GET NOW YOUR NEW RASPBERRY PI 3 B+ FROM VOLUMIO SHOP

Before moving any further, it’s however important to note that this is not a brand-new product or a radical evolution of our beloved PI, but rather an incremental upgrade. So, if you’re still struggling to decide whether this upgrade is worth for your music listening habits, I’m here to help with some considerations.

Please note that we’re still testing the new Raspberry PI 3 B+, and those considerations are based on official statements of the Foundation, we’ll update this article as soon as our tests are done.

WHAT IS CHANGED

The hardware makeover of the Raspberry PI model 3 B+ covers basically 3 areas:

• Slightly faster processor
• Better thermal management
• Networking

As we will see later, what really matters for us is indirectly related to point number 3: networking. But let’s see in detail all the 3 main upgrade areas.

PROCESSOR

The new Raspberry PI 3 B+ is built around BCM2837B0, an updated version of the BCM2837 processor used in Raspberry Pi 3B. The most notable change is that processor speed bumps from 1.2 GHz to 1.4 GHz. As always, GHz are just a small part of the whole picture, and those extra 200 MHz are surely welcome, but surely not a gamechanger over the previous generation.

The foundation reports a real-life performance improvement ranging from 15% to 30%, but I would not expect to see a substancial difference while using Volumio. A potential impacting side-effect is however how this chip (and the whole board layout) dissipates heat, so let’s move to the next point.

THERMAL MANAGEMENT
The BCM2837B0 SOC incorporates power integrity optimisations, and a heat spreader (see the metal bit in the pictures?). Cleverly, the foundation used such features to get higher clock speeds, when temperature is below 70 degrees, and to throttle the processor only in extreme cases. Also, thanks to the on-board heat-spreader, thermal performance has improved.

Heat is not coming out only from CPU’s top, but it’s rather spreaded on the whole PCB, therefore applying an additional heatsink is not necessary anymore (and IMHO it wasn’t necessary with model 3 as well). It appears then, that the PI 3 B+ has been designed to be very well suited for long-time operations, even in confined spaces, without the need for an external heatsink.
The only downside I can see here is that, the Raspberry PI foundation itself claims that ” Raspberry Pi 3B+ does consume substantially more power than its predecessor. We strongly encourage you to use a high-quality 2.5A power supply”.

This means, more than ever, that a good quality Power Supply is mandatory for stable operations, and if you’re using a sub-optimal PSU with your current Raspberry, you absolutely need to replace it along with it.

NETWORKING

This to me looks like the real deal. Finally the PI gets Gigabit ethernet, altough it’s connected via an USB 2.0 BUS so it’s not the same “Gigabit” you’ll find on its competitor. But 10\100 was more than enough for audio use, so this is not a matter of concern.

On the Wireless side we also find finally 5.0 GHz and wireless AC. This is indeed a notable improvement: while the extra speed of AC is not much of a deal-breaker, it is the AC protocol in itself. As you might know, the main issue wiht N (and 2.4 GHz) wireless is usually the overcrowded signal range (it has only 13 bands of frequencies available, and if you live in a crowded area your WiFi is most likely to suck due to congestions). AC wireless instead, has an awful lot more of channels, therefore virtually minimizing the chance of bad wireless networking due to congestion. Of course, you will be able to benefit from AC networking ONLY if you already have an AC capable wireless Access Point.

However, none of those 3 points might be necessary to trigger your compulsive upgrade (BTW, the PI 3 Model B+ is available now from our store), if it wasn’t for a side effect.

THE NEW USB HUB

Hidden within the new specs, comes a very interesting part. Quoting:

“Previous Raspberry Pi devices have used the LAN951x family of chips, which combine a USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller. For Raspberry Pi 3B+, Microchip have supported us with an upgraded version, LAN7515, which supports Gigabit Ethernet.”

This means that the new PI 3 B+ features a new USB HUB chip,  and this might put an end to the PI’S first flaw in Audio-related usage, the USB bus package loss issue. If confirmed (we’re carrying out our tests and will update this article once done) this would be the absolute cherry-on-the-cake of this new Raspberry PI Model B+, and might justify alone the upgrade.

We are now testing this new hardware and we will upgrade this article with more definitive conclusions (so what you read above are speculations on what can be understood from PRs and Foundation’s statements). In any case my early conclusion is:

The new Raspberry PI 3 B+ is a worth upgrade, especially if you listen to Music via USB DAC or if you use Volumio with a wireless connection.

For those of you eagerly waiting to get their hands on the new Raspberry PI 3 B+, it’s available now from our shop!

GET NOW YOUR NEW RASPBERRY PI 3 B+ FROM VOLUMIO SHOP

POST UPDATE:

I’ve lived with the new Raspberry PI B+ for a couple of days and done some careful testing on it. Of course, my main interest was to back my hypothesis of better USB Audio performances, so I went straight ahead and connected my Pro-Ject Pre BOX S2 Digital (since it can reach up to 32\768 via USB and play DSD 512 in Native mode).

All tests were made with the experimental image that can be found  here

As usual, I started playing my “Raspberry killer” track: a 32 bit, 678 kHz .wav file from my NAS. And… What a terrible disappointment: loads of crackles and a whole lot of lost packets.
Tried then with DSD, 24/192 flacs, and even 16/44.1 flacs. All sounded just terrible. So, indeed the new USB BUS did change USB Audio performances, unfortunately, it did for the worst.

Luckily though, I then tried to play the same files from a USB drive (and not from a NAS), and magic happened: spotless playback up to 32\768. Seemed that taking ethernet (I was connected on wired connection) out of the equation did the trick. So connected the PI via wifi and restarted without ethernet: same result, HI-Res Music playback was just perfect to my USB DAC.

So, it seems that there is still some issue (hopefully it’s driver related) to the Ethernet controller, which seems to give up lots of packets in high-bandwidth situations. I am however pretty confident that the foundation will solve this issue, as it’s not uncommon that hardware performances get dramatic improvements as software gets tuned up after community feedbacks.

The good news is that there are actually tangible improvements on USB throughput, as I did not experience a single glitch with a great variety of files: 16\44.1,24\96,32\768 flac, DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and 8X MQA (this is an extremely meaningful test, since if even a single packet is lost the MQA decoding would stop).

So, for now, if you avoid using Ethernet to retrieve your Hi-Res files, the PI 3B+is just perfect to feed your USB DAC with bit-perfect joy.

During my tests, also some other meaningful results emerged, I will summarize them for your convenience:

• The Volumio experience did indeed benefit by the extra horsepowers of the new SOC, the overall UI responsiveness is noticeably better
• Wireless transfer speeds are way better, even when using 2.4 GHz radio. The new Antenna design (that would deserve an article on its own) seems to do the job much better than the previous one (I was able to get the 32/768 .wav file from NAS without a glitch).
• The system had no problem whatsoever in resampling any kind of file to 32 bits and 768 kHz with SOXR quality set to very high (and system load stayed on about 30%), this result is in itself impressive (try to do the same on a PI3…).
• Power consumption has increased with respect to the previous generation: idling the PI3B+ needs about 2.1 W, and takes about 3,5 W on higher loads

The next round of tests will involve playback via I2S DACs, although I  do not expect any difference compared with previous PIs.

So, all in all, I think this upgrade is definitely more than welcome, although it will not constitute a major reason to upgrade for existing Raspberry PI 3 owners.

The only situations where I am suggesting the upgrade are wireless setups: in this case, yes, upgrading is well worth the cost.

[products skus=”RPI3BPLUS,EAR2718,Pi-CASE+VOED,ACRICASE”]

As always, getting stuff from our shop, not only gets you awesome bang for the buck Audio equipment, but helps the Volumio project, so thanks for your purchase!

The post The new Raspberry PI 3B+ audio-related review appeared first on Volumio.

We’re extremely pleased to announce that the Volumio shop will feature another great piece of equipment: the PI2Design 503HTA – Hybrid Tube Amp!

I clearly remember when I saw it first time on Kickstarter : I immediately liked the idea, being a complete tube Junkie and having waited something like that (for the Raspberry PI at least) for a long time.

When I finally received it, I immediately started listening. And I must say I was really happy with what was coming to my hears. I might sum up my listening impressions to those bullet points:

• A nice and punchy bass, way more present than what you get with ESS 9023
• Great medium presentation. This thing sounds awesome with Rock and Jazz, bass-guitars, guitars and voices are really convincing!
• Average amount of detail, nearly not as good as ESS 9023
• It features an integrated DSP filter for High Frequencies roll-off, I definetely suggest to turn this off (via the plugin)

So, the 503HTA Hybrid Tube Amp sound signature is very euphonic, and I consider it the ultimate setup if you listen to Rock or Jazz. I think that the guys at PI2Design have made a really good job with it, and that is why it’s now featured in Volumio Shop: this is definetely one of the most interesting DACs at the moment. It has also other advantages:

• Can be used also as a line preamp
• Features a good quality Volume Potentiometer
• Has individuals Anode Bias Adjustment Pots and  selectable Series/Parallel Heater Configuration (tube geeks please applaude!)
• It can drive very high impedance Headphones, and has a selectable gain output

It however has just one shortcoming, if used with a Raspberry PI 3: unfortunately its FETs ends up just above the integrated wireless antenna, resulting in lot of noise when Wireless is in use. However, if you have a Raspberry PI3, you can just disable the Integrated Wireless (via network configuration in Volumio) if you don’t need it, or use an external wi-fi dongle.

All in all, I really like the 503HTA, it has a great look, sounds very well and it’s suited for tube rolling. So, if you’re like me and love tubes, Raspberry PI and Volumio you’ve just found the perfect toy !

The PI2Design 503HTA – Hybrid Tube Amp can be bought on our Shop and will be shipped directly from PI2Design. Let us know what you think about it in the dedicated thread!

The post A Tube Raspberry PI I2S DAC is finally here appeared first on Volumio.

One of the most awaited plugins for Volumio is finall here: the touchscreen plugin. With it you can easily show the gorgeous Volumio UI on any display, included the official Raspberry PI Display, available on our Shop. Let’s see how to easily achieve a fantastic touchscreen for your favourite music player in less than 10 minutes. This tutorial will explain how to connect the Raspberry PI display and enable the Volumio UI with the plugin.

STEP 1: The wiring 

Assuming you’ve already downloaded and flashed Volumio to your Raspberry PI (we suggest to use the newest  Raspberry PI 3), the first step is the wiring:

1. First, let’s attach the ribbon cable going from the Raspberry PI Display to the PI itself. On the Raspberry PI Side, make sure the blue part of the ribbon cable is facing outwards. Your final goal should look like this:
   
2. You’ll have 4 coloured cables to connect too. They are 5v, GND, SDA and SCL. You can look at the below image to identify the proper pin on the Pi itself.
   Therefore, the wiring should look like this
   Done! You’ve done the wiring required to connect the Raspberry PI official touchscren, let’s move on!

STEP 2: Power Supply Check 

Notoriously, feeding your PI with an adequate Power Supply is mandatory to have a reliable system. That’s especially true when we connect a power-hungry device like the Raspberry PI Display. Luckily, there’s a way to understand if your PSU is good enough: just power on your pi and observe the screen, if you see a coloured square on the top-right side of the screen, it means that power to your PI is not enough. Don’t you see it? Then all is good.

If you have such problems, don’t worry. Good power supply are cheap and easy to find. Here’s the NorthPada 5V 2000mA PSU, my personal favourite.

STEP 3: Install Volumio’s Touchscreen plugin 

That’s the easy one. Just connect to Volumio’s WebUi as you would usually do, and navigate to the Plugins page from the settings menu. In Miscellanea category, you’ll find the Touchscreen plugin. Just click install, nothing more. PLEASE NOTE: The touchscreen plugin is compatible with volumio version from 2.001 onwards

The installation will last about 7 minutes, so wait patiently until you see “Installation Complete”. Now you can enable or disable the Display output to your likings.

STEP 4: Enjoy it!!!

I must admit that altough this display is not particularly brilliant when it comes to resolution and colour accuracy, it looks indeed very nice with Volumio’s UI. Also, usability is very good on the Raspberry PI 3 and the UI runs smoothly also with big libraries… So, folks, enjoy!

Are you looking for alternatives? 

If you don’t have a Raspberry PI, or you’re simply looking for alternatives to the Official Raspberry PI Display, there are at least two extra options for you:

THE ODROID DISPLAY

The Odroid display is not only a viable alternative, it also have several advantages over its PI counterpart:

• Since it takes power from USB and video signal from HDMI, it can be used virtually with any Computer with an HDMI output, not just the Odroid or the Raspberry PI.
• It has a better resolution: 1024 x 600 vs 800×480 of the PI display
• It’s somehow simpler to integrate into a beautiful case (thanks to its mounting holes)
• You can still use an I2S DAC with the Display, since it does not use any GPIO port (both on Raspberry PI and Odroid)

The Odroid Touchscreen display is available at Odroid’s webshop or on Amazon

UPDATE: Lot of time since I published the original article. The Odroid 7” does not seem to work properly with Raspberry PI (not tested with the Odroid). So, if you’re looking for a display for the Raspberry PI, get the official one.

WAVESHARE 7” DISPLAY

The Waveshare 7” display has become rapidly a widely adopted display, thanks to its cheap price. However this particular touchscreen has shown several reliability issues (altough this seems fixed in latest models, thanks to a firmware update), it requires a particular touchscreen driver which is not always included in major distros and its colour reproduction is not the best.

It can be found at the Waveshare Shop or on Amazon

Here we are folks! Hope you found this article helpful, you can share via comment below how you use your Volumio’s touchscreen setup and if there are other display alternatives!

Get your Official Raspberry PI Display from our store and help the project!

[product sku=”EAR2718″]

The post Raspberry PI Display and Volumio: a touchscreen music player 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.

This is a quick showcase of the best creations of  Raspberry Pi audio player projects with Volumio. I feel really proud that Volumio is powering lots of brilliant Audio Players Projects, made by equally outstanding music lovers around the world. I stumbled on some, on Volumio’s Forum. Here are some carefully crafted creations, enjoy!

AN ELEGANT RASPBERRY PI AUDIO PLAYER

It looks as elegant as it could be, and it doesn’t really look a DIY Raspberry Pi audio player, but a more expensive one. Joni Ive would have made it this way, just with little more gradients

But then look at the interior, and you see how much care has put into this… Rectifier with ultrafast  diodes, linear  regulated power supply and Audiophonic’s ES9023 I2S DAC (For some infos visit the Raspberry Pi i2s DACs list..) Love it. Nothing more and nothing less the same Raspberry Pi audio player I will build …

Here’s the BOM:

• Raspberry Pi model B (Amazon)
• Inter-Tech Mini ITX Q-6 (Ebay)
• Audiophonics DAC Sabre ES9023 I2S (Audiophonics)
• 2x 7V 10VA Toroidal Trasformer
• Audiowind A-270 regulator

Kudos to Gerry_222 for his creation!!! You can see the project thread @ volumio.org/forum/volumio-project-t1522.html

BOOMBOX Raspberry Pi audio player

Simple, straight to the point. Gives a new life to an old appliance, just the way I adore. Look at it

Could you ever imagine it will feature this?

This interestin build is a brilliant work of Volumio community member Pondidum, I really encourage you to look at the Project’s forum thread @ https://volumio.org/forum/boombox-cassette-deck-replacement-t1420.html

A STEAMPUNK STYLE RASPBERRY PI AUDIO PLAYER WITH VOLUMIO

I’m a great fan of Steampunk. Love the baroccan way of building stuff this way. And this creation ranks 10\10 on my Nerdgasm scale. Period.
And didn’t mention I just crave for Tubes?

I just love it. Insanely! Kudos Oratius! You can find a detailed instructable on how to build this piece of art @ this Instructable Project Page

HI-END RASPBERRY PI AUDIO PLAYER AND STREAMER

For those of you with Fancy Audio Gear to showcase, here’s the proper companion to it. Not only the enclosure is a perfect example of “Overstatement”, but also the care that has been put into the PSU is considerable. Sure you saw something similar sold somewhere, for the price of a car.

Besides from its look. What I really approve is a dedicated power supply both for the Raspberry PI and the I2S connected S\PDIF transport.

The classy touch, for those who haven’t noticed, is a filtered IEC power connector. Digital Sources may benefit a lot with this addition, depending on your home’s power network and system. Unluckily its creator ptiboubou didn’t share so much about this on the Forum Thread. However, you may have spotted an Hifiberry-DIGI that will take care to stream music to an External DAC. The DIGI has its own power supply, even if it can be an overkill for just a trasport interface. Overall, nice creation indeed!

PORTABLE RASPBERRY PI AUDIO PLAYER

For those on a run, or those on a car (I’m both, really often) here’s a simple yet effective solution.

A Pi, Volumio, USB Thumb Drive, Wi-Fi dongle, a mobile phone battery pack  and your favourite headphones. Serve chilled. You can obtain even better result adding a i2s DAC which can drive adequately headphones. And live fast while enjoying all of your music’s nuances.

These was just examples, the one that got me more interested of the many published on Volumio’s Forum by its awesome community members. There are also technically clever projects showcased in that section, and we’ll have a look at them in another post. As of now, you have some ideas more on how to build an Amazing DIY Raspberry Pi Audio player with Volumio. Less bucks for more Rock.

How will you make your Raspberry Pi Audio Player with Volumio? Which of these projects you prefer? Join the discussion on the Forum or drop few lines via comments below!

The post Amazing DIY Raspberry Pi audio player with Volumio appeared first on Volumio.

• Update Mechanism. You’ll be able to backup your settings and library and restore them when a new version is released. After this has been achieved, I’ll work on an update system which won’t force you to download a new image every time. It’s quite a tricky part, but is definetely in my top priority list.
• Integration with Radio directiories, such as Jamendo and more, to retrieve easily new songs. What about Spotify? yes I’m still looking for a viable solution (hope to achieve that very soon).
• Better I2S DAC handling, allowing to use Hardware Volume control for capable devices (like IQaudIO PI-Dac)
• Playlist management and general UX improvements
• Social sharing and better connection with the forum and help sections.
• Raspberry PI B+ compatibility and I2S DACs patch.
• Improving Sound Quality: this is not to be forget, as is the real core feature of Volumio.
• Various little tweaks and additions (such as starting volume, OhMedia support for UPNP and more)

Then I have plenty of new gizmos to play with:

Takazine’s IrBerry DAC

The New IrBerry DAC, from Takazine. It works out of the box with Volumio, and features a carefully designed layout. Plus it comes with an handy IR Receiver which can be used with an Apple Remote to control playback. You just have to lauch a little script which will handle IR signals and send them appropriately to MPD’s backend. The website is in Japanese, but just hit translate to your language and you’ll understand how much care has been put into this. Unfortunately, it seems that this DAC comes in a kit and you’ll need to solder it by yourself, hope that something ready to use will be considered in the future. I’m really eager to try it (need days with more than 24 hours)  and write here my thoughts. And why not, integrate the Remote Control script into Volumio for the IrBerry Profile, thats’ really worth it!

Sellarz DAC-24192-ABR for BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi

It’s a long time I’m delighted with Sellarz electronics products, you may remember my Reference DAC build. This guys makes outstanding products, nothing to say about it. Now he released a new I2S DAC for Raspberry PI and BeagleBone Black. This are the features (quoting from Kim Itself):

• Input Voltage : 5Vdc from R-Pi and Beaglebone Black.
• Low Pass Filter for Power Supply( for noisy switching power as USB)
• Ultra Low Noise Regulation Circuit : 8nV/√Hz  @1KHz(0.25uV)
• High Precision and Low Jitter Noise Clock : +/-0.5PPM / 0.08ps RMS

The DAC chip itself is the beloved ES9023, and it can be used both with Raspberry PI and BeagleBone Black. The Power Section of the circuit is quite remarkable (that’s a distinctive feature of Kim’s design) and you’ll have an onboard low phase noise oscillator for the DAC (mandatory with this chip). Since it’s compatible with not just the Raspberry Pi, don’t expect this to be a snap-on solution, you’ll need to wire it up propery, but that’s a little price to pay and allows lot of flexibility if you mind to box your creation.
You can find the DAC-24192-ABR on EBAY.

Such great additions to the Raspberry PI and Beaglebone I2S DAC family

That’s it, guys. Hope for you a very good summer and enjoy your listening!

The post Volumio updates and new gizmos 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!

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A new and improved Volumio version for Raspberry PI

Raspberry Pi is the most popular platform, even if it’s the worst performing one of the supported devices. I’m not just talking about mere computing power. You may be aware that Pi suffers of a “less than optimal” implementation of the shared USB\Ethernet Bus. But we can see maybe the light at the end of the tunnel. An improved USB driver is currently under development (and I really hope it will be included in the mainline kernel…). Take it as an USB audio fix II. I examined a little what it does, and I’m really not sure it will be improving performances in all scenarios. But for the majority of people (and systems), this should grant a listening experience without crackles, noises and pops. Here you can find an extensive explanation of what this new driver does.
Thanks to Tux for suggesting this fix 

Other improvements you’ll find in Volumio Beta 1.2

• An handy script to update Volumio’s webUI (thank you Ebsy)
• Logging to RamDisk, this reduces click and SD Card wearing, you can now find the logs @ /run (source)
• Hifiberry Digi support, just activate it like you would do with other i2s DACS
• Other minor improvements

As usual, you can find the new image in the download section .
PLEASE NOTE: It would be extremely important to know your experience with this Version, since it features some experimental fixes that could lead to some instabilities. I created an ad-hoc thread for this release, please report your experience there.

VOLUMIO goes to CeBit

Next week in Hannover there will be one of the most interesting IT fairs in the world: CeBIT. If you will be around, you will find me talking about Volumio, on the 12th of March at CeBIT’s barcamp. So if you want to know how Volumio was born, built, developed and what are future directions, or just want to throw me rotten potatoes or your bra, just come there.

RASPBERRY PI system rebuilding

I’m now devoting my (few) free time to improve even more the Raspberry Pi Volumio system. I’m now building a minimal debian FS from scratch again, recompiling some core packages to further push performances. Results are encouraging, but this task is time consuming and there will be lot of patience needed, both for me and for you. I’m also wondering to abandon the beloved debian wheezy in favour of the brand new and shiny Jessie… If you have some suggestion, just let me know via comments below.

WebUI radical redesign is about to start

You know that Volumio features a brilliant WebUI that was coded by ACX and ORION for RaspyFi. I’m now taking care of improving it and adding some more functionalities. But, the more I dig into that, the more I feel that PHP soon or late will become a bottleneck.
This is also because I recently fell in love with Node.js, and I’m starting to learning how to develop with this amazing framework.
So, what I’m planning is a whole system redesign, using Node and Socket.io . What I really like is that we could have an integrated system that will be lot more efficient and flexible. I also think, this will save lot of time in the long run, since there are thousands of modules that could be used.
This will take months to be done, so don’t expect anything to land on your devices soon. When I will have a more coherent idea of the approach and the system design, you’ll be the first to know and I will share both the code and the progresses. If you have any suggestion, again, let me know via comments or forum.

A new Repo and DOCS are now available

Ok, this project lacks proper documentation. And it just doesn’t make sense to keep all the stuff I have just on my Hard Drive. So, I set a brand new docs system, based on Read The Docs . This way, everyone can contribute by committing to Volumio Docs Repo on github.
Now the Docs are empty, I’m waiting for some vacation to upload all my knowledge into that. If you want to start contributing, here you can read how to do that.
Then we have the Volumio Repo. It is not a standard Debian Repo, so don’t expect to do apt-get with it (at least for now). It just contains a bunch of files that could be useful, also for non Volumio users. You can find all the kernels I compiled, for example. Plus some other stuff. The Repo is powered by h5ai by Lars Jung, thank you mate!

Here are the links

• repo.volumio.org
• docs.volumio.org

CUBIEBOARD2 and CUBIETRUCK VOLUMIO porting is on its way 

Yes. For those of you craving to listen their favourite tunes with Volumio on cubies, developement is on its final stages. Really like those boards, filled with accessories. Expect the images to be done in about a week.

That was it! Que viva Volumio!

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INTRODUCTION: WHY RASPBERRY PI I2S DAC IS THE RIGHT CHOICE

I may be aware there could be also other stuff worth of our joy, but this time I’ll concentrate only on that magic word, which audiophiles should have heard somewhere, sometime… So, what are we talking about?

I2S is a communication protocol specifically designed to carry digital audio data. To quote from Wikipedia

I²S, also known as Inter-IC Sound, Integrated Interchip Sound, or IIS, is an electrical serial bus interface standard used for connecting digital audio devices together. It is used to communicate PCM audio data between integrated circuits in an electronic device. The I²S bus separates clock and serial data signals, resulting in a lower jitter than is typical of communications systems that recover the clock from the data stream.

To better explain, i2s is used in all your fancy CD players, connecting the reading mechanism to the DAC and\or the S\PDIF output. Most important, i2s is used also on every standalone DAC you may encounter. If it’s USB, i2s is the pathway from the USB receiver to the very DAC chip, if it’s S\PDIF the same as above. Starting to smell why we are talking about this?
As straight as we could be: I2S is the protocol of choice when talking about digital audio signal transmission. I could also add that using USB as connection, in the Audio domain, is way far from being an ideal situation. And even if it was, an I2S direct connection has one great advantage: the signal path is shorter. See those examples:

Scenario 1: My little Raspberry Pi (powered by Volumio, of course) is hooked up to a zillion dollar USB DAC, which feds my interstellar amplifier. 

My precious one and zeroes are facing this path:

Raspberry Pi -> USB Bus -> USB Cable -> Zillion Dollar USB receiver -> I2S -> Zillion Dollar DAC -> Interstellar Amplifier

Quite a long way, isn’t it? Add to it all the intrinsic issues affecting connection interfaces, and you got quite a good idea of what is happening here.

Scenario 2: My little Raspberry Pi (you know what comes here…) has a tiny DAC hooked on it, via I2S connection, feeding my full-of-common-sense amplifier

The flow of my zeroes and ones?

Raspberry Pi -> I2S -> DAC -> Full-of-common-sense-amplifier

I’m sure now you feel the truth deep in your heart, and the force is with you. But there’s more to come, to sum up and make it shorter, these are the main advantages of having a raspberry pi i2s DAC setup:

• Ideal signal path: shorter signal path and interfaces (USB, S/PDIF) avoided
• We’re not using the troublesome USB bus of the Raspberry PI, consider pop and clicks a thing from the past
• Cheap yet good sounding setup: 80 bucks for a staggering price/quality combo

UPDATE

This article was written in 2014, and since then newer and better i2s DACs have emerged. Luckily, we now have a selection of the best among them right here on Volumio shop. So, to save you the fuss of research and comparation, you’ll find listed below my personal choice of the best 4 I2S DACs for Raspberry PI.

[products skus=”BOSSDAC, MBLSDAC, Pi-DAC+, DACPLUS-RCA, JBM-001″]

And of course the Allo Bundles with the little miracle which is the Kali:
[products skus=”KAP21PS, KAPHFDPS”]

THE OPTIONS

Now that you’re enlighted about raspberry pi i2s DAC wonders, let’s see the options we have:

RPI-DAC : THE DIYER CHOICE

[EasyGallery id=’rpi-dac’]

This is an exquisite work of Audio Engineering. Let’s make it clear, this is a no-compromise solution, even if we are in the DIY domain. What Torsten Jaekel  created is a double layered addon raspberry pi i2s board, which has pretty amazing specs (quoting) :

• 24bit DAC, Opamp I/V Conversion, Stereo Headphone Amplifier
• State-of-the-art components on small footprint PCB
• Single DAC solution with I2S Interface, On-Board Low Noise LDOs
• Best in class parameters [1]:
  

  SNR:	> 120dB
  THD+N:	< 0.0006%
  Low Noise:	< 5µV/sqrt(Hz)
  PSRR:	< -82dB

• No additional Power Supply, just AC transformer required
• no heat sink needed (PCB used)
• external filtering possible (connecting a FPGA)
• Dual DAC (Dual-Mono) available (even higher SNR)
• Upsampling, Dynamic Range Expansion … in planning (with FPGA)
• cap-free transmission path

Hook it to the PI and you’ll have a fine-tuned Heaphone oriented Digital Music Source. The boards consists of a Audiophile grade PSU paired with PCM1794A DAC. You can also have a dual mono version, which will raise SNR of 3db. What I really like about it? It’s designed with only one goal in mind: Audio Quality. I really wish to congrats with Torsten for what he achieved, and for the fact he published everything you need to build this at home. The culprit of raspberry pi i2s RPI-DAC is the price: it is quite an expensive solution, ranging from 120 to 255 USD. But as you know, quality has its price.

HIFIBERRY: THE BANG FOR BUCK KILLER

[EasyGallery id=’hifiberry’]

Here we have the most successful Audio accessory for our little PI: I want to applaude crazyaudio for creating such a simple, good sounding and straight to the point device. What makes the HIFIBERRY special is its price\quality ratio. With 30 euros you have a device which will skyrocket your Raspberry PI’s audio attitude. This means that for a mere 80 euros (50 for the PI in full working order + 30 for raspberry pi i2s Hifiberry) you can have a really good sounding Digital Audio Music Player. What I really like? It’s simplicity: few components, DC taken from Raspberry’s 5v rail. Simplicity is the ultimate sophisticacy, we may say. Culprits? You may want to isolate the 5v rail from the PI’s and use a dedicated PSU, this will raise the bar even more, but you need to mess around a little with the PCB. I would have liked to have that option already prepared, with a switch and a connector.

RASPYPLAY3: THE VERSATILE CHOICE

[EasyGallery id=’raspyplay3′]

You know, Raspberry PI can be hooked up to a wide variety of Accessories. I really do like to have a little Display attached to it, to show current title playback (coming soon on Volumio!) and so on. This clever raspberry pi i2s DAC has it capabilities, since it offers a GPIO connector, to easily hook a display on it. Not to mention that this little board offers the same advantages of raspberry pi i2s connected DACS. RaspyPlay3 is developed by a serbian community of DIY and audio lovers, just browse their website to find out they really interesting articles (use google translate and be prepared for some lost in translations…). This raspberry pi i2s dac can be customized with your preferred Capacitors, meaning you can really tailor it to your personal tastes. Plus, you can find all the documentation you need to find out how to build this raspberry i2s cad on your own. Thanks Nebojsa!

Some specs:

• SNR: 112dB
• Dynamic Range: 112dB
• THD+N @ – 1dB FS: –93dB
• Full Scale Output: 2.1VRMS (GND center)
• LCD + keyboard connector on board

ESS SABRE 9023 + MCLOCK GENERATOR : THE THIRD WAY

As most of us believe, ESS SABRE 9023 is one of the most interesting pieces of silicon around. I always wanted one hooked directly into my little PI. As raspberry pi i2s dac solution however, there is one technical issue preventing us to do that: Raspberry PI cannot deliver a Master Clock, which this DAC needs. So, let’s give it one! What you need is just get a ESS 9023 I2S DAC:

• 24Bit/192KHz ES9023 DAC with I2S input From DIYINHK
• DAC-24192-ULN, 24Bit/192KHz DAC from Sellarz Audio

And pair it with a Master Clock Generator:

• HPRC-331: High Precision & Low Jitter Audio Clock

Then, feed both with DC voltage (you can use the same rail if you wish, the range is from 7 to 20 Volts DC). This should be a very effective solution, more pricey and complicated from the ones above, but you’ll be rewared with premium sound quality. And if you really want to get to higher levels, and also higher pricetags, you can choose to hook other fancy semiconductors:

• DAC-32192-DSD, 32Bit/192KHz WM8741
• DAC-32384-DSD, 32Bit/384KHz ESS 9018 DAC

CONCLUSIONS

Now you should have a comprehensive idea of why raspberry pi i2s dac is the way to follow if you want to achieve pretty good sonics performances, while  slightly emptying your pockets. I am really reccomending to use this solution if you want a really valuable Audiophile Music Player withouth spending too much, furthermore Volumio + PI + raspberry pi i2s DAC is a solution you can tailor to your very own needs. And as Volumio development will progress, you’ll have also more functionalities available.

The last step is enable raspberry pi i2s DAC support from Volumio’s WEBUI, just go to settings -> I2S DAC -> I2S ON . Then reboot your PI, and enjoy the subtle joy of your one and zeroes flowing via i2s.

I’m going to publish soon a complete overview of every raspberry pi i2s DAC mentioned in this article, and hopefully show some measurements of their performances. So, stay tuned and support these amazing engineers, that not only are bringing exciting stuff to us, but they are also sharing their hard work!

You can also discuss about raspberry pi i2s DACS on Volumio’s Forum

Enjoy!

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