I2S DAC Auto-detection

I2S DACs are somehow the best chance to get great Audio quality out of our little PI, at a very reasonable cost. Therefore Volumio should work like a breeze with them. And that’s what we achieved. Just connect your IQ-Audio DAC Plus or Hifiberry to your Pi, and turn it on. Without any configuration it will be ready to play and configure to get the last bit out of your music. Since this is an heavily kernel-dependent feature autodetection works only with the two models above, but the good news is that for non-autodetected i2s DACs you can just select them from Playback options and they will be active right away. Some of them may still require a reboot, but you’ll be asked to do so.

Multilanguage

Volumio now speaks your language. Just go to the appearance section, and select yours. Not finding it? You can join the many volunteers in the community which translated Volumio in their language, and give a substantial contribution to the project.

Wireless Hotspot if no Wireless Network is configured

The first time you will turn Volumio on, it will create an open wireless network named, guess what, “Volumio”. Just connect to it, and the UI will automatically appear. From there, you can easily connect to your wireless network, and the hotspot will disappear. Then, when you bring Volumio out of home with you, it will create the Volumio network again. Isn’t that handy?
Please note that at the moment, the Hotspot function works best with the Edimax EW-7811Un. Other wireless adapters will most likely not work, but wireless connectivity will not be affected.

Seamless Wireless Connection

Wireless connection as easy as can be. Nothing more to say here…

Easy NAS (Network Attached Storage) mounts

For lots of our users, mounting their NAS has always been a pain in the… Not anymore. Just go to My Music, Add a new drive and let Volumio figure out which NAS are available. Select yours and click save. If an authentication is required, Volumio will ask. Now you just need to look your Music Library statics get bigger and bigger. And if you’re adding new music to your NAS (or USB drive), Volumio will figure it out and add it automatically.

A plugin universe

We have a wonderful community. Lot of brilliant music lovers around here. So here’s a way for them to shape Volumio features directly: we prepared a Plugin system which will allow everyone to create new features. We’re talking about new streaming services support, equalizers, scrobblers… you name it. We’re working on a comprehensive documentation, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, you can enjoy a better-than-ever Spotify integration.

OTA (Over the air updater system)

The idea here is to flash once your SD Card, and then update your Volumio as you do with your Smartphone or any other consumer product. We created a very stable, fast and scalable updater system (really appreciated in our OEM Program as well) designed to do just that. Furthermore, the system is designed to protect the SD Card from wearing, as the core system is a read-only image. Also, you can update without loosing your settings and data, thanks to persistent user-data partition.

Live Search

Search whatever you want to listen to, and our live search will serve what you were looking for, divided by artist, album or track. You will also get results from Webradios, and if your plugin supports that, also from it (Spotify someone? Go and try to see how Spotify searches look…).

An adaptive WebUI

Thanks to all the feedbacks from our community, we understood that a responsive WebUi was not enough. Using the very same layout on Desktop and Mobile and simply resizing the elements was not enough. So we decided to get back on our mockups and design a different, mobile-centric experience on smaller screens. The result is an adaptable, aka it chages the layout substantially, on mobile to improve comfort and usability. For example, important playback controls are on the lower part of the screen, to allow an easy reach (when using a mobile with just one hand). All important controls are within your thumbs reach. The volume slider is also located there, allowing a no-scroll experience and a more fine grained volume control. To pass from tab to tab, for example from playback to browse, you can simply swype left or right (or use the tab buttons on top). I think this is a major usability improvement.

I really hope you will enjoy the new Volumio as much as we did creating it. A huge thanks goes to all contributors, community members and users that contributed in every way. You can tell us what you think in this forum post or report problems in our issue tracker. If you want to contribute, you can also donate via paypal or get one of our selected products in Volumio Shop.

As usual you can download it at the download section

And that’s only the beginning…

The post Your favourite Audiophile music player for Rasperry PI, reinvented appeared first on Volumio.

Meet AxiomAir: a portable, great sounding multiroom system, based on Volumio.

AxiomAir brings the best of Axiom Audio and Volumio philosophies into one:

• Quality: No compromises on Sound Quality. The System is designed to play up to 24/192, withouth resampling, compression or sound degradation. The unit features an high quality DAC and a 150W Class D amplifier, feeding 2  6,5 aluminium dome woofer and 2 titanium dome tweeters.

• Freedom:  Plays everything. From your  files on USB or NAS to streaming services. WebRadios, UPNP, DLNA and much more. We’re working hard to integrate it with every music service available. And, due to its open nature, AxiomAir will be updatable and up with the times. Furthermore, being based on Volumio, there will be plenty of room for tinkering (yes, open access and freedom to mess with it).

• Convenience: As you do with Volumio, control it via a completely redesigned WebUI. Or from its Android or iOs app. And if you want it portable, just add a battery pack and bring it everywhere, for up to 18 hours of music.

What makes it so special

I’ve had various feedbacks from people asking what’s really new about AxiomAir, often referring to similar solutions, like Sonos for example. Well, AxiomAir is designed to be as intuitive, but you’ll get at least 3 advantages:

• Portable, while others aren’t
• Better Sounding, (and I know what I’m talking about). Way better sounding, I could add.
• Flexible: try to play from a USB key with other solutions, or from a NAS… BTW, did I mention that AxiomAir has also a AUX input?

Another interesting feature that we wanted to bring into AxiomAir is a wireless hotspot: so you can play your tunes wirelessly even without a home network. Besides convenience, Wireless connection has a great advantage as well: compared to Bluetooth, it doesn’t affect sound quality at all.

So, if you want to see what Volumio can do at its most splendor, AxiomAir is such thing. And by backing on Kickstarter, you’ll not also help making it reality, but you’ll also get an outstanding product saving over the retail price.

The People and Philosophy behind the project

What you see here is the result of over a year of a truly inspiring partnership with Ian (Axiom’s CEO), Andrew (Axiom’s electronic and acoustic genious) and the whole Axiom team. From the very beginning we took the committment to bring the best of Open Source and Community driven approach, and take it to the next level with a great hardware design. Knowing them, and knowing how much passion is going into this, I have no doubt that this is going to be simply excellent.
What’s also notable, is that Ian and Axiom want this committment to get back to the community, releasing as much as possible of the improvements made for AxiomAir to the community.

That’s something unique here: driven by passion, powered by open source.

Technical Specifications

I apologize for being driven by excitement, and  not getting too technical. But, for those of you in need of specs (and I know you are…) here you’ll see:

What more to say? Back it! And most important, spread the word: share it to your friends, to your favourite troll, to mom, dad and boss!

I am also eager to know your comments and suggestions: since it comes from Volumio (and Volumio is what it is also thanks to you, the community) every suggestion can contribute to make it a better product!

The post AxiomAir: a great WiFi Multiroom Sound System on Kickstarter appeared first on Volumio.