Allo Revolution Dac

[Veri]

Any reason not to pair the Revolution to my Bluesound Node 2? Opinion on SQ change?

The Node has a subpar internal DAC so you might like adding an external one yes. IMO.

 

[ceausuc]

Curious if you find the Revolution Dac has fuller/punchier bass than KTB? wider soundstage or more intimate?

quick reply:
It's been a while since I had them side by side... the main difference between these dacs is the resolution of the Revolution, is on another level, not something subtle, it will hit you immediately.
I dont' want to comment on soundstage since on my earphones it is not something obvious - unless it is a "bad" dac with no soundstage, one that will play "in my head" (like D50 did), but this is not happening with KTB nor Revolution.
(I doubt you could find Revolution more intimate)
As for the bass I don't think I noticed a difference, I like the bass of the KTB.

Sorry if I'm not of great help here, maybe I can find the time and try another comparison the next days...

(these are my impressions, with my system)

 

[ceausuc]

Any reason not to pair the Revolution to my Bluesound Node 2? Opinion on SQ change?

The Revolution is a USB-only dac. Will it work?
A dac is just a part of an audio system, difficult to have an opinion on sq change...

 

[quattr0]

quick reply:
It's been a while since I had them side by side... the main difference between these dacs is the resolution of the Revolution, is on another level, not something subtle, it will hit you immediately.
I dont' want to comment on soundstage since on my earphones it is not something obvious - unless it is a "bad" dac with no soundstage, one that will play "in my head" (like D50 did), but this is not happening with KTB nor Revolution.
(I doubt you could find Revolution more intimate)
As for the bass I don't think I noticed a difference, I like the bass of the KTB.

Sorry if I'm not of great help here, maybe I can find the time and try another comparison the next days...

(these are my impressions, with my system)

Many thanks! you answered what I needed.

 

[Veri]

The Revolution is a USB-only dac. Will it work?

Ah, right. @quattr0 be sure you can actually connect the two..

 

[Firebird71]

Just got my revolution dac a week back. Paired it with their Shanti linear powersupply. Initial impressions, this one gets tons of detail out. Listening on an IBasso SR2 with balanced connection out of an A50s amp. My HE4XX is in repair for the bad headband design (Hfifiman :-() I am coming from a Iffi zen dac and a topping d10s for comparison.
I got the revolution with DSD and ASIO driver support. I have issues with DSD clicking when changing tracks. Have experimented with the POP mute settings but not entirely successful. This pop/clicking is most prominent when the new track has a different bit rate or is not a DSD. Another issue with the POP mute is that you have disable it when running pcm or it sometimes mutes out the audio in quiet passages in say a Youtube video creating a wierd effect. My software setup is foobar with the asio plugin. The firmware rev of dac is 1.02

 

[ceausuc]

I got the revolution with DSD and ASIO driver support. I have issues with DSD clicking when changing tracks. Have experimented with the POP mute settings but not entirely successful. This pop/clicking is most prominent when the new track has a different bit rate or is not a DSD. Another issue with the POP mute is that you have disable it when running pcm or it sometimes mutes out the audio in quiet passages in say a Youtube video creating a wierd effect. My software setup is foobar with the asio plugin. The firmware rev of dac is 1.02

You are right, I haven't noticed the POP before, probably because I only listen to entire albums witch are all flac or all dsd...
However I think it is a bug somewhere, because:
- I made a playlist with a dsd and a flac
- hit play; when passing from dsd to flac: POP
- change mute setting (from 4 to 5) while the flac is still playing!
- stop, start playback of the playlist
- when passing from dsd to flac: SILENCE

I hope alloaudio will see this and give it a try

I'm on linux (wtfplay).

 

[Firebird71]

You are right, I haven't noticed the POP before, probably because I only listen to entire albums witch are all flac or all dsd...
However I think it is a bug somewhere, because:
- I made a playlist with a dsd and a flac
- hit play; when passing from dsd to flac: POP
- change mute setting (from 4 to 5) while the flac is still playing!
- stop, start playback of the playlist
- when passing from dsd to flac: SILENCE

I hope alloaudio will see this and give it a try

I'm on linux (wtfplay).

I will try and recreate what you did and post if the problem goes away in Pop Os (Linux) which I have on multiboot on my machine. Anything on a vm may not be advisable given overheads.