Volumio Rivo

Verdict

The Rivo is a great way of turning a device with digital input that has no streaming platform of its own (or even one that does and isn’t very good) into a streamer. What’s more, thanks to Volumio’s expertise in software, it’s a very good streamer too. The price is a little stiff but it’s a very clever product indeed.

Introduction

Over the last few years, there has been a trend for audio equipment to do more. Where once an integrated amplifier might be a row of analogue inputs, they now frequently include a selection of digital inputs too. 

This is all very well and good but it doesn’t necessarily answer how you are going to get a signal to that digital board. Connecting a TV is easy enough but a decent streaming interface is more of a challenge. Sure, you can connect a laptop, phone or tablet to a USB connection but that makes using it for anything else more of a challenge. You can also buy a standalone streamer but these tend to have decoding on board as well, meaning you are paying for this twice over.

The Volumio Rivo is a possible solution to this. It looks like a normal(ish) streamer but it is a streaming transport designed to combine a streaming interface with a set of digital outputs that can connect directly to the input board of an amplifier (or a standalone DAC) and avoid doubling up on things. This sounds like a very useful bit of kit indeed but it will depend on the Rivo being a pleasure to use and possessing all the features you might need so we’ll need to crack on and see if it is any good.

Availability

The Rivo is available from Volumio in a direct sales model. At the time of writing (early September 2024) it is available in the UK for £849. This does fluctuate slightly but not excessively so. In the US it is available for $1,049 while in Australia it is $1,799. 

Something that should be factored in when considering the cost of the Rivo is that the price includes premium access to the Volumio streaming platform. This includes bells and whistles that the company will usually charge you for otherwise and makes using Volumio on multiple devices (which can be things like Raspberry Pi based and rather less costly than the Rivo) which makes multiroom systems easier to assemble. 

Design 

• Compact metal casework 
• Different finish options 
• No remote, app only 

The Rivo is closely related to the Primo streamer which also includes a DAC in its chassis. This is 270 mm wide which is a little bit wider than the ‘half width’ of 215 mm but still considerably smaller than a full width component. 

The chassis is made of metal and feels reasonably substantial although there are some oddities to this. The outer casework is separate from the front and rear panels and this means there is a very noticeable gap around the edges of the panels, which means that when viewed from head on, you can see straight through the unit. It has no effect on performance at all but it feels a bit incongruous at the price. 

The review sample in the pictures is the black limited edition version of the Rivo and this is sold in addition to the grey, blue and orange casework that appeared originally. I think that the black is rather more subtle and will blend in with other components better but the brighter colours flatter the industrial design more. 

One thing that neither finish has is much in the way of physical controls. The only action you can do in physical contact with the Rivo is turn it on and off. In every other aspect of control, the only option is the app. As I’ll cover, this is not a bad thing as the app is rather good but it does mean that there is no means of quickly stopping the Rivo save for turning it off which is something that some other streaming rivals don’t suffer from, having either a physical remote or controls (or indeed sometimes both). This does also mean though that if you don’t want to have the Rivo out on display, there is absolutely no need to have a line of sight to it. 

Features

• USB, AES and coaxial outputs- no optical 
• Premium Volumio subscription included 
• AirPlay, Connect functionality and Roon support 

The Rivo has a pretty straightforward back panel because there are only digital outputs on it. The Rivo has a USB audio output that will send files up to 768kHz for PCM and DSD256. This is supported by an AES balanced digital output and an unbalanced RCA coaxial out, both of which will support PCM to 24/192kHz but will not handle DSD via this connection. 

This is sufficient connectivity to get the Volumio up and running in most systems but it is a little annoying that the Motivo (which has its own decoding on board too) has an optical and an i2s connection as well, which would have been welcome on the Rivo too. 

As well as the audio outputs, there are other connections too. The Rivo has USB inputs for directly attaching drives and can also output a display to a TV over its own HDMI ARC connection. This is a nice idea and it looks rather smart but I found the performance of the Rivo did slow down somewhat when using it. 

The Rivo runs the premium tier of the Volumio software platform and this is no bad thing. Volumio has been working on their software for a number of years and the result is a platform that covers all of the basics we should expect; it is stable, flexible and easy to use. As well as being able to access your locally stored content and render it in a way that is logical and easy to access.  This is supported by access to Spotify, Tidal and Qobuz, backed up with a (very good) internet radio platform.

The premium tier of Volumio also adds some interesting bells and whistles. It can handle your CD ripping and also use a USB CD drive to play CDs directly which may or may not be useful depending on whether you have had any dealings with optical discs. Potentially of more interest is an AI enhanced search function that attempts to bring material to your attention based on your existing listening preferences. As already noted, this is in addition to simplified multi-room use with more than one Volumio device. 

Something that is potentially useful for the future is that you aren’t limited to Volumio’s own software either. Spotify and Tidal users can access the Rivo via the respective Connect options in those services and AirPlay is also supported. The Rivo can also be used as a Roon endpoint via the Roon software which allows it to join a larger ecosystem of devices and work seamlessly with all of them… so long as you are willing to stump up for Roon’s fairly hefty subscription costs. 

Performance

• Will not fundamentally alter the presentation of your existing system
• Able to get the best from your decoding 
• Very effective over the coaxial outputs 

At its heart, the Rivo is an entirely digital device. It doesn’t decode anything or seek to alter the digital signal (unless you ask it to) so the absolute effect that it’s going to have on your system is going to be more limited than changing the speakers, for example. It also means that if you aren’t necessarily happy with the balance of your system, the Volumio is not really going to do anything to change that. 

With this being said, the Rivo does have small effects on the performance of the equipment here. I usually test USB audio inputs with the signal from a Roon Nucleus; a dedicated computer that runs the Roon operating system. It’s a good quality piece of hardware… but the Volumio still has an edge over it (and maintains that edge when it is running via Roon too). Listen to Arab Strap’s astonishingly bleak Fable of the Urban Fox  the single guitar that begins the track is more distinct and as the track builds to its grim finale (spoiler; it doesn’t go well for the foxes), the separation and three dimensionality of the track is genuinely impressive. 

Of course, there is one setting that may well make a considerable difference depending on the digital decoding you are using with the Rivo. The Volumio is able to upsample the digital signal it is sending to the DAC and, with the Chord Electronics Qutest I used for partnering the Rivo, this boost to the sample rate improves the perception of space and airiness around the live version of Bloc Party’s So Here We Are that really brings out the perception of the venue and helps to suspend your disbelief that you are listening to electronics and pulls you closer to the live performance itself. 

There’s one other useful feature here too. While I suspect that most Rivos will be used via the USB connection, if you don’t have one of these on your system, the performance via the coaxial output is extremely good too. Yes, some of the more exotic sample rates aren’t supported via this connection but it’s enough to cover anything that Tidal and Qobuz can do and would allow older devices that might not have USB to be equipped with a modern and very capable streaming front end.

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