Someone suggested that Volumio 3x was a step backwards in terms of SQ. That argument literally fell on deaf ears so I won’t go there, but what about My Volumio?
I realized that the most likely reason the developers are pushing the narrative that 3x is better probably has a lot to do with the fact only 3x has the new “fair” prices for My Volumio.
What is a 2x insurgent that wants to keep using My Volumio to do?
Your “2x insurgents” don’t have much choice, Volumio 2 will go EOL and there will be no more new versions. At one point, support will also cease. V2 works as long as it works.
Volumio 2x can and probably will work forever minus My Volumio. The only feature I care about is the Tidal Connect support which is not all that great even in Volumio 3x anyway.
I still have most of my year of My Volumio left. Certainly within that time a better and probably free option will become available.
The developers have already admitted that 2/10 users prefer 2x. They have alienated 20% of their potential user base from a product that is already very niche. I know many people with the ears and equipment to tell the difference and we are actively seeking other options.
I’m curious from the source of the statistics…
Well, that will become a long search to find something with the integration of spotify, Tidal and Qobuz in one application, running on a rPi. or you must consider App(x) with bubbleUPnP, using the rPi as end piont for Roon or Audirvana.
Roon and Audirvana are not exactly “free” options either 
Nope indeed.
With both Roon and Audirvana you even need to pay when you want to play local files.
This is an interesting claim, could you please add a reference to a qoute from the “developers”, otherwise this is just trolling or fake.
From “volumio” on 12-14-21 in response to " Volumio 3 hosed the best feature of Volumio"
"Regarding Sound Quality of Volumio 2 vs Volumio 3, I find this discussion really interesting, but I don’t have a clear explanation for you guys.
Let me do a bit of background story.
At the time of Volumio 1, I was really on a quest to understand what parameters, settings, kernel tweaks could make a difference in Sound Quality. Since, at the time, I just started Volumio I had the feeling I owed the community as much objectivity as possible, without falling into the (easy) clichè of “special recipes that makes sound better”.
So I started to study all literature I could find online, and surprisingly enough, there was not much to it.
The only things that would make a difference were:
The most promising, however, thing to all that was RamPlay (aka load tracks into RAM and play from there). I was sure that for me it made a sonical difference.
I wanted the proof of that, so I went measuring it (using a 30k Euros Audio Precision equipment, courtesy of Audio Review, one of the most respected audio publications in Italy and Europe).
Result: no matter what combination of kernel settings, Ram Play or whatever I did. There was not a measurable difference (both in periodic and stochastic jitter).
So I was back to square one. I could swear I could hear a difference, but that difference was not measurable. Hence, not demonstrable.
So, from there on, I decided to not follow ghosts and just try to follow sensible principles of bit perfect playback. This in order to better focus what I do on something that could impact positively everyone using Volumio and also because I feel the responsibility of delivering a sensible, genuine approach without selling “magical recipes”, which might be true only for my ears.
That does not mean that those difference in quality do not exist, but since I did not manage to condense them in objectively repeatable parameters, I just don’t focus on them.
Now, coming to what might cause such difference, there are few suspects:
From what we hear (here on the forum, on emails that we receive as feedbacks) there seems to be a pattern: 8 people out of 10 report that Volumio 3 sounds better than Volumio 2.
In all honesty, this was not intended. Our goal is and has always been bit-percfect playback, which in an ideal world, should result in the same sound.
Obviously, that is not true, and I am interested in finding the reason why.
If someone has ideas, measuring equipment, or knows someone who knows someone, let us know!"
Clearly if 8/10 prefer Volumio 3 then 2/10 don’t. Ordinary claims do not require extraordinary evidence. You are being cynical not skeptical. Grab a clue!
So if 8/10 says Volumio 3 sounds better for them, does it mean 2/10 finds it worse? No it doesn’t, because there are also alot of people who just don’t hear any difference.
Also nowhere to be seen how many users have actually given feedback, 100? Even 1000 perhaps? Which is both too little to make assumptions which you have made.
we are still missing the source of the “2/10 don’t like the sound of v3” statement - is it kind of “alternative facts” ?
That’s not deaf ears. Being this a purely subjective matter, we simply stated transparently that nothing on our side has been done to achieve better\worse sound quality. Just good-old bit-perfect and sensible defaults.
We push for Volumio 3 because we think it’s simply a better overall package. Then of course, Volumio 2 is no longer maintained.
You can keep on using it as much as you like, and stick to your existing (Virtuoso or Superstar plan) until you cancel it.
But, bear in mind, that this is not supported anymore. This means that it might eventually stop working and there will be no fix for it from Volumio team.
Especially for software which rely on online services (own or third parties) require a constant maintenance effort to keep them running, we will focus those efforts only on Volumio 3.
This is because:
Hope that explains it, and gives you enough data to make an informed decision.
Incorrect. I just said that of all the feedbacks about the difference in SQ that we got, 8 out of 10 were in favour of Volumio 3.