Rivo has no DAC, but more has been spent on it as a pure streamer.
Primo has a DAC and is optimised for analog output. Its that simple really.
Reviews of Primo Mk1 mentioned that the internal DAC is so well integrated it ‘sounds better’ than adding external DACS even if more expensive. For me it was all about VFM. Maybe with Primo 2 it will also work better with external DAC ‘upgrades’ ? but I would spend on the Rivo.
Having said all this, the Rivo / Integro / Primo now have a serious competitor with the Eversolo which is getting rave reviews (but comes with its own software and Roon bridge).
because I bought a used rivo from ebay and thought that there is something wrong with my installation. for example can not make favorites, playlists and sond on out of qobuz
One reason why I bought Volumio Rivo was the ability to use it with an external monitor without wifi. So I bought this one from Amazon:
Unfortunately the touch function doesn’t work. Running the touch on a raspberry pi works perfekt. The monitor is linked via hdmi and the USB 2.0 to the Volumio Rivo. Due to the fact that the monitor get its power from Volumio through usb it must have something to do with Volumio software. I thought the software supports touch ….Any idea ?
I am considering buying a Rivo, based on the review by iiWi Reviews on YouTube. I have 3 questions that are very important to me:
Does the full version of Volumio have a app/connection to Radio Paradise that allows me to sign into my RP account - so I can play My Favorites from my 15+ years of listening to RP?
Does it include an app/connection to Bandcamp; again that lets me sign into my account, so I can listen to my purchases and subscriptions?
On the Rivo, the HDMI port is for a display, as I understand it? Can this work with a touch screen monitor?
Radio Paradise is available
Hdmi touch panel does not work at the moment. So the screen works but without touch. They say this schould be available soon…
Radio Paradise is available with a 3rd-part plugin, developed by a community member. The plugin can be installed from the plugin-store.
From what I can see, it does not support login with RP account, you can only trigger the playback of the following streams:
BandCamp is available with a 3rd-part plugin, developed by a community member. The plugin can be installed from the plugin-store.
From the pkugin settings, it looks like it’s possible to insert the BandCamp username to access all the plublic elements of the profile, but I’m not sure if it’s possible to listen to purchases and subscriptions, better if you ask in the dedicated thread for this plugin
The touch functionality is being added in a new upcoming release, currently under internal QA testing.
When available, it’s better to check upfront if the USB touch controller is supported, not all of them work well with linux.
Long time volumio user, first time posting. So excuse me if this is not the correct place for what I am about to say.
I was on the fence about buying the Rivo, in the end I bought a competitor’s product. And it is this decision, for the purpose of being constructive that I wanted to share with the Volumio team.
The reason is the aesthetics. I live with a partner and when I introduce new tech to our living space, it’s a potential battle to be had. A great thing about traditional, plain, black kit is that it matches - generally speaking. On a hi-fi rack of 7 other boxes, understated rules in my house.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying “+1” to a black front panel option (and non-orange bit in the middle).
Call me fickle, but in a competitive market it often comes down to the small details.
Otherwise it’s great to see Volumio thriving - to be moving into the hardware business, exciting times ahead.
While I’m generally very happy with my Rivo (have it since last Friday), there have been some gotcha’s and small disappointments. I’ll summarise here and when I find more time, I might dig deeper into some of those points (please also feel free to ask if you want specific details).
The smartphone app is mentioned in both the quick start guide and on the product page. Not the name of the app (now I know, it’s not Volumio - many unrelated results, but Volumio Player). Would have liked links to the app stores on the product page (had to chase and find them ultimately on the Volumio software page).
I guess as a macOS user I’m a bit spoilt with regard to UX Had (and still have) quite some trouble finding functionality in the GUI. (Still don’t know where the content from an SD card is supposed to turn up - I renamed it to issd (was already FAT32); perhaps it only looks for files at the root level?) In general I’m opposed to items that appear and disappear from the GUI depending on validity/applicability; I’m confident most UX designers agree with me. An example: the Audio CD icon is only present while a cd drive is connected; it could be disabled (greyed out) by default instead.
The caching is often too persistent. The connected cd player can be the example here as well - actually the no longer connected cd player: I still see the icon (and the tracks of the last cd that was in there) in the interface currently, while I have removed the player from the USB port more than a day ago
Strange entries in the catalogue. This turned out to be caused by macOS’s hidden ‘resource fork’ files (names starting with ._). Easy to fix with a CLI command: find /Volumes/<your disk’s name> -name '._*' -exec rm {} \;, but still strange that these files are shown by Volumio behind the virtual ‘album’ Last.fm
BTW, if you use macOS, before unmounting your external disk, also run these (closing any Finder windows showing its (sub)contents first):
find /Volumes/<your disk’s name> -name '*.cue' -exec rm {} \; (not sure, but I got the impression they confuse the software somehow; same might apply to *.log files from your ripper)
Often Safe Remove Media didn’t work for my SSD connected to the USB 3 port; got a technical message about it being ‘busy’ - no music playing or other apparent activity, though.
Volumio doesn’t detect that my DAC, the Ferrum WANDLA, supports native DSD over the USB connection; if I have it use DoP, there are loud, repeated ticks in the playback
Since you already bought a competing product, this is no longer relevant, but why not place the Rivo in some closed cupboard (it doesn’t get particularly hot); you’ll hardly need to physically interact with it anyway. In my particular situation, I could actually hide it by placing it behind my DAC
The quick start guide has a QR code below this confusing text: “For more information on the QUICK START GUIDE, scan the QR CODE:” (I suppose this should say something like “For additional information not covered in the …” or “For the full user manual …”?).
The bigger problem is that the QR code resolves to a no longer existing URL: https://volumio.com/en/rivo-user-guide/ (or is the redirect to Volumio Rivo - Volumio fully intentional and does the user have to guess that after scrolling to the bottom of that page [a lot of work on a phone], there’s a link to something called USER MANUAL? - even if that’s the case, the contents of that PDF are equal to what constitutes the QUICK START GUIDE).
And perhaps the biggest problem is that’s there’s no proper user manual that covers a lot more detail than the quick start …
One more snag:
On the product page, there’s this prominent (bolded) text: “Includes all Volumio Premium features”. No instructions about how to login to Volumio (or MyVolumio? - this distinction also confuses me) from the app, though.
My best guess is that Rivo owners do get the Premium features, but without needing (nor getting) a Premium account? Would be nice to be explicit about this and mention it clearly in the quick start guide to prevent confusion and time unnecessarily spent trying to find this out (I initially had the impression I’d have to activate my Premium account somehow in order to be able to do cd ripping - turned out to be the hidden Audio CD icon in combination with several connection retries being needed for unclear reasons [caching?].)
It’s also unclear to me what the option Activate MyVolumio On Devices is for (got an empty list within that box below the one with the user profile):
To start, yes, very annoying but this is not really a Volumio issue, though there might be ways to solve it.
DSD raw/direct DACs need to be registered in the linux kernel’s audio driver.
To check (and help official Volumio support) could you supply the usb vendor and product id’s of your DAC device in order see it is supported?
There is a simple way to do this.
when you know how to use an SSH terminal with Volumio, do
lsusb
and report the result
otherwise, a bit more work: start volumio without the DAC connected and wait till volumio is up. Then connect the DAC and supply a link here to a log
My remark is about the Rivo (this forum is called Volumio Rivo first impressions after all ), but what you mention about the kernel’s audio driver might still be relevant - the WANDLA is relatively new after all. I’ll try to find some time tomorrow to connect a Linux laptop to the DAC to find out the vendor and product IDs.
Had (and still have) quite some trouble finding functionality in the GUI. (Still don’t know where the content from an SD card is supposed to turn up - I renamed it to 
(or is the redirect to 
), but what you mention about the kernel’s audio driver might still be relevant - the WANDLA is relatively new after all. I’ll try to find some time tomorrow to connect a Linux laptop to the DAC to find out the vendor and product IDs.