Allo digione player

I am missing the "naim" sound with the Allo Digione player. I miss the tighter controlled bass, better separation of instruments and the clarity with better definition of instruments of the NDX into the NDAC. There is a perceived lack of speed. How different players can change the house sound troubles and confuses me. I can't fault the Allo for its VFM though.

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

Ardbeg10y posted:

nbpf posted:

Mort2k posted:

NBPF

right now just with the then wall plug it came with. I am conisdering adding and isolator between the Allo & Pi and an external PSU but right now it’s sounds great so leaving it alone

rob

Thanks!

From allos site:

'Digione has a galvanic isolator for both power and signals. You do not need an extra isolator. As well, DigiOne has a double relocking of the S/PDIF stream (one of them taking care of metastability and the second one taking care of realigning the data). You do not need another reclocker (like Kali).'

Right! Also, notice that, in the context of Naim systems, the most obvious way of deploying a DigiOne is as a source for a Naim DAC and for the DAC section of "old" Naim streamers (to be able to stream Qobuz through the NDS, for instance) and streamers + preamps.

Now the Naim DAC (and, possibly, the DAC of the NDS) under normal operations overrides the clocking of incoming S/PDIF streams with one of its internal clocks, see https://www.naimaudio.com/site..._dac_august_2009.pdf.

This suggestst that the quality of the DigiOne clocks (and, more generally, of S/PDIF interfaces) when used to feed a Naim DAC is perhaps not so critical as the quality of its (their) galvanic isolation.

kaydee6 posted:

I am missing the "naim" sound with the Allo Digione player. I miss the tighter controlled bass, better separation of instruments and the clarity with better definition of instruments of the NDX into the NDAC. There is a perceived lack of speed. How different players can change the house sound troubles and confuses me. I can't fault the Allo for its VFM though.

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

Interesting! Are NDX and DigiOne connected to the NDAC with the same cable? How do you power the DigiOne? Thanks, nbpf

Same digital cable. Belden 1694A. 

The rest of the system stays the same. 

Allo>belden 1694A>ndac>sn2/hicap dr>dnm resolution cable>harbeth shl5

Allo is powered by ifi ipower smps  

i plan to replace the speaker cable to naca5

It's quite possible that the ifi is 'sitting' on the music..

MangoMonkey posted:

It's quite possible that the ifi is 'sitting' on the music..

Possibly. 

kaydee6 posted:

Same digital cable. Belden 1694A. 

The rest of the system stays the same. 

Allo>belden 1694A>ndac>sn2/hicap dr>dnm resolution cable>harbeth shl5

Allo is powered by ifi ipower smps  

i plan to replace the speaker cable to naca5

Thanks kaydee6!

MangoMonkey posted:

It's quite possible that the ifi is 'sitting' on the music..

I have only compared the ifi to a power bank (without noticing obvious differences) but the folks at CA do not seem to have noticed huge differences when powering the RPi that hosts the DigiOne with different power supplies. One way of providing the DigiOne with a cleaner power could be the Mezzanine (google "mezzanine raspberry pi") power board.

Its not about the Allo one.

If your naim gear is on the same electrical circuit as the ifi, it's possible that the smps in the ifi is having a bad effect on the naim gear, making the timing seem off.

Another possibility:  what you're perceiving as lack of speed is actually lower noise floor. Things always seem to slow down when you give up the naim hierarchy - it's just the quite between notes...

Just noticed that the speakers are harbeth shl5s. These are slow speakers to begun with. (I have these too)..

kaydee6 posted:

I am missing the "naim" sound with the Allo Digione player. I miss the tighter controlled bass, better separation of instruments and the clarity with better definition of instruments of the NDX into the NDAC. There is a perceived lack of speed. How different players can change the house sound troubles and confuses me. I can't fault the Allo for its VFM though.

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

 

You know there’s lots of options in between the cost of an Allo and an NDX? Perhaps try an Ultrarendu with a decent power supply? You’ll still be at less than a 1/5th of the cost of an NDX, and god knows what the NDX2 will be price wise. Personally, I never thought Naim streamers above the UQ to be of very good value if you already own a separate dac. Naim should have made a half width dac-less streamer a long time ago...

MangoMonkey posted:

Its not about the Allo one.

If your naim gear is on the same electrical circuit as the ifi, it's possible that the smps in the ifi is having a bad effect on the naim gear, making the timing seem off.

...

That's possible although, in my case, taking the ifi out of the circuit has not improved things. Also, in tests on CA, the ifi has turned out to inject much less noise back into the mains than most LPSUs and, of course, cheap SMPSs.

kaydee6 posted:

...

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

Hmmm ... I am not sure that the DAC of the NDX2 will be better than that of the NDAC. If you are happy with NDX and NDAC, why are you considering selling the NDAC?

I assume you all have been listening music and completely forgotten about this topic?

nbpf posted:

kaydee6 posted:

...

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

Hmmm ... I am not sure that the DAC of the NDX2 will be better than that of the NDAC. If you are happy with NDX and NDAC, why are you considering selling the NDAC?

That's because using the NDX2 as a transport to the NDAC don't make economic sense. 

nbpf posted:

MangoMonkey posted:

Its not about the Allo one.

If your naim gear is on the same electrical circuit as the ifi, it's possible that the smps in the ifi is having a bad effect on the naim gear, making the timing seem off.

...

That's possible although, in my case, taking the ifi out of the circuit has not improved things. Also, in tests on CA, the ifi has turned out to inject much less noise back into the mains than most LPSUs and, of course, cheap SMPSs.

Yes, i think the ifi ipower is a very decent smps

charlesphoto posted:

kaydee6 posted:

I am missing the "naim" sound with the Allo Digione player. I miss the tighter controlled bass, better separation of instruments and the clarity with better definition of instruments of the NDX into the NDAC. There is a perceived lack of speed. How different players can change the house sound troubles and confuses me. I can't fault the Allo for its VFM though.

Most probably will sell the NDAC and get the NDX2, possibly adding in a XPS DR along the way.

 

You know there’s lots of options in between the cost of an Allo and an NDX? Perhaps try an Ultrarendu with a decent power supply? You’ll still be at less than a 1/5th of the cost of an NDX, and god knows what the NDX2 will be price wise. Personally, I never thought Naim streamers above the UQ to be of very good value if you already own a separate dac. Naim should have made a half width dac-less streamer a long time ago...

Agree, a naim streamer without internal DAC is way overdue

Ardbeg10y posted:

I assume you all have been listening music and completely forgotten about this topic?

You are right, back to the DigiOne and apologies for going off topic!