Hifiberry Dac2 hd vs. Allo Boss 1.2

Does somebody have experience with the new Hifiberry Dac2 HD and compared with Allo Boss 1.2 ?

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I don’t know how the Allo Boss 1.2 preforms. I own a Hifiberry DAC2 HD which Im happy with.
Sound is great. Lots of Bass and detail. Much more then the 1000 euro CD-player i have (15Y old though). Bass shouldn’t be more then it is. details is amazing. I hear things I never heard before so easily. Instruments sound more natural aswell. Ritme?timing is very good aswell.
It takes some time before it preformsto its full potential. Don’t judge it from the first moment. It needs some time to run in.
Hifiberry said there is no need for a proper linear powersupply…but Im not sure. I have a DIY linear supply and it makes the sound more warm and easier to listen too. I prefer the sound wil linear powersupply…
Maybe improvement comes from the direct connection to the DAC of the power supply.
Specs of hifitberry DAC2 are better then the Boss…maybe its performance is somewhere in between the Boss and katana? How someone can shine some light on this…

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The Allo Boss 1.2 performs with a very detailed sound. I have added the Allo Shanti lineair power supply in which the Pi (dirty) and Allo (clean) are fed.
I’m not sure if the Hifiberry DAC2 HD has better features than the Allo Boss 1.2 (sampling frequency is double than Hifiberry), Allo Boss can play DSD, Hifiberry doesn’t make any notice about it.
But as I’m thinking of buying an extra dac so I’m curious to know which DAC would sound better.
I control my music with JRiver Media Center.

Spec looks less from hifiberry DAC compared with Boss. Hifiberry is 192Khz en 24bit compared to 384KHz/32 bit for the Boss.
Then I only have CD Rips in FLAC…So no high resolution material for me…so its not important to have higher then hifiberry specs.
I think Hifiberry DAC2 is also a newer DAC compared to the one in the Boss ( not 100% sure).
Noise reduction and dynamic range is much higher from the Hifiberry DAC2 HD.

People and reviewers compare the Hifi berry DAC+ HD to match the Allo Boss.
It would be nice to see a proper review of the new DAC2 HD though.

I’ve contacted Hifiberry.

This is their reply :

"Hi,

Any of our boards can play back DSD with the right software. DSD can be converted on-the-fly to PCM. That’s not something that needs a specific hardware. You can also use 32 bit playback with any of our boards. Does it make any difference? No. There is not a single DAC on the market that can even handle the full dynamic range of 24bit. Adding more bits just won’t change anything.
I don’t comment on specific competitor’s products. However, I can tell you that we focus on things that really matters - not something that might look nice in a spec sheet. Feel free to listen by yourself and use our money-back-guarantee if you don’t like it:
https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/money-back-guarantee/"

This makes sense. Most of my music was 16 bit flac from cd rips. However, I switch more to 24 bit album downloads. The same album sounds completely different when remastered. I will probably buy a Hifiberry Dac2 HD with an ifi power supply and make a comparitive test myself.
The disadvantage for the Allo Shanti lineair power supply (€ 170) is the size and the heat it develops.
I unplug the switch when not in use which is not very comfordable.
As you are probably Dutch-speaking : we houden contact en hou je op de hoogte !

The best equipment has a resolving resolution around 20 bit.
24 bit is even physical not possible.

I bought the DAC2HD from SOSsolutions…changed the order from Boss since it was not coming in.
I’m curious how it performs with the ifi.
I still believe it’s better to connect it straight to the DAC2HD iso the Rpi.

Hou me op de hoogte :wink:

I’ve got an Allo Boss V1.2, it seems great.
I have seen a lot of issues reported on these forums with the HiFiBerry products.
I’m sure they both have great sound, but for some reason there seem to be cyclic issues with the HiFiBerry boards.

Allo Boss 1.2 was indeed not available with sossolutions.nl. I bought it from Audiophonics.fr
Good customer service.
They also helped me with the power supply choice

I would like to come back to the comparison between Hifiberry Dac2 HD and Allo Boss 1.2, as I recently bought a Hifiberry Dac2 HD. This was my setup : Hifiberry Dac 2 HD with Ifi power supply and Allo Boss v. 1.2 with Shanti power Supply. Both connected with Van den Hul RCA cables to a Rotel preamp and B&W 802 loudspeakers. I’ve tested with 16/44.1 and with 24/192 music albums. Sound quality : both excellent but impossible to tell which sounds better. The hifiberry sound slightly more transparant. I’ve invited some friends for blind test and they couldn’t make a difference. So despite all the blabla about technical specifications, ‘lineair’ power supply, I can tell what I hear and that’s most important. I even tested the Dac 2 HD with the normal raspberry power supply and the Ifi power supply and their is a very slight improvement but my friends could even not tell me if there was a difference (I heard a small improvement with the Ifi). Anyhow the Hifiberry Dac2 HD sounds great when played on good equipment and even sounds more brilliant than the Marantz ND8006 streamer I owe.