Hi all
As a new user of Volumio, coming from an Auralic Aries Mini, I decided to go for the all-in-one solution that I hoped would be the least troublesome. As in purchasing a Volumio Primo with a lifetime subscription. Setup took awhile, my code for MyVolumio didn’t work before the 3rd or 4th try. Initially I could sign up to Qobuz but not actually use it. An update took care of that. So, some massaging was needed to get it going. After a few days though I’m really baffled by how many features I’m missing.
First off, here is my use case:
Primo with ethernet connection, usb to a Schiit Bifrost. No troubles here AFAI can see.
No need for DSD, MQA etc. No need for multiroom, no local library (my local library is physical media, and staying that way ;-)). No need for voice/remote control.
Strictly streaming FLAC from Qobuz. Simplest use case possible. Controlled primarily from Volumio app on android phone.
This is where my woes start:
I can’t sort my library. Artists added are sorted by date added, there is no option to sort by name. Ok, in Lightning OS (the software for the Aries Mini) it was the same, however I could remove/add artists to have them show up in the ‘Favorites’ folder and that COULD be sorted by name. Very 1998, but whatever. It still was one of those things that prompted me to look for alternatives, because holy hell; once you have a few hundred artists, that’s approaching a full time workday. So not a very good integration tbh.
Good to see it’s just as bad here on Volumio. Actually, to be frank, it is worse. With the previous paragraph in mind I decided to see if I could use the same approach on Volumio, ie. if I added an artist it would show up in a (hopefully) sortable Favorites folder. So I tried to search for an artist that I could add, only to find that selecting the artist took me to that artists releases, with no where obvious to add the artist to Favorites. So I would need to start up my Qobuz app (on completely separate hardware) to add an artist, or be able to sort a list alphabetically… Am I missing something?? Because this is so lopsided I cannot believe this is a piece of software that someone actually can sell for money in 2022.
Am I being a bit snarky? Probably. I am also feeling somewhat conned into paying serious money for something that lacks such basic functionality as the ability to add or sort artists in a software environment that purports to run streaming services ‘natively’. I can open my Qobuz app on my phone or DAP, and have such a host of functionalities that I am not even complaining about missing here (find similar artists, continued play of similar artists at playlist end etc), but simple sorting of a list of names? Simple ‘Add artist to Favorites’? That should be possible in a use case so stunningly simple as mine, no?
(small edit: because I’m typing this rant on my pc, I just checked the webinterface to Volumio in my browser, where a mouseover reveals the option to add an artist to favorites; so I’m guessing I’ll have to add a mouse to my phone then… this is really shoddy)
Either I am missing something, or Volumio is not worth the money. As of now, 2 things are holding me back from going back to the Aries Mini: Regret I spend my money on something unusable, and the need to use an Apple product to run the (free) Lightning OS.