Anyone else having issues with choppiness or short pauses while streaming 96khz/24bit to CCA via Roon?
Any recommendations for alternative Roon streamers? I'm thinking of the Node 2i, but the measurements are inferior to the CCA.
So, I was not particularly happy with the sound of my CCA streaming Tidal. It actually seemed a step down from my older Apple tv, which streamed directly from my iPad and is decidedly NOT his-res capable. I've been looking at alternatives, but I want to use my existing DAC and was amazed at the high prices of the streamer boxes on the market. I was about to go with a Bluesound Node2i that I found slightly used for $400 on ebay. Still, $400 seemed like a lot for a DAC and multiroom streaming I wouldn't use. I just needed a way to get high quality, hi-res capable bits to my DAC - controlled by my iPad. What I needed was a transport.
Yesterday I received my Allo DigiOne (about $200). The reviews out there were very good, but I was skeptical. It's just 0s and 1s, right? I was also highly cognizant of confirmation bias and I was determined to be neutral and expected it to sound about the same.
Within the first song or two, that flew out the window. It sounded better! Noticeably better. The harshness in the high end was gone - it is now more refined. The bass from my two sealed subs was more controlled, less boomy. Overall, the presentation was significantly more balanced, refined, and just sweeter. I sat there smiling. I love the sound of this!
Say what you will about digital signals being agnostic. My belief is that although the 1s and 0s mostly all get there, how your particular DAC and your particular system reacts to and translates the signal entering the DAC makes a difference in the final sound. Allo's work in reducing jitter and providing a clean signal has proven to me it's worth in MY system, and it sounds fantastic. YMMV.
So, strong recommendation for the Allo DigiOne. I ordered it with Volumio installed, which has Tidal support. These are also Roon endpoint capable. Amir reviewed it last year:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...measurements-of-allo-digione-rpi-s-pdif.5418/