Review & Measurements of Allo DigiOne Signature and DIYINHK Pro3Z

[Veri]

Yup and that's just for your router.

Of course your router needs to be connected to a streamer like the ultrarendu before you can start to hear actual resolution and details in your audio. An LPS into both the ultrarendu and your DAC, a power conditioner for the DAC and the amp and perhaps we are starting to get out of mid-fi hell.
(note: post filled with sarcasm do not take serious thank you)

 

[gorg]

What about power conditioner for the power conditioner?

 

[Purité Audio]

And the cable for the power conditioner and then there are ‘grounding’ boxes to consider.
Keith

 

[gorg]

You have to have a lot of ground for the grounding boxes also.

 

[Nango]

Deeply regret having bought the Digione not knowing they would launch only weeks later another Revision. For those purchasing now the Signature be aware, next month they could come up with a "Signature+" or similar. No way I will ever buy again from them.

 

[amirm]

Deeply regret having bought the Digione not knowing they would launch only weeks later another Revision. For those purchasing now the Signature be aware, next month they could come up with a "Signature+" or similar. No way I will ever buy again from them.

I hear you. I bought an RME ADI-2 Pro and the next day they released the FS version. Here we are talking about a $2,000 retail price gear here.

I suggest reaching out to them and see what they will do. There are very good people behind the company.

 

[Nango]

They answer nowadays with "no comments from Allo.com on new products, sorry!" on the volumio forum, they learnt the lesson it seems........

 

[johan]

Hello Nango , sorry to hear that. Unfirtunatley our company has products that have very good value and we cannot afford to make a "trade in" like companies that sell products for 1-2K USD/EUR. In your case it seems that you bought a product very close to launch of the "Sig" version.

Contact our CS and we will look at dates etc and will try to see what we can do.

 

[Nango]

Thanks, do you have an email for CS for me pls?

 

[johan]

Please use the form on the website .

 

[adamd]

@amirm I hope you will forgive the impertinence from a noob here, but the more I think about it the stranger I find the recommendation of the digione signature, as it stands. There are a number of much cheaper s/pdif boards for the pi such as the hifiberry digiplus, which even in its pro incarnation costs only £32., aside from the allo digione which didn't get signed and costs less than half the price of the signature.

I really don't see how it can be consistent with the sorts of comments made about say dacs to ignore the 600lb gorilla in the room, namely whether this signature model is just another item of audiophile taxation. The starting point would be to assess whether its performance is noticeably different from the *much* cheaper models (on its output socket), before moving on to the issue of whether it will make any difference to the output of even a crummy dac, and thirdly then to consider audibility before returning to the question of why you should pay the price of a reasonable dac for a mere s/pdif output which can be obtained for much less

 

[amirm]

I hear what you are saying. My job in recommending products is if they are well engineered. And the signature is. That doesn't mean you must go and buy it. You can take into account the factors you mention. Over time, I will be testing more products of this class and better relative value can be established.

I just can't hold up recommendations on a product because cheaper options exists that I have not tested. I need to test those products before using them in this calculous.

 

[adamd]

I hear what you are saying. My job in recommending products is if they are well engineered. And the signature is. That doesn't mean you must go and buy it. You can take into account the factors you mention. Over time, I will be testing more products of this class and better relative value can be established.

I just can't hold up recommendations on a product because cheaper options exists that I have not tested. I need to test those products before using them in this calculous.

Fair dos. I'm particularly interested because, whilst the issue of what if any difference a digital transport makes has been contentious in audiophile circles, I have never seen a systematic measurement series on it. Stereophile threatened to at one point, but it never happened (and one can wonder why not). It seems to me that just as you have identifed a dac which may expose the differences in spdif output (and power supplies), it might equally be useful when testing dacs to have a bona fide crap interface to test the dacs jitter rejection (although an alternative would be to use injected jitter I suppose) .
In the interests of the advancement of human knowledge etc, I would be happy to order a couple of devices if you would like to test. (perhaps this is the wrong place to post this).

 

[Veri]

Fair dos. I'm particularly interested because, whilst the issue of what if any difference a digital transport makes has been contentious in audiophile circles, I have never seen a systematic measurement series on it. Stereophile threatened to at one point, but it never happened (and one can wonder why not). It seems to me that just as you have identifed a dac which may expose the differences in spdif output (and powr su-pplies), it might equally be useful when testing dacs to have a bona fide crap interface to test the dacs jitter rejection (although an alterntive would be to use injected jitter I suppose) .
In the interests of the advancement of human knowledge etc, I would be happy to order a couple of devices if you would like to test. (perhaps this is the wrong place to post this).

Note amir's conclusion statement in this previous review https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-of-gustard-u12-usb-to-s-pdif-converter.2166/

As we see here, there is no difference at all how you drive the S/PDIF input on the Exasound E32. It excellently cleans up whatever ills may be on S/PDIF and renders the same excellent output. So if you have a high-quality DAC, there is no reason to anguish over how you are driving it.

A high-quality DAC device should filter the anomalies out of a digital input signal, whether it is optical, coaxical, USB or AES source. It's not worth anguishing over quality of your digital source, unless you have reason to believe your DAC doing little to clean up this signal. But it would make more sense to get a high-end one, than tinkering with a low-end or outdated device; let alone whether you would even hear the effect of a "dirty" spdif signal.

 

[johan]

As the manufacturer of Signature , we are proud of getting Amir recommendation based on test data. We think that Signature will outperform (jitter and noise floor) all transporters on the market at any price point (BNC where you can see the real performance)

Now , test data , clearly shows that THD+N numbers with a good dac (with good jitter reduction) will not change with a poor/good digital source. On the other hand , you have multiple subjective opinions that a better source produce a better sound (I want to stress that no test data shows it)

Whatever camp you are in...we designed the Digione and especially the Digione Signature to have very low jitter. We go to great lengths to filter every rail , to think about every detail , to give you a digital output thats so clean , different cables will slightly change it. We are (decent we think) engineers , but in the end, we just love music , like everyone here.

Final decision is , of course , with each customer . Enjoy

 

[adamd]

Note amir's conclusion statement in this previous review https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...-of-gustard-u12-usb-to-s-pdif-converter.2166/

As we see here, there is no difference at all how you drive the S/PDIF input on the Exasound E32. It excellently cleans up whatever ills may be on S/PDIF and renders the same excellent output. So if you have a high-quality DAC, there is no reason to anguish over how you are driving it.

A high-quality DAC device should filter the anomalies out of a digital input signal, whether it is optical, coaxical, USB or AES source. It's not worth anguishing over quality of your digital source, unless you have reason to believe your DAC doing little to clean up this signal. But it would make more sense to get a high-end one, than tinkering with a low-end or outdated device; let alone whether you would even hear the effect of a "dirt" s/pdif signal.

Yes. This might be taken to imply that there was no point in measuring any digital source other than as a means of testing the competence of dacs. Whilst I have a lot of time for this position, I think it might be useful to have a (somewhat) officially endorsed standard of good enough. This applies also to switchmode psus. We all know that some are good and some are not, but why not just identify which meanwell supplies are good enough, so that anyone who wants to replace noisy ones can know which one to buy at nominal expense without arsing around with unnecessarily expensive toys (however well engineered in absolute terms).
This is IMHO what proper engineering means. I accept that there is some scope for debate as to what good enough might mean, but in general terms I would suggest that it would mean one which would not affect the performance of most components.

 

[SIY]

This applies also to switchmode psus. We all know that some are good and some are not, but why not just identify which meanwell supplies are good enough...

Unfortunately, that can't be done in isolation. What's "good enough" for any power supply depends heavily on what circuit it is powering (voltage levels, PSR...).

 

[adamd]

Unfortunately, that can't be done in isolation. What's "good enough" for any power supply depends heavily on what circuit it is powering (voltage levels, PSR...).

Well obviously the concept requires a little refinement . Clearly you would wish need to identify the spec. But there are some very common ones like 5v 1 amp (or a bit more, say 3amps to expand the use case) which will power all sorts of units like pis and of course usb powered dacs. Also meanwell (and I dare say other) supplies come in families which will cover common voltages and presumably have similar design within the family. The issue is simply whether using the supply on a dac streamer or anywhere else in the audio chain will cause any change to the dacs output (or perhaps an amp downstream).
Obviously the psus will otherwise have to meet the requiremnt of the device being powered, and we are confining ourselves to certain classes of device.

 

[richard_crl032]

Hi,

I have several usb-spdif bridges of the hifime UH1, the smsl usb-x and the diyinhk pro3z and one member nciely linked me with this thread as I had somehow missed it.

Seems all believe these bridges sound the same and I was quite disappointed to see no measurable differences. Reason is that the pro3z sounded so much betta in details, depth and transparency that I hope to find but did not managed to see any subjective comments of even betta units here or elsewhere for what I need.

So far only read comments that matrix spdif2 sounds better than singxer f1 and su-1 ..guess i will have to shoot for it and find out if I will replace the pro3z.

Cheers.

Richard

 

[amirm]

Seems all believe these bridges sound the same and I was quite disappointed to see no measurable differences. Reason is that the pro3z sounded so much betta in details, depth and transparency that I hope to find but did not managed to see any subjective comments of even betta units here or elsewhere for what I need.

I am pretty sure you won't find them sounding different in blind tests. The only exception might be level of USB isolation if you are hearing clear hiss, buzz, etc.