VOLUMIO 3.3 UNIVERSAL IS HERE

What does it mean by ALL music lovers? We thought that the values audiophiles believe in, can be of great enjoyment also to a wider music community.  This is why we are introducing our newest release, Volumio 3.3, as Volumio UNIVERSAL. We added new features that give the ability to use our music player in many new playback devices available in the market, both increasing convenience of Volumio as the central hub for music playback that can be appealing for both audiophiles and for music listeners in general.

So, without further ado, let’s see what Volumio Universal brings:

MANIFEST USER INTERFACE FOR EVERYONE!

The Manifest User, who we introduced in the launch of Volumio 3 only for Premium users, will now be available for ALL, both Free and Premium Users. We believe the Manifest UI is the best in terms of aesthetics and music presentation, so we decided everyone should have it. Old UIs are still available but will be decommissioned (maybe becoming optional plugins) soon.

In addition to have it available for all, we worked on making improvements to be more user-friendly, especially on the mobile version. We also redesigned the main menu and designed a new output menu that gives new and improved functionalities which you will learn more about in the next paragraphs.

NEW OUTPUT MENU

In the manifest UI, there is a new output menu with new and improved functionalities:

• Volume control
• Remote Control: the Remote control option on any Volumio device
• Multiroom Control Management with improvements.

And the newest features of Volumio 3.3. Available for Premium users:

• Play Here Function
• Sonos and Chromecast outputs

PLAY HERE FUNCTION

The Play Here function, allows you to stream the audio from Volumio to your mobile device, your computer and also your smart TV. Pretty much everywhere the UI is displayed. For example, if you open Volumio on your computer browser, you can click on the Play Here button found on the output menu and the sound will come out from your computer.

This means that you can enjoy Volumio as a normal music player app when you work on your PC, or via Bluetooth headphones connected to your mobile phone. Since Volumio is a powerful music aggregator, it’s a convenient way to integrate your music from different sources and leave it playing when cooking, working, gardening or having a party. Where audio quality is not needed, and good background music is preferred.

CASTING TO CHROMECAST AND SONOS

With the Casting option on the output menu, you can cast whatever you are playing in Volumio to any Chromecast and Sonos device. Now Volumio is compatible with different endpoints from the single app. As the title says, output whatever audio you are playing on Volumio to your Chromecast-enabled devices (Google Home, Chromecast-enabled Soundbar, Chromecast Audio, etc.) and SONOS devices.

The stream happens thanks to a low-latency HLS encoding which can be sent to any of the above devices. Please note that synchronization is not possible between Chromecast devices and SONOS devices, but you can play to a Sonos Group to have audio synchronized to that group.

This, in a nutshell, it the latest round of features that you will see in Volumio 3.3. In short, those features will make Volumio YOUR UNIVERSAL MUSIC PLAYER.

How to get Volumio 3.3?

If you are a first time Volumio user, you can download it directly here. If you already have Volumio installed on your device, go to System Updates and click on Check Updates. You are looking for v3.378.

What do you think? Do you like what you see?

Let us know in the comments and enjoy!

The post Introducing Volumio UNIVERSAL appeared first on Volumio.

Many things have been going on these past months, from the release of the new Volumio 3 plus the new pricing plan in December 2021 (we will go into it on a different topic in the next few days about it), we felt that we weren’t communicating enough about all things going on internally in Volumio, especially on the development side. Well, we want to change our current direction this 2022 and give a couple of minutes a week to tell you what is going on and to provide a bit more “insight” into what the development team is doing, as most of the time what they do is behind the curtain work, which is barely visible but that keeps the whole thing going.

via GIPHY

Hope also that this will be a pleasant read also for the techies out there, and to provide some insights into what means to manage a project of the scale of Volumio. Read below what Michelangelo and the Volumio Development Team are working on now.

February

Week of February 21, 2022 – February 25, 2022

This week we have been focusing on scaling up some of our cloud systems, as since the launch of Volumio 3 we’ve seen a great spike in usage of Volumio and therefore the vital cloud parts of it.

Specifically, we increased the capacity of the infrastructure that makes it possible to access your devices from myvolumio.org, adding automatic ssl renewal to them, experimenting with a new brilliant piece of software (caddy server) and setting up 6 new servers in Asia, Europe and North America.

We also further expanded auto-checks on many new endpoints, following a shameful incident that made some of our repositories unavailable due to expired certificates.

We upgraded the musicbrainz mirror (thanks to the help of musicbrainz dev team themselves) and added a robust caching mechanism. This improves response times of metadata retrieval and also refined the algorithm to provide more accurate results and much more hits.

BTW, if you are curious to know how many servers\cloud servers\services are in Volumio’s architecture, head to:

https://status.volumio.com

It makes very apparent (to us in the first place) how complex is the architecture that we have to host to keep the project going. But this is just reflecting how technology has changed in the last years.
When we started Volumio we just needed one server (for downloads and OTA updates, and this server is still running), but now, a music player needs to interface itself with a myriad of third-party services to provide an adequate level of quality and integrations. This is also because in my opinion, a pure FOSS solution is not enough anymore in this day and age: you need to host a bunch of stuff and pay for it, to make it work.

We finally managed to track down a nasty bug that was affecting users with ISPs not using IPV6 or applying NAT, causing frequent stops in TIDAL, QOBUZ and everything that was streamed over HTTP2. This was due to a bug in curl (on buster) which made http2 requests fail under some conditions. We are currently doing QA on this fix, and if all goes well, next week we will release this update (for the joy of many users and our QA lead Davide).

Works on FusionDSP is progressing nicely, thanks to the effort of two brilliant members of the team and community, we are setting up a new open source component to make Fusion DSP finally work with Volumio’s AAMPP and we hope it can go public very soon.

We are also working on the new version of the Android\iOS app (which will be free). This new version will bring a super easy onboarding for the first time users, allowing them to auto update their devices and to connect to their wireless network in a very easy way.
This in our intention will make life easier for newcomers both of Volumio on Raspberry PI but also on Volumio products (that’s another thing we’re working hard on… stay tuned…).

Unfortunately, what we are really behind schedule is improving the plugins store submission procedure and testing. We have still a huge backlog of plugins to test and no one can really focus on it as the dev team is fully occupied. We are not holding it back however as we are actively looking for someone to take care of it as its first and only activity (if you are interested in being this person, drop me a message).

We also made some minor fixes to CD playback plugin, Tidal Connect, Metavolumio.

That’s it for now, see you next week.

March

Week of Feb 28, 2022 – March 4, 2022

First of all, all our thoughts are for Ukraine and ALL people affected by this tragedy, which is beyond imagination. The team is discussing on how we can send tangible support and we hope we can take action next week.
We decided not to take a political stance, nor to make any statement on the situation but rather focus on doing something tangible to help people in need.

Going back to frivolous stuff, our work this week has been focused on continuing to harden our cloud server infrastructure for remote connection, gradually moving all servers to the new and improved caddy configuration.

On Monday we released a new update which fixed quite some bugs, but unfortunately, the Tinkerboard image suffered from a temporary Github outage, which prevented it from installing some core packages like curl and the remote updater. We then issued an emergency update on Wednesday and our support team is helping those affected.
We are improving the build script in a way that the build will fail if this occurs again, avoiding us to promote releases with missing core-packages.

Two new open-source alsa modules have been released and integrated in the main images, allowing the finalization of the FusionDSP works (which seems very close) and a useful facility for plugin developers.

There has been also bug fixing done for Metadata display on premium plans (from the search function) and some work on CD Playback.

Development on the new apps is currently on halt, awaiting results from testing from Volumio’s moderators and devs.

That’s it for this week. I hope that the next post on this diary will be more cheerful because peace has been reached (although it seems unlikely, but that’s what we hope).

Week of March 7, 2022 – March 11, 2022

This week it has been almost all “behind the curtains” work for the team, boring but very important stuff…

First, there has been an incident when releasing version 3.233: a temporary github outage prevented the build system to download and install some critical components of Volumio image. Basically, the Tinkerboard platform ended up without some very important libraries (curl, flac) and the updater. Other platforms, like the PI, instead were built without the classic UI.
But you already knew about that.

The team work has been directed to debrief the incident and to take proactive measures against it happening again: we tweaked the build system in a way that it will fail the build if that should happen again (thanks Ash!) and add some more tests into our QA checklist for new releases (thanks Davide for the hard work there!).

We will gradually refactor the build system to report (and fail) every minor issue in the build process. Besides increasing trust in release repeatability, it will be a very important step in deploying an automated build system (on a CI) which we are considering for a long time.

In the last times, the complexity of the project has increased substantially, so we are at the point where we need to set up robust procedures (quality, development, support) and debrief very often.

On an organizational level, this is increasing a little bit of internal bureaucracy, but we reckon that it’s a very important task to carry out to ensure we guarantee high-quality standards for our users. The mantra that we are having is: never make the same mistake twice.

Then, works on the new iOS and Android app is progressing, although with some showstoppers: we are trying to solve some compatibility issues with old android versions with the new Wireless set up flows: it appears that older Android versions are not able to receive properly the list of wireless networks to connect to.

We continue monitoring the cloud infrastructure, following the big upgrade that happened in the past few weeks. The scaling of servers and architecture seems to hold up pretty well, and the increased load is handled beautifully.

Last, but not least, since the biggest (and most daunting) bugs of Volumio 3 have been fixed, we are now focusing on minor bug fixing and tweaks, and we have a new version under QA testing, hopefully to be released next week. It will include fixes for Ui, network-attached storage mounting, metadata discovery and more.

As you might notice, developing, maintaining and making Volumio grow, involves a lot of work that is not obvious nor visible to the general public, but it’s equally important to make it work.

Week of March 14, 2022 – March 18, 2022

This has been a good week here at Volumio HQ. The main reason for that is that we somehow feel that we’ve managed to turn around the “bad climate” that we had in this community lately and re-establish the joyful vibe that we strive to cultivate in this place of the net.

We reckon that the release of Volumio 3 hasn’t been without issues: many people were frustrated by a couple of nasty bugs (which we solved) and the lack of plugins in V3. This meant that the community was filled with angry comments by users (and the famous vocal unhappy minority), which were expressing frustration about those issues. This vibe not only made this a quite less interesting place, but had a huge toll on the team’s morale and contributor’s “attachment” to the project.

Thanks to the suggestions of the private moderators’ group we decided to act and put a lot more effort in communicating proactively with the community (what you read is an outcome of this) and the users who were experiencing issues.

It looks like it’s paying off. We can sense that the spirit of this community is getting back. But we are not relaxing, this challenging time was an occasion for us to learn how to do better, and this is what we want to continue to do.

One process which is being reshaped a lot is our technical support and customer help department. First, we wanted to have a better “dispatching” of requests to the proper person in the organization. We achieved so by restructuring the contact page in a more “directive” way, to forward requests to the appropriate person (shop requests\returns, billing, technical support, partnerships, distribution etc.)

Then we wanted to provide faster answers to the people requesting technical support.

By analyzing supports requests we found out that about half of them could be solved pretty quickly without the need of our support people, by just providing small written hints.
So we implemented a chat-bot with automatically matches users’ requests with our knowledge base (which we are filling on an ongoing basis) and provide immediate answers to known problems or situations.

This has proven to work well for some kinds of requests, but really it did not for others. Analyzing the flow and some feedback by our users this week, we found out that this system was not providing enough feedback on the required actions for some users (we required some further action from user before initiating the support session) which felt frustrated of not receiving support and contacted us on other channels (Facebook, forum, etc).

So, we are working to change this part, by changing the user contact flow in those kinds of situations. We expect to have this change live in about 10 days.

So, for those users which felt neglected in the past month, we acknowledge the problem and we are working to fix it, so the next time you need us you’ll find a better experience.

On the development side, work this week has been again on our cloud ecosystem. If you wonder why that is, that we spent all this time on cloud stuff and not on the “Volumio” side of things, here’s why.

Back in 2018, we took a very important architectural decision: move all the integration intelligence to the cloud, rather than on the device.

For example: our albumart retrieval server used to run on the device. It basically identified the artist, album and track and made some queries online to fetch and download the most appropriate albumart for a specific track. This worked well. Or at least it did until one of those online services shut down or change their API (this happens more frequently than you might think).

So, you have 2 ways to solve the issue:

• Update all the software you have on the field (in our case more than 430k installs). This means that many users will experience the problem until they update their software. It also means that spotting this problem will come only after you have some users’ reports.
• Move the logic that aggregates online content to the cloud and have the albumart facility in Volumio just rely on that.

We took the second step. This brings some additional advantages:

• We can understand quickly if something goes wrong, since we can set up automatic monitoring of all the services we use.
• When we spot a problem and fix it, the fix is instantaneous for all our users, without the need for an update.
• Doing some optimizations like caching and load balancing we can offer faster response times compared to an algorithm running on the device itself, and make in turn the whole experience better.

This comes also with some disadvantages:

• It costs money to run those services. If we use the “distributed” computing power of the devices, it does not cost anything. But if we need to set up, maintain and host such systems on a scale required for Volumio, this has a cost.
  Basically, every time you look for an albumart, Volumio has to pay for it. Considering the service we provide for some of those endpoints is free, we have to be very clever to optimize our technology to not be overly expensive (in those cases, we don’t use AWS but a mix of Kubernetes + dedicated VPS with high microservices density).
• In case it fails, it fails for everyone at the same time. So you have to put in place automatic recovery strategies and monitoring and ensure adequate redundancies.

Some examples of the services that use this architecture are:

• Oauth login for Spotify, QOBUZ, TIDAL (and possibly more like LastFm)
• Albumart retrieval
• Browsing of QOBUZ and TIDAL
• Plugins store
• Webradio selection
• Metadata and credits retrieval

And yes, what needed some love this week was the albumart provider. A change in an upstream API deteriorated the performance of retrieval of artist arts. We were able to fix it and deploy a fix without requiring anyone to update. And the best part of it, is that most of you didn’t notice.

We are continuing with this architectural pattern, especially when we enrich functionalities, which might explain why you see fewer commits on the Volumio backend regarding such aspects.
Some of the things we already worked on (we are waiting for frontend parts to support it) are live concerts notifications and lyrics.

That’s it for this week! Hope you got a better glimpse of how also the community can impact Volumio, both in positives and negatives ways. Remember that and keep on helping make this place a good portion of the net.

Week of March 21, 2022 – March 25, 2022

First of all, we managed to package together the update which we will release next week. It includes various fixes for multiroom, utf-8 characters and the longly awaited AAMMP update (which will allow us to release the amazing Fusion DSP plugin).

What held us up from releasing was a mysterious bug that affected multiroom, which we took a while to identify (turned out to be a very silly mistake, but very hidden and difficult to spot).

Then, finally, we managed to get the new Android and iOS app to a level where we are happy with: the new improved and simplified onboarding flow works well in all circumstances.

It took a lot of debugging, testing, swearing… You can’t imagine how tedious sometimes can be to design and implement a very simple process…
Next time you try a piece of technology that just works, consider that a developer could have lost all his hair to make it work properly
Our plan is to release a beta test of the new app next week.

This week’s focus has also been a careful analysis of our current state (as a project and as a company) and strategic planning. As they say, “tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”.

We held various team meetings to pivot our strategy in 2 main areas.

The first is the OEM long-term strategy and approach. As you might know, Volumio OEM  is a service we provide to quite a lot of Hi-Fi companies around the world. We basically empower them to release Hi-Fi products using Volumio Technology and experience. We are proud that more than 30 Hi-Fi companies worldwide choose Volumio to power their audiophile products.

This has worked well both for us and them for the past years and Volumio is what it is today also thanks to the financial and design contribution of our partners.

We however think that we can do better and be more ambitious with the OEM Partner program.
We saw a huge increase in requests to become Volumio OEM Partners since the release of Volumio 3 and a slight change in what new partners require from our technology.

Compared to 3 or 4 years ago, Hi-Fi companies tend now to have in-house IT departments and are asking us for less direct involvement and more freedom when implementing our technology and a more SDK-like approach.

So, we are redesigning our OEM program very similar to what Android does. So yes, our plan is that Volumio will become the Android of the music technology world.
Of course, following our “co-design” approach, we are involving some of our best partners in the decision and design processes.

The other planning involved Hardware. We have ambitious plans and some really, really nice things that we are working on…
We can’t disclose anything at the moment, but, if I were you, I would consider visiting this year’s
HIGH END Munich  trade show…

That’s it for this week!

The post Volumio Development Team: Weekly Diary appeared first on Volumio.

He has worked with numerous world-class characters, including Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Bob Berg, Michael Brecker, Tony Oxley, Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Toots Thieleman and Ramin Bahrami in the splendid Bach is in the air. He performs in major Italian and international jazz festivals, as well as holding solo piano concerts.

Danilo Rea is also a great Hi-Fi enthusiast, he has never hidden it. In his apartment, numerous systems alternate between the sacred and the profane, between modern and vintage. But the interpretation he makes of Hi-Fi is completely personal, for him a device is like a piano, he chooses them carefully, in short, they must correspond to it. Volumio Primo was immediately part of Danilo’s universe, who immediately appreciated its natural and expressive qualities as well as its ease of use.

Now Primo is a permanent partner of his musical universe, alternating between one system and another, he has made it a real work tool.

Musicista di livello assoluto e molto ricercato in ambito pop e jazz, è considerato tra i migliori pianisti italiani. Diplomato al conservatorio di Santa Cecilia a Roma, è l’artista d’elezione dei migliori interpreti italiani, tra i quali Mina, Baglioni, Celentano, Mannoia e più di recente Gino Paoli. E’ un interprete immenso e viscerale, che ammalia e conquista irrimediabilmente con le sue libere improvvisazioni su temi melodici celebri.

Ha lavorato con numerosi personaggi di livello assoluto, tra i quali Chet Baker, Lee Konitz, Bob Berg, Michael Brecker, Tony Oxley, Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Toots Thieleman e Ramin Bahrami nello splendido Bach is in the air. Si esibisce nei maggiori festival jazz italiani e internazionali, oltre a tenere concerti di piano solo.

Danilo Rea è anche un grande appassionato di Hi-Fi, non lo ha mai nascosto. Nel suo appartamento numerosi impianti si alternano, tra sacro e profano, tra moderno e vintage. Ma l’interpretazione che fa dell’Hi-Fi è del tutto personale, per lui un apparecchio è come un pianoforte, li sceglie con cura, gli devono, insomma, corrispondere. Il Volumio Primo ha fatto subito parte dell’universo di Danilo, che ne ha apprezzato immediatamente le doti di naturalezza ed espressività oltre alla facilità d’uso.

Adesso è partner fisso dei suoi ascolti, e lo alterna tra un sistema e l’altro, ci lavora, ne ha fatto, insomma, un vero e proprio strumento di lavoro.

The post Danilo Rea chooses Volumio appeared first on Volumio.

Let’s start the year as we always do, with great music!

Check below our weekly album recommendations. And if you missed our 2020 album of the week compilation, you can check it out here

Week #1

 Released in 2013, Aleph by GESAFFELSTEIN takes us to the genre of IDM, electro and techno.

Debut album for the French producer Mike Levy aka Gesaffelstein.

The best gift of Mike Levy is certainly the versatility, the epic IDM of Piece of future is a bit the summa of the album that ranges between EDM (Pursuit and Obsession), UK bass rhythms (Out of line and Hellifornia) and industrial ambient (Hate Or Glory) to testify the ability to grasp the creative core of each style.

Not all of Aleph’s explanations are complete (Duel and Hellifornia): reconciling the ambient minimalism of some songs with the dance explosiveness of others is a titanic undertaking, but Levy is a character who could give us surprises in the future.

Electro milestone!

Purchase it on Amazon: Aleph by Gesaffelstein

Week #2

Listen to some electro-pop and folk with Eivør and her album Slør (English Version), released in 2015.

The artist has graciously shown to the world the Faroese folk and ballad through her music. This album we have chosen for this week was firstly done in an English version but later released in a second version that would be in her native language, Faroese. Nonetheless, even when we listen to the English version, the Faroese heritage is still beautifully appreciated in the album.

Eivør combines in a mysterious and -you could somehow say in a darker way- a style of different genres: starting from ease folk, with a touch of pop and electronic. You will notice that Slør, comparing to previous albums, is more instrumental than vocal. She provides something new in this experimental album, although always keeping her essence she still continues to evolve over the course of her career.

In Slør you can listen to a mix of both the old and new. “Trøllabundin” reflects the traditional folk, showing us a glimpse of her heritage. In addition, a mix of contemporary sounds is found with electronic beats. In “Petti Fyri Petti” (Piece by Piece), the song delivers an intimate scene with only a guitar, her distinctive voice and humming, giving a serene sensation. 

A well-deserving recognition must be given to Eivør. One of the most important achievements of an artist is to show their country’s tradition and culture through music, and Eivør has long reached the dream of many, to put her dearest country in the music scene and to make their traditional music a global success.

If you are one who enjoys discovering new music, “Slør” is a must album to put on your playlist, and the best part is that there are two versions to enjoy. We’ll leave you below the links for both versions. 

Must-tracks to listen:

• Broken
• Into the mist
• Piece by Piece

Purchase vinyl on Amazon: Slør by Eivør

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE VERSION: EIVOR Slor (Faroese version)

Week #3

THE KNIFE Shaking the habitual – electro pop, dance, trance – 2013

This week we bring you an album from The Swedish sibling’s duo known for captivating listeners with unconventional and experimental music: The Knife. The band has unfortunately dissolved after the release of the album Shaking the Habitual, released in 2013. Regardless, it should be a shame not to continue to appreciate the core of the album, a political message sounded in tune.

The electronic and dance duo were back on their game with Shaking the Habitual, after a long 7 years since the release of their first album Silent Shout back in 2006. 

For some, the album can be difficult to be listened to at first, but the wide range of uncommon sounds and electric pieces they created and combined nicely in each song and the whole album, with songs such “A tooth for an eye” or “Fracking Fluid Injection” send the listeners to the point where normal and strange meet (where we believe it’s a good point to be at).

A 19-minute track seems not bearable to listen to all, but “Old dreams waiting to be realized” gives a dark and pensive ambiance to isolate you with only the sound and your thoughts. Additionally, it seems to split the album into two parts

Besides the eclectic sounds, their words manifest a strong political message about different aspects of some issues in our current society, the corruption, modern consumption, and the problems with privilege, among others. As they expressed in the “Shaking The Habitual – The Interview” video: “Lyrics are inspired by 70s protest songs from our childhood or maybe our record poses the question what can I protest song be today.”

A challenging but excellent album for the audacious listener.

The must-track you should not miss: 

• Full of Fire
• A Cherry on Top
• Ready to lose

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: Shaking The Habitual by The Knife

Week #4

This week we present to you the album ANAKRONIC/KRAKAUER by Anakronic Electro Orkestra. An album with a mix of acid electro, fusion and alternative, released in March 2016.

Brilliant and dark is the Balkan fusion sound of the Toulouse-based collective, Anakronic Electro Orchestra, featuring clarinetist David Krakauer.

We find in this mix the audacity of combining acid electro with ancestral sounds, and the people’s tradition. The result is an electro-klezmer ensemble with a mixture of styles such as jazz, funk, rap, rock.

Improvisation has always been a distinctive trait of the clarinetist, the histrionic musical fantasy that is created by the close artistic collaboration is something that reveals unique aesthetic energy and communicative power.

This is music at the state of the art, beyond all frontiers!

Purchase it on Amazon: Anakronic / Krakauer by Anakronic Electro Orkestra

Week #5

This week, listen to hip-hop-electro French duo Smokey Joe & The Kid’s album Nasty Tricks, released in 2013.

Smokey Joe (the boss of the Bordeaux musical mafia) and The Kid (Parisian turntablist), are a duet that transports us almost a century in time with the artifice of modern magic made of groovy beats, scratches and samples. This debut LP brings with it sonic manipulation, experimentation and a lot of gangsta attitude. Here … the image of a cocktail between 2Pac and Al Capone in Brooklyn street NYC is the perfect curtain for this sound.

For connoisseurs here we have the honor of excellent collaborations: Puppetmastaz, Youthstar (Chinese Man), Sugaray Redford, Random Recipe and many more ..
Strong the influence of 90’s hip hop and the swing of the early twentieth century creates the perfect setting for a rhythmic, cheerful, but unforgiving urban poetry …. Bang!

Start with a bang!

Purchase it on Amazon: Nasty Tricks by Smokey Joe & The Kid

So, the most important question, what are your thoughts on it? Is it related to your music preferences?

Tell us in the comments!

Reviews are written by DED@Volumio

Do you enjoy Volumio Album of the week? Then you will love Music Letter! Check it out.

The post Volumio Album of the Week – 2021 appeared first on Volumio.

So where is the Black Friday discount?

Oops! This time, Black Friday will be different here at Volumio and there are no discounts!

Jokes aside, we wanted to get in touch with you to give you an important announcement.

After carefully analyzing our supply chain for the past months, we are here to inform you Volumio Primo prices will increase. 

We all know about the unfortunate situation that’s being going on in the world. This year has changed everybody’s life, one way or another. Same happened to companies, unfortunately the COVID-19 pandemic forced us into new changes.

Logistics costs have increased +200%, as well materials and manufacturing costs have increased +12% for Primo. Combining it, these costs have significantly increased the last months, not giving us another option but to come to the decision that our Volumio Primo price will increase.

 The new Volumio prices will take effect on Saturday, November 28th at 00:00 CEST:

• Volumio Primo Community Edition: €479 €499

• Volumio Primo Hi-Fi Edition: €619 €649

*Volumio Primo Hi-Fi Edition includes MyVolumio Superstar Lifetime Plan

Why are we doing this now? We tried to hold this decision for as long as we could and prevent this price increase for these last months. However, as supply chain costs continue rising and we keep expanding our team and capabilities to provide the most to our community, keeping the current price is not sustainable anymore.

We believe it’s fair to communicate in advance, this way if you are interested in buying a Primo, you can have the chance to purchase it before going through this change.

Get Volumio Primo here before prices go up!

The post Black Friday Surprise! We have a important announcement for you appeared first on Volumio.

Let us introduce our Volumio’s album of the week. To prepare ourselves for the weekend, we will deliver a list of curated suggestions of our favorite music collections. One album, once a week… a mix of art and pure sound quality to freeze yourself in instants that you hopefully will remember.

Week #1

Our first week’s recommendation is a newly fresh studio album from the Norwegian act Ulver – “Flowers of Evil”.

An outstanding album, which gives a touch of what a synth-pop album should have; from instrumental greatness to nostalgic touch. The difference is that ULVER has proof once again that they don’t need to follow the rest by simply creating catchy electronic sounds to please the general audience.

If you don’t believe us, listen it for yourself and feel the greatness with “Machine Guns and Peacock Feathers”

Week #2

Let’s go back to 2014 and transport yourself into a new dimension with the album LUX by French group Ez3kiel.

We can describe LUX as a combination of powerful and dramatic, in a vibrant way.

One of a kind… 

With LUX, Ez3kiel includes a mix of electronic with a modern post-rock, providing a captivating combination that we believe on stage it sounds incredibly hypnotic, but even at home, it can satiate immensely.

A must-track to be listened: “Dead in Valhalla”

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: LUX by Ez3kiel

Week #3

One of the projects of the unstoppable Shabaka Hutchings, king of British Nu Jazz. Psychedelia, cosmic electronics and lysergic colors in a mix of Flying Lotus experiments.

“Imagine a culture that rests on a more spiritual relationship with the earth and with lovers… Unable to listen, we keep talking… Unable to notice ourselves, unable to stop and unwilling to learn” unforgettable words from song Blood of the past.

This record is a true avant-garde journey guided by jazz paths, a jazz steeped in groove, from rock to funk, from acid house to d’n’b, from clarinets to sax, TCIC leads us to discover a new reality that is not only musical, but a lively artistic kaleidoscope.

Must-tracks to be listened: BLOOD OF THE PAST & SUMMON THE FIRE

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: Trust in the Lifeforce of the deep Mystery by The Comet Is Coming

Week #4

We are in the indie world, but not the noble one, the trendy one. The CIGARETTES AFTER SEX give us a concentration of pure androgynous, nocturnal and minimal hyper-romanticism that intensifies piece by piece. The songs can be more properly called bedroom stories, 10 compact tracks soaked in bourbon and romance.

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: Cigarettes After Sex by Cigarettes After Sex

Week #5

Week #6

Here we have a band who are pushing boundaries, creating music without electric guitar which takes Zappa, Soft Machine, The Residents, John Zorn and Art Zoyd into logical and illogical extremes, blending sounds which have no place being put together, to create something which is strangely enthralling and enticing while at the same time also being harsh and abrasive. They use atonality almost as a weapon to distract the listener when things could almost be getting too commercial and poptastic. It is challenging music where there really are no limits. There is a sense of humour, playfulness even, within some of the sounds, but the result is always something which many music lovers are going to find too harsh to be enjoyed.

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: 1000 by CHROMB!

Week #7

Purchase the CD on Amazon: Sing & Dance by Sophie Zelmani

Week #8

The first self titled CELLDWELLER album marks a new generation in the US electro-rock fields, musically taking on a style most akin to industrial rock, an 18 tracks production heavy beast. A self proclaimed perfectionist, Klayton’s high level of editing and tweaking for the sake makes it better with every single song. 

What we find here is an album that benefits from a strong electronic backing and production that brings everything in the mix forward into the spotlight, and further strengthens the overall style of the album. Instrumentally, Klayton’s ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ approach to things brings a strong performance to the record. Although lacking anything close to a lead guitar, the wall of rhythm guitars riffage more than does the job, with songs like ‘One Good Reason’ and ‘Own Little World’ featuring a catchy, guitar driven sound. Songs like ‘Under My Feet’ and ‘Symbiont’ flourish in percussion driven segments, and the blend of acoustic and electric drum kits found throughout the album works exceedingly well.

The writing on this album is by far his best. 

In contrast with his later work, Klayton’s vocal delivery on the album largely remains moody and features far less production, benefiting the darker nature of the lyrics greatly, and giving songs like ‘Fadeaway’ a big boost. The crown jewel of the album, ‘The Last Firstborn’, stands as the embodiment of everything this album is: a blend of electronic trance with metal screams and a big wall of guitar distortion.

Must-track to be listened: Switchback & The Last Firstborn

Purchase it on Amazon: Celldweller by Celldweller

Week #9

A post-punk, rock, industrial album of the week with Criminal by THE SOFT MOON (2018)

Luis Vasquez is still not over his personal demons. Since The Soft Moon’s self-titled 2010 debut, the mechanized riffs, post-punk squirms and groggy krautrock beats of the Oakland-based one-man-band have remained. On Criminal, The Soft Moon’s fourth studio album, these sounds are at their most gruelling, and most sharply-produced, yet.

Criminal details some of the darkest aspects of the human experience – shame, guilt, violence, desperation, self-loathing. Give something, then, is a pleasing break from the intense motor that runs through the first couple of tracks, as higher-pitched synths observe more nuanced vocals that wreak of desperation rather than sheer anger. It’s still painstaking, but on an album defined by its horror, there is beauty in the spaciousness which is wrought into delicate melodies.The album’s opener “Burn” fits its name, sudden and pulsing, a hot industrial song about lost control and a frightening kind of helplessness, one that is almost akin to dependence.

The following tracks, “Choke” and “Give Something” take a down tempo turn, brooding, softer giving off an almost liquid texture. Clear throughout Criminal is the singer’s bald-faced struggle, his wrestling with something deep insider; what is more, it feels like he’s losing, badly, especially as “Give Something” seethes restlessly to its dystopian finish. On “The Pain” the tempo picks back up, forging one of the record’s most dramatic constructions, a fury of heart racing keys and pulsing beats. As the record crackles to a finish on a triptych of songs (“Young” “Born Into This” and the title track) one is left with no other recourse than to believe Vasquez, his performance, the way he feels every instrumental shock mimics the experience of being abandoned.

Week #10

The Americans Om, a pearl in the stoner sludge panorama (project by Sleep’s icon Al Cisneros), in their 2012 album Advaitic Songs, evoke ancient rituals in psychedelic mystical landscapes, unreal landscapes wrapped in dreamlike atmospheres. An aimless journey through India, through supernatural worlds, choruses that sing disturbing litanies, everything contributes to creating dark and arcane fantasies.

The first track, “Addis”, knows how to convey the idea: you hear a voice singing mysterious words, almost a Middle Eastern chant, in the background percussion and strings and the journey begins. With “State Of Non-Return”, however, the unstoppable rhythm leads to a landscape that is much more ‘hard’, which will no longer be perceived for the rest of the album and which refers to the past stoner rock, apart from the calm closure again.

“Gethsemane”, in fact, takes up the mystical journey we had undertaken with “Addis”; but the piece lasts 10 minutes in which it knows how to build a spiritual and timeless atmosphere: strings, percussions, bass, singing an austere prayer to any god, even if this is a typically oriental spirituality. “Sinai” begins with the bursting of arcane words praising the mystery that reveals an Arabian sun. We are confused by the suggestive carpet of arches, which obscures the sun and makes the journey continue in other scenarios.

“Haqq al-Yaqin”, the last stage, is firmly anchored to a gothic and gloomy universe: the sound is solemn, the song a sacred melody among the gloomy spires of an ancient cathedral. The record ends and it is not easy to return with a clear mind.

Must-track to be listened:

• STATE OF NON RETURN
• SINAI
• HAQQ AL-YAQIN

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: Advaitic Songs by OM

Week #10

The album of the last week of 2020 is Forever Blue by A.A. Williams, a combo of post rock, post classical. Released this 2020.

Classical studies as a child, falling in love with Deftones and the most extreme metal, a guitar found on the street, the first compositions, an eponymous EP and, then, the leap in quality, with a 10 “vinyl entitled “Exit In Darkness” composed in collaboration with the Japanese post rock band Mono. These are the stages in the short career of A.A. Williams, a young Londoner who with “Forever Blue”, her debut published via Bella Union, finally tries her hand at long distance.

Eight songs for forty-three mins, in which the young songwriter puts her studies and passion for the most experimental rock. 

From the first listening, in fact, influences from bands such as the mentioned Mono, Rachel’s, Explosions In The Sky, Sigur Ros and Cult Of Luna are perceived, relocated in a sound context in which also contemporary classical and contemporary textures emerge, opening to a livid and crepuscular folk. However, it would be very simplistic to frame this debut through its bands of inspiration: in fact, the album shows all the talent of a young artist who writes great songs and has many things to say through her own original artistic vision.

“Forever Blue” is first and foremost the perfect representation of the dramatic liturgy of our times, the ghostly photograph of a world adrift and hopeless.

It is one of the best albums of this grey year, a complex and fascinating record, surrounded by a sadness that does not evaporate, but that drags and wraps around a candlelight, a glimmer of hope.

Purchase the vinyl on Amazon: Forever Blue by A.A. Williams

Well.. we want to hear from you, what are your thoughts on it? Have you listened to them before? Are they related to your music preferences?

Tell us in the comments!

Reviews written by DED@Volumio

Do you enjoy Volumio Album of the week? Then you will love Music Letter! Check it out here.

The post Introducing Volumio’s Album of the Week appeared first on Volumio.

Some of you might have noticed a link in Volumio’s header called “Custom Solutions”. Some of you might have wondered what it is and why we decided to make it so prominent. Well, here’s your chance to have a behind the curtains overview of what it means and why we’re so proud of this.

Essentially, Volumio is not only your favorite Audiophile Music Player, but it’s a technology that we do license to many Hi-Fi companies around the world. The idea is simple: Volumio is the result of the development efforts of our beloved community and of the developers working for the Volumio company. As we are great fan of efficiency, we understood that to create a top-notch music player, we had to involve (both financially and on a co-design basis) the more stakeholders possible: the more ideas we put in it, the more development resources we put it it, the better.

So, what you, in fact, use every day has been funded thanks to all the Hi-Fi companies (there are more than 30, worldwide) that embraced Volumio technology and used them in their product. On the other hand, such companies receive a tailor-made, state of the art streaming software, enabling them to bring new products to the market. And the Volumio company not only provides the software per-se, but a range of services (consultancy on software and hardware, support, branding, fine-tuning of audio performances etc), effectively removing all the complications that software inherently brings.

This is essentially why Volumio OEM has become the choice of many audio manufacturers for their streamers solution, ensuring them a stable, feature-rich and proven platform. And why the OEM program allowed Volumio to grow as it is today.

Enough talking about Volumio, now let’s see a case where we can safely assume that the Volumio OEM tailored software, together with exquisite audio and design expertise produced a remarkable result.

The ORATORIO. Created by France-based brand LIEDSON is an integrated high-end streamer with CD playback and ripping ability built-in. It captivated us not only for its sonic performances, but as well its elegant design. With Volumio OEM Solution, we provided to the ORATORIO a customizable platform where users can manage the device, inheriting proven stability and performance of the Volumio OS, and customizing the looks and feel to provide a coherent package.

Desktop Version

Gilles Aguilera, designer and founder at LIEDSON, created the Oratorio’s OS when he first developed the product. Decided to go on a different path, he later on tested Volumio on the device, resulting in a new decision to incorporate instead a customized Volumio version for the Oratorio’s main OS. As Gilles explained to us, he chose Volumio because the system is “fluid, responsive with very good ergonomics”. 

Mobile Version

 The ORATORIO, more than high-end streamer, a philosophy

Gilles carefully designed and developed the ORATORIO based on its passion for art and audio. Being an awarded painter/sculptor since the age of 18, he was fond by Italian art and the artists surrounding it. In addition, audio was another passion recollected since he was young, creating his first audio server worked under Linux in 2005.

After all, a great product comes with great design. Two years ago, with the help of an Italian designer friend, Gilles developed the first visuals of the Oratorio. Gilles’ wife contributed as well with the first model, developing a modernized device with noble materials while keeping it user friendly with its plug and play convenience. 

All products from LIEDSON are assemble by hand

 

The ORATORIO is built around an aluminum chassis machined in the mass for a weight of 16 kg, the sides and the bottom have a thickness of 10mm, and the front face is 150 mm x 30 mm it serves as housing for the reader CD which is totally trapped, reducing mechanical vibrations to naught. 

The wooden part “the hood” is machined from a noble wood, from 30 years old drowned burl. It is machined to tenths of a millimeter on digital control, to receive the imprints of the internal components (transformers, PCB, capacitor) which are fixed on the bottom of the ORATORIO.

Our products are intended for a demanding clientele seeking custom-built equipment, free from all noise, and unparalleled reliability. – Gilles Aguilera

We can surely agree the ORATORIO provides the complete package. Elegancy, timeless design and universality.

 

The post Introducing the ORATORIO by LIEDSON: Volumio new OEM partner appeared first on Volumio.

Innovations keep changing the world of sound with every minute. It improves the way songs are recorded, the experience of listening to them, and even how to play an instrument.

Technology has made music widely available and smartphones play a big role in this. From music streaming apps, to sound mixers and even learning how to play musical instruments, our mobile phones are a big part of our audio experience. There are a ton of apps that can help you curate the perfect playlist. If you want to know more about this, you can check it out in joyofandroid.com.

So what should we expect next? If anything, to be amazed. What if we go completely wireless? Or there could be more nature-friendly devices. The future is here to surprise you.

Let’s delve into some possibilities!

1. Ferroelectric Nanogenerator (FENG)

This is a very thin, foldable material. It can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice-versa. This kind of technology is only experimental at the moment, mostly used for research. It was used for LCD touchscreens, LED lighting, and even flexible keyboards. All these devices operated without the need for an external power source.

One day, this material could be used to make full-sized speakers. This material was already used in a Michigan State Spartan Flag. With the help of FENG, the Michigan State fight song was played, with only an iPad as a source.

(Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211285518303318)

2. Going Completely Wireless

Wireless devices aren’t something innovative anymore. With the apparition of earbuds, the popularity of all kinds of wireless headphones has been on the rise. Yet, there’s still a lot of room for improvement until we achieve the maximum potential.

Wireless audio has been greatly improved by the aptX HD and LDAC codexes. Additionally, battery life—a major place of improvement, is increasing. There are now devices that can go as long as 38 hours on a charge. With these improvements in mind, we wouldn’t gasp if wired headphones would become obsolete anytime soon.

The popularity of wireless headphones will skyrocket after the launch of the Apple AirPods 2. It is said that the second generation of AirPods will focus more on health and fitness, in addition to sound.

3. 360 Degree Audio

In 2019, Sony announced its 360 Reality Auto. This is a new music format made to be streamed over mobile platforms through compatible headphones. However, there is a long way to go before this becomes a reality. This is mainly because it changes the way music has to be recorded for 360 degree audio.

There’s work in progress for this, though. The Nokia OZO technology records spatial audio for your video—using your smartphone. Sounds from certain places will be artificially enhanced. And others, from outside the frame of the video, will be suppressed.

In 2018, a new holography system appeared, called Super XFi. The platform duplicates the soundstage of a full-surround sound system in a pair of headphones. This kind of technology uses a specific amp, as well as certain calibration software. These were available only to the creators of the platform, Creative.

This kind of sound can help create a more immersive “sound sphere”. When you’ll listen to a 360 degree audio, you will hear the sounds in the direction that they came from. This will make a big difference while gaming, for example. The 360 degree audio has been compared to the difference between an HD TV and a standard one.

4. Eco-Friendly Gadgets

Since protecting the planet is on everyone’s minds at the moment, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more gadgets made out of eco-friendly materials. Big companies, like Apple, said they will use more recycled materials in their production process.

There’s already the Tri-Art Audio S-Series TA-0.5 turntable. It’s completely made out of hemp and beeswax soaked bamboo. Those materials aren’t just eco-friendly.  Bamboo is perfect for audio due to its rigidity and vibration dampening properties.

(Source: https://www.vinyloftheday.com/tri-art-audio-bamboo-turntable/)

5. Synthstrom Deluge

This synthesizer is made in New Zealand and there are a few reasons why it’s special. First of all, it’s an uncommon all-in-one synthesizer, sampler, and sequencer. It has 128 pads for sequencing, a dual-engine subtractive, FM synth, and 64 MB of RAM. Additionally, there are built-in effects, CV outputs, and many more features.

What’s so revolutionary? It doesn’t need an additional computer to create music. This kind of device is a big innovation for portability. It broke the norm. With this one, you could make music anytime, anywhere the inspiration strikes.

(Source: https://synthstrom.com/product/deluge/)

6. Damson Cisor

At first glance, one would be tempted to say that this is just a portable speaker. Well, yes, it is, but it is also ahead of its time. What is revolutionary about it is that it makes use of its surrounding environment. It will turn your windows, floor, or tables into a speaker. How? It uses the surface’s vibrations to amplify sounds.

This wireless speaker has changed the way portable speakers should work. And, even though it’s pretty small and lightweight—it provides great sound quality. We’re going to be frank—we kind of like looking at it too.

7. Smart Headphones

These headphones are called Mindset—don’t mistake them for your usual wireless headphones. If you’re having trouble with your concentration, then you should definitely consider buying these. Mindset will track your focus and give you alerts when it drops.

There are EEG electrodes that sit on your head, in a  comfortable manner. They measure electrical activity. Using these kinds of headphones will train you to deal with being distracted. They also come with voice cancellation, to help you stay focused.

(Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mindset/headphones)

Take Away

As you can see, innovations in sound systems can be made in a plethora of directions. The quality of sound is continuously improving. There’s a clear focus on portability and convenience. Gone are the times where you needed expensive and massive devices to properly experience your favorite song.

From self-powering gadgets to eco-friendly materials and more portable devices, anything is possible. Or maybe all of the above combined? Just like in any domain, there are endless possibilities for improvement.

What are the next technologies in HiFi you think will be the most interesting to see?

The post Sound Systems: What New Technology Await Audiophiles appeared first on Volumio.

The Music and Artists Credit Discovery feature will allow you to answer all the questions above and more by exploring the behind the scenes of the music you listen on MyVolumio.

You can see on the video above a quick overview of how this new feature works.

The new released is available to all MyVolumio Superstar subscribers. We believe is an important addition for the audiophile, letting you find out detailed information about songs, artists or albums.

You can read the biography of your favorite artists.

From the biography of an artist to the story of the studio where an album was recorded, all this information will be easily accessed on the User Interface. You can access to all this data on the browse menu, or in the playback page.

Want to know who play what? Now you can!

The Music and Artists Credit Discovery feature gives you the opportunity to learn the story of each album, the credits list, or even the instruments that were used to record from all the music on your local files. And not only for your local files, but also for MyVolumio compatible services such as Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, and more.

The feature comes in different languages (French Version)

Adding to all these capabilities, the data can be available in the current language you use on the software, but if that’s not the case, the will appear in English.

You can also enjoy it on the mobile version.

And this is where we say thank you to all the contributors that made this release possible. This new addition to MyVolumio would not have been possible without the help of Jo, his creative mind came up with the idea, worked on the cloud side of it and the design, making this vision a reality.

Another important contribution we must acknowledge is to Agnes & Bence of Ollala Design Studio. For all Volumio users, this great team worked on the usability of the Volumio UI, releasing a refreshed web user interface, with many fixes. The Ollalla Design Studio team explained “In this release we designed and implemented the newest iteration of the music browser. The main goal was to provide a flatter and more content rich music experience for the users while maintaining consistency with the existing UI. This project was definitely a good start to get to know Volumio and the team. Stay tuned for the leap of developments that are coming! Volumio has a bright future and we’ll make sure to polish the UI this pearl.”

A big thanks goes as well to Chris for his great insights, code contributions and suggestions, Gkkpch, Balbuze, Ash, Giacomo, Monica, Stefano, Massimiliano and all Volumio team members which do awesome things for this project.

Last but not least, we have to thank Wikipedia and Music Brainz (to which we are proud to be Supporters) for their amazing collective work over the years. The contribution of those 2 projects to mankind wisdom and access to information is invaluable. Without them, the work we’ve done on this feature would not simply be possible. If you appreciate freedom of information, think about the fact that those 2 projects have huge operational costs to be run, so consider making a donation to keep them making the world a better place ( Wikimedia foundation Donation Link, Metabrainz Foundation Donation Link).

Learn all the credits in the Credit Section

Now that we’ve shown you what the Music and Artists Credit Discovery features does, the facts you can read and learn about your favorite music, and the refreshed Volumio web UI; we want to invite you to see it for yourself and try it out!

The feature is available to MyVolumio Superstar users, just update Volumio to the latest version and enjoy the feature, in the event you still cannot see it, simply refresh your browser page.

This new release brings also many improvements for the free Volumio system (as you know, the financial boost coming out from MyVolumio is reinvested in the whole platform, no just the freemium part). All users are getting a reworked Album and Artist overview pages (with a more informative readout of the item, such as genre and file type), and a whole bunch of minor fixes. Next on our roadmap is to further improve the “customizability” of the browse page to allow you to “PIN” your favorite items for faster access and extra convenience.

Last but not least, we want your feedback! What do you think about this new addition to MyVolumio? Do you find it useful and interesting? Are there other credits information about your music you would like see? Give us your opinion or write down any questions you may have in the comment section!

Enjoy!

The post Discover Your Music With MyVolumio Latest Credits Feature! appeared first on Volumio.

Yet, I didn’t know that there could be something more, something that will improve my experience of listening to my favorite music in the best quality possible.

I met Michelangelo a few months ago and right away he talked to me about Volumio. I would be lying if I said I understood about Hi-Fi and Volumio after the first conversation with Michelangelo. Oh no… it was a new world for me and took some time to understand what this audiophile world was about.

Before I go deeper into this matter, let me introduce myself. My name is Monica, I am currently part of the Volumio team and I am a woman.

When I joined Volumio, a whole new experience began. I was very intrigued so I’ve learned about the Hi-Fi industry, who is an audiophile and what an audiophile seeks. The importance of high-quality sound reproduction and how this enhances somebody’s daily life.

But… how have I never found out about this before? If music is something I am passionate about and I listen to it everyday, why shouldn’t I enjoy it to the maximum as well?

Are we getting enough room in the hi-fi community?

After doing some research while working in Volumio, I noticed something peculiar: only 10% of Volumio’s users are women. Even when I go online and search something related to the hi-fi industry, I see that mostly men are the ones part of this community. The million dollar question is: Why?

Today, we can say there are many fields, such as audio and technology, that are elements and needs for both male and female, and whatever comprises this field it should be targeted to all of us. Also, being fair enough, women of all ages have better hearing frequencies than men, isn’t that say something?

Women enjoy to listen to music as much as any men. And as a woman, being part of this community but also working in it, made me wonder what we should do about it. I’m glad I decided to join Volumio because it showed me a bunch of interesting and powerful ideas in this industry that keeps growing. Also it demonstrated how I can enjoy what I like to do the most in an advantageously way, and what better time to share it now and encourage more women to join the community and let the women already interested in it, to be part of it. 

We must expand the hi-fi image and communication

I know out there we will find many women interested as soon as they learn about the Hi-Fi community. Believe me, the past 10 years I studied and worked in the fashion industry and now, this new world opened to me with so many new experiences that fortunately keep my enthusiasm high everyday. We are just missing a little communication pointed towards the female audience, to bring out the curiosity and the chance to explore the countless attributes that the audio industry can offer.

Today, I can see most of the communication goes towards the middle-aged men who has the most expensive hi-fi, resulting of an useless stereotyping that does not help the community grow. Should we start changing the face of Hi-Fi?

Based on my personal experience, if it wasn’t for Michelangelo I would probably still be unfamiliar about Hi-Fi and everything that consists of. Therefore, my goal is for you and I to invite and encourage the women in our lives to experiment the feeling of listening to any audio in a bit-perfect quality.

At the end of the day we all love music, and we all deserve to enjoy it to the max. 

So, what do you think we can do to change the image of the Hi-Fi industry and give more room to women? Write me in the comments, I would love to hear your opinion!

Let’s make this community more diverse!

The post A Woman in a Man’s World? Hi-Fi Edition appeared first on Volumio.