Thanks Wheaten - you have been a great help, although I suspect a lot of my issues are not specific to Rivo but linked to Volumio as a whole. However, I do think there is a step change once software and hardware comes together so what might be acceptable bugs in a software only product are not acceptable when you pay (a lot more money) for hardware.
Hopefully@volumio will now chime in.
In the mean time, I have taken delivery of a new linear power supply to use with the Rivo. As this thread is already very long I think I should put discussion of that in a separate thread.
Summary of first impression so far: Hardware sounds very good, marked step up in quality to my prior streamers when using the USB out. I like the Volumio interface and much of it works well. But there are lot of niggles with what I regard as basic issues with the software, which i hope to be able to sort out via Volumioās support.
Tidal connect works perfectly out of the box. But use as upnp renderer has been disappointing so far compared to prior renderers.
Being told M3U playlists are simply not supported is not acceptable for an āaudiophileā product. I hope the support (beyond Wheatenās excellent help) improves from hereā¦
Like Wheaten has posted earlier, you can create a support ticket since you have premium support included. This is still a community forum, so moderators and other users like myself will help as far we can. The employees from Volumio will adress issues and questions in the community forum when they have the available time - but to get help/support the fastest way is still to create a ticket.
Thanks Wolfman - I will create a series of support tickets for the issues I have encountered. However, it has not been uncommon to see issues being addressed by @Volumio here.
It is obviously helpful for those who may be considering purchasing the Rivo that issues individuals encounter with it, and the support they receieve, is reported in an open forum like this one.
I just got the following from Davide in Volumio support in response to my support ticket about Upnp performance of Rivo:
"the UPnP structure needs to undergo a complete redesign due to a software failure, and this issue is unrelated to the Rivo hardware itself.
Rebuilding the UPnP functionality is currently a top priority on our to-do list.
Rest assured, we are committed to addressing this as swiftly as possible.
In the meantime, we hope youāll discover and enjoy other features that enhance your overall listening experience.
Thank you for your understandingā
I have not seen a thread in these forums reporting this.
Hi @malcolmbarr I see that you received your Rivo and are already stress-testing the new toy
I have not been active in these discussions since I have been in the USA for the last 12 days. But I see that Bruno and Davide took great care of you in the meantime (also there would be no way for me to handle all requestsā¦)
Let me provide some further insights to what Davide already reported you on your exchanges.
UPNP\DLNA Renderer
This is quite a complex matter. UPNP\DLNA should be a standard, where apps implement it as per the standard and it just worksā¦ right? Well, from our experience it turns out that every single app out there which implements UPNP does it a little bit differently, and therefore behaviour varies greatly from app to app. This explains why the behaviour you see (latency, misaligment of time) happens.
We have been fixing and implementing several impros on our UPNP receiver side but we are still not getting 100% right as we want, hence Davideās reply.
What I would recommend to do here is to use BubbleUPNP which has proven to be the most reliable third party UPNP app in conjunction with Volumio.
M3U situation
Here the situation is quite simple: M3U playlists are simply a list of files in text format, so supporting them is quite easy from an integration perspective. However, as always, devil is in the details, and it requires that files are listed with absolute paths (which is almost never the case) to work correctly.
This results in M3U almost never work when imported on a platform different from the one they were created on, and thatās the reason why we neglected this feature (as it would require manual renaming of the paths in the file itself to make it work)
SORTING SITUATION
This is one of the most requested features, and we are working on it. Thereās some code we are now testing internally to allow sorting for TIDAL and QOBUZ, and if this works we will then extend it to local files
UPnP/DLNA - I get that the standard is implemented in a variable way, but Volumio has been around for long enough that I would have expected this to be in better shape by now. I had no issues with an Ifi Zen Stream, which I understand runs a cut down version of Volumio. I dont have an Android device to run BubbleUPnP on. To be honest I want to primarily use the native Volumio functionality anyway.
M3U - Again I get that implementing this is tricky because people donāt have their M3U files in the right format and with the right file paths. I would be happy if there was a guide provided by you which explains (a) how the files and paths should be formatted, and (b) how the playlists should be made available to the Volumio device. With that information I would write a batch file to convert myself if needed. Instead we have a community built M3U importer which is not officially supported, and Davide in volumio support telling me simply āM3U files are not supportedā. I think you just need to work with users coming to their Volumio devices with pre-existing libraries and M3U files they want to use, and give them the tools to be able to do that even if it requires some additional work on the users part.
Sorting - Glad to hear this is being worked on.
My intention here is not to moan at Volumio for the sake of it. In fact I want to support the product - as I have said multiple times I think it sounds really good.
Hi,
Thank you for your answer. If i buy a Rivo IS to use it in local listening with an attached hard drive and not to stream from a PC with jriver or minimserver or Roon via UPnP. I want to simplify my system. How sound the Rivo in this configuration using volumio audio player ? IS still better to stream from a PC optimized with fidelizer pro with jriver or audirvana Studio via UPnP to the Rivo or Can I get a very good sound just using the Rivo with volumio and an attached hard drive ?
Hello,
Is it possible to connect a 4 channel USB DAC to Rivo and have Camilla low pass 2 channels for subs and high pass 2 channels for mains? Has anybody tried this?
My other question, does the non-DAC usb accept USB ADC so I can room eq bass for my record player?
Thank you
Hi guys, I own the Volumio Rivo and was wondering if it would be possible to upgrade the Rivo with an I2S interface? There are more and more DACs that offer the I2S interface.
Hello, if you think the clock and power supply will be better than the ones in Rivo?? you could tinker with this. I had a Pi HAT version of this and it was an upgrade over its USB. But Rivo USB out performs my Pi HAT I2S although it pulled I2S straight from the GPIO without any USB interphase in between. It just adds another layer of conversion going this route. Still, you might want to try.
I understand that your esthetic is differentā¦but I LOVE the minimalist Italian design of The Rivo.
If it was a simple black boxā¦I would be less interestedā¦although I understand the/your need, which is no doubt a popular want. Perhaps in the future more than one finish option could be offered.
I have a Rivo (and an LPS), on the way to replace a Mercury Streamer v1 in my system. My Mercury connected to my DAC (Pontus II) via IĀ²S and I bought a short pricey HDMI cable to accomplish thatā¦which will now be useless to me., AND now I needed to buy a quality USB cable to connect the RIVO to my DAC. (USB is reported to be the best, right?). I understand that it is tough for manufacturers to offer everything to every oneā¦but maybe IĀ²S could be included in a future Rivo model.
No real complaintā¦I just wanted to ad my experience to the mix.
Hi, new owner of the Rivo, really like it, am using it as an Roon endpoint with usb into a Primare Dac30 dac
Is there a difference in sound quality between the different outputs on the Rivo ?
I am using wifi from a mesh network at the moment, planning to use cat 8 that I have somewhere, is there a difference in sound quality between the two or is it just the cat8 that is more dependable than Wi-Fi ?
, AND now I needed to buy a quality USB cable to connect the RIVO to my DAC. (USB is reported to be the best, right?). I understand that it is tough for manufacturers to offer everything to every oneā¦but maybe IĀ²S could be included in a future Rivo model.
