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.

• Gigabit Ethernet
• Wifi+BT wireless connection with antenna on-board
• SATA 2.0 interface support 2.5′ HDD where our music library can be stored
• I2s headers available on Board
• S\PDIF Audio out on Board
• Gets to your door with a nice acrylic case and 2,5” HDD connectors (not with a PSU tough…)
• IR Receiver

Here is how it looks like:

So, let’s see what the Volumio + Cubietruck combo is capable of:

• Bitperfect Playback via USB, HDMI, S\PDIF, I2S (untested)
• Every fileformat available supported  (FLAC, MP3, AAC, ALAC etc.)
• UPNP\DLNA and Airplay capability
• Music Library on NAS, USB Key or SATA HDD (requires additional steps, see here)
• Connect via Wi-fi to access Volumio WebUI
• An handy script which turns the blinding flashing cubietruck’s LEDs when Volumio is on.
• IR Driver to allow Remote Control via LIRC (requires additional steps, here for Raspberry PI)

As usual, you’ll find the Cubietruck image in the download section. Since this is the first release on Cubietruck, please report your experience in this thread!

Enjoy!

PS: A big thank to Igor Pečovnik, thanks to his excellent Distro for Cubietruck I solved most of my doubts on this platform. This Volumio release includes some of his work, like the Kernel and the LED off script. Thank you Igor, kudos!

The post Volumio Audiophile Music Player for Cubietruck is out! appeared first on Volumio.

What can you do with Compulab Utilite and Volumio? 

• Enjoy Bit Perfect Sound from Analog Unbalanced output, USB or S/PDIF
• Pair it with your Home Network via N Wireless connectivity or Gigabit Ethernet
• Connect up to 4 USB drives to it, full of your favourite Music
• Forget the Hassle of removing PSU to shut it down. Use the Handy ON\OFF switch and you’re good to go
• Skyrocket your WAF with the nice and elegant Compulab Utilite Form Factor.

You can download Volumio for your Utilite here . This version features some minor under the hood improvements, and I must say that Volumio Compulab Utilite is a really killer Audiophile Music Player, making this combo really interesting thanks to its flexibility (Analog Out, Coaxial S/PDIF and USB as audio outputs) , the really nice form factor, the excellent computing power and the integrated N Wi-Fi which ensures extended range connectivity. As usual, you can discuss about that in Volumio’s Forum !

Download Volumio for Compulab Utilite

Enjoy!

The post Volumio for Compulab Utilite Has been released appeared first on Volumio.