Is Volumio the best 'streamer freeware'?

[NewbieAudiophileExpert]

I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi (3B+ and 4B) and i prefer it with the 4B - it's so great, that it's almost hard to believe that it's free - it even has airplay2?

I've heard of other options, but they seem a bit more complicated and I'm not sure that they offer the same options as the most mainstream option.

Let me know which OS you think is good and why.

BTW my current set up is a Raspberry Pi 4B, Topping D10S, and a Fosi Audio BT20A-S.

 

[Raitsa]

rAudio is my personal choice, therefore I consider it "the best".

rAudio-1(Arch-based music player for all Raspberry Pi's)

rAudio-1 is an Arch Linux-based, active and constantly improved fork of an audio player project called Runeaudio. rAudio-1 is available for all Raspberry Pi's: 64bit: 4, 3, 2, Zero 2 32bit: 2 (BCM2836) legacy: 1, Zero Metadata Tag Editor (*.cue included) Album mode with...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[somebodyelse]

Define 'best' - it's largely down to capability requirements and personal preference. piCorePlayer works for me, but I suggest people try several and see what works for them. As an example airplay seems to be an advantage for you, but is of no use to me.

 

[FrantzM]

haven't tried many.. but I am a bit surprised by the range of capabilities of Volumio, especially its no-nonsense Spotify Connect and AirPlay...
Well, it was working until I typed this ... Now can't connect ...

A bit of a rant and something we will have to bear: Inflation is upon us and pressing hard: About a year ago, I bough a Raspberry Pi 4 for $65, or so on Amazon ... Now it is at $150.oo on Amazon... Price more than doubled ...

Peace.

 

[MCH]

haven't tried many.. but I am a bit surprised by the range of capabilities of Volumio, especially its no-nonsense Spotify Connect and AirPlay...
Well, it was working until I typed this ... Now can't connect ...

A bit of a rant and something we will have to bear.. About a year ago, I bough a Raspberry Pi 4, for $65 or so on Amazon ... Now it is at $150.oo on Amazon... Price more than doubled ...

Peace.

The price changed little, but they are scarce. Bought a pi 4 2 gb 2 weeks ago for 65 eur including psu, heat sinks and case.

Regarding streaming software i am a Moode person because it is free and were the first to implement camilladsp

 

[NewbieAudiophileExpert]

Define 'best' - it's largely down to capability requirements and personal preference. piCorePlayer works for me, but I suggest people try several and see what works for them. As an example airplay seems to be an advantage for you, but is of no use to me.

Hmmm, well by 'the best' I'd think is the one with the most features, which would by definition hold the most value.

The price changed little, but they are scarce. Bought a pi 4 2 gb 2 weeks ago for 65 eur including psu, heat sinks and case.

Regarding streaming software i am a Moode person because it is free and were the first to implement camilladsp

Hmmm, speaking of camilla DSP, Volumio has that feature, but i don't know how to use it.

rAudio is my personal choice, therefore I consider it "the best".

rAudio-1(Arch-based music player for all Raspberry Pi's)

rAudio-1 is an Arch Linux-based, active and constantly improved fork of an audio player project called Runeaudio. rAudio-1 is available for all Raspberry Pi's: 64bit: 4, 3, 2, Zero 2 32bit: 2 (BCM2836) legacy: 1, Zero Metadata Tag Editor (*.cue included) Album mode with...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Seems a bit too complicated - what made you choose this one?

haven't tried many.. but I am a bit surprised by the range of capabilities of Volumio, especially its no-nonsense Spotify Connect and AirPlay...
Well, it was working until I typed this ... Now can't connect ...

A bit of a rant and something we will have to bear: Inflation is upon us and pressing hard: About a year ago, I bough a Raspberry Pi 4 for $65, or so on Amazon ... Now it is at $150.oo on Amazon... Price more than doubled ...

Peace.

Yeah i've found that the spotify connect feature needs a bit of patience, and it only works from the spotify app.

 

[MCH]

Hmmm, speaking of camilla DSP, Volumio has that feature, but i don't know how to use it.

If you don't have any other means to apply eq, i recommend you to invest some time on learning how to use it. If too complicated in volumio (no idea), in moode is super easy

 

[NewbieAudiophileExpert]

If you don't have any other means to apply eq, i recommend you to invest some time on learning how to use it. If too complicated in volumio (no idea), in moode is super easy

There's nothing complicated about it - it just seems to be an option that is available in the fusionDSP plugin, which i turn on, but i don't know what it does and how it does it.

 

[MCH]

There's nothing complicated about it - it just seems to be an option that is available in the fusionDSP plugin, which i turn on, but i don't know what it does and how it does it.

GitHub - HEnquist/camilladsp: A flexible cross-platform IIR and FIR engine for crossovers, room correction etc.

A flexible cross-platform IIR and FIR engine for crossovers, room correction etc. - HEnquist/camilladsp

github.com

 

[somebodyelse]

A bit of a rant and something we will have to bear: Inflation is upon us and pressing hard: About a year ago, I bough a Raspberry Pi 4 for $65, or so on Amazon ... Now it is at $150.oo on Amazon... Price more than doubled ...

That's not inflation, or official distributors. That's some scalper taking advantage of restricted supply.

Hmmm, well by 'the best' I'd think is the one with the most features, which would by definition hold the most value.

We're definitely going to reach different conclusions then. If I have no use for a feature then it isn't adding value. Depending on how it's implemented it may even have negative value, like if the features I don't need get in the way of using the functions I do - Moode's way of operating squeezelite being a prime example.

 

[NewbieAudiophileExpert]

That's not inflation, or official distributors. That's some scalper taking advantage of restricted supply.

We're definitely going to reach different conclusions then. If I have no use for a feature then it isn't adding value. Depending on how it's implemented it may even have negative value, like if the features I don't need get in the way of using the functions I do - Moode's way of operating squeezelite being a prime example.

Well that's totally cool and i'd be interesting in hearing your rationale behind the decision you'd made.

 

[NiagaraPete]

My choice is Dietpi. You just enable the services you want.

 

[0bs3rv3r]

Between Volumio and moOde, I'd choose moOde every time. Apart from anything else, the developer is responsive and fixes stuff quickly. Free, but worth a donation.

 

[Roland68]

At least it's the easiest to install, even for the inexperienced...

 

[somebodyelse]

Well that's totally cool and i'd be interesting in hearing your rationale behind the decision you'd made.

I had already settled on LMS before the Pi appeared as the least painful way to do multi-room and gapless playback without vendor lockin. The plugins make it flexible, and the community support is good. I was worried things might tail off when Logitech stopped making hardware players, but between the second hand market and people putting software players on single board computers even before the Pi, it has kept going nicely. Back then interoperability with UPnP was hit and miss (or DLNA wouldn't have been necessary) and gapless wasn't as widely supported as it is now. MPD didn't really do multi-room. Squeezelite runs happily on desktop and HTPC. piCorePlayer just makes it easy to set up an endpoint for LMS, and running without writes to the uSD except for when you make a settings change means you can just pull the power and not worry about corruption. It's also small enough that you can stick it on a 'worn out' uSD so long as the broken bits aren't too close to the start. It has very few extra features by default, but you can install a GUI and an instance of LMS if you need them - I don't. I use browser or the Squeezer phone app for control. I would like to see a better integration of CamillaDSP, AutoEQ etc. but some of that has been improving.

Daphile does something pretty similar to piCorePlayer but for PC hardware, runs fine on old laptops and thin clients, and has BruteFIR built in. Used thin clients are an excellent cheapscate option and don't have the availability issues of the Pi. You can even install Volumio on them, although you might need to add a bigger drive. You should be able to find one for not much more than a bare Pi Zero-W.

I've kept an eye on the alternatives but haven't yet found anything that makes me want to change.

 

[Martin]

I used Volumio but switched to piCorePlayer when LMS for Synology stopped working. piCorePlayer with an embedded LMS runs excellent on the Pi4. I prefer piCorePlayer to Volumio. It seems to run with less lag and fewer issues.

Martin

 

[KaLam1ty]

+1 with PiCorePlayer (LMS/Squeezelite).

Majority of my listening is a music collection off of a NAS as well, so I just need a simple away to manage music and "just play it". Browser based remote was also a requirement for accessibility and I also wanted some flexibility in terms of UI/UX.

The environment has also been around for forever, so it's pretty tried and true, especially on low powered devices. I found Volumio and MoOde to both be incredibly slow when browsing large libraries on mobile devices. LMS does some nice caching and indexing work to get around this.

It's definitely not as plug-and-play as Volumio or MoOde though; but I think if you have a Rpi, you're savvy enough to set it up and running -- not that it requires extensive technical expertise at all. Still quite simple, really.

 

[Ears of Tin]

Having tried most of the competitors, my favorite is rAudio. All the features I want and the best UI.

 

[Tom C]

I’m a Qobuz subscriber, and I resent being tied to proprietary hardware or software to be able to use what I’m paying for. So piCoreplayer for me. It’s trouble free.
Volumio required frequent resets, and was a bit more clumsy to get set up. And if you want Qobuz functionality, you have to get the paid version. Which I still might put up with, because I believe that in America, you work, you get paid. But paid Volumio is a subscription, instead of a one-time charge. No thank you. Let me pay once and be done.

 

[FuzzTone]

+1 on piCore player. I ordered my Allo with Volumio and tried Moode (yech) then promptly changed to piCore player. Better, more consistent art and more customizable. Use BubbleUPnP in front of Volumio for free Qobuz and Tidal access.