Hi, my 2 cents about Allo Piano dac 2.1…im sorry for bad english…
Im using Volumio 2 on Rpi3 and my dacs are
Audiophonics XTCO dac V2 and Piano dac 2.1.
I think that Piano sounds a little bit less natural than Audiophonics, but have more bass and is what i was looking for…
Anyway Piano plays very well and I’m very satisfied.
Im using Piano without Kali so… im very curious to try it with the reclocker.
A little issue i discover: Volumio software volume act only with normal outs, subwoofer out remains fixed… regardless of normal outputs.
I think that Volumio team is still working on Piano Dac driver…and yes, with 16/44 flac sub out dont works.
Hello, I have now Mamboberry LS which has ES9023 inside as Audiophonics (according reviews it should sound similar).
For me Mamb. is very live sounding maybe too much transparent in the highs and high middle spectrum , this compare has been made with soundcard asus xonar st (Burr-Brown PCM 1792) , sabre from Mamb. LS is more detailed, i can hear things that i have never heard before during all freq. spectrum (i can clearly hear vocalist when he is going to take a breath before singing and many many other troll details…) but as you told, bass is with ES9023 weaker not so energetic but more detailed, but i have sub. so no problem to harmonize it. I will try piano hifi dac during a week and then i will post my impressions here…
PS: i used also kali reclocker…
After some browsing at diyaudio forum I found that you can solve this by adding:
format "44100:24:2"
to mpd.conf under audio_output
This will play 44.1k files 24bit.
However I’m still looking forward to the Piano 2.1 driver. I hope that the volume control will affect both main speakers and sub. At the moment Volumio volume control affects only the main speakers and nothing happens to subwoofer volume.
Yes, I already made the mod that allows to have both volumes controlled simoultaneously… I am really looking forward to release a fully Piano 2.1 compatible image (with DSPs, crossover frequencies etc)… We are stuck at the moment because we need a GPL compatible license for this part…
You are welcome, normally through my amp. yamaha AS701 so not to Mamboberry, can you give me more details regarding comparing your former Audiophonics vs recently used Piano 2.1. Thanks :mrgreen:
Sure!
I’m trying Piano only to one day but I can tell you that there is a clear difference in the low and low mids notes, more marked in the Piano rather Audiophonics dac. The bass is still controlled and I think it will improve even after a period of adjustment. As for the 3d stages, the separation of the channels, the detail, I think DAC Plan and Audiophonics are very similar …
If you have something specific to ask me …I am here
Hello, thanks for your posting, can you also hear some difference in high presentation or high middles (from cca 3-12khz) , ES 9023 is for me sometimes bright, especially when you have too much live sounding combination (Yamaha amp + Perless HDS tweeter and 2x fountek FW146 into floor speakers - bass is 2x W200S Visaton) or tracks are not very well recorded, is Kali more polite in highs than Sabre ? i read some comparasion when has been said that PCM 5122 which is also in Piano DAC (2.0) (piano 2.1 should sound similar or same) is not so present in high and rather on warmer side(it confirms your opinion on better low middles). It is very particular that after crossing from Asus Xonar ST onto DAC 9023 i had to tune my speaker croosover to polite final sound, and weak perless tweeter by another 2ohm rezistor and sligtly separate croosover border between middles and highs and weak also middle speakers to excel more bass spectrum (from 50-500hz) But i will see how my future KALI DAC test show some differences…
Hi Blackfear, the Kali is not a DAC, so it does not have any sound signature. From my experience, when I tried it improved soundstage, details and microdetails with every DAC I tried. So, it won’t change the DAC signature, but (by significantly reducing jitter) it will improve in a noticeable way what above.
That being said, I had your very same sensation with ESS 9023 based DACs, but got a more “polite” sound when using a better PSU (like the iFI)…
Hi Michelangelo, i have installed RPi 3, onto Kali Reclocker and on the top Mambo. LS DAC like a icing on the cake, PSU is iPower, i am very satisfied with 9023 from Mambo, but sometimes it is sligtly aggreesive after smoothing my speakers, i am only shocked that changing from Asus Xonat ST made this huge differences…i thought that it should sound similar because i wanted to have some streamer/USB player unit, but now i have to tune all my assembly again
I’m really happy that you like the combo! It’s also my same setup (altough I just received another DAC which I love a lot, but I’ll talk about that in a future post). The SABRE is very detailed and I agree that sometimes it sounds quite aggressive in the higher frequencies (but my system is a bit on the dark side: Naim Nait5 + Sonus Faber Toys) so I like the overall balance.
But IMHO that means that its just doing its job: delivering the original recording. When you step up in quality in your gear, it will reveal the both the good and bad of your recordings…
You are right, now badly recorded albums have been revelaed, I has perless tweeter HDS 810921(Scanspeak D2608/913000) which is quite transparent but very very detailed so paired with yamaha amp and sabre DAC is too much open in higs…need to find some tuning…OK inform us which new DAC
you are testing now, and is it paired with kali reclocker also ?
Piano should arrived during few days so I will test it and compare to Mambo Sabre, i mostly listen to metal musis
so you can imagine how many albums are badly recorded :mrgreen:
Lol now I understand what you were referring before!!
Did you got the Piano or the Piano 2.1?
In any case, I have the gut feeling that you’ll get a more balanced output for your specific genres…
Piano 2.0 is on the way to me, i have read that Piano PCM5122 maybe should be better (warmer side not so transparent in highs) for my taste than Sabre ES9023, so i will be clever after real compare
Yes i can… i have (somewere) a test disc with many frequencies.
Ill test Piano 2.1 vs Sabre, in high and mid high frequencies with my fostex fe206e double bass reflex towers and kingrex amp…soon as possible…
