Jump to content
StereoNET Logo

Allo Digione Signature output too high

Topman_Chief
 Share

Recommended Posts

Topman_Chief Rising Star

Topman_Chief

Posted
Posted

So I finally bought an Allo Digione (found a Signature unit) and have just hooked it up. To my surprise I managed to connect it to my network, sign up for a myvolumio trial and sign into Tidal. So far so good. Connected it to my DAC and hit play and...it works. It plays music. Problem is, the output signal seems to be too high and I'm barely off the bottom of the dial on the pre-amp before things get very loud.

 

Chain is:

Allo Digione Signature player with iFi power supply -> coax cable from SPDIF output to coax input of Schiit Gungnir Multibit DAC -> Balanced cables out to Parasound P5 pre-amp -> Balanced cables to Parasound A23 power amp -> Dynaudio Focus 160 speakers.

 

I'm pretty sure the coax cable between the player and DAC is 75ohm, but not sure of brand and don't have another handy to try. In the Volumio interface there is a section for volume adjustment but it is greyed out/not available. I was previously using an old Dell desktop PC with Uptone USB regen and had to reduce the volume on the PC for its output to at a suitable level for the pre-amp. 

 

Any ideas of how to reduce the signal strength from the Digione without hurting the quality of the signal? There is a BNC output - is it worth exploring that with an adapter?

 

Thanks,

Corey

Ittaku Grand Master

Ittaku

Posted
Posted (edited)

You cannot make things quieter with cables in the digital spectrum. Your only choice is to find if the DAC has a variable output voltage setting (some have a high/low output setting), or a volume control, or if you can decrease the gain in your preamp. I did a quick read of the manual of your preamp and can't find any option to adjust the gain, but note that it has a higher gain input on the front aux input only. It's probably worth investigating volume setting options with your DAC.

 

You could also try using unbalanced connections between your DAC and preamp, as the gain may be different.

Edited by Ittaku
  • Like 1
Neo Grand Master

Neo

Posted
Posted

Something of note in the Gungnir spec the balanced out caries 4 volts and rca caries 2 volts. See if the rca instead of balanced cables help with the volume. Happy to be corrected but usually balanced cables appear to sound louder, compared to the rca in the same setup. 
Another option is to procure Rothmans attenuators exactly for your problem. They definitely do the rca versions in various specs to regain the volume dial but unsure if they do xlr versions.

Neo

  • Like 1
aussievintage Grand Master

aussievintage

Posted
Posted

Fairly common to find a mismatch between different components and manufacturers.  It all used to fairly standard at a couple of hundred millivolts or so, until CD players came along and some put out as much as a volt of signal.  That crept up to 2 volts, and now I see you talking about 4 volts !

 

My solution is to make a small device, basically a volume control in a small box in the middle of a stereo interconnect cable.  Some might call it a basic passive preamp.  When I need to adjust levels I use this 'special' interconnect.   Alternatively, you can buy cheap passive preamps (volume control in a box with RCA sockets) on eBay.  You can also buy male to female RCA  attenuators that you plug into the socket on your device and plug the RCA interconnect into it.

  • Like 1

Topman_Chief Rising Star

Topman_Chief

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks everyone. The DAC doesn't have a hardware option to reduce output. Looks like I'll have to go unbalanced, and probably either cable with attenuation or add the attenuation connectors. I figure this solution has less chance of degrading quality than a passive pre-amp, although it offers less flexibility. 

 

If anyone knows of a solution in the Rasberry Pi set-up (using Volumio or a different install) then I'd love to understand that also.  

aussievintage Grand Master

aussievintage

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Topman_Chief said:

Thanks everyone. The DAC doesn't have a hardware option to reduce output. Looks like I'll have to go unbalanced, and probably either cable with attenuation or add the attenuation connectors. I figure this solution has less chance of degrading quality than a passive pre-amp, although it offers less flexibility. 

 

If anyone knows of a solution in the Rasberry Pi set-up (using Volumio or a different install) then I'd love to understand that also.  

 

Volumio has a volume control.  It can be software based, or use the control in the DAC if it has one.  The setup pages let you choose.  Not sure why yours is greyed out.  Maybe ask on the Volumio forums?

pond44 Explorer

pond44

Posted
Posted

Just a thought, because you are using the trial version of Volumino might be the reason you can't use all the features including the volume adjustments.

Topman_Chief Rising Star

Topman_Chief

Posted
  • Author
Posted
2 hours ago, ophool said:

To use volume control on the Pi you need to enable the software mixer as per https://volumio.github.io/docs/User_Manual/Volume_Control_and_audio_quality.html

 

After checking your DAC specs, it might seem simplest to use the single ended outputs which halve the voltage out of the balanced connections.

Thanks - I had found this link in the user manual. Basically the instruction assumes the volume settings aren't greyed out. As @pond44 mentioned, it could be that the trial version restricts some features. I think I also chose "simplified settings" on set-up, so I'll take a look tonight to see if that enables the option. 

 

The next question will be...which is the lesser evil? Use unbalanced cables to reduce the voltage, or reduce the volume digitally in the Digione(Pi). I'm guessing it is the cables. 

Ittaku Grand Master

Ittaku

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Topman_Chief said:

Thanks - I had found this link in the user manual. Basically the instruction assumes the volume settings aren't greyed out. As @pond44 mentioned, it could be that the trial version restricts some features. I think I also chose "simplified settings" on set-up, so I'll take a look tonight to see if that enables the option. 

 

The next question will be...which is the lesser evil? Use unbalanced cables to reduce the voltage, or reduce the volume digitally in the Digione(Pi). I'm guessing it is the cables. 

There's never a simple answer to these questions. It's always "it depends on the implementation". Additionally, going unbalanced may not necessarily make it quieter, as your amp could have more gain on its unbalanced inputs. At least you can use a cheapy pair of RCA adapters and find out that one instantly.

bob_m_54 Grand Champion

bob_m_54

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, aussievintage said:

Has Volumio changed.  It used to be free.  The version I am using is free and gets updates regularly.

My Volumio is different to Volumio, and you have to pay for it.

My Volumio

Topman_Chief Rising Star

Topman_Chief

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Update: Using unbalanced cables did help drop the signal/volume significantly, to the point where I can live with it that way. 

 

Along the way I did enable all settings in Volumio and it let me adjust the volume in the slider, but doing so made no difference to the actual output volume. Might be an I2S DAC thing I'm guessing. 

 

Unbalanced (3 metre was all I had handy) dropped the volume level, but I feel like I dropped a notch in sound quality also. I'll have to find some other unbalanced cables to try. 

 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...
To Top