Slim
Thanks for replying so quickly.
The CD player has RCA inputs, and then he can play via the speakers connected to his CD player (in this set-up he can listen to CD’s as normal or Roon music via the Allo player).
Not really sure what the extras over the Boss Player are, but for the small difference in cost I get the better unit if I want to use later anywhere else in the house.
Cheers
John
The Boss player will be fine. I have both Vana and Boss and there is little between them really except $40.
Note you will need to reflash the included SD Card with Ropieee or Dietpi or similar and in the case of Dietpi install Roon Bridge
Toni
Thanks.
So Boss Player is enough. Allo website shows only $26 price difference, but then read that Sparky board may not have the same amount of choices to run different OS’s, whereas Pi3 has multiple support for OS’s (I may not be correct here). Am I right (or wrong) and would only the Pi3 be able to run Ropieee or Dietpi?
So save money getting Boss player, but very little difference in sound.
The one thing I did notice about the Piano Board (in the Vana Bundle) is that it comes with a headphone output, which would be handy for my son.
Cheers
John
Are you looking at the Vana Light 2.0 ($135)? I was comparing the Vana Light 2.1 ($149) which has a better DAC than the 2.0.but no headphone output. Does his CD player have a headphone out?
The Pi3 can run many build based on raspbarian but for roon only Ropieee is easiest for beginers. The Sparky has more limited support but for Roon purposes Dietpi is great.
Tony
Yes, Vana Light 2.0.
If you feel the Boss Dac is better than the Piano DAC (not the Piano 2.1 Dac), then maybe I should just go for the Boss Player Bundle.
Just thought the headphone output of the Piano DAC would be handy, but isn’t a show stopper.
Alright, I am back after some research and vacation and ordering!
I got the Schiit Modi DAC and the USBridge (and Wifi Dongle) – see I was listening!
I don’t have the USBridge setup yet as I have the Wifi Dongle but don’t know how to get it on my Wifi. Do I have to temporarily Ethernet it, get into the config and setup Wifi and then disconnect Ether? That is my next attempt but not tonight. (@allo.com)
In the meantime, i was playing with the Schiit Modi without the USBridge:
MacBook Roon Core (Tidal) >> USB to Shciit >> RCA to Adcom Amp
Sound was phenomenal, only a few songs in so far. When I first ran Roon thru it, it was set to CoreAudio for volume control. It came on BLARINGLY loud! I quickly paused and lowered it to a setting of 1 out of 100 scale of volume. 2 was really loud and 3 unbearably. So I set it to DSP Volume and now I get a negative dB range. Is that the best way to control volume, seems right.
So far so good!
Cheers,
Rob.
Don’t you control volume through your amp? If so set it to fixed volume.
Assuming you are using Dietpi on your sparky with USBridge the website getting started here gives instructions for setting up wifi if no ethernet network available. You may need to burn Dietpi image to your sd card from scratch if you have already booted it…
The amp is just an amp, no knobs! (not an integrated receiver).
The Sparky came with DietPi installed, hopefully I don’t have to do all that to get Wifi. Thanks for the link, i will look through in more detail.
Sounds good, so to speak. All my endpoints have knobs, i.e. two headphone amps, powered monitors, and a pre-amp, so I can’t speak to DSP volume control. I’m assuming that once one sets the volume that it’s sticky, i.e. it stays at the volume last set thru all future listening sessions. Having it start up at max all the time, no matter how fast you turn it down, is a good way to blow up your speakers. If for whatever reason you want something to twist, Schiit makes a $50 device named SYS. They call it a pre-amp, but it’s really just a volume control.
Since DietPi is already installed, you’re almost there for WiFi, no ethernet needed.
Hook Sparky unto a monitor and keyboard/mouse and from the command line exec ‘dietpi-config’. Select ‘network options’ and follow instructions. You may also want to set a static ip address. Be careful how you make entries on the menus, The way to move back and forth and save things is slightly confusing. Not DietPi’s fault, it’s just the way this particular type of Linux interface works.
I’m running headless on all my endpoints, so I can’t be more detailed, but if you run into trouble I’ll hook a monitor up and give step by step.
Regards 
BTW - I have three DietPi endpoints. I got on the DietPi site and gave a one time donation for each endpoint, thru PayPal it’s really easy. Just saying …
Thanks for some good tips. I wont get back to this for a couple of days, but will post back.
I will definitely support DietPi!
@RobOK -
Couple things I forgot to mention.
Since you bought USBridge with DietPi already loaded, this may be already be selected. In ‘diet-config’, choose a sound card. If it isn’t already picked you want the usb port. If this is not right you won’t get any sound.
‘diet-software’ gives you a list of software that DietPi can load onto your machine. Go down the list to ‘Roonbridge’ and use a space bar to select. You can load other programs, but for this purpose Roonbridge is all you need. If this is not done, Roon won’t see your endpoint.
@xxx and others that replied above… thank you all, I am up and running. It was harder than I thought to find the right spare keyboard and monitor (at first I did not realize the USBridge had an HDMI. So I ran the config, selected my wifi, ran some updates and was off and running! Allo already has roonbridge running.
I have the USBridge feeding a Schiit Modi DAC and going right into my power amp (Adcom) to the Linn speakers. Using Roon for volume control.
The sound is really clean and detailed, I am very excited to get it all up and running with minimal fuss!
Thanks to Allo too, very well done top to bottom!
you know you could have SSH’d into the USBridge don’t you? No need for the seperate keyboard and monitor.
I know its no help to you now but it may help someone else.
For now it is not on Ethernet so I needed to logon directly to it to setup wifi. But good reminder!
Hi @Tony_Reimann
Excuse but was does SSH’d meaning/stands for?
I have a Allo USBridge?
But haven’t connected it to a screen with the hdmi and no keyboard or mouse!
So I’m just interested that it means and if I shall do something to use the SSH’d?
Thanks in advance,
Best regards Anders
SSH stands for secure shell (google will give you all you need). In a Mac environment use Terminal or Putty is a good app for Windows.
You could use Telnet also.
Your USBridge can pre-configured to run Roon Bridge, so you were pretty much plug n play which is great. If you ever need to change any configuration, you need to logon to the machine. You can do that physically like I did or remotely (SSH). If you are not familiar with linux type systems, you might want to connect a monitor to do it just to watch it boot up – these little computers are impressive!
Well @Tony_Reimann and @RobOK
I have spent a few hours on reading and downloading apps for SSH!
But unfortunately so doesn’t I get in on my Allo Sparky 
.
So if I want to watching on what it can be used more than sitting on the USBridge and controlling it!
So will it be a hdmi cable in and my son’s wireless keyboard and mouse .
Because I haven’t worked or used Linux before, so I’m a hopeless newbie!
I understand that it’s a great program and can do many things, but…
Anyway thanks for your guidance and help,
Anders
If you put in an HDMI or USB monitor and a USB keyboard, it should boot right up. You don’t need a mouse.
Once it comes up there are some options like dietpi-config you can explore.
Are you using MAC or PC?