Hi, I’m Nicola and this is my first post. As I’m new to the Volumio world and I’m interested to the new actyve Kef LSX speakers, I’d like to know of is possibile stream music via Bluetooth with Volumio and the new Raspberryn Pi 3+ or if I need to add some other component.
If it wouldn’t possible via Bluetooth the other possibility is with a Toslink, in this case which component should I add to the Raspberry?
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Welcome Nicola.
The answer to the first question is both yes and no. Yes, it is possible to pair bluetooth speakes to your R-Pi. The Pi 3+ has on-board bluetooth to do so. No, this is not natively supported by Volumio. There has been some development on a Bluetooth Speaker Plugin, but I’m not sure how that is working now. Last time I checked, it required a lot of manual configuration. Depending on your level of expertise with Linux, you may want to give this a try 
As for the Toslink option, this is an easy one. There are various hats (= expansion board that stacks on top of your Pi) available for a Toslink output. Examples are HifiBerry Digi+, JustBoom Digi Hat or the Allo DigiOne. Or you can even get cheap copies of these for 10-15€ from AliExpress.
The “official” ones, that is HifiBerry, JustBoom and Allo, are garantueed to work under Volumio. The Allo is quite a bit more expensive because it has its own on-board clock, for the real audiophiles. I guess that is overkill for what you aim to achieve.
Hi Paul, many thanks for your reply.
I looked at the various Complete Systems on the Volumio Shop, but no one has the optical Toslink.
Also the Allo DigiOne that you suggest seems not to have an optical digital output, am I wrong?
The active Kef LSX speakers that I’m going to buy have the following audio input:
2.4GHz/5GHz Dual-band Wi-Fi network
Bluetooth 4.2 with aptX® codec
TOSLINK Optical
3.5mm Auxiliary Input
RJ45 Ethernet (For network)
Based on the inputs of the speakers, which do you think could be a good solution to send my liquid music directly to the internal DAC of the speakers?
Is there a Complete System in the Volumio Shop that could I buy?
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The three boards that I linked have only one purpose: output digital audio from the Pi. They all have both coax and optical (=TOSLINK) outputs, so any of these three would work with your speakers
Getting one of these three boards is the easiest solution. Simply get an optical cable, plug it in on both sides and you’re good to go.
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Paul forgive me because I’m not an expert, but if I’m not mistake the DigiOne Board seems to have a BNC connector instead of the Toslink optical connector. I would like to take a Volumio Complete System, but unfortunately no one has a toslink optical connection.
My apologies, the Allo DigiOne indeed only has coax and BNC outputs.
The HifiBerry and JustBoom however, do have Toslink. They are a good choice too, and a lot cheaper than the DigiOne. These boards work out-of-the-box with Volumio: install the board to your Pi, set it as output in Volumio’s settings and you’re good to go!
Welcome Nicola,
As Paul M suggest, I would opt for using the Optical Digital Input (TOSlink) to get the maximum out of your (not so cheap) speakerset. Offcourse you can use Bluetooth, Wifi, etc. but the quality of the source material will be less than when you feed your own local music library via TOSlink to the speakers.
Look at for example the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro which has two clock chips for proper clocking the digital signal (https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-digi-pro/) simular to the Allo DigiOne (which indeed does NOT have a TOSlink SP/DIF output, only COAXial SP/DIF).
Important note to maximize the digital signal quality especially in case of using a Raspberry PI, is feeding a clean power signal. So please spend a little money on a good powersupply for the Pi with the board. For example something like the iFi Ipower (https://ifi-audio.com/products/ipower/), which is a Switching Mode Power Supply, or even better a Lineair Power Supply like https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/hifi-power-supply/audiophonics-lpsu25-linear-regulated-low-noise-power-supply-usb-220v-to-5v-2a-25va-p-11364.html or https://www.sbooster.com/botw-pp-eco/ (which is maybe a little expensive/overkill for this situation).
I think there are some (web)shops that sell complete kits, but as most boards are HAT boards that you can just stack on top of the PI, it is very easy to ‘build’ your own set by just assembling the Pi, the HAT board and put it into a ready to go casing (like https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/cases/steel-case-for-hifiberry-digi-black/). The Pi with Volumio will become your player to stream your local music library from a NAS for example or by getting a myVolumio subscription, stream Tidal, Qobuz, etc.
Hope the above helps, don’t hesitate to ask more questions
Many thanks both of you for your replies.
Patrik, as far as the power, as the KEF LSX speakers have a USB power output (5V2A DC), I was thinking to use this port to power my PI. Do you think that this could be a good solution to power the PI?
I would definitely give it a try [emoji16] assuming that because the speakers also need a good power supply, the internal power supply is most likely much better than a standard switching mode supply for your Pi.
If not happy, or curious, you can always try another PS later and listen if it makes a difference.
Let us know how things progress.
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