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?".
(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!