Volumio Hardware Review: Preciso/RiVo

Audio Gear
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Introduction

About five years ago, I invited my hi-tech audiophile friend over and attempted to impress him with my new mConnect app which allowed me for the first time to share hi res files to my hi end stereo. This time, I thought I really impressed him. He sat back, and said that’s great, stop by my house next week. I did, and, in the meantime, he bought a Raspberry Pi 3 with a basic DAC hat. He said do you prefer Volumio or Moode? What the heck is this, I thought? And thus began my Volumio journey.

So I chose Volumio. Since then, I have evolved from several Rasberry Pi 4b and 5bs, multiple DACS, SMSL, Topping, Shiit audio and then ever-expanding amplifiers through Peachtree Audio and of course speakers through the incomparable KEF Meta series and KC 62 sublime subwoofer. I now have a total of four Volumio installations. This review will be on my main setup which includes the following:

Source: Volumio RiVo
DAC/Pre Volumio Preciso
Amp: Peachtree Carina 150, in power mode, 300 wps driving 4ohm spks
Speakers: KEF R3 meta
Sub: KEF KC62
Connections Mid-Level Audioquest USB, analog, and speaker cables
Power: iFi – Power Elite for the RiVo and IFi Power 2 for the DAC
Streaming Service: Mostly Qobuz but also networked FLAC and DSD.

Intro to SQ Test – Back up a year, early 2024

By this point, I had some good equipment, multiple SMSL and Topping DACs and in early 2024 I upped all of that and purchased the Peachtree Carina 150 which boasted the dual ESS Sabre 9068s and other integrated circuitry. Later I upgraded the Pi5 to the RiVO which furthered the SQ improvements. So at that point I was going directly from the Pi5 into Peachtree and was very happy. No doubt this was good, clean and detailed. So, all comments forthcoming should have that in mind.

Sound Quality/Does the Preciso add value? Is it worth it, better?

Reviewers use terms like airiness, detail, layering and precision and I am like what does that even mean? Well, it all came to life with the Precisio. Yes, IT IS BETTER. Those terms are real when you hear it. The following are my live thoughts during live listening:

“You hear instruments more in their position”
“There is more pop, more bite”
“That snare drum sure is pronounced”
“Wow I never heard that before.”
“OMG there is a banjo in there….”

Layering
This would be the most notable observation I can make. I have never used this term before in describing listening experiences, but I do now. The Precisio brought this. For the first time I am hearing people and instruments, in front of, and behind each other. So cool and weird. Because it is better than live. The sound stage may not be wider but certainly is more precise. That is what they mean by imaging.

What happens when you turn it up?

So, we are now ready for loudness: Let’s try Eric Clapton “The Core.” Crazy loud female vocals, wild ongoing saxophone and of course, Eric. I gave it everything this little stereo has. Sound Meter at 90 – 100 decibels, and this little system not even trying. It did not disappoint. After a while, I looked at the Preciso/RiVo/Peachtee and it looked at me like can you try harder? Everything is under control. All Volumio products, cool to the touch, Peachtree amp lukewarm at best. My goodness. The Precisio made my Peachtree better. I love that because nothing is overworking, right? Just working together like a great sports team.

Actions I took as a result of the Precisio

I turned my sub down and am considering dampening the high end just a bit using the exceptional DSP plugin that the Volumio community offers.

Conclusion
I am all in on Volumio. I feel like I have grown up with them continuing to upgrade as they have upgraded. These Italians care about music and understand how we listen. They have given their all and have delivered. They should not be considered digital, rather they are high end. If you read their story, Michelangelo started just like us, he is us. In my opinion they have far exceeded their original goals.

A special shout out to Marco who is the Sales/Service guy. How great is he? In the States we now apparently, because of Trump, must fill out ridiculous import forms to get these wonderful products. But Marco is there to help, he responds to what must be an avalanche of complaints. But I will finish with this when you buy a Volumio product from Marco, Volumio, and once it ships, It’s like three days. That is Crutchfield good.

I am all in on Volumio!
Thak you Michelangelo Guarise for taking on this journey. You have delivered and brought joy and satisfaction to this old audiophile who remembers rock and roll in my basement as a teenager on vinyl and now appreciates that it is actually better now in digital and because of you and your team in Italy!!!

What a world it is!

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Hey @backenst . I’ve read your message so many times and believe me, there’s no better gift you could have done to me and the team…

I feel privileged to have turned my passion into a group of dreamers and hard workers that have fulfilled what I always wanted to have as an audio addict into tangible products.

And seeing this reflected also on people like you, that shared the journey and evolved with us made me so proud and grateful.

In the end, besides making gear that we (and many of you, luckily) love, makes us feel we are making the world better by a little fraction, by giving music lovers great moments with their music.

So, thanks so much for being with us for so long. And hope we will enjoy the ride for more to come.

Thanks from heart

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Additional Items to add

Overall system Integration is now flawless. What is meant by this? Before, when the Rivo or Pi was connected to standard amplifier, when I would switch sources from USB (Volumio) to Optical (TV) I would immediately lose connection to Volumio and when I came back to the USB source, the unit would need to reconfigure itself.

Now with the RiVo connected to the Preciso there is no lost connections so that if I am watching TV and have Volumio running and I cycle through the sources everything is just playing. No reconfiguration. Its always on and just works. That is a big improvement. I have had Volumio on for probably over a week without needing any reboot so the overall system is very steady.

Volumio Remoto - review coming.

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Continuing on with the Volumio Remoto.

The Remoto hints at great promise but unfortunately, this is a bit disappointing and unfinished out of the box.

As far as I can see the manual posted on the weebsite says absolutely nothing about what the buttons do, no where. So I was surprised to see that the Mute button actually turns off the unit. And the Play/Pause button does nothing. The On/off and filter cycles (who cares about cycling filters once you know what you want) and source buttons work. So, if you are using the Preciso with multiple inputs and using the volume, the Remoto is helpful in that you can switch sources and change volume. But no playback functionality.

The website states that “the Remoto offers effortless control over volume, input selection, *playback, and DAC filter settings — all from your listening chair.”

So what is meant by playback? There are lots of articles on AI suggesting that you can program the Remoto to actually control Playback, ie Forward a song, go back a song, Mute and Pause. If the remote could do this, it would be fantastic. But since it can’t at this point it may be useless for most people. You are generally better off just getting the flirc USB remote which lets you do what you really want to do. I think people would prefer to forward songs rather than forward filters which is the main appeal of the remote.

However, there is hope. I have ordered a Flirc USB device and will attempt to pair it with Remoto and see if that lets me program the Back/Forwrd keys to the Pi4 volumio playback commands, If that works, we will than have an all in one device which will be truly useful. If it doesn’t work we can hope that Volumio will offer this in a future update.

Stay tuned and I will reply back.

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Hi @backenst thanks for your feedback. I assume you’re using Remoto with Preciso, is that correct?

In this case, Preciso is a DAC and therefore it has no playback (it receives what it should play from its source)… Remoto handles play\pause,next etc when used with one of our streamers.

We give it for granted, but now we realize that we should clearly states what the capabilities of Remoto are depending on the product it’s used with.

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@volumio Thank you for that response as this is quite encouraging. So yes, I have RiVO feeding the Preciso in one instance and a Pi4 feeding the Preciso in another instance. So how would I put the Remoto in “streamer” mode vs Dac mode? And then if in streamer mode, would the DAC function of changing sources no longer work? All very encouraging. AND if it works in streamer mode I will write a nice review on the product page.

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currently the Remoto works out-of-the-box with two of our products: Preciso and Primo Plus

when Remoto is used to control a Preciso, playback control is not possible, because it’s a DAC and has no playback, as explained by Michelangelo.

when Remoto is used to control a Primo Plus, that is a streamer, playback control is then possible.

There is no way to set the Remoto in “DAC mode” or “Streamer mode”, it is a simple/standard IR remote with some pre-defined codes assigned to each button. What happens when those buttons are pressed, it depends on what decive receives the signals emitted by the Remoto.

being a standard IR remote, it should be possible to use it together with a FLIRC receiver, and then the FLIRC receiver can be connected to a RPi or a Rivo for playback control.

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@Darmur Thanks for quick reply and if the Flirc soluion works you guys will get my highest rating and positive product page review.

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@darmur Ok I received the FLIRC USB and programmed the playback commands into it, but it did not do anything. I haven’t had any problems doing this in the past. I then researched this on Copilot AI and it said Volumio4 (I am running Volumio 4.073 on a Pi4b) does not support keyboard commands and therefore will not support FLIRC.

This doesn’t seem to be possible but thought I would ask?

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did you try to reboot after connecting the FLIRC receiver?
if yes, and the problem is still there, please report your problem in the Volumio4 dedicated thread, for better visibility

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Yes, I did, I will report to the Volumio 4 thread. Thanks again for your help.