Rpi 4 + Khadas Tone Board - or not?

[drtebi]

Hello,

My original plan was to build a second raspberry pi streamer with the Allo Boss (1.2), which I have done before and am quite happy with.

But that was six years ago... there is a new Allo DAC, and then there seems to be a lot of praise for the Khadas Tone Board.

So I am curious to hear your opinions on this project. I already have the following components:

• Raspberry Pi 4
• ESP P05 Linear Power Supply PCB
• A fun vintage case (broken tape "echo chamber")

What do you think? Stick with the Allo Boss, or give the Khadas Tone Board a shot?
-- oh, and just now I came across another candidate, the Innomaker HiFi Pro DAC (sort of a clone of the Katana they say).

 

[drtebi]

Somebody must have done this... or not? I just want to know whether this works well, e.g. no clicks and pops between songs, or when changing bit rates etc.

 

[Brijac]

I had khadas a while ago. Not that much difference with external psu. In general, it sounds bad, muddy highs, dry mids, only bass was solid as with most ess chips.

 

[PJN]

I also bought a Kadas a while back because it measured so well and was recommended highly at ASR. I didn't hear much of any difference between USB power and a separate linear PSU. But I wasn't impressed with the sound at all, flat soundstage, brittle ESS highs, rather thin sounding overall.

 

[drtebi]

Thank you so much for these answers, that's exactly what I needed to hear.

It appears to me that I should just stick with the Allo Boss, which, to me, sounds pretty nice.

Once I've got this up and running I'll post a few pictures. It's not easy with this case though... as it has sort of a divider in the middle. Anyway, who doesn't like a challenge

 

[PJN]

Best of luck with your build.