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 Post subject: Allo USBridge Signature
PostPosted: May 10th, 2021, 9:13 pm 
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My friend Jim in Lewes doesn't want need Allo USBridge Signatute anymore. He bought a an inexpensive wifi streamer (I forget the name) that got good reviews and comes with a remote app. He's perfectly happy with it for casual Tidal playback. The Allo is too much for him to deal with. Would anyone in the group like to try it? He *is* keeping the Shanti power supply since the streamer he bought sounds better with it. He'd be happy to send the Allo to anyone and if you like it you can pay hom something for it. Or you could pass it around the group for a bit to compare to other renderers. Let me know.


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 12:09 pm 
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Grover Gardner wrote:
My friend Jim in Lewes doesn't want need Allo USBridge Signatute anymore. He bought a an inexpensive wifi streamer (I forget the name) that got good reviews and comes with a remote app. He's perfectly happy with it for casual Tidal playback. The Allo is too much for him to deal with. Would anyone in the group like to try it? He *is* keeping the Shanti power supply since the streamer he bought sounds better with it. He'd be happy to send the Allo to anyone and if you like it you can pay hom something for it. Or you could pass it around the group for a bit to compare to other renderers. Let me know.


What is difficult about the Allo?

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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 1:12 pm 
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mix4fix wrote:
Grover Gardner wrote:
My friend Jim in Lewes doesn't want need Allo USBridge Signatute anymore. He bought a an inexpensive wifi streamer (I forget the name) that got good reviews and comes with a remote app. He's perfectly happy with it for casual Tidal playback. The Allo is too much for him to deal with. Would anyone in the group like to try it? He *is* keeping the Shanti power supply since the streamer he bought sounds better with it. He'd be happy to send the Allo to anyone and if you like it you can pay hom something for it. Or you could pass it around the group for a bit to compare to other renderers. Let me know.


What is difficult about the Allo?


Nothing, really. It works best with an ethernet connection, which Jim doesn't have in his listening room. We tried various wifi-to-ethernet adapters, non of which worked very well. And whatever software OS you use with it requires some setup, which was a bit beyond his patience level. It just wasn't a good fit for him.


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 1:21 pm 
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Grover Gardner wrote:
Or you could pass it around the group for a bit to compare to other renderers. Let me know.


I think this would be a great idea....

Roscoe

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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 1:24 pm 
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Roscoe Primrose wrote:
Grover Gardner wrote:
Or you could pass it around the group for a bit to compare to other renderers. Let me know.


I think this would be a great idea....

Roscoe


Okay, who wants to go first? You can PM me an address.


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 2:57 pm 
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We should start a thread on it. So we can discuss setup issues and the like.

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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 3:32 pm 
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Setup issues should be straight forward. There are a number of music distros on the Linux-ARM platform (Raspberry Pi) that can be setup. Volumio, Moode, DietPi, PiCorePlayer, etc. Download and image on an SDCard, plug in to the SD Card slot, boot, and point your controller or webbrowser to the IP address of the Allo to configure. Obviously it has to be connected to the network. Typically, it is run headless as an endpoint to a music server, so you need to have something working on that end, and storage is typically NOT connected to it for best results (though could be via USB). I believe two 5V power supplies are recommended, a 5V 3A to power the mainboard and peripherals, and clean power 5V 1A for the USB bridge for output to the DAC. The Allo Shanti LPS provides both, but one can rig up a something like a low noise switcher (like the iFi iPowerX 5V) on the computer side, or a battery or LPS for the clean side.

David


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 4:50 pm 
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David McGown wrote:
Setup issues should be straight forward. There are a number of music distros on the Linux-ARM platform (Raspberry Pi) that can be setup. Volumio, Moode, DietPi, PiCorePlayer, etc. Download and image on an SDCard, plug in to the SD Card slot, boot, and point your controller or webbrowser to the IP address of the Allo to configure. Obviously it has to be connected to the network. Typically, it is run headless as an endpoint to a music server, so you need to have something working on that end, and storage is typically NOT connected to it for best results (though could be via USB). I believe two 5V power supplies are recommended, a 5V 3A to power the mainboard and peripherals, and clean power 5V 1A for the USB bridge for output to the DAC. The Allo Shanti LPS provides both, but one can rig up a something like a low noise switcher (like the iFi iPowerX 5V) on the computer side, or a battery or LPS for the clean side.

David


Yes, it's just an RPi3 module on a custom board. You only need a second PS if you have the coax board installed. Jim's does not.

The one isssue with the Allo is the ethernet driver, which is tricky if you want to stream all the way up to DSD. The current versions of Moode and Volumio ahve the correct driver and work fine. In gentooplayer, the standard kernel works fine, but some of the RT kernels do not. The latest version of DietPi also works.

For most of us the setup would not be a challenge, but Jim quickly loses patience with computer/network issues. The little wifi streamer he bought is completely plug-n-play. Download their app to your phone, login to Tidal and you're done. He primarily listens to CDs anyway, the streaming is just for convenience when friends are over, or for casual listening.


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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 8:03 pm 
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What did he get?

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PostPosted: May 12th, 2021, 9:07 pm 
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mix4fix wrote:
What did he get?


The Andover Audio Songbird.


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