Over the past seven years we have committed to give music lovers the best audiophile experience in an innovative approach. Starting with the Volumio project, the music player software that gave life to our eponymous company and an incredible community, this aspired us to give more. A couple of years later, after a thorough research, our community support and long hours of hard work, we launched the music player and streamer, Primo. It was such a thrill introducing our first complete audiophile product!

But the most wonderful feeling was the great response we’ve received since. When we launched the Primo in 2018, it did not cross to our minds that in less than two years, we would receive the most prestigious award in the Hi-Fi Industry. Today, we are proud to announce Volumio Primo received the EISA Award for Best Digital Source Product 2020-2021! Dreams do come true, it’s a proven fact for us.

It all started as a hobby…

We believe that Volumio is the real proof that if you do something with passion and effort, you can accomplish anything. From deciding to go through an unusual path for the audiophile world and encountering many struggles since the beginning, Michelangelo Guarise, founder and creator of Volumio, described his thoughts after receiving the great news from EISA:

“When we started the Volumio project a couple of years ago, there were many people doubting us (sometimes even laughing at us) for creating something strange; a new principle of having a dedicated OS for low-powered devices. Regardless, we continued with the same approach of being totally different due to the following reasons: the Open Source aspect of it and subsequently, the involvement of the community in the design process. Later on, we tried to create something radical with the Primo, still embodying the philosophy of Volumio: sound quality, great usability and nothing more, wanting to steer away from the audiophile weasels that you can find in many devices. This achievement is truly special because it shows that our philosophy that was seen as absurd and not brilliant in the beginning, turned out to be a winning one. Moreover, it feels important because many people enjoy the Primo.” – Michelangelo Guarise, Founder and CEO of Volumio.

Volumio Primo can be controlled with any device.

Volumio Primo, an EISA award-winning product

In case you haven’t heard about them before, the EISA (Expert Imaging and Sound Association) has been around for over 35 years representing the biggest worldwide editorial collaboration of consumer electronics. Currently with 61 international experts magazines, every year they gather and select the best CE products to be honored with the prestigious EISA awards. And this year, Volumio Primo was chosen as one of the best products in the Hi-Fi industry, winning the Digital Source category award.

While focusing on the range of performances, the EISA Awards judges describe the award-winning Primo in these words:

“This unassuming-looking little black box is a highly affordable solution to all your digital streaming needs, for not only will it play music stored on home network devices, it also allows you to access a huge range of online music services. With simple operation via web browsers or apps, and an on-screen GUI delivered over HDMI, the Primo includes digital outputs to feed any DAC while also playing music via USB stores. Compatible with music formats all the way up to DSD, via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, this small wonder is the perfect way to start your streaming adventure.”

We could not have said it better, the set of capabilities that Primo offers is what captivates the audiophile audience and we are glad the EISA members could see and agree with us.

All goes back to the design philosophy, creating a music player and streamer devices that provides three main principles. Of course, the first one to mention must be sound quality, followed by universality and last but not least, practicality. These simple but essential elements are shown in the Primo streamer through various features, from the ability to play every music format and sources thanks to the Volumio OS, to the set of multiple input and output capabilities. A certainly tiny, but powerful device.

An achievement for many of us

One more last thing we want to say: THANK YOU!

This award is dedicated to ALL who were and are part of the Volumio journey. This award is for the Volumio Team, for every contributor, every users who gave us feedback, every user who is listening music now with the Primo, every member of our community who supported us throughout all these years, and last but not least, to the great partners and Hi-Fi companies that believed in the Volumio project and use our technology.

Are you ready to start your streaming adventure?  

Now let’s celebrate and continue to build a great Hi-Fi future! Cheers!

The post Volumio Primo wins EISA Award for Best “Digital Source” Product 2020-2021 appeared first on Volumio.

• All Cubox-i variants and Hummingboard supported.
• Spotify Playback
• Direct DSD Playback on compatible Hardware
• UPNP with OhMedia Support
• Improved Library TAB
• Fastest Boot on Wi-fi
• Lot of WebRadios included (thank you jprjr)

Here you can find the complete list of 1.5 and here a complete changelog. This release is available for:

• Cubox-i and Hummingboard (older cubox model will be updated on a best effort basis from now on)
• UDOO Quad
• BeagleBone Black
• Cubietruck
• Compulab Utilite

As usual you can download it on the Downloads Page

As you can see Volumio supports quite a wide range of Embedded Single Board computers. I started looking around for new devices to support. There is a poll going on in this thread. It seems that the next candidate will be Intel NUC. Imagine what kind of Audiophile Music Player with Volumio this can be…

Do you agree? Want something else? Let us know in the poll. And don’t forget to give your feedback on the appropriate feedback thread. Enjoy!

The post Volumio Audiophile Music Player 1.5 for Cubox-i, Cubietruck, UDOO and Beaglebone appeared first on Volumio.