Volumio Rivo first impressions

Has anybody tried the Micro SD Card slot? My Micro SD card is not recognized.

It’s formatted in Exfat, just like my USB stick which is recognized perfectly.

Edit: I just found a statement somewhere that apparently Micro SD slots are not intended for storage, is that correct?

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the sd-card must be labled “issd”, to be recognized, it’s not mentioned in the user-manual printed in the box, sorry for that. we have an updated version mentioning that

it will work as internal storage

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I’ll give that a try tomorrow, thanks @Darmur !

Haven’t tried the SD Card slot before, it is working fine. Has taken a bit of time to do the initialation of the libary but it work very nice. Good that you can fill the sd card from the network. So you don’t have to take it out.
Cheers
Christian

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Yep, same here, works fine once I renamed the Micro SD card.

And indeed, copying music through the network to either USB or Micro SD slot is a breeze!

glad to hear that! :sunglasses:

Since this is a ‘first impressions’ topic, I’m still eligible for it as a Rivo owner for just about 1 week right? :slight_smile:

It has been turned on since Wednesday 7th, playing music on and off. I shortly used the original power adapter and changed to my 5v Farad LPS pretty soon.

I know that ‘burn-in’ is a thing, but with these 2 new components I have experienced burn-in like never before. My first impressions were ok-ish, then it got really good for a short period of time, after which I thought for a day or 2, what the heck did I buy, so boring, harsh and flat sounding it was.

But things are now stabilizing and boy am I happy with this combination. The Rivo is a real joy to listen to. I’m a big fan of Volumio’s design approach to keep things ‘simple’, not tinkering with the music signal along the way.

Maybe it sounds a bit crazy to anybody having not experienced it yet, but to me a real good system let’s you hear the empty space around the music. I describe it as the room acoustics, ’ showing’ you the actual room in front of you and around you, like you are actually in the room of the performance, not just looking at a picture in front of you with some depth to it. The Rivo let’s you hear that in spades, really awesome.

The sound is very clean, it has a very black background, while being very organic and dynamic at the same time, no stress. This makes it live like to me, and that’s what I’m after! :smiley:

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I have tried Rivo for the first time with my new Neukomm CDA126S DAC, which has a XingCore USB Card. I am getting playback interruptions with DoP64 and DoP128 files. Interestingly I have a DSD256 file which plays fine in DoP256
Has anyone else seen stuttering with DoP?
No stuttering with DSD native.
I have set mixer to none and Audio Buffer Size to 8MB

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I have done some further investigation:

The same issue occurs with a NUC6i5SYK running 3…396, so it does not seem to be Rivo related.

It also occurs with an Odroid N2 running 3.379.

It seems extremely strange to me that DoP256 should play fine and the lower bitrate DoP128 and DoP64 should not. Also strange that DSD native plays without issues.

Feel free to move this to another thread if this is the wrong place to post it.

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There seems to be also an issue with native DSD512. I get chopped up playback when playing through Volumio. Native DSD128 and native DSD256 play smoothly.
When I play from Roon via the Roon Bridge plugin on the Rivo, DSD512 playback is smooth.

Hi everyone, I am so interested in getting the amazing Rivo but have a few questions:

  1. Since Volumio supports touchscreen, is it correct that both HDMI and USB ports on the Rivo would allow a touchscreen to work? If yes, is driver installation for specific monitors required?

Answered by @Divastream: 2. I plan on using Rivo as Roon Endpoint initially to connect directly into my Dirac Live AVR, which doesn’t support MQA or DSD. Is it correct that with Rivo in the middle, Roon will still be able to perform Core Unfolding and also play DSD to my AVR?

  1. Since the Coaxial and Toslink input on my AVR are both limited to 96/24, but the AVR’a UPnP player can support up to 192/24. Can Rivo help with its UPnP feature to deliver tracks from Roon to the AVR at 192/24?

Answered by @Divastream: 4. Eventually I will get one of the recent state-of-the-art DACs with AKM’s AK4191 and AK4499EX chips, like SMSL D400EX or Gustard A26. Do I have to worry about compatibility between Rivo and these DACs? How do I ensure that Rivo’s USB interface will work with these 2 DACs?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my questions and your feedback is appreciated.

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Hi!

The Rivo is working with the Gustard R26 via USB without any issue. Also with the Dragonfly red and the Sabaj A20D. You simply choose the Dac when it is connected in the “wiedergabe” menu.
In Roon you can choose in “Geräteeinrichtung” if there is no mqa support. In that case the core is doing the unfolding.
Cheers
Christian

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(cont’ from previous post)

Answered by @Vennesch: 5. Is there a way to get Rivo to work with Harmony remotes? Maybe even through some third-party interface/plugin?

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With a FLIRC usb. Used that on my Primo about two years ago

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Does anyone know why Rivo doesn’t have 12V Trigger IN or OUT ports?

As a streamer (first device in a chain), it’s really important for it to trigger other devices such as a DAC.

It’s even more disappointing that cheaper and more inferior streamers like Wiim Pro and Bluesound Node have Trigger Out port.

Is this an oversight on Volumio’s part and is there a rationale that I am not aware of?

Even if Rivo itself is always-on, but other devices in the chain don’t have to be always on.

Many high end streamers don’t have a trigger. Besides that, for your dac it’s better to be powered on all the time. Most of them don’t consume a lot of power in idle state.

I keep all my digital stuff powered on 24/7 only when on holidays I power everything down

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Thanks for your reply @Vennesch could you explain why it’s better for DACs to be powered on all the time? Is it because so they don’t have to “warm up?”

I am just worried about the longevity of the screen on my DAC if they are left on 24/7. For example, SMSL D400EX has an IPS screen and the Gustard A26 has an OLED. Both may be costly to replace if their screens die prematurely.

It sure depends on you DAC. If you have one with an OLED/LCD and no timeout, don’t let it on. Your OLED will show burns within 3 months and an LCD with 4-5 months.

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Does that still applies nowadays? My Topping D90mqa is on all the time as is my Samsung (qled) Frame tv. .

Anyways, it is better for the (resistors or capacitors?) to keep running. I’m not technical enough to explain it myself but Hans van Beekhuizen once made a video about it, could not find it in a quick search.

I could imagine that lower end streamers have the trigger outs because they are often used in a second office or bedroom system that isn’t used all the time. Just a wild guess…

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Well you are right, I am looking for a streamer at exactly the “living room” where I don’t spend much time.

Despite the low use in this location, and especially the low use, I would not like the screen to be on there all the time.

I have to be careful with selecting the right streamer and DAC with Trigger ports or good time-out/auto-off functions.

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