Review & Measurements of Allo DigiOne Signature and DIYINHK Pro3Z

[MagnusH]

I bought the DIYINHK Pro3Z a while back, and have used it basically as an USB decrapifier, first from computer and now from an Raspberry 4. And despite the measurements, it improves the sound noticeable, and I have a very modern and well engineered DAC: RME ADI-2 FS DAC. I run mine on battery and have turned off external power (USB VBUS).

Btw, its easy to compare sound quality when comparing different input, if you use Roon and play the same tune to both zones. Then you can toggle input on the DAC and get an instant comparison.

 

[Veri]

I bought the DIYINHK Pro3Z a while back, and have used it basically as an USB decrapifier, first from computer and now from an Raspberry 4. And despite the measurements, it improves the sound noticeable, and I have a very modern and well engineered DAC: RME ADI-2 FS DAC. I run mine on battery and have turned off external power (USB VBUS).

Btw, its easy to compare sound quality when comparing different input, if you use Roon and play the same tune to both zones. Then you can toggle input on the DAC and get an instant comparison.

That is one "strength" of the DiyInHK device, it can run entirely without any USB VBUS connection whatsoever, as long as it gets USB data.
Few devices allow this!

 

[Jimster480]

I bought the DIYINHK Pro3Z a while back, and have used it basically as an USB decrapifier, first from computer and now from an Raspberry 4. And despite the measurements, it improves the sound noticeable, and I have a very modern and well engineered DAC: RME ADI-2 FS DAC. I run mine on battery and have turned off external power (USB VBUS).

Btw, its easy to compare sound quality when comparing different input, if you use Roon and play the same tune to both zones. Then you can toggle input on the DAC and get an instant comparison.

There is no way it can improve the sound on an rme adi.
Likely it is making the sound much worse but you prefer the distortion.

 

[Veri]

There is no way it can improve the sound on an rme adi.
Likely it is making the sound much worse but you prefer the distortion.

Well honestly it's digital. There's no way it will make it 'much worse' either, it all gets reclocked by RME's FS system.

It will just work or it won't...

 

[Jimster480]

Well honestly it's digital. There's no way it will make it 'much worse' either, it all gets reclocked by RME's FS system.

It will just work or it won't...

That would depend on how poorly the USB signal is processed and how poor of an optical connection system it has.

Although based on the measurements it shouldn't really do anything harmful as its pretty clean.

 

[MagnusH]

There is no way it can improve the sound on an rme adi.
Likely it is making the sound much worse but you prefer the distortion.

Of course there is, by removing electronic noise that would have a negative impact on the analog section of the DAC. If you believe that a straight computer -> DAC USB connection is optimal I suggest you experiment some yourself and let your ears be the judge.

If these improvements shows up on measurements is another thing, and you might need a transparent system to hear them.

 

[MagnusH]

Btw, this is a mistake I think Amir is making time and again: assume that his measurements handles 100% of sound quality, so that equal measurements is the same as equal sound quality. Its simply not true! Just take the soundstage as a whole (depth, width, precision etc), no measurements he does can fully quality that.

 

[Jimster480]

Btw, this is a mistake I think Amir is making time and again: assume that his measurements handles 100% of sound quality, so that equal measurements is the same as equal sound quality. Its simply not true! Just take the soundstage as a whole (depth, width, precision etc), no measurements he does can fully quality that.

Sorry but computer power is much cleaner than anything you have imagined. A computer is 9 million times more complex than a DAC.
The power inside of a pc is generally clean and the data sent over USB is clean and has a clock with checksum to make sure data isn't sent corrupted.
Therefore any of this nonsense about Soundstage (typically is created with frequency rolloff) growing with something other than USB is simply fake.

 

[MagnusH]

Sorry but computer power is much cleaner than anything you have imagined. A computer is 9 million times more complex than a DAC.
The power inside of a pc is generally clean and the data sent over USB is clean and has a clock with checksum to make sure data isn't sent corrupted.
Therefore any of this nonsense about Soundstage (typically is created with frequency rolloff) growing with something other than USB is simply fake.

Thats wrong on so many levels its almost scary, I hardly know where to begin:
- PCs are incredible noise from an electronic standpoint (switched power regulators, fans, frequency throttling CPUs etc)
- There are no error checks on USB audio (not that it matters, we can assume that the data is bit perfect in normal scenarios)
- There are no clocks involved in asynchronous USB, its sent as packages and the DAC clocks it.
- Since data is bit perfect, you won't get any changes in frequency like rolloff, no matter if you use USB tweaks or not.

But there are more to digital data than just making sure the data reaches the DAC chip bit-perfect, in some cases the source clock makes a difference (SPDIF) and in all cases except toslink electronic noise that hitches a ride have an impact.

 

[Jimster480]

Thats wrong on so many levels its almost scary, I hardly know where to begin:
- PCs are incredible noise from an electronic standpoint (switched power regulators, fans, frequency throttling CPUs etc)
- There are no error checks on USB audio (not that it matters, we can assume that the data is bit perfect in normal scenarios)
- There are no clocks involved in asynchronous USB, its sent as packages and the DAC clocks it.
- Since data is bit perfect, you won't get any changes in frequency like rolloff, no matter if you use USB tweaks or not.

But there are more to digital data than just making sure the data reaches the DAC chip bit-perfect, in some cases the source clock makes a difference (SPDIF) and in all cases except toslink electronic noise that hitches a ride have an impact.

Clock doesn't make any difference. It is re clocked.
SPDIF is just generally inferior to USB. So if you are hearing a difference it is just with additional distortion from the inferior SPDIF interface which is a clockless mess of light.

 

[MagnusH]

For SPDIF the sender clock is master, and it will make a difference even if the DAC reclocks it internally (reclocking have to take drift into account). And I use coax so no light involved, and with a good clock coax is typically better than USB because of less noise.

Here is how digital connect and transports affect the sound in my setup (note that this is all dependent on setup):
- Worst is USB straight from computer
- Second worse is toslink from computer
- USB from Raspberry 4 is better than from computer, about same as toslink from computer
- Computer to Pro3Z and then coax to DAC is second best
- Raspberry 4 to Pro3Z and then coax to DAC is best
- (using a high quality transport like SotM Ultra or Sonore opticalRendu would almost certainly be even better)

 

[Jimster480]

For SPDIF the sender clock is master, and it will make a difference even if the DAC reclocks it internally (reclocking have to take drift into account). And I use coax so no light involved, and with a good clock coax is typically better than USB because of less noise.

Here is how digital connect and transports affect the sound in my setup (note that this is all dependent on setup):
- Worst is USB straight from computer
- Second worse is toslink from computer
- USB from Raspberry 4 is better than from computer, about same as toslink from computer
- Computer to Pro3Z and then coax to DAC is second best
- Raspberry 4 to Pro3Z and then coax to DAC is best
- (using a high quality transport like SotM Ultra or Sonore opticalRendu would almost certainly be even better)

Ditch your shit motherboard instead of wasting money on nonsense audio products.

 

[Veri]

For SPDIF the sender clock is master, and it will make a difference even if the DAC reclocks it internally (reclocking have to take drift into account). And I use coax so no light involved, and with a good clock coax is typically better than USB because of less noise.

Quotation needed... where's the proof mate. Simply claiming it does not make it universally true.

 

[ALex_hha]

Allo folks just kindly offered the Digione V2 non-signature for review. When it arrives, I will schedule it for review.

and what is digione v2 ? I can't find it out on the site

 

[Dennis_FL]

Note there has been a flaw with the "Signature" (dropouts) and it has been discontinued.

 

[rost21A]

Fortunately, production has resumed and the Allo DigiOne Signature is available again from audiophonics!

 

[DilbertPugh]

Fortunately, production has resumed and the Allo DigiOne Signature is available again from audiophonics!

Thanks for this news, I'm keen for Allo to survive, I just hope there's enough interest to breath life into the company.
There's been a lot of shade cast on the Raspberry Pi since supplies were hit by the Covid hysteria.