Volumio with Uniti Nova as DAC

I’m looking into Roon alternatives and am considering trying out Volumio:

I was wondering if it will allow me to use my Uniti Nova as a DAC through USB, does anyone here have experience running Volumio with Naim endpoints?

Thanks!
-lite

Nova does not support USB Audio only spdif. You could add an spdif board to the pi such as Allo DigiOne or any of the others out there. Ive tried Volumio it sucks in comparison to Roon or the Naim app.

Thanks for your input CrystalGipsy, what are in your experience the main shortcomings of Volumio compared to the others?

I found it all a bit slow, it’s runs on a pi so hardly surprising. I did not like the UI either as it’s free you can’t expect much in this area I suppose. I had pi’s with touchscreens and it would never work properly at all with those either. There are far better UPnP servers such as Asset or Minim. Streaming services except spotify are not covered unless you use their own cloud service which you pay for. I would never pay anything for the product it’s ok for free but not worth an outlay imo.

What’s the reason your looking at it, curious to know as you can get a far better experience with Asset or minim and the Naim app. It’s not alternative to Roon in any way either. If your looking for a cheap streamer to feed into an amp then fine, but you have a Nova which is high quality you don’t need Volumio at all.

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Thanks again Gipsy!

I was mainly considering it because i’m having a lot of issues with the Naim app and i don’t really like it’s interface either. I’ve been a UI designer/developer for close to 20 years now, and there’s just so much to be improved about the Naim app in my view that it really degrades the pleasure of browsing/listening to music. I also don’t like using a mobile device exclusively for navigation when i have a great laptop nearby with a keyboard and a large screen. I don’t understand why they didn’t make the interface browser-based for the newer generation of Unitis, it’s really a missed opportunity.

I’m using a NAS with FLAC’s, as well as Tidal and Spotify, so an integrated solution with a desktop app or web interface would be my goal. At this stage Roon just seems overpriced, although i’m sure it works great. I don’t have a dedicated Intel box here to run it so i would be looking at a close to 1000 pound/euro investment to get it working properly with a lifetime membership.

Personally I run Roon and nothing comes close to it in my opinion. It seems expensive but compared to most things in this hobby its not. But it depends on your setup. For me I have 6-7 zones nothing else can manage that so effortlessly from one interface and provide the rest of what Roon does. If you only have a Nova then perhaps look at Audivarna it can run as UPnP and it’s interface is not bad, not great but better than Volumio. It offers streaming services albiet not as integrated as Roon and its cheaper than Roon. I will say I could not get it to work well over UPnP but YMMV.

I hadn’t heard of Audivarna before, i will give that a spin as well, thanks!

I might still be interested in trying out Volumio as well. There are some affordable boards with HQ audio such as the Asus Tinkerboard S that should be more capable than the RPI, so that could solve the performance issue you had. But mainly also since Volumio is open source it means i would be able to completely tweak/change the UI, which for me would be perfect…

You can buy the new Rasberry Pi4 or Pi3b: no performance issues with them. For streaming Qobuz you can use mconnect app or bubble upnp: this apps support Qobuz and Tidal out of box and they see Volumio as upnp endpoint. For this functions you don’t even need MyVolumio subscription. Volumio can also act as endpoint for Audirvana and Roon (with few and easy console commands)

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