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Volumio Primo Music Player

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Volumio Primo Music Player

Name: Volumio Primo Music Player
Brand: Volumio
SKU: volumio-primo-music-player-and-streamer
Price: 500 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

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Product Description

An audiophile-grade music device designed by and for music lovers, this Drop exclusive Volumio Primo HiFi edition will help you get the most from your music. Featuring a large, easy-to-navigate interface, it supports DSD, WAV, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, and Mp3 audio formats Read More

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Jul 23, 2019

hi im Andre and I work with Volumio. Prior, I was with ALLO, manufacturer of several successful audio shields for DIY audio. having read some of the comments here, I wanted to share the following with you. The term audiophile, for me, is broad and can include technical and non technical people. what brings them together is the love for music. i can understand that the ones that are more DIY oriented will always tend to be more technical and look for readings and numbers... but there are those who just want things to work out of the box and sound great. when volumio launched the Primo, they had exactly that objective in mind here is a well known audiophile software creator that gets into hardware. a big gamble. does the primo sound good... the reviews speak for themselves. can you achieve the same with DIY? hard to say ... having worked in this field for several years, i personally don't know of any board that is so versatile and offers USB, digital and analog outputs all in one. the point is that the Primo massdrop deal offers a great value for those who are looking for a great sounding set it and forget it streamer. Primo received lot of bespoke software optimizations, many of them were related to ease of use (as this was a top priority) but most importantly to optimize Sound Quality: this has been achieved by fine-tuning the ESS DAC driver (via i2s), in close cooperation with ASUS. Particularly, we focused on how clocking is managed by TInkerboard and therefore improving the precision of the clock provided to the DAC. This is one of the special treat you get when getting a full-thought device rather than going DIY. Volumio philosophy is simple: we want every DIYer to be able to build their dream system, that's why we release Volumio as Open Source and provide as much information as possible. But we also believe that less tech-savvy music lovers should be able to enjoy a well priced and well thought audio player, finding all the optimizations done to their system out of the box. So if you can go to DIY path, we encourage you to do so. But getting Primo will come bundled with all our experience in the digital domain in the form of system optimizations that come into play with a tight integration of hardware and software, packed in a good sounding device out of the box. You have the choice. PS: one more review released today https://www.avforums.com/review/volumio-primo-network-audio-player-review.16218

Dean1257

Jul 21, 2019

One more review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jn1SWfK1VI

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SaskAudioGuy

438

Jul 18, 2019

I wanted to make this it's own post rather than a reply, so I expanded it and fleshed it out some. I see people saying their DIY boxes cost so and so etc. This isn't a cheap box by any means but there's value. It comes pre-built, pre-setup, on decent hardware, a good power brick, in it's own nice case and with a warranty. DIY is great if you can source the parts, do the required assembly, and software setup. Sadly there are people who can't cook instant noodles let alone hold a soldering iron. Well at 70 Euros a year for a Superstar subscription. I imagine a large chunk of cost is burned on software licensing even if it is on their own kit. It also gives you 6 licenses, so you get to use it on 5 other devices of your own or near to you aka friends/family. A fluffy review or three: https://www.hifichoicemag.com/content/volumio-primo

https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?64133-Volumio-PRIMO-Audio-streamer-review

https://digiphonix.home.blog/2019/05/08/volumio-primo/ Some Q&A https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/55974-primo-by-volumio/ Personally I would go the DIY route but I'm cheap and I have the required tools to build the DIY options. I think it's a very expensive kit and boils down to whether you'll use the software to get value. If you'll use the paid for features and you plan on using it for awhile then it's not such a bad proposition, it's just an expensive investment up front. Simple maths and numbers time: Use the software for 5 years, and it represents 350 euros or $400 USD in value type of thing. Which bumps the hardware cost down to $100 USD. That's basically the same cost as the DIY kits I see people mentioning. By straight conversion of the direct price of the unit on Volumios site puts it at $538 USD to buy direct with free shipping. So Drop is a bit cheaper too.

(Edited)

nellywhads

Jul 22, 2019

SaskAudioGuyIt seems the superstar subscription was either added after my post, or I somehow cannot read. If had taken a screenshot of the drop page I'd be more inclined to believe it was the former. The included lifetime subscription adds some relevance to the price point of the device. Without it, however, the pricing breaks down very quickly. Paying $300 extra for a diy assembly project is not really how we should be building products... Again, subscription saves it. I either missed this when I wrote my post, or it wasn't added until later.

SaskAudioGuy

438

Jul 22, 2019

nellywhadsI agree if it wasn't for the subscription that's bundled, it wouldn't be worth anywhere near it's asking price. The lifetime subscription is also on the Volumio product page, so maybe drop guys missed it.

nellywhads

Jul 17, 2019

TLDR; Read the post. I can't shorten this anymore without clearly addressing comments that are bound to come up on this thread. Lets break this down into 3 categories; functionality, cost, and measured performance. Note the "measured". It's italic. Functionality: TLDR; The same as what's already available publically. Volumio is a free, open source, buildable and downloadable OS. MyVolumio is a paid subsctiption program through which users can access premium features on the Volumio OS. MyVolumio features are not mentioned in this Drop's Overview, which leads me to believe these premium features are not included in the Primo's price. Cost: TLDR; The case must be made of unobtanium to cost ~$300 USD. KHADAS VIM3 Non-pro (Faster CPU, More RAM, Same Flash Capacity, USB 3.0): $99 USD KHADAS Tone Board (Newer DAC chip, USB input option): $99 USD Software (Volumio, compiled for the VIM3): $0 USD (See above) Installation (the time it takes to flash the OS onto the board): $0 USD (If you do it while taking a shower) Total no-case cost: ~$200 USD. Enough said. Note: I'm in the process of building this exact system into the chassis of a THX AAA 789.

Performance: TLDR; TBD I see no measurements of the Primo's DAC online yet, as I imagine (and sincerely hope, at this price) that it is custom built and not a reconfigured clone of another implementation. Specs are also not included in the Details section. We can spend a good fortnight arguing about the relevence of measurements on audiophile listening experience. To avoid this derailing this topic later, let's say that measurements are a quantified method of assessing the basic performance characteristics of a DAC. Keeps everyone happy. Now, giving the designers and engineers the benefit of the doubt, let's assume that the lesser SBC (Asus TInker Board S) and older-chip-based DAC board on the Primo perform at par with the KHADAS setup described above. We are left with a wonderful equation: Same functionality + Build cost (without case) + Same (imaginatively assumed) performance = ~$200 USD Simplifying this, we see that: Plastic case cost (and pretty much nothing else) = ~$300 USD I cannot express my concern any more clearly. Pre-emption for the nay-sayers: TLDR; If you're looking at this section, a tldr isn't going to help. Volumio Primo: https://volumio.org/product/volumio-primo/ Volumio OS: https://volumio.org/get-started/ MyVolumio subscription: https://volumio.org/my-volumio-overview/ KHADAS VIM3 (Pre-order): https://www.khadas.com/vim KHADAS Tone Board: https://www.khadas.com/tone KHADAS Tone Board Measurements: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-wesiontek-khadas-tone-board-dac.4823/ Here are some potatoes for making it to the end of this long, winding post: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=potato&s=g&t=i Edit: Fixed the equation. Edit 2: Added Primo product link.

(Edited)

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gyroscopics

185

Jul 18, 2019

nellywhads$500 ??? My DIY Volumio + D50 is cheaper and better than that. Including the Atom, my stack still costs less than that $500 Volumio Primo.

JJayJJ

472

Jul 19, 2019

nellywhadsWorst part about no measurements, is even the most basic of devices come with SOME form of specs in terms of performance. This doesn't even have much in the way of power usage or even a basic A-Weighted THD spec.. (I'd love for audiophiles to tell me to lick my finger, and test how much power is going through the thing by shocking myself, as any hint of calling for any sort of measurements is bewildering to them, and an offense almost). How is audio still this sort of pre-historic Wild Wild West where there are no serious standards for industry practice for the consumer market? People constantly trying to buy professional interfaces, yet these same audiophiles are impartial to any measurement metrics.. *facerub*

itudor

Jul 17, 2019

WOW, $500!!! Thats rich, for about 100 you can put together a system (rpi and hifiberry dac board that will get you 98% of the performance and same functionality) or for a little over 300 one can get a allo katana player (or digione signature depending if you want analogue or spdif out) that will keep the functionality and smoke this one in performance. For 5 bills there are much better and more mature streamers out there, come on massdrop!

(Edited)

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Cajondrummer

Jul 17, 2019

itudorI’m using an allo Digione thru an Aune X1S dac which is great...but what all in one @$500 unit are you talking about...I can’t find any...and the reviews appear very good.

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pkiula

Aug 1, 2021

itudorAllo Katana looks like ass. Different market for people who like to hold a hammer and screw driver. Many of us don't.

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Internal_Server_Error

Jul 16, 2019

General comment for the community re Volumio Primo: before commenting, particularly about performance vs value, watch this review from Jon Darko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYyudGfX6E

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itudor

Jul 17, 2019

Internal_Server_ErrorWhile you’re there, also check darko’s review of the allo digione signature player.

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pkiula

Aug 1, 2021

itudorInteresting: The Digione Signature needs 2 PSUs to run.
We strongly recommend you purchase the battery pack or use a very good power supply for the clean side.

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RayF

22220

Jul 16, 2019

Have to believe MD would sell more shit if they did a better job of explaining what the hell a given "thing-x" is, what the hell it does, and especially--why the hell I need it. Simply calling this particular thing-x a music player doesn't do the job. Since MD probably doesn't know what the device actually is either, my advice is to take @Internal_Server_Error 's advice and watch , Jon Darko's video explaining the device, it's category and it's uses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYyudGfX6E

(Edited)

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RayF

22220

Jul 18, 2019

I'm not endorsing his endorsement--I'm saying he did a better job of explaining what this product does, what it's for, and why I might want to buy it, than MD did.

Dmac6419

194

Jul 18, 2019

RayFI here you buddy 😎, peace

mathnerd

Jul 16, 2019

What's with the HDMI output and 4K video spec on this? It's listed as an audio player with a list of supported audio formats and there is no other mention of video capabilities. Is this an audiophile music streamer or some kind of set-top video device? It says the playback controls are via web-app so it's not clear to me if I would want/need to connect this up to a TV.

(Edited)

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Rick_T

Jul 16, 2019

Most of the cost went to the ESS Sabre DAC and Analog Output section.. If they have released a cheaper model with only the Digital USB and S/PDIF outputs as a ‘transport/streamer’ for my own separate DAC, I might bite..

nellywhads

Jul 17, 2019

Rick_TActually, this isn't the case. One can purchase a relatively capable DAC with a newer chip (ES9038Q2M) for about $99. Look up the Khadas Tone Board. Killer specs too.

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Rick_T

Jul 17, 2019

nellywhadsThanks.. But isn’t that a populated PCB dac board with some DIY assembly and your own chassis etc required? The Volumio Primo’s dac section is a plug and play fully assembled ready to play implementation though.. So I dunno..

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nathan.coulombe

387

Jul 16, 2019

"The whole system is extremely inexpensive" .... $500 HAHAHA That's fucking rich. Why not get a FiiO M11 and get something with better outputs, an actual display, and portability?