Nd5xs2 vs Allo Signature as transport

[dknk]

All good though, you gave it a go, found it to be not what you wanted or were led to believe. You discovered what you now want/need. Nobody got hurt in the process I think…

I’m a bit peeved at Qobuz though, it’s not available in my location anyway.

[MrUnderhill]

Out of interest what output voltage are you running at?

[OuYang]

Recently I use LUMIN D1 to replace Allo DigiOne to feed Naim DAC. RPi based solutions have good software support on UPnP, Roon Bridge, AirPlay and NAA for HQPlayer. Very few streamers support NAA.

[MrUnderhill]

Toonartist:
If you’re talking about the Qutest, I’ve been running mine at 1v with a SN2 + HiCap DR. I’ve tried each one before settling on 1v… 2v was ok with the SN2 and you had a reasonable bit of movement on the volume dial but 3v was just too lively and required minimal movement of the volume dial before it became too loud.

When using 1v, it all feels a little more relaxed, great detail across the range with no harshness at all and easier to control the volume. Someone with better know how maybe able to explain why this may be?!?

Yes. A friend of mine is just listening to one and was on the unimpressed side. He then upped the output to 3V and, in the context of his system, it has come alive; I hoped I might have given you a tip to up the sound quality, but you are already there.

M

[dknk]

Confused, are you saying at 3v he is happier than at 1v?
I’m using 2v, not tried the others.

[StephenPacker]

@AllanP

@charnik

I am evaluating digione sig/ rpi solution into Ndac/XpsDR. I elevated performance powering this DIY combo with a battery pack and Uptone’s LPS 1.2. There is a touch hardness still there and trying to see what can do to eliminate it.

One option would be to remove the Digione Signature from the RPi and install it instead inside a USBridge Signature (effectively the USBridge Signature is a lower noise environment for the Digione Signature compared to a RPi)

Has anyone done this?

I’ve been happy with the Allo Digione Signature (with decent supplies) feeding my nDAC but there’s always the thought that if there’s something better out there…

[AllanP]

I’ve done every step from Digione with standard wall-wart power supply through to Digione Signature + USBridge Signature powered by Allo Shanti and every step of the way produced tangible improvements.

I actually have two separate systems and each has a Digione Signature + USBridge Signature + Allo Shanti as the streaming front-end, so I’m fully convinced as to the efficacy of this setup. Out of interest, I took the Shanti from one of my systems so I could power the clean and dirty sides of the Digione Signature + USBridge Signature in the other system using separate Shanti’s and amazingly that brought about a further improvement. Unfortunately

[anon23154165]

It certainly seems system dependent. I’m using the iFi iPower 5v and sometimes a power bank. Both are very similar, which probably means not much noise coming from the power supply.

When the Aries G1 arrives, I’ll try each one again! I could easily use 2v but rather than using that, I was happier with 1v and relying on the SN2 to up the volume and avoid any clipping.

[MrUnderhill]

Yes. But this was in the context of his system:

Melco N100 > Qutest > Pass amps > etc

If you haven’t played with the output voltage then it may make a pleasant difference.

[MrUnderhill]

I’ll look forward to your thoughts.