Review and Measurements of Allo Katana and ApplePi Raspberry Pi DACs

[johan]

Was it a double blinded test? If not, I find it hard to believe what you and the other test results.

Yes it was a double blind test

 

[johan]

To me if certain DACs were excluded from tests it is not a fair test and shows bias.

PecanPI was excluded from the second test only.. It did participate on the first test.

" i think it's clear. We liked Pecan Pi, but we liked 5 boards better than PecanPi. "

The test was performed by a panel of multiple judges.

 

[Soniclife]

Yes it was a double blind test

I didn't find their methodology on a quick look at the thread, but where do they detail how this was tested? How is the double blind being done, and are these ab preference tests or something else?

 

[johan]

Frankly , I dont know. The only think I know from previous posts is that is a double blind test and I see some cards with test markings.

 

[johan]

this is the FFT of the SQ Katana.

 

[FireLion]

What's the advantage of adding the pi?

 

[johan]

Your DAC becomes a network streamer .

 

[Veri]

Hi ,

we are developing a LPS with dual 5V output, it should be out in a few weeks. Yes you need 2x5V PSUs for best quality . Yes we include only one PSU

ALLO SHANTI psu spottted
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/hifi...-linear-power-supply-5v-3a-5v-1a-p-14009.html

 

[Krunok]

ALLO SHANTI psu spottted
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/hifi...-linear-power-supply-5v-3a-5v-1a-p-14009.html

RPI based audio equipment is supposed to be cheap and now you need a 169EUR PSU?!?

 

[Veri]

RPI based audio equipment is supposed to be cheap and now you need a 169EUR PSU?!?

It is hardly necessary, they built it and tweaked it for lowest noise for the people who are interested in buying cleaner power. Amir has already proven several times, LPS is hardly necessary/waste of money since a proper design should already be filtering the incoming power to a certain degree. ALLO can still make it as long as people want to buy such a product though... as long as it is a competent design and not a noisy psu the likes of iFi power, I still respect them going through the R&D to create a proper engineered product:

First a capacitance bank (massive) to reduce the 50/60Hz noise, then an active filter, followed by an LDO to keep voltage stable. Since LDOs have poor transient and impedance, we used a last active filter (with good transient) and then capacitors more than 15.000uF but most importantly, super capacitors on the output. Final power comes in fact from super caps...

In fact , by using the LPS , we can see THD+N gets better by 1.5db

^^^In their own testing there was a tiny gain. Worth it? Probably not but that's up to the spender... I would certainly not spent 160EUR on 1.5dB SINAD/THD+N but someone else might.

 

[Krunok]

It is hardly necessary, they built it and tweaked it for lowest noise for the people who are interested in buying cleaner power. Amir has already proven several times, LPS is hardly necessary/waste of money since a proper design should already be filtering the incoming power to a certain degree. ALLO can still make it as long as people want to buy such a product though... as long as it is a competent design and not a noisy psu the likes of iFi power, I still respect them going through the R&D to create a proper engineered product:

First a capacitance bank (massive) to reduce the 50/60Hz noise, then an active filter, followed by an LDO to keep voltage stable. Since LDOs have poor transient and impedance, we used a last active filter (with good transient) and then capacitors more than 15.000uF but most importantly, super capacitors on the output. Final power comes in fact from super caps...

Instead of trying to teach me about LPS I suggest you take more attention to what I said.

I'll repeat it with a little more detail for clarity, so please read several times before posting something irrelevant again : RPI as a platform was designed to be cheap. It was not meant to be fastest platform, nor the best in an parameter, but the cheapest. Most of it's accessories follow that logic so you can buy various "hats" that do a decent job for a small ammount of money. Saying that " you need 2x5V PSUs for best quality", and the PSU costs 169EUR, is a kind of oxymoron in my opinion as it totally misses the philosophy on which RPI was built. [/QUOTE]

 

[Veri]

Instead of trying to teach me about LPS I suggest you take more attention to what I said.

I'll repeat it with a little more detail for clarity, so please read several times before posting something irrelevant again : RPI as a platform was designed to be cheap. It was not meant to be fastest platform, nor the best in an parameter, but the cheapest. Most of it's accessories follow that logic so you can buy various "hats" that do a decent job for a small ammount of money. Saying that " you need 2x5V PSUs for best quality", and the PSU costs 169EUR, is a kind of oxymoron in my opinion as it totally misses the philosophy on which RPI was built.

Seriously dude you are too arrogant for your own good. Also it is "its" accessories, not it's, for all your condescending tone is worth. Whoever said anything about "needing" the 169EUR PSU??? I started my damn post saying exactly that you do NOT yet you end yours, again, with something about needing said pricy PSU which no one ever claimed, at all??? Allo sells a $11 one for Christ's sake, who put in your head anyone is forcing these pricy supplies on anyone?

It's a PSU. It's a pricy one. It's very low noise and probably totally pointlessly so. It's made to be over-engineered and has provenly low noise as seen in the AP graph, which is commendable for a manufacturer to provide, pointless accessory or not. Your contribution here imo is incredibly pointless, but thanks for showing your wonderful character for the umpteenth time. Good that there's an ignore function, sad that I have to use it.

 

[Krunok]

Seriously dude you are too arrogant for your own good.

Nobody is asking you to agree with my opninon so stop with the personal shit - I made an opinion not about you but about the topic.

And don't address me as "dude" - I'm pretty certain it wouldn't even cross your mind to talk like that if you were standing in front of me.

 

[Veri]

I'm pretty certain it wouldn't even cross your mind to talk like that if you were standing in front of me.

Arrogance⁠— point proven? Goodbye.

 

[Thomas savage]

I know we can annoy each other but please try and keep civility in mind, this medium can make a arse out of all of us so try and give a bit of latitude to one another.

Cheers

 

[Krunok]

I know we can annoy each other but please try and keep civility in mind, this medium can make a arse out of all of us so try and give a bit of latitude to one another.

Cheers

Luckilly medium enables that lack of manners and incompetence is easilly compensated with ignore button.

Cheers

 

[johan]

Hello ,

Shanti dual PSU was designed for low noise. Further , we will provide Amir with the LPS so independent testing can be done .

We do observe better THD+N with good DACs .

You can use Shanti on whatever DACs /Source accepts 5V.


Now Krunok makes the observation that for 159$ the increase in THD+N might not be worth it . Thats his opinion and we respect it .

Now , other people might find the increase its worth the price. We also think that opinion should be respected . Imaging living in a land where all opinions are the same..

No matter what side you are on , we should respect each other and understand that opinions are like pie holes. Everyone has one and everyone thinks his/hers is "more correct" .

Lets all sit back and enjoy our playlists. Can we agree on that ?

 

[Bamyasi]

Hi @johan,

Does Allo have any plans switching to Pi 4 for Katana in the future?

I think Pi 3+ was not a good network streaming platform from the beginning, with its crippled networking & USB ports implementation. Pi 4 fixes all this and also adds extra memory options and performance improvements. This should make it a great combination, Katana on Pi 4.

I've had USBridge since last year and it's a fantastic tiny network streamer, thanks to the Sparky SBC it is based upon. Sparky has dedicated bus for USB 3.0 and Ethernet and this allows me to play FLACs from SSD connected to its USB 3.0 port and from the network shares on my PC and also stream from Spotify all at the same time, with ease. Arguably, it is as close to perfection as a $130 piece of consumer electronics can be (and then some) but Sparky SBC is not the most popular platform, hence not a future proof solution. In fact, Allo site has been listing Sparky / USBridge out of stock for quite some time now...

 

[johan]

Hi Bamyasi

In fact USBridge Sig is the the final stages , we hope to have it ready in 1 month

The new USBridge is based on the compute module 3 +. However for the IO we have chosen a modified USb hub ic (from TI) with dedicated GB ethernet to USB (asix )

We get speeds of 330Mbs , that enough for DSD 1024 (not that they exist) and DSD 512 is rock solid

On top the new USBridge has a RPI connector that will allow you to connect anything (Digione/ Sig /Boss).

 

[DeepSpace57]

@orchardaudio, new pecanPi results ( posted by you) seem to excellent, like one of the best RPi-based solution. Have you ever send any test-board to amirm?