Allo DigiOne Signature - S/PDIF Output [Discontinued]

Outstanding - service and product. Ordered online and it was in the mail the same day, arrived the following day. Happy to pay for postage when they use a professional courier like this. Came well packaged and was easy to assemble on the Pi4. The DigiOne Signature sounds fantastic. I was upgrading from the standard DigiOne, which was already excellent but this is next level. I already had the ifi low noise supply so using that for the 'clean' board. Hoping to get an Allo Shanti from Santa. Affordable Hifi with lots of options for affordable upgrades, this is what the Pi is all about.

I ordered this to replace a Digione and when it works it does sound excellent. However I have had an issue with the powering up of the player with no audio output unless it is rebooted and then it powers up slowly with distorted sound. I have contact Allo directly and they are dealing with this and have decided that they will send a replacement board . Hopefully this will solve the issues. The product when it works is excellent and the service from Allo has been good as well no idea as why the board I have has had this issue but will see what happens when the replacement arrives .

Great sounding digital output for the Raspberry Pi 4 as reviewed by John Darko. Shame that the Pi Hut does not stock the Allo power supplies (i.e. Shanti or Nirvana) and did not have any stock of the Allo DigiOne Signature Case as I had to get both of these from other suppliers. However, always great service from the Pi Hut!

I got this card to replace my Chromecast Audio: My DAC is an Arcam D33 (which is quite old but very good) - I decided to upgrade the other parts of my stereo via a new amp (Roksan Caspian M2) + new interconnects (Chord Company Shawline) and after this 'upgrade' the TV (via TOSLINK) sounded 'cineamatic' and better than ever but the high definition audio (24/96) I was streaming (via Plex) from my iMac to my Chromecast was just disappointing - yes, it was more detailed than ever with incredible separation but it just lacked the richness of music played from my CD or turntable (Rega + Nagaoka MP-110 + Mani phono preamp), so I figured the Chromecast just had to be the problem! After some googling, I ordered my Raspberry Pi from The Pi Hut along with a digitial audio HAT but after placing the order I read the rave reviews for the Allo DigiOne Signature (eg from Darko)! Okay it's far higher cost but still reasonably affordable (so to speak) - unfortunately The Pi Hut don't/didn't have the acrylic case, which is kind of essential, so I ordered the black case + DigiOne Signature card, direct from Allo (in France), along with their Shanti power supply, after getting carried away! NB I realised the 5V feed from the USB port on my Arcam D33 (previously used to power the Chromecase Audio) would be pretty 'clean' and almostly certainly fine - that along with the standard power brick would be fine IMO and would have saved me ~£150!). So why the long intro? Because it (the Allo DigiOne Signature) sounds FANTASTIC! I could almost weep for the joy of finally having the sound I'd been craving all this time (honestly). We're not talking minor details here - my streamed audio now sounds deep, rich, muscial, honey-covered, gorgeous, lush. It has the richness, purity and naturalness of vinyl but with the super-realism available with 24/192 digital audio. Lana del Rey's recent Chemtrails album (24/48) sounds sublime and never has it sounded more like than I'm in the studio with Miles Davis etc recording Kind of Blue (24/192). And Tidal suddenly starts making sense (albeit that I miss the MQA folds above 24/48). Lessons I've learned? Interconnects are incredibly important (I'd been suckered into believing that was hype!). NB I bought a Shawline Digital coax to connect my DigiOne Signature player to my D33 and that cost almost as much as the card! Chord C-Digital @ £40 would probaly have been fine TBH. Other intel? While waiting for my DigiOne to arrive from France, I tested out Ropiee, MoodeAudio, DietPi and Volumio - they all allow you to AirPlay to your DigiOne and also act as DLNA/uPnP players; if you're a Roon user then RopieeXL is great and a simple, neat interface. MoodeAudio and Volumio are similar in that they act as media players, which is what I needed but I much preferred Volumio (although the fact I had to use the local Wifi connection rather than ethernet cable to set it up baffled me at first!). DietPi puts you more at the OS level and you can choose which media servers/players you want to install but OTT for my needs. All of which to say, I heartily recommend Volumio - for storage I've attached a Samsung T5 (500Gb) to my DigiOne Signature Player on the basis that I can also use it as a portable SSD when needed. NB The attached USB storage shows up as a Samba share on the network, which is handy for faff-free copying/updating. The Pi Hut have also been excellent and strongly recommended! The customer service was excellent (pleasant, quick and painless) when I had to return the initial audio HAT and Pi case that I'd ordered.

I've not got round to using my Allo Digione Signature yet as I'm having a bespoke enclosure built. But what I can tell you is that my order arrived on time and was well packed. The board itself seems to be well made and of very good quality. CanT wait to have it fully as emblem and in my Hifi rack!