advertisement


Raspberry Pi and Volumio installation

I drew a blank with picoreplayer, and found LMS to sound poorer.

Volumio works for me, so I don’t really care why the alternatives didn’t work as well for me as they seem to for others.
 
I’m aware of how LMS works (otherwise I wouldn’t really be able to comment on the SQ, after all) but the end result sounded poorer for me compared to running Volumio.
 
I’m aware of how LMS works (otherwise I wouldn’t really be able to comment on the SQ, after all) but the end result sounded poorer for me compared to running Volumio.

That's interesting, as I found the reverse to be true, but there really isn't much in it to my ears. However, we might both be deluding ourselves. Expectation bias, good mood or bad mood when assessing the application etc. may be the reason for us hearing differences that might not be there!
 
To be honest I have found sound reproduction at a similar level on all of the providers, including Roon. My problems are with the software. PiCoreplayer is pretty much glitch free for me and the tweaks and add ons beat others. Volumio had a few glitches when I tried it. It may have improved since then.
 
I also settled with PiCorePlayer after dabbling with Volumio. Volumio was dead easy to set up but the fact that you have to pay them in addition to your Tidal subscription put me off. PCP was a bit of a faff when I started but it has improved a lot since the version I first tried. I set up another Pi from scratch recently and it was trouble-free. The only part that is still a bit confusing is setting up SAMBA, though this isn't essential to make it work, it just makes transferring new music files to the Pi easier.
 
I installed Volumio for my daughter about two years after rejecting it for ROON for myself. I was gobsmacked at the improvement in Volumio and it has worked flawlessly for her (a non-techie)
 
Can Volumio act as a UPnP server?

It can act as its own server, ie you don’t need a separate server and can plug a drive straight into the Pi and browse via metadata and so on rather than just by file name. And it can do multi-room if you have the slightly posher paid version IIRC.

But not sure if it can serve to other devices in the same way as Minimserver or whatever.
 
That's interesting, as I found the reverse to be true, but there really isn't much in it to my ears. However, we might both be deluding ourselves. Expectation bias, good mood or bad mood when assessing the application etc. may be the reason for us hearing differences that might not be there!

No, I could quite clearly hear it, across a couple of attempts. It was an annoying shame, as I liked the functions etc, at least with the material skin installed.

But my point wasn't really to knock LMS. Perhaps something about the way I used LMS (installed on a separate dedicated Pi 4) was responsible.

My intention was more just to reassure the OP that Volumio can be fine, even if that experience isn't universal. So often threads like these seem to go > OP tentatively asks for advice on a certain thing > replies say 'I do this instead, you should too!' > OP finds it all rather confusing.

So I just wanted to add a note that the OP's tentative direction is actually fine for many people, at least as something to try first and get comfortable with the general concept before trying alternatives.
 
No, I could quite clearly hear it, across a couple of attempts. It was an annoying shame, as I liked the functions etc, at least with the material skin installed.

But my point wasn't really to knock LMS. Perhaps something about the way I used LMS (installed on a separate dedicated Pi 4) was responsible.

My intention was more just to reassure the OP that Volumio can be fine, even if that experience isn't universal. So often threads like these seem to go > OP tentatively asks for advice on a certain thing > replies say 'I do this instead, you should too!' > OP finds it all rather confusing.

So I just wanted to add a note that the OP's tentative direction is actually fine for many people, at least as something to try first and get comfortable with the general concept before trying alternatives.

Agreed, Volumio can be fine and it is dead easy to install. There are some settings that the OP will have to check in order to ensure a bit perfect output though. IIRC it defaults to outputting all incoming data at 96/24 and this has a noticeable effect on quality. You can prevent this by toggling the feature off.

Your experience with PCP is different to mine. I use it with the Material skin too and the functions etc. are great!

Maybe this was the reason for your bad experience:

If LMS was set to transcode your files or stream then you may have got variable results.
 
Agreed, Volumio can be fine and it is dead easy to install. There are some settings that the OP will have to check in order to ensure a bit perfect output though. IIRC it defaults to outputting all incoming data at 96/24 and this has a noticeable effect on quality. You can prevent this by toggling the feature off.

Your experience with PCP is different to mine. I use it with the Material skin too and the functions etc. are great!

Maybe this was the reason for your bad experience:

No, it wasn't, there was no transcoding involved.

Regardless, it doesn't really matter what the cause was as I've moved on, and if the OP tries it and has a similar issue they can always ask for themselves.

FWIW I don't recall Volumio having transcoding switched on by default, but yes, it's easy enough to turn on and off if needed. Nothing to be worried about for the inexperienced.
 
Well bugger me. It was easy to set up Volumio. Mconnect found it straight away and it all seems to be working and no need to pay for the fancy Volumio subscription for Tidal.
 


advertisement


Back
Top