During the past year, while developing new Volumio features, I had the feeling that the system was designed in a way that made it really difficult to add new bits and pieces to it. The WebUI has proven to work great and efficiently, but since it was relying on PHP it felt a bit too “ancient”.

I recently fell in love with Node.js. For those of you living under a rock, Node is basically an extremely powerful JS development engine which works both server and client side (to make it extremely simple…). And comparing it to PHP reveals how much better this would be to run the entire Volumio ecosystem.

Guess what? Volumio is currently being completely rewritten in Node. And so is the Volumio OS underneath. This explains the lack of updates of the last times, as the concentration is on delivering a completely new, faster, better Volumio.

It is a major effort, and time consuming, but this will bring lot of benefits. And, since we are tackling this major task, the re-build process will benefit from all the experience gathered in those two years with Volumio, and the whole system architecture will be improved as well.

Let’s see what this will mean:

Speed

Using Socket.io, the WebUI now has a near real-time connection to the Volumio server. This means that the user interface will feel more responsive, real time data (such as visualization) may be streamed, and there will be no more connection hangs or drop-outs. Furthermore, the new Volumio OS (under a major rework as well) will be ported to Debian Jessie and it will feature the lightning fast and reliable systemd. As of now, the development builds of Volumio 2 boot in just 19 seconds on a Raspberry PI.

Modularity

We want Volumio2 to be easily expandable by nature, both from the team and the community. That’s why we’re  developing a standard API for  plugins. Users will be able to add their own plugins for new user interfaces (such as hardware buttons, direct control, etc), and their own plugins for new music services (there are always more out there).
The goal here is not to provide a system that does pretty much everything, but instead a modular and scalable music player that will grow thanks to its amazing community.
By integrating in a standard way all those plugins, we’ll be able to seamlessly show spotify songs on third party MPD clients, or add SqueezeClient capability as it was a native service, just to name few examples.

High Fidelity

Volumio2 continues to support a custom compiled MPD daemon for high quality local audio playback, and we are evaluating other local audio renderers as well. Due to the modular architecture, music playback daemons may be used interchangeably. This will allow users to perform true comparative listening, and use the audio renderers which sound the best.
As you know, sound quality is the first and most important feature of Volumio, and we’ll not compromise on that.

Future Proof

Volumio2 will be built with state of the art technology. Node.js, Angular, and Socket.io just to name a few. The goal is to create a system-environment that will be top-notch for many years to come. Also, the whole OS Image is built with build script, allowing faster release schedule and homogeneous builds. This will also mean that the number of supported devices will grow accordingly, and Volumio 2 will be released also for non ARM architectures.

This great effort is made thanks to the great Volumio community, and especially thanks to Jotak, Esseki, Ning-yu, Meryn, Sog Sussex, Gitaawerk who joined Volumio Team as developers. There’s lot of love, committment and expertise going on as you read. You’ll see the product of it in few month, at least this is what we hope.

I hope you are as excited about Volumio2 as we are! The code is currently in alpha state as we develop and test the architecture and interface. Come check out the code, and join the discussion in the forum!

The post Introducing Volumio 2: better, faster, smarter. appeared first on Volumio.

Let’s take a moment to review what the benefits are with this new board iteration:

• Quad Core ARM v7 CPU @ 900MHz (Foundation claims it to be 6x more powerful)
• 1GB of RAM instead of 512 MB
• Full compatibility with Accessories and Software of V1.

The new Raspberry Pi 2

What they basically did was replace the BCM2825 SoC with a newer and more powerful BCM2836, and adding a 1GB elpida DDR2 RAM module on the bottom of the board. The remaining parts of the board remain unchanged.

You can see an interesting performance comparison here.

For those of you wondering if the new Raspberry Pi 2 will suffer from the same USB issues: yes, the Ethernet is still over USB (like every single board computer out there) so we’ll need to test the new drivers behaviour extensively to see if the notorius #1 bug on PI has been solved.

Now, let’s see what you can get using Volumio and Raspberry Pi 2 as a music player:

• 35 dollar Hardware, the most inexpensive one
• Way more power than Volumio needs
• Full compatibility with I2s DACs (Hifiberry, IQ-Audio and others) up to 24\192 playback
• Extra RAM for RAMPlay function

I’ll cover a bit more extensively the hardware capabilities of the Raspberry PI 2 in a future post

And here is what you get with Volumio 1.55:

• Compatible with Raspberry Pi, Rasbperry Pi B+ and Raspberry PI 2
• I2s DAC compatibility with Raspberry PI 2 (Hifiberry Dac Plus, IqAudio Dac Plus and others)
• Better Spotify handling: new Spop daemon version and search by Name or Artist
• USB DAC hotplugging is now supported
• USB Storage can be used on the fly, and you’re not required to reboot any more

As usual, you can download the new version at the DOWNLOAD PAGE and leave your comments and feedbacks on the Specific Forum Thread

And while downloading, take a look at the great Android Companion Apps for Volumio!

Enjoy!

The post Volumio for Raspberry PI 2 appeared first on Volumio.

SPOTIFY SUPPORT

That was long awaited. Just insert your Spotify credentials into Settings page (a premium account is required) and there will be no music you can’t listen to. You have full Spotify search and all your playlists listed on the Spotify section of the Browse tab. This amazing feature was made possible thanks to the contribution of Volumio community member ning-you (huge thanks for this) and to an awesome daemon by Schnouki called SPOP. Needless to say, even Spotify’s sound quality sounds impressive on Volumio.

FULLY REVISITED LIBRARY TAB

Volumio community member Jotak did it again. He reworked its brilliant Library Tab ensuring it will work better and reducing significantly the load it applies to the system, mostly thanks to this brilliant feature. It’s really a feature I cannot live without. It comes disabled by default, to enable it just go to settings and tick the library tab, you can also choose to see it as a tab or as an entry in the browse section. Jotak made also lots of other improvements to Volumio, like the following.

UPDATE SYSTEM

Yes, the next Volumio updates (at least not critical ones) will not require a complete re-flash of the system. Jotak developed this system which wil allow you to receive new updates with just a push of a button. Go to settings and check updates, if new updates are found you’ll be prompted to apply or ignore them. Does this sound great just to me? Of course there could be something we didn’t think on, and we need to test this capability. So please let us know what happens when new updates will be released.

UPDATE: To benefit from Updates system you must create a new SD Card with 1.5 release, from now on you’ll be able to update without reflashing!

SOCIAL SHARING

The tunes you listen may sometimes be memorable. Let your friend know about it. Now Volumio features Twitter, Facebook and Google+ sharing mechanism. The last 2 are still a work in progress, since we need a long and necessary verification, but expect them to land soon (via updates!)

REWORKED NETWORKING

Now Volumio can connect to every network without issues, the whole network managemet now works just flawlessly. And let’s you understand the quality of your connection.

UPNP with OHMEDIA SUPPORT

As you already know, Volumio uses the excellent UPNP\DLNA mpd plugin upmpdcli. This awesome piece of code has been recently updated to include OpenHomeOhMedia Support. Quoting from Upmpdcli:

OpenHome is probably supposed to be some kind of industry alliance, but, as far as I know it is exactly composed of Linn Devices, a British supplier of high end audio equipment.

OpenHome has published ohMedia, a set of standards for network audio, which have been implemented in a number of hardware and software products beyond those from Linn.

ohMedia is based on the UPnP base protocols, but it uses different services. The most important difference from the user point of view is that ohMedia has a PlayListservice which manages the play queue much in the same way that MPD does.

Some of the best UPnP control point software packages (e.g. Bubble UPnP, PlugPlayer) include support for both bare UPnP and ohMedia. In cases where a device supports both interfaces, they will default to ohMedia. Using several ohMedia control points on the same device is not a problem, but mixing UPnP and ohMedia control points is sure to end in confusion because of the very different play queue management.

What does this mean? You will be able to control your Playlists and PlayQueues with excellent Upnp client like BubbleUPNP and JamCast!

DSD Direct Playback

Now Volumio can play DSD Audio in direct mode: this allows to play them in bit perfect mode, if your DAC supports them. If not you can choose to play them in DoP mode (DSD Over PCM)now it’s up to you to decide wether DSD is the future of Digital Audio Playback.

Raspberry PI B+ I2S DACs Compatibility

Volumio is now fully compatible with Raspberry PI B+, and all the most famous i2s DACs available. Just connect them, go to settings and enable yours. Harware Volume Mixer works as well.

LOT OF REFINEMENTS AND NEW CAPABILITIES

This release features a big amount of improvements and refinements, both under the hood and in term of User interface. Just to quote some: you’ll be able to add your WebRadios from the WebUi, disable the Startup Sound (another new feature), change the Player Name and more.
This release was prepared in a long period of time, trying to address all the precious feedbacks and suggestions and involving the community actively. I want to publicly say thank you to everyone in our great community: what Volumio is now is thank to you, the passion, the brilliant insights and the discoveries you’ve put into this.

As usual you can download it from download page and leave your feedbacks and partecipate into Volumio development on this thread 

Today, you’ll find just Raspberry Pi release, on the following days I’ll update ALL the other platforms. Stay tuned! 

And this, is the full changelog:

-Full Spotify Integration
-Reworked Library TAB
-Update System Introduced
-OhMedia UPNP Support
-AirPlay issues fixed
-Selectable Player Name
-System services selector
-WebRadios can be added from WebUi
-Clear Whole queue from WebUi
-Social Sharing
-Direct DSD Playback
-Full I2S B+ DACs compatibility
-Better i2s DACs management
-Networking Page Reworked
-Song title in Browser Tab
-Startup Sound
-Shell shock bug fixed
-MPD 19.1

The post Volumio 1.5: the best Audiophile Player ever appeared first on Volumio.

It should have been obvious to me: ethernet and USB controller have been changed, so they need new modules and firmwares to work. So, the solution is simply to update the Raspberry Pi firmware (A.k.a. Kernel, modules and elf files).

To do this, there’s the handy Rpi-update utility by Hexxeh. Is it already included in Volumio. So if you already have an ordinary model B laying around and running Volumio just do:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install binutils

sudo rpi-update

and wait for it to finish…

Your MicroSD Card is now ready to boot with the brand new PI B+ .

Alternatively, I made a minor release (1.41) which will work out of the box both with standard model B and Raspberry PI B+. Plus it comes with latest WebUI and some minor tweaks and bugfixes:

– Removed Library Tab
– Added Player Name configuration (Works also for Airplay)
– Kernel Upgraded, compatible with B+ model
– Fixed unmuting script
– Improved NAS mounting

Since there could be some unspotted bugs and considering this is a kernel change (which affects quite heavily Sound Quality and behaviours with USB DACs) it has to be considered as a testing release, adding that Raspberry PI B+ could have some additional unspotted differences from the original model B.
You’re so invited to provide your feedbacks in this Forum Thread

You can grab Volumio 1.41 on Sourceforge

The post Volumio for Raspberry PI B+ appeared first on Volumio.

I’m proud to announce a new version of Volumio Audiophile Music Player. The development of this new release is including some contributions by Volumio’s users. This is the very first good news, and it seems really important to me to thank all the people who submitted bug reports, code, suggestions and improvements. The community is a key part in what Volumio is now, and you guys are definetely supporting it in a smart and passionate way. Thanks for that.
And now, let’s see what this new version brings to Volumio:

• UPNP \ DLNA Control Capability: Now you can control Volumio via a UPNP \ DLNA client. That means that you can stream music to your Hi-Fi setup via your smartphone, Smart-TV, Tablet, PC and much more devices. You can also use UPNP clients as an alternative to Volumio’s WebUI. I’m using it with BubbleUPNP, an excellent Android APP. Just select Volumio from Available UPNP devices (make sure you’re connected to the same network) and hit play on your favourite tunes. This was made possible by integrating an excellent MPD add-on: Upmpdcli by Hiéro. It works flawlessly with Volumio, even if you’re already playing your local Music.

• Improved Airport performances: you’ll find latest Shairport Version, which will better integrate into Volumio. Now you can start Airplay playback even in playback mode, the system will simply switch to Airport. Also, you can output Airport playback on your desired DAC, just select it in output device and you’re good to go.
• Browse your DLNA\UPNP Music: you can activate UPNP \ DLNA music indexing, just go to settings, and activate the UPNP indexing service. This will index all the tunes served by DLNA Servers. This is not enabled by defaults, since it will take a lot of time to Volumio to index all your tunes.
• Features management: Want to obtain the best from your Volumio setup and disable unneeded services? Here you are, in the system tab you’ll find an handy services selector.
  

  Volumio-Settings

• Library Browsing Tab: For those of you who just miss a complete overview of their library, divided by genres, artists and so on Volumio’s community member  Jotak developed this UX refinement. Ça va sans dire, a valuable addition. Plus you’ll find some other UX improvements.
  

  Volumio-library

• System stability improved: Now Volumio will almost failure proof. I’ve integrated several stability fixes, and now the system checks periodically its status, and if something goes wrong it just returns to normal operating conditions. Plus I’ve addressed some ALSA bugs, which for example was setting output device to mute. No need to log in with SSH, it just works.
• I2S DACs compatibility out of the box: thanks to Raspberry PI’s I2S DACs we can reach our Audiophile heaven with very few bucks. Volumio is compatible with the most famous ones: Hifiberry, Hifiberry DIGI, RASPYPLAY3, RPI-DAC and IQ-AUDIO. Just plug your I2S friend on your PI and activate its driver from the Menu. After a reboot your PI will be singing like never before. Want to use the brand new Wolfson Audio Card? Even if it is not officially supported as of now, there’s an easy procedure to make it work with Volumio.
  

  Volumio-I2S

• Cubietruck Porting completed: finally, all those waiting for their Cubie to sing, the time has come. I’ve complete the porting (which was quite challenging…) and I’ll upload the image in the next days.

All Volumio supported platforms will receive 1.4 Update in the next week. You can check at the Download section and grab your favourite Audiophile Music Player. Enjoy!

The post Volumio 1.4 is out, now with UPNP \ DLNA Support and much more appeared first on Volumio.

Dear Friends,

I’m proud to announce a new version of Volumio Audiophile Music Player. The development of this new release is including some contributions by Volumio’s users. This is the very first good news, and it seems really important to me to thank all the people who submitted bug reports, code, suggestions and improvements. The community is a key part in what Volumio is now, and you guys are definetely supporting it in a smart and passionate way. Thanks for that.
And now, let’s see what this new version brings to Volumio:

• UPNP DLNA Control Capability: Now you can control Volumio via a UPNP DLNA client. That means that you can stream music to your Hi-Fi setup via your smartphone, Smart-TV, Tablet, PC and much more devices. You can also use UPNP clients as an alternative to Volumio’s WebUI. I’m using it with BubbleUPNP, an excellent Android APP. Just select Volumio from Available UPNP devices (make sure you’re connected to the same network) and hit play on your favourite tunes. This was made possible by integrating an excellent MPD add-on: Upmpdcli by Hiéro. It works flawlessly with Volumio, even if you’re already playing your local Music.

• Improved Airport performances: you’ll find latest Shairport Version, which will better integrate into Volumio. Now you can start Airplay playback even in playback mode, the system will simply switch to Airport. Also, you can output Airport playback on your desired DAC, just select it in output device and you’re good to go.
• Browse your DLNAUPNP Music: you can activate UPNP DLNA music indexing, just go to settings, and activate the UPNP indexing service. This will index all the tunes served by DLNA Servers. This is not enabled by defaults, since it will take a lot of time to Volumio to index all your tunes.
• Features management: Want to obtain the best from your Volumio setup and disable unneeded services? Here you are, in the system tab you’ll find an handy services selector.
  

  Volumio-Settings

• Library Browsing Tab: For those of you who just miss a complete overview of their library, divided by genres, artists and so on Volumio’s community member  Jotak developed this UX refinement. Ça va sans dire, a valuable addition. Plus you’ll find some other UX improvements.
  

  Volumio-library

• System stability improved: Now Volumio will almost failure proof. I’ve integrated several stability fixes, and now the system checks periodically its status, and if something goes wrong it just returns to normal operating conditions. Plus I’ve addressed some ALSA bugs, which for example was setting output device to mute. No need to log in with SSH, it just works.
• I2S DACs compatibility out of the box: thanks to Raspberry PI’s I2S DACs we can reach our Audiophile heaven with very few bucks. Volumio is compatible with the most famous ones: Hifiberry, Hifiberry DIGI, RASPYPLAY3, RPI-DAC and IQ-AUDIO. Just plug your I2S friend on your PI and activate its driver from the Menu. After a reboot your PI will be singing like never before. Want to use the brand new Wolfson Audio Card? Even if it is not officially supported as of now, there’s an easy procedure to make it work with Volumio.
  

  Volumio-I2S

• Cubietruck Porting completed: finally, all those waiting for their Cubie to sing, the time has come. I’ve complete the porting (which was quite challenging…) and I’ll upload the image in the next days.

All Volumio supported platforms will receive 1.4 Update in the next week. You can check at the Download section and grab your favourite Audiophile Music Player. Enjoy!

The post Volumio 1.4 is out, now with UPNP DLNA Support and much more appeared first on Volumio.

Let’s face it: after the little Pi, the market is literally flooded with embedded single-board computers. That’s really good, because we can just choose the best one to fit our needs. But as a side effect, we just have too many to compare!
Now, let me be a little sentimental, for once: I just love Solidrun, they are the first firm we contacted back in the days of RaspyFi, and they believed a lot in RaspyFi’s (and Tsunamp\Volumio) vision.  Besides that, what really matters is that the little Cubox is an awesome machine, packed in an incredible tiny form factor. That’s why I was mutually convinced we were going to see exciting stuff with SolidRun products.

The new Cubox-i especially delivers lots and lots and lots of processing power, has plenty of connectivity and features also an optical S\pdif output. The range of cubox-i enables you to have a perfect Volumio companion which has the following key-points:

• Unprecedented WAF
• Up to 2gb of RAM, enjoy RAMPLAY as long as you wish
• Wi-Fi connectivity, on some models
• S\pdif out: for those of you who need that, no more converters
• E-sata connector
• IR remote receiver for LIRC fanatics

So, I’m very pleased to announce that Volumio for Cubox-i has been released, it is also compatible with the upcoming HummingBoard, and it features the latest updates both to WebUi and System. The combo Volumio + Cubox-i runs pretty well, it has an astonishing 20 seconds boot time, and the system is smooth and doesn’t have problems with big res files. Furthermore, it sounds awesome! (to find out some more,  just scroll a bit…)

So, cubox-i owners and wannabe ones: to enjoy that, just download it here

Side note: I’m more and more convinced that Freescale’s  Imx6 (the platform on which Cubox-i, UDOO and Compulab Utilite are based on) is the one which achieves the best audible performances. Of course, there are lots of factors involved in SQ, like the implementation and boards layouts. But I can feel that Imx6 products are somehow better sounding than competitors. Before you think I’m gone mad, I made also some measurements (jitter and integer resolution) which have confirmed this thought.
I could just suspect there are some bus optimizations that made this possible, or that 3.0.35 Freescale’s mainline kernel (all 3 boards use this older kernel, which is the only current supported one) is just better in audio related tasks. Furthermore, digging into kernel optimization, I found out that Imx6 features Hardware DSP support… Could be a clue…
Anyway, I’m just collecting my ideas on that, you’ll read a more exaustive article on the matter when I’ll have better assumptions to support my thoughts…

Let’s talk about that on Volumio’s Forum! 

The post Volumio for Cubox-i has been released appeared first on Volumio.

– More stable system
– Playback should stutter no more on problematic systems
– Shairport no more resamples to 48 khrtz, but 44,1 instead
– FFmpeg library enabled, so no-one of your music files will be left out
– Hosts fixed
– Now shutdown command actually shuts the pi down instead of rebooting
– Fixed system halting after rebooting while playing
– A minor tweak that results in sonic improvements

You are advised that in order to get the best audio quality, just go to playback, select hardware mixer and then hit save. This way the system tailors itself to your very DAC.

As usual, you’ll find this release in torrent and sourceforge link, please help by seeding it!

https://volumio.org/download/

You can discuss about that on Volumio Forum

Let me know what is solved and what is not. Hope for you guys a merry Christmas! And of course a brilliant new year, where you’ll find what you’re looking for.

A big hug

Michelangelo

The post New Version of Volumio for Rpi – Bugfixes and improvements appeared first on Volumio.

Volumio is an Open Source Audiophile Music player. It works on  some selected embedded devices, small, cheap and low consuming computers. You just flash it on one of the supported devices, and in 10 minutes from download your music will be gently flowing to your ears.

This project is the evolution of the RaspyFi project, started about one year ago. What RaspyFi achieved so far is now brought into Volumio, which has been designed to become an easy to use, ready to play and affordable Audiophile Music player.

Why Volumio?

In the end, who talks you is Italian. So, wanted an italian name to describe the new creation. Volumio literally means  “My Volume” , to emphasize it’s main goal : be YOUR Music Player. Be what YOU want for enjoying your music library. This is the ground philosophy that drove Volumio development.

So, let’s see what Volumio is all about:

MULTIPLATFORM:

Volumio is an operating system built to be installed on  the most interesting embedded devices out there: UDOO, CuBox and Beaglebone Black and the little Raspberry Pi, where things started back in RaspyFi.
This range of Supported Devices bring you lot of flexibility on how to build your system: you can just choose the one that best fits your needs (and also your pockets!) and have a fully functional Audiophile Audio Player. Like you want it to be.
See here for Volumio supported devices, and spec comparisons.

I2S DAC SUPPORT ON RASPBERRY PI

Oh yes, Volumio features i2s Dac Support. A features I always wanted to implement since RaspyFi saw the light. Just a tick of a button and i2s driver is enabled. The best part? That there are 2 shiny and brand new i2s DAC avaiable to use with Volumio. You’ll see a comparison and an extended preview very soon here on volumio.org.

MULTIROOM SOUND

Yes sirs. Thanks to the shiny and  brand new  Sound@home Android App, Volumio can stream its subtle airwaves to multiple Volumio devices. Isn’t this amazing? Thanks to Diego Tafuto who developed this fantastic app.  Just place as much Volumio powered devices in your home, office or party and get them to play your music simoultaneously!
Again, you’ll better find out this functionality in the next few days on volumio.org

MANY ISSUES ADDRESSED:

Thanks to your precious feedbacks Volumio is more stable than RaspyFi (from which shares most functionalities) and works way lot  better, also with Raspberry PI itself. It’s webui has been improved and lot of early bugs were addressed. You can also have NFS Network shares support. As well as various under-the-hood improvements.
Thanks to latest Raspberry PI kernels, I’m really happy to announce that Raspberry (with Volumio) can now easily play in bit perfect mode up to 24/192khrtz. Even with Aysnc DACs, and without glitches!
So, all the credentials to become your favourite audiophile music player!

EASY AND COMFORTABLE

What really drove me from the beginning is the lack of a proper solution to live my music at home. Or it was too expensive, or too complicated or it was not sounding as good as I wanted. That’s why Volumio is easy. Comes ready to play, no complicated configurations or headaches. And it’s comfortable to use. We’ve got so many devices hanging around, so let’s use them!
Volumio’s erghonomy is tailored to deliver the most natural experience. Just use the device you want, it will be as natural as reading your favourite book.

UNIVERSALLY AUDIOPHILE

All music deserved to be listened. Even lossy files. That’s why Volumio is compatible with most Music Formats. FLAC, MP3, ALAC, AAC, FLAC are just few examples. And is this isn’t enough you also got WebRadio support.
Last but not least, Volumio is also a Airplay receiver, allowing you to stream your tunes from your Phone, PC or Tablet.

TO SUM THINGS UP:

-Ready to play: flash it and you’re ready
-Audiophile Quality: bit perfect playback
-FLAC, WAV, MP3, AAC, ALAC, PLS support
-Music libraries on Samba, NFS and USB drives
-Webradios support out of the box
-Control it via integrated Webui with PC, Smartphone, Tablet
-Airplay capability
-Ramplay Support
-DSD Native Playback
-Multiroom Playback via Android App
-Output playback device Selection
-Audio out via HDMI, USB, Analog Jack, S/PDIF, I2S (depends on platform)
-Compatible with all UAC2 compliant USB DACs
-Wireless Network configuration
-Various resampling options, up to 32bit/384khrtz

Here it is, mesdames et messieurs. Hope Volumio you’ll enjoy Volumio as much as I did creating it.

To discover how Volumio works you can browse our Project Page, and get started in no time.

The post Volumio, your new favourite audiophile music player appeared first on Volumio.