Allo Signature Digione; anyone tried it?

[davide256]

Just saw that Allo has released a Signature Digione version that is supposed to allow powering RPI and DIgione board separately, provide better clocks, etc. Having

both DIgione and USBridge, I found comparing  the two that the Digione is very promising, a digital artifact free, easy to live with product but its lack of resolving power

for low level signals made it inferior to a fully tweaked USBridge set up. Would love to hear feedback from anyone who does take the plunge to buy the Digione Signature

on how much or little it improves over the original DIgione with good power supply.

 

https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione-signature-player.html

[matthias]

8 hours ago, davide256 said:

Having both DIgione and USBridge, I found comparing  the two that the Digione is very promising, a digital artifact free, easy to live with product but its lack of resolving power for low level signals made it inferior to a fully tweaked USBridge set up. 

 

What is your understanding of a fully tweaked USBridge?

Thanks

 

Matt

[davide256]

7 hours ago, matthias said:

 

What is your understanding of a fully tweaked USBridge?

Thanks

 

Matt

1. Good separate PS's... I use iFi 5V for Sparky and LPS 1.2 for USBridge board

2. a reclocker with good PS.. I use ISO Regen either powered by second tap from LPS 1.2 at 5V (works although the ISO Regen supposedly needs 7V) or by SPS500

at 7v (not as resolving  as LPS 1.2)

I can't enjoy using the USBridge without a reclocker, its untouched output has digital irritants, whereas the Digione with good PS sounds like using an inexpensive analog source,  say Rega 3 with a basic cartridge.

 

[TiborM]

Nice thoughts, I just sold my usbridge and Casea Aquila reclocker and HD Plex LPS, I believe I was lacking little in dynamics, otherwise it was quite good. 

So afterwards I've ordered Digione signature player and will share my findings in a week or so, and hopefully I'll order sbooster LPS soon, or shall I get LPS 1.2 instead? 

[matthias]

2 hours ago, davide256 said:

 

I can't enjoy using the USBridge without a reclocker, its untouched output has digital irritants, whereas the Digione with good PS sounds like using an inexpensive analog source,  say Rega 3 with a basic cartridge.

 

I know it is OT, but did you compare ultrarendu to usbridge (both WITHOUT reclocker)?

Thanks

 

Matt

[matthias]

The best write-up so far:

 

https://forums.naimaudio.com/topic/allo-digione-signature

 

Matt

 

[davide256]

 

1 hour ago, matthias said:

 

I know it is OT, but did you compare ultrarendu to usbridge (both WITHOUT reclocker)?

Thanks

 

Matt

I had microRendu, sold it before I got USBridge or ISO Regen. By my memory it was better  hands down vs USBridge without a reclocker, no digital artifacts and very good low level resolution.  Haven't tried ultraRendu yet, hopefully it adds the sparkle and air microRendu lacked

 

[Rexp]

On 9/3/2018 at 9:11 PM, davide256 said:

1. Good separate PS's... I use iFi 5V for Sparky and LPS 1.2 for USBridge board

2. a reclocker with good PS.. I use ISO Regen either powered by second tap from LPS 1.2 at 5V (works although the ISO Regen supposedly needs 7V) or by SPS500

at 7v (not as resolving  as LPS 1.2)

I can't enjoy using the USBridge without a reclocker, its untouched output has digital irritants, whereas the Digione with good PS sounds like using an inexpensive analog source,  say Rega 3 with a basic cartridge.

 

If it sounds like analog that would be amazing.. 

[asdf1000]

On 9/3/2018 at 11:11 PM, davide256 said:

I can't enjoy using the USBridge without a reclocker, its untouched output has digital irritants

 

Interesting. Having had USBridge, mRendu, ultraRendu, DigiOne (some at the same time in different Roon zones), I would say USBridge completely lacked any digital irritants for me and was just as smooth and warm as the Rendu's.

 

I'm with Rob Watts (Chord) who posts about this a lot on Head-Fi on the various Chord DAC threads - smoother and warmer sounding is what you want to look/listen for with digital components. Anything that sounds more 'detailed' is probably just more RF being injected into the DAC (increasing IM distortion, making it sound a little artificially brighter, mistaken for more detailed)...

 

I'm not saying that you said anything sounded more detailed by the way.

 

Just sharing my own observations.

 

 

 

[davide256]

5 hours ago, Em2016 said:

 

Interesting. Having had USBridge, mRendu, ultraRendu, DigiOne (some at the same time in different Roon zones), I would say USBridge completely lacked any digital irritants for me and was just as smooth and warm as the Rendu's.

 

I'm with Rob Watts (Chord) who posts about this a lot on Head-Fi on the various Chord DAC threads - smoother and warmer sounding is what you want to look/listen for with digital components. Anything that sounds more 'detailed' is probably just more RF being injected into the DAC (increasing IM distortion, making it sound a little artificially brighter, mistaken for more detailed)...

 

I'm not saying that you said anything sounded more detailed by the way.

 

Just sharing my own observations.

 

 

 

 couldn't bring myself to buy a CD player between 1985-2001, felt like the music had a dentist drill running in the background. So I may be a bit of a mine canary when it

comes to detection of digital irritants, others may not be bothered by what bothers me.

[asdf1000]

1 minute ago, davide256 said:

couldn't bring myself to buy a CD player between 1985-2001, felt like the music had a dentist drill running in the background.

 

Ha I can relate to that too. If you were using an iFi iPower with USBridge, that might be one reason... John Swenson has commented about it's leakage currents on this forum before.

 

[davide256]

Darko review pending

 

https://darko.audio/coming-soon/

[TiborM]

Hi. 

It has arrived today. I've been listening only for few hours with stock ps and battery power, unfortunately on dirty side with the power bank, because it kept switching off on clean side. 

So this thing looks promising, very clean, detailed, musical, but with little hardness or harsh sound on highs, but that's probably the ps, or it needs to burn in a little. 

Before I was using usbridge with Casea Aquila and HD Plex LPS and somewhere I red to get rid of usb chain, well ... bingo. 

I'll buy ifi iPower next and sbooster later, I am very excited to hear more, will try headphones tomorrow. 

[nbpf]

6 hours ago, Em2016 said:

 

Ha I can relate to that too. If you were using an iFi iPower with USBridge, that might be one reason... John Swenson has commented about it's leakage currents on this forum before.

 

True but it is very easy to ground the ifi iPower following John Swenson's instructions and check whether this has any impacts on sound quality on a specific system.   

[nbpf]

Has anyone compared the DigiOne Signature to a Schiit Eitr connected to a USB port of the same RPi used to host the DigiOne Signature? Thanks, nbpf

[asdf1000]

For anyone using the iFi....

 

From allo:

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/digione-signature/47638/101

 

I found the same. The USBridge sounded very nice and smooth powered by a 5Vdc powerbank (no mains RF, no AC mains leakage currents...).

 

Allo use low noise linear regulators so the voltage ripple from a powerbank (or any good SMPS) maybe isn't as critical as reducing mains RF and mains leakage...

[davide256]

On 9/6/2018 at 9:06 AM, Em2016 said:

 

Ha I can relate to that too. If you were using an iFi iPower with USBridge, that might be one reason... John Swenson has commented about it's leakage currents on this forum before.

 

I really haven't found it to matter  what powers the Sparky... what powers the USBridge board is what matters and that remains the LPS 1.2. I use the iFi for Sparky

board because it frees up the HDPlex for other uses. 

[davide256]

Saw this today, tech chatter but no real sense of" does it sound good"

 

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-measurements-of-allo-digione-signature-and-diyinhk-pro3z.4660/

[davide256]

On 9/7/2018 at 4:53 AM, Em2016 said:

For anyone using the iFi....

 

From allo:

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/digione-signature/47638/101

 

I found the same. The USBridge sounded very nice and smooth powered by a 5Vdc powerbank (no mains RF, no AC mains leakage currents...).

 

Allo use low noise linear regulators so the voltage ripple from a powerbank (or any good SMPS) maybe isn't as critical as reducing mains RF and mains leakage...

wondering if you used the diet-pi process tool to tweak? I just  found out  about that, now power supply for the Sparky board matters.

[TiborM]

Hi. 

So I have been living with it for few weeks now. It's good. 

?

The flow of music is very very nice, may I say impressive for this kind of money. 

Separation is very good, it's been a long time since I have heard new things in songs, now I hear background melody a lot better. Microdynamics as well. 

First week there was a problem with some hardness, especially on voices, but that's gone by now. But still the sound is brighter than usual, so avoid bright speakers. 

It works well with in my chain, audio gd r2r 1, Creek Evo 50a and Tannoy DC6T SE. 

Cheers 

 

 

[TiborM]

Ok, my mistake. 

Any hardness, or feel of brighter sound was caused by power supply. 

Now, powering clean side just with a cheaper audiophonics 5v LPS and rpi still with stock smps, everything seems to sound just right, great resolution and dynamics and a great flow. 

Listening to Bradley and Gaga is awesome. 

Anyone to join? 

T. 

[George Hincapie]

Really interested to read about this. I used, and still own, an original DigiOne before I bought my Metrum Acoustics Ambre. It is a phenomenal performer and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a super high SQ SPDIF Digital Coax Roon End Point. I used mine with a Tomanek LPSU.

 

I have to say that the Signature sounds like a super piece of technology. What are you guys going to use to feed the clean side?

[nbpf]

On 9/27/2018 at 2:23 AM, davide256 said:

Saw this today, tech chatter but no real sense of" does it sound good"

 

https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-measurements-of-allo-digione-signature-and-diyinhk-pro3z.4660/

For me this is a very good example of wasted time and money. I have absolute nothing against bare measurements. But these should be designed in such a way that one can draw from them some reliable conclusions. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the measurements presented in the above link. 

 

What I would have expected to see, as a minimum, are measurements of exactly the same quantities for the DigiOne and for the DigiOne Signature. In absence of this very elementary information it is not even clear that (again from the point of view of noise measurements alone) the DigiOne Signature is an improvement over the DigiOne. 

 

While I'd very much like to order a DigiOne Signature, it is exactly these kind of "reviews" that are preventing me from doing so. I think that for Allo it would be better if audiosciencereview.com would withdraw or improve their review.

[adamdea]

On 10/15/2018 at 12:29 PM, nbpf said:

For me this is a very good example of wasted time and money. I have absolute nothing against bare measurements. But these should be designed in such a way that one can draw from them some reliable conclusions. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the measurements presented in the above link. 

 

What I would have expected to see, as a minimum, are measurements of exactly the same quantities for the DigiOne and for the DigiOne Signature. In absence of this very elementary information it is not even clear that (again from the point of view of noise measurements alone) the DigiOne Signature is an improvement over the DigiOne. 

 

While I'd very much like to order a DigiOne Signature, it is exactly these kind of "reviews" that are preventing me from doing so. I think that for Allo it would be better if audiosciencereview.com would withdraw or improve their review.

Amir is now getting a non0sgnature digione and will be measuring it. That should provide the answers.  Even the non sig version is  much more expensive than the equivalent hifiberry. I'm hopin the Amir will have a look at that too.

[nbpf]

30 minutes ago, adamdea said:

Amir is now getting a non0sgnature digione and will be measuring it. That should provide the answers.  Even the non sig version is  much more expensive than the equivalent hifiberry. I'm hopin the Amir will have a look at that too.

Interesting! I apologize for my ignorance but who is Amir? Could you please post a pointer to the relevant URLs? Thanks, nbpf