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Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:09 am
by George Hincapie
In my experience, a great power supply makes a huge difference to Pi audio. You've made a great investment.

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 9:28 am
by Fretless
AudioRecruit wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:47 pm I have an allo boss (latest version) on my pi, I bought the dedicated psu also as recommended. This is running volumio and running flac files from my nas. It’s brilliant and the detail is fantastic over any other I’ve heard. £90 all in, worth every penny! I’ll be running this with my NVA when I purchase it.

Cheers,
Then think about putting Allo's Kali Reclocker in there, adding a Linear PSU to the Pi and using WAV files instead of FLAC's (you WILL hear the difference - certainly with an NVA setup).

(Evil laugh) :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:44 am
by George Hincapie
Second the Kali suggestion, I've read some amazing reviews of that little board.

Pi based audio is incredible value.

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:42 pm
by Fretless
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There are those who quite like the 'ORAC' - styling of many Pi-based audio units with their clear plastic plates and brightly flashing LED's - it's geek heaven!

However there are more serious souls around who don't want something that looks like a refugee from the Tardis (sorry, different show) cluttering up their carefully-arranged-in-order-of-expense, black, brushed-metal, esoteric components.
Well they can now proudly add the cheapest and most cost-effective digital source to their 'rig' with pride thanks to Allo's new range of deluxe, aluminium cases.

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Look a bit like a Dalek, don't you think ???

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Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:56 pm
by Fretless
PS: the aluminium casing is also designed to act as one big heat-sink for the Pi's circuitry - supposedly improving the overall performance.

Looks like I'll have to raid the piggy-bank again. :doh:

https://www.allo.com/sparky-eu/aluminum ... layer.html

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2018 12:58 pm
by slinger
I bought a very nice sardine can for my Pi/Digi+

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Not so much "Space Age" as "Valve Radio Age" but it's steel, and solid as a rock...made of steel.

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 12:09 pm
by Fretless
Now I can quite happily pass up on 'tweaks' which have a purely cosmetic purpose, but when I see the words 'improve performance' then I get hooked. On the Allo website they give a link to a little table that shows how the new aluminium casings for their Pi sets reduce and stabilise the operating temperature of the Pi's processing chip which should allow the device to run more efficiently.

Fortunately my usual stockist in Eindhoven had one of the cases for the Pi/DigiOne unit and that arrived in the post yesterday. Disassembly of the old case and assembly of the new one took about half-an-hour. There is a handy instruction video that shows you exactly how to put it all together.

https://youtu.be/kUY43iuH8G0

A thermal heat-exchange pad rests on the CPU chip and transfers the heat to a metal plate in-between the Pi and Allo boards. This plate is an integral part of the casing and so, whilst running, you can feel that the whole case becomes slightly warm.

The are a couple of niggles:
1) the fit of the Allo board is rather tight and needs careful maneuvering and pressure to get it correctly in place.
2) the BNC socket is too close to a 'leg' to allow the thin locking nut to be put on - not really needed anyway.
3) there is a 'cut-out' in the same leg for the micro-USB plug used to power the unit. This was a very tight squeeze for the chunky plug from my LPSU and I shaved off a millimeter of rubber from the edge of the plug with a Stanley knife to get it to go in more easily.
4) Use a glue for the rubber feet which sticks to metal (I didn't at first).

However you end up with a really cool-looking and super-solid-feeling device that sits mysteriously in the audio system and will leave others thinking: "What the hell is THAT?".

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(NB - the double Jitterbugs sticking out of the side are purely optional)

Switching on - with the only light now visible from the Pi being the connection LED for the Ethernet cable, for the rest it is dark and brooding.

No changes further, so into Volumio and blast through some of the music I had been playing recently.
There is an immediate and definite change is the level of detail: sharper, clearer, more definition between instruments. Joni Mitchell's voice can come across as a little 'grainy' and piercing - that effect is reduced. A favourite track is 'Down on the Farm' from Camel's 'Breathless' with the hilarious lyrics from Richard Sinclair and farmyard noises in the background - Now I am picking up little sounds I have never noticed were there before.

Camel - Down On The Farm (Breathless - 1978)

It will be a while before I get the full impact of what the new casing means (RF screening?? flux damping??) but it is an audible upgrade and it may seem that a 55 Euro case is expensive for a Pi - but if you want the ultimate then you have to suffer for it!

:dance: :dance: :dance:

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:01 pm
by terrybooth
eagle.jpg
eagle.jpg (6.11 KiB) Viewed 3638 times

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:02 pm
by Lordie82360now
I have the same "dalek" case on my digione and agree with his comments on the tight fitting for the power plug and the inability to fit a thin locking nut on the BNC socket. However, its performance outlays its quirkiness and I love both the sound and looks.
It has taken me a long time to settle on a streamer and it has the ability to run an external hard drive for my music library direct through volumio 2 into my dac and onwards. I won't be changing it anytime soon!
What the hell is that indeed!

Re: Life of Pi

Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 3:36 pm
by Fretless
Well spotted Terry - I'll be changing the name of my audio system to 'Moonbase Alpha' :grin: :guiness;

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... but does that include the girl with the purple wig, though?

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