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Shanti Dual LPS 5V/3A , 5V/1.5A

One last comment on OLED


As you know , our driver is already submitted and accepted in Rasbien . Any player that has the latest kernel will work with Boss2 . Since we have an OLED and access to all controls , players do not need to change the GUI to give control to all DAC settings. Our software will give you full control .

Somebody has to integrate these controls for making them accessible if I'm not mistaken. You and your "less knowledgeable " customers basically rely on the Moode, Volumio, pCP,.... maintainers to get such a device going with all its bells and whistles.
Anyhow. Without looking at it a little closer, I don't know what I am actually talking about here. Perhaps that SW integration and maintenance subject is another non-issue.
For sure it's a non-issue if talking about a complete "Player" or "Streamer" bundle instead of a DAC.

I simply did expect an extremely high performing next generation HAT DAC audio interface in line with the Boss1,
when I read about Boss2. The Boss 2 is a complete different animal though. And that's why we have this controversial discussion.

Once more, the Boss 2 measurements look pretty convincing. I am sure you've done
a great job on that part.

That's been my last post on the subject. :D


Enjoy.
 
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Look closer Soundcheck.
Thats the whole idea of OLED , it frees OS/players from doing anything except upgrade the kernel .


Boss2 gives you incredible performances if you are objective inclined . THD+N has no meaning THD only , does. At -128 THD , rest assured that it can take on the best of the best (N has no importance for SQ) . At -120 THD+N (THD at -128) and -110 THD+N (THD at -128) should sound very similar .(but read below)



Further the harmonic decay is monotonic (boss2) , meaning that you have H2 (highest) H3 (lower that 2) H4 (lower than 3) and 5 (almost nill) . That , in itself , gives a very strong indication that SQ will be very good . H5 , 6 , 7-20 should be "" weighted the harmonics by the square of the order correlates well with subjective listening tests"" from wikipedia ...in Boss2 there are none.


So in fact a DAC that has THD of -110 can sound better than -128 if the H of -110 are predominant 2-5 (versus 4-20).



More , I have been working on phase noise of oscillators and sound quality ( Andrea Mori is absolutely correct ) . While you wont be able to see it on Jtest , we have used new buffers that add much less phase noise at 10hz than previous designs. Like always , we disabled the PLLs and use 2x NDK SDAs


This is not stuff that you can see on any graph .



Yes you can get Toppings , Khadas and many other brands. Rest assured that with ALLO you will get a lot of research in sound quality (not only THD+N numbers) implemented in the DAC. Also full access to the dac parameters :)


Rest assured that at 146$ including RPI4/2GB (47$ value) for ALU casing , oled , dac and remote , you will get the best bang for the buck and great SQ.
 
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Back again - once more - responding to the latest Allo response. :D

The whole OLED thing I consider absolute nonsense. Not sure if anybody would need it.
Beside extra cost, load and constructive compromises, people are forced to keep the whole USB stack plus an external Wifi dongle running, which pretty much nukes your rather weird argument about OLED.
Boss 1, didn't need a display and didn't require an external Wifi Dongle. That's a fact.
That's how a perfect classical internal soundcard looks.

And we also shouldn't forget that the 169$ doesn't include the dongle and the power supply! Which brings us to around $250 for the package with one power supply.

Regarding clocks: The Khadas Tone2 comes with Acusillicon crystals btw. These do have a better rep then the NDK if I'm not mistaken. These folks also know what they are doing.

Look. I am also not a fan of "harmonics" on digital equipment. If you can turn them on and off as a feature, that'd be OK. Otherwise you need to call harmonics what they are - flaws.

To be honest. I do not consider the Boss 2 a great deal - from a customer perspective.
Most todays (budgets) DACs measure extremely well (see Audio Science Review) . Most of them measure well beyond audible impact.
That fact is what puts the feature list into focus. Differential out and HQ Bluetooth and a RPI4 that can be fully used As-IS are simply more appealing and much more flexible to me then such a take-it-or-leaver-it full restricted "Player solution".

You'd IMO have had a much better selling argument if selling a DAC with latest e.g. Qualcomm Bluetooth supporting HD codecs. That one could run standalone and wouldn't even require a RPi. That'd be at least a 2021 state-of-the-art "Player" product.

I havn't really talked about all these MQA and DSD128+ features some of the users out there like to see. And many of the competition provides.

Advise. You should really start thinking why Boss 1 was soo successful!

Now after looking much closer at the product, I seriously wish Allo good luck with it, I am
sure there'll be plenty of folks jumping on it. After all it measures competitively well.

I'll be waiting for an internal Boss 1 like, better measuring, soundcard. Until then I'll stick to my USB DAC.

Nice to be talking to you.
 
I just figured, after scanning your site, you are down to $99. :D
I came here to congratulate and saw Allo announced it already. :p

Nice developments.

If there'd be a naked BOSS2 version now without or with detachable display board and a small ribbon GPIO adapter that gets the DAC away from the RPI that'd be nice.

I think I'd give such a device a try.


Using RPI bluetooth might be an option. While I was integrating bluetooth support into Moode Audio, there wasn't APTx-HD support. That makes RPi bluetooth a NoGo to me.
However it seems that Bluez-Alsa now supports aptx-hd Perhaps anybody knows or can check if Tim has implemented it. It might be worth a try.


Anyhow.

I mentioned the Khadas Tone 2 Pro the other day. Just to get that subject straight.
They also face some issues. The firmware sucks (they are working on it). The first HW batch lacks a firmware upgrade option via USB! They had issues on the clock side. You can find it all over at ASR. First reviews are not that positive about the new differential RCA sockets (no standard cables), the impact/dynamics of the sound seems to be a bit shy, and then there's that weird control knob. If you'd run that afaik still not existing bluetooth dongle, I am wondering how to attach an external supply.
All I am saying. Our beloved "boutique" manufacturers do face quite a lot of challenges to get it all right. It's not that easy.

Still nice to have them around. ;)

Enjoy.
 
Yes I seen the Khadas tone 2 thread.
Let me start by Accusilicon . There seems to be an Accusilion that has good jitter , please note that what Khadas T2 used ...is the cheaper version.Not equal to NDK SDA. While conventional wisdom (objective) says that jitter level is too low to hear...I disagree . I fully subscribe to Andrea Moris findings that jitter is the most important parameter for SQ especially at 10Hz or less.
Software.
KT1 and K2 give you no way of controlling the IC. They chose a filter (suboptimal) and unfortunately they don't have a way to change it back . No way to change the firmware..hmmm
Hardware .

I understand the need for XLR connectors that are small for form factor and why they did it . Enough said
OPA1612 direct in IV stage of ESS is not something that I would do unless you know how to use filters before opamp. Otherwise the fatiguing sound of ESS will be dominant .

Measurements .

KT2 THD (since N is not important) you will see H5 and more being high Not good for SQ. Keeping H2 to H5 max and higher H very very low , is key to SQ. Also Jtest shows that clocks are not well implemented .
Khadas 1 was good It excelled in RCA output and USB power . Kt2 is a jack of all trades master of none

Moving on , I always refused to make XLR dacs . I always felt that XLR needs a profound understanding of SQ . I started my design for XLR DAC but it will take a while.
 
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