Volumio Primo Network Audio Player Review & Comments

An inevitable post this, but I can’t help pointing it out. The pricing on this is ridiculous, convenience or not, this is one of the largest markups of a Raspberry Pi in a box I have seen. At least design an attractive case to disguise your Pi, otherwise that had better be one hell of an audio output stage. You can add a HiFiBerry DAC to a Pi for 30 quid and with case and PSU, you still won’t break a ton, and it will sound great. The Volumio software is free and open source. Even for convenience sake, this is still 300 quid too expensive. I appreciate this is being built in limited quantity by enthusiasts, but that doesn’t make it good value for money.
 
I agree this appears over priced, but it uses the ASUS Tinkerboard 5 not the Raspberry Pi.

Volumio - Primo · Volumio

Fair enough, still a cheap board though, I can see why they chose it, faster then an RPi3, about same as RPi4, but for this application, not much in it. I suspect.
 
Makes the Teufel Connector an absolute bargain especially if you already have a DAC and only use a streamer as a digital transport
 
Thanks for the review Ed, I have been looking at the various different streamers out there recently and I'm curious how they differ as transports. Does the sound quality of a cheap Raspberry Pi sound the same as a bluesound node or this Primo. Does throwing more money at it with something like a Auralic Aries provide better sound quality and I'm talking purely as a transport. Obviously there is a lot more to a streamer and how it performs as a product but I'm just wondering if there are any major benefits on sound quality. I would be curious on your thoughts on this given that you will have had more exposure to different streamers than most.
 
@Canti1982 - If you are just using it as a streamer and taking a digital stream out to a DAC then it will sound exactly the same as any other streamer's digital stream output. It is the DAC and kit onwards that influences the sound. Any streamer worth its salt outputs a bit-perfect digital output so cannot sound different to any other bit-perfect streamers digital out - that's what it means. So your choice should be based on the quality of the apps that control it as some are designed to be a form of torture for the end user.
 
@Canti1982 - If you are just using it as a streamer and taking a digital stream out to a DAC then it will sound exactly the same as any other streamer's digital stream output. It is the DAC and kit onwards that influences the sound. Any streamer worth its salt outputs a bit-perfect digital output so cannot sound different to any other bit-perfect streamers digital out - that's what it means. So your choice should be based on the quality of the apps that control it as some are designed to be a form of torture for the end user.
I hear very differing opinions from different sources which is why I was curious on Ed's take on this. If all digital outputs are all equal then we have a lot of high end companies suggesting otherwise. I should probably test the theory for myself but it's good to hear other peoples findings.
 
I hear very differing opinions from different sources which is why I was curious on Ed's take on this. If all digital outputs are all equal then we have a lot of high end companies suggesting otherwise. I should probably test the theory for myself but it's good to hear other peoples findings.

All things being equal, there should be no difference but there are means of inducing differences. There are two elements to this- one which should be entirely uncontentious, the other perhaps a little more so.

The first is if the signal is being altered. I've currently got one of THESE on test for another publication. Before it outputs the signals it reclocks it and performs a 4x upsample (so 16/44.1 becomes 24/176.4). The difference between this and a source simply sending the original signal into a suitable DAC is small but definable. The performance still largely rests on the DAC but the source is affecting things slightly.

The second is noise and error. I loathe stating publicly but there are small but repeatable differences between some of these devices depending on measurable noise and error on the device's output. The differences are pretty minor and not necessarily commensurate to price but there is an upcoming review where the USB output on the device outperformed the one on my laptop which I've had to state in the review. I look forward* to the comments on that one...



*dread.
 
Haha thanks Ed, yes this is kind of what I expected your answer to be. I'm sure there will be strong opinions from both sides on this. I probably sit somewhere in the middle. Thanks for your honest feedback
 
All things being equal, there should be no difference but there are means of inducing differences. There are two elements to this- one which should be entirely uncontentious, the other perhaps a little more so.

The first is if the signal is being altered. I've currently got one of THESE on test for another publication. Before it outputs the signals it reclocks it and performs a 4x upsample (so 16/44.1 becomes 24/176.4). The difference between this and a source simply sending the original signal into a suitable DAC is small but definable. The performance still largely rests on the DAC but the source is affecting things slightly.

The second is noise and error. I loathe stating publicly but there are small but repeatable differences between some of these devices depending on measurable noise and error on the device's output. The differences are pretty minor and not necessarily commensurate to price but there is an upcoming review where the USB output on the device outperformed the one on my laptop which I've had to state in the review. I look forward* to the comments on that one...



*dread.
+1 Ed.

Having just gone through the process of buying a streamer, can recommend the youtube channels of John Darko and Hans Beekuyzen who both maintain that there are differences, with USB noise being a significant culprit. John Westlake (MDac etc) has helped with designing both the Pro Ject Stream Box and Stark Link, reviewed here:


Horses for courses and they didn't suit as my DAC is non MQA so went for the TEAC. A clever box of tricks as can convert Radio Paradise FLAC/ALAC lossless to DSD and then upscale to 512 DSD, Result - fabulous SQ from internet radio. Switching to Tidal, sees a MQA Masters and reverts to 96/192 FLAC. Play a CD out via Coax, automatically reverts to DSD up conversion.
FWIIW, Marantz KI Ruby and SA10, plus PS Audio convert all PCM to DSD and having heard it with this much cheaper streamer, they have a point to my ears.
Edit, sorry link didn't seem to work
 
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All of the electronics in this box are available as a kit and the software is free.
Asus tinkerboard is 99 quid on amazon, ess sabre dac to plug into the tinkerboard is approx 55 quid.
The volumio software is downloadable for nothing.
That just leaves you with a nice box to choose and the cost of your time.

No skills needed really, if you can stick two lego bricks together you can do this.
I have two of these and put each one together in less than an hour.
They are exactly what is on offer here.
Probably the cheapest way to add quality “non decimating” DSD playback to a system.
 
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All of the electronics in this box are available as a kit and the software is free.
Asus tinkerboard is 99 quid on amazon, ess sabre dac to plug into the tinkerboard is approx 55 quid.
That is interesting - I don't suppose you have links to buy the DAC (I've found the tinkerboard for £60 on amazon) and recommendations on a case. Thanks
 
This is the same kit i am running powered with a battery bank,this was a step up from the Allo boss dac that i was running.
 
Thank you - they both look interesting. I'm quite excited by the idea of using the new Pi and a DAC to create a Volumio streamer.

Do you know if anyone has tested the sound quality against a Chromecast Audio and / or a Cambridge Audio streamer as the price point should put the Pi up near the top, I would hope.
 

The 9028 boards are still available on ebay for about 50-55 quid.
Even so, the 9038 is still a bargain compared to when these Pi compatible Sabre boards first showed up about three years ago.
They were 500 + then.

My first Sabre DAC is in an Oppo 105D ( 9018 ) , this , at over 1000 , was the cheapest way to get non decimating DSD playback at the time , everything else being at least double the price.
The 9028s in my two kits sound identical. ( for a fraction of the cost )
I doubt the 9038 makes that much of a difference.
Compared to cheaper DACs though , the non decimating nature of the sabre dacs makes them chalk and cheese for DSD playback.

For everything else , not much different I would say.

My main interest in these is for DSD playback as I have a thousand plus titles.
Anything that “ decimates “ DSD, i.e. converts it to PCM first, introduces artifacts.
Scratchy noises that sound like overamplified string/hand positioning noises on the instrument. (Horrible...nothing subtle about it at all)
So in this respect there is no comparison with the likes of the chromecast
 
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Thanks for this review and the comments in the discussion section. I’ve been looking into getting a decent streamer as I’m currently ripping my entire cd collection (getting there slowly) via dbpoweramp.

I didn’t even know these raspberry pi dac / streamers existed before reading this but it’s definitely opened up some possibilities.

Lots of choices out there and I’m not convinced I’d be able tell most of them apart sound wise.

Allo DigiOne Signature/ PecanPi / dacberry / Allo katana / etc.

Anyone had any experience with any of these and how they compare to the Volumio primo?
 
Hi Fergal82 i have a pi3 with Allo DigiOne on it running Volumio into a Project pre box S2 dac and to me this is the best set up to date i have tested feeding my Naim Nait 5SI & neat motive sx2.
I power the pi & dac with a battery (5 Vol and 3 Amp) I looked at the DigiOne Signature but to me the cost / performance over the normal DigiOne was not for me.
 
Hi Fergal82 i have a pi3 with Allo DigiOne on it running Volumio into a Project pre box S2 dac and to me this is the best set up to date i have tested feeding my Naim Nait 5SI & neat motive sx2.
I power the pi & dac with a battery (5 Vol and 3 Amp) I looked at the DigiOne Signature but to me the cost / performance over the normal DigiOne was not for me.
Am I right in saying the Allo isn’t a dac, just a transport?

What’s putting me off the Digione sig is the clean side needs a battery fed power supply which I think you get about 12 hrs out of. Is that how yours is set up?
 
You are correct about the DigiOne sig (this was another thing that put me of it 2 feeds to the one unit) and yes it is transport only as is the non sig unit i have.
As for powering my DigiOne & the dac i found powering with a battery did sound better (but that's just me)
If you power the pi and DigiOne with a wall power unit just get a good one with 2/3 amp output.
If your amp has a dac init of you go if not you will need a stand a alone unit.
 
All things being equal, there should be no difference but there are means of inducing differences. There are two elements to this- one which should be entirely uncontentious, the other perhaps a little more so.

The first is if the signal is being altered. I've currently got one of THESE on test for another publication. Before it outputs the signals it reclocks it and performs a 4x upsample (so 16/44.1 becomes 24/176.4). The difference between this and a source simply sending the original signal into a suitable DAC is small but definable. The performance still largely rests on the DAC but the source is affecting things slightly.

The second is noise and error. I loathe stating publicly but there are small but repeatable differences between some of these devices depending on measurable noise and error on the device's output. The differences are pretty minor and not necessarily commensurate to price but there is an upcoming review where the USB output on the device outperformed the one on my laptop which I've had to state in the review. I look forward* to the comments on that one...



*dread.
How would you rate this volumio player versus lindemann limetree network, is worth to pay more for lindemann in terms of sound quality?
 

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