- The Italian company Volumio slr. describes its latest streaming bridge, the Volumio Rivo Plus, as a solution developed by the community for the community.
The Florence-based company Volumio slr has built up an impeccable reputation over the years as a specialist in streaming solutions. What began as a pure software forge centred around Volumio OS has long since become a provider that can point to a series of fine streaming clients and streaming transports. The company is now preparing to launch a new streaming transport on the market with the new Volumio Rivo Plus.
In fact, the Italian company is talking about the ultimate streaming transport, which is now being presented with the new Volumio Rivo Plus, which, as is easy to recognise, is an improved version of the Volumio Rivo launched a good two years ago.
The latest generation of the Volumio Rivo Music Player Transport
Volumio slr. states that, alongside the Volumio Primo Music Network Player and Streamer, the Volumio Rivo Music Player Transport is the company’s most successful product, so it was particularly important during development to be able to offer significant improvements in order to continue the success of this solution in the future.
As a company that can proudly boast of having a broad-based community, the development of the new product was naturally strongly orientated towards customer requirements.
“Volumio is a company that focuses on the needs of its community. After the successful launch of Rivo, our customers loved the product but also made some suggestions for new features they would like to see in future products. Volumio is proud to announce that we have taken many of these suggestions into consideration for the launch of Rivo Plus.”
Volumio slr.
Once again a pure streaming transport
It should be noted that the new Volumio Rivo Plus is also designed as a pure streaming transport and therefore has no integrated D/A converter. However, the latest version of the streaming bridge from Florence now features additional digital interfaces, which should ensure even better quality.
Dedicated ASIC for S/PDIF and AES/EBU
The Volumio Rivo has an S/PDIF and an AES/EBU interface for connecting external D/A converters. According to the manufacturer, a circuit was used that relied directly on the Amlogic SoC. The new Volumio Rivo Plus now has a special, dedicated ASIC for these interfaces, which is connected directly to the USB hub IC.
This reduces the load on the system’s CPU and, in conjunction with a new, high-quality MEMS clock and several extremely low-noise linear regulators for the power supply, ensures significantly improved quality of the digital signals at the coaxial S/PDIF interface as well as at the AES/EBU interface of the Volumio Rivo Plus.
New I2S interface
The Volumio Rivo already had an HDMI interface, but this was only used as an option for integrating a TV set to display the user interface of the streaming bridge.
Now there is another HDMI interface on the back of the new Volumio Rivo Plus, and this now functions as an I2S interface, meaning it can be used for audio signal transmission.
This is particularly important, as I2S is considered to be the best quality solution for this task, and it can also be used to transmit audio in Linear PCM with up to 32 bits and 768 kHz, as well as DSD up to DSD256.
Naturally, this new I2S is based on the new ASIC with a high-quality MEMS clock generator, which is connected directly to the processor board internally via USB.
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the Volumio Rivo Plus can output audio signals via S/PDIF in Linear PCM with up to 24 bit and 192 kHz as well as DSD64 via DoP (DSD over PCM). Audio data in Linear PCM with a maximum of 24 bit and 192 kHz is also available at the AES/EBU and for DSD64 you also have to rely on DoP. One of the two USB ports – more details on this in a moment – is labelled as USB DAC, here audio data is available in Linear PCM with up to 32 bit and 768 kHz as well as DSD up to DSD256.
New 12 V trigger
Another new feature is that the Volumio Rivo Plus now has a 12 V trigger out, so that it can be easily used in a wide variety of HiFi systems and can be controlled centrally.
The key technical data of the new Volumio Rivo Plus
How could it be otherwise, the new Volumio Rivo Plus is of course a miniature PC at its core, with a platform based on Amlogic S905D3 with a 1.9 GHz quad-core CPU and 2 GB of DDR4 RAM plus a further 16 GB of EMMC as system memory.
The operating system is of course from Volumio slr, the latest version of the Volumio OS, which is optimised from the ground up solely for audio streaming.
The Volumio Rivo Plus comes with an RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet interface and a WiFI module in accordance with IEEE 802.11ac for integration into the network. Bluetooth 5.0 is also available here and there is one USB 3.0 (USB-C) and two USB 2.0 (USB-A) interfaces.
There is also a microSD card slot and the connection for the external 5V 3 A DC power supply on the back.
The Volumio Rivo Plus is able to stream content via UPnP and acts as a dlna renderer with OpenHome support. Network access to content is easily possible via CIFS/SMB and NFS. It is of course also possible to play back audio data available directly to the Volumio Rivo Plus via corresponding storage media. Apple AirPlay is also supported via Shairport Sync and Spotify Connect and TIDAL Connect are also available. You can also access services such as Qobuz, Pandora, YouTube, Fusion DSP, Bandcamp, TuneIn Internet Radio and many more.
If an external USB drive is connected, the Volumio Rivo Plus can also be used to rip audio CDs.
Control is extremely convenient with the corresponding app for Apple iOS and Google Android, but you can also rely on a web interface to control the new Volumio Rivo Plus.
Prices and availability
The new Volumio Rivo Plus should be available from specialist retailers within the next few days. The manufacturer’s recommended retail price is € 1.299,-. An optional upgrade to the power supply is available on request, with the Volumio Lineo5 Linear Power Supply priced at € 349,-.
Getting to the point
The new Volumio Rivo Plus was developed as the successor to the Volumio Rivo Streaming Transport based on suggestions and requests from the Volumio slr. community. According to the Italian specialist from Florence, decisive innovations have been introduced here that significantly improve the quality and also increase the flexibility of this streaming bridge.
| PRODUCT | Volumio Rivo Plus |
|---|---|
| Price | Volumio Rivo Plus € 1.299,- Volumio Lineo5 Linear Power Supply € 349,- |
| BRAND | VOLUMIO |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Volumio |
| Distribution | audioNEXT GmbH |
| More about this manufacturer at HIFI BLOG |
