in SQ respect the USBridge, I’ll do some comparisons and come back with impressions, if you check this I’d be interested in your outputs.

However more information to help @allo.com

Aaaah good find! I can confirm no noise when switching to 24/96 on my USB3 port, even though the device is still USB 1.1:
root@usbbridge:~# lsusb -t
/: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=aotg_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/2p, 12M
/: Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=aotg_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci-hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M

As for sound quality it takes a hit on USB3 obviously…

Looks interesting - £65 including shipping to the UK.

Having looked at it I’m slightly confused as to the socketry on it. On the front there’s a knob (presumably on/off) and a USB socket (presumably the output to the device, USBridge in our case).

On the rear there’s the power cable input and also two identical centre pin positive sockets. What are these for? I got excited at first thinking it had dual outputs (which given it’s 3.5A rating means it could have powered both the Sparky and the bridge). Suspect that’s not the case though.

nah don’t use both…I don’t use the USB output atm(but it is convenient to use in the future). I just got a 2.1mm <> 2.5mm convertor for the DC barrel jack, and connected that to USBridge.

A slight upgrade to this would be this one with the Talema tranformer: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Breeze-audio-weilaing-audio-Linear-Power-Supply-Regulated-power-supply-Refer-to-STUDER900-5V-6V-7V/32811138687.html

Other option is iFi’s switched psu.

@allo.com I got strange issue with my USBridge which just got delivered yesterday. Everytime I reboot the unit via DietPi terminal or Allo GUI, unit freezes and I can’t get it to work without disconnecting power cords. Unit is powered by 2 PSU’s (default PSU powering Sparky board and iFi iPower 5V powering USbridge board). J28 jumper has been removed.

Unit seems to work just fine after I connect cords again, but I like to tinker with settings and such, so it’s a big annoyance…

Any ideas what could cause this behaviour ?

Edit. Latest DietPi version installed.

Hi johan @allo.com

From the website:

"How about RPI? RPIs are great and very energy efficient, but on USB they have 2 major flaws. First is that bandwidth is shared between the 2 USB ports (so in fact there is only one USB), and second is that ethernet is also shared on same bus! Of course, you also have the noise on USB at about 60mV.

Maybe Sparky? The 2 USB ports (next to the ethernet port) share one input to the CPU (split by a hub). Noise on USB bus is about 27mV (pretty good) and ethernet is completely apart (bus is not shared). So it’s ok, but not great.

So we developed a new board that is connected to the bottom of Sparky. Sparky has 2 independent USB controllers (2 highways), and we connect to the second one. Then we use a new USB IC that reclocks the stream using hi quality NDK Oscillators, and everything is powered by independent LDOs and hi frequency filters. The final noise of the USBridge is lower than the noise of a battery."

What is the final noise of the USBridge, say at max power output, like when it needs to provide 5V at nearly 500mA to a DAC that is bus powered?

Many thanks in advance

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Hi @allo.com

just to know if the there are any news/plans with the noise issue with Dragonfly Red

Thx
Enrique

@Enrique_Perez Posted a PM to you for getting more information.

Alucase for USBridge is finally in stock at allo website :slightly_smiling_face:

Good news !
Dimensions are 10cm long x 6.5cm wide x 4.5cm high according to ALLO.
Seems a bundle alu case + USBridge might be quickly available via ALLO website.
I wonder if this bundle (USBridge + case) will be delivered assembled ?
Allo ?

Just ordered the USBridge + Alu Case. Looking forward to getting it in the system alongside the Pro-Ject S2 Dac :slight_smile:

I’ve also ordered this LPS to power the DAC and USBridge;
LKS 25va Talema

Will let you know how it works out.

I just got my USBridge a couple days ago and all is working (and sounding) great right out of the box. That said, now I want to tinker a bit. Since Sparky doesn’t have bluetooth built in, can anyone recommend a dongle that will work easily as well as a link to instructions for installing the drivers? What I’m trying to accomplish is using my Harmony Hub as a bluetooth keyboard so that I can use my remote for skip, play, and pause and ovoid having to use two different devices for basic controls (there is an add-in for this in the “Tinkering” section that enables this)… or if there is another way I haven’t seen one of you may know about?

I have DietPi OS

Hello all,
wondering if anyone has experience using a USBridge with a Simaudio Moon DAC, such as the 280d/380d or the DAC onboard the 340i integrated (which is what I have). In particular I’m interested in finding out if native DSD works, or at least through DoP.
Thanks!