High tier audio streaming with Volumio Motivo

Show video

volumio Motivo is a digital platform and a DAC  and also a headphone amp that we are going to talk   about today and it's this oddly shaped device as  you can see with a really big screen I'll turn it   on a little bit later and all of the connections  are located on the back there you can see that   we can connect it to network which can connect  USB devices and also there are several digital   outputs USB is one of them I2S Optical and coaxial  so you can feed the music over your network either   from your local storage your PC or Nas or some  streaming services like kobas tile Spotify   Etc and in case you're using this as a digital  streamer digital transport only you can output   digital signal from it there are also analog  outputs because there is a digital to analog   converter on board here so you have single-ended  RCA outputs and there are XLR balanced outputs   one interesting thing to note here is that xlrs  are not your standard male xlrs those are usually   used for output in this case female connectors  were used because they're combined XLR outs and   headphone outputs and when it come to headphones  you just connect 6.3 mm TRS connector one of these   is optimized for low impedance headphones the  other one for high impedance headphones and it   works as intended but if you use XLR balanced  outputs you have to use cables that come inside   the box with the device and they will have these  male XLR connectors on both ends which is just not   the case with usual interconnect cables so you  use these and you can connect this one to any   external integrated amplifier headphone amplifier  power amplifier Etc last thing to note is that   this one is powered with the external brick of 9  volts 4 amp dc and the power supply being external   means that you can upgrade it if you wish to do  so sometimes down the road now volumio Motivo   comes with volumio operating system and Volumio is  actually better known for its operating audio file   operating system that can be loaded on anything  that is for example Raspberry Pi based any   streamer based on Raspberry Pi like Pi 2 design  Mercury or Pi 2 as or a Holo audio red etc etc   also many Alo streamers that I've reviewed here  on this channel and used personally if you wish to   do so so you can load Volumio operating system on  those but recently Volumio started offering their   dedicated Hardware that is preloaded with volumio  premium operating system with all features and   abilities unlocked and I will not get into what  this system can do and cannot do that would be   like a whole different video and long review  by itself but I will quickly go through some   main features so you can use volumio operating  system in its native form basically browsing   through the user interface having your own music  library just playing songs from it also streaming   services kobas and tidle are natively integrated  into the system so you can mix songs from these   services and your local library and you can play  everything from the volumio user interface itself   and you can do all of that simply by using the  touch screen on the volumio which is big and   easily readable but as you can see the angle of  this streamer is a bit weird and I actually think   it's very convenient if you are using it as a part  of your desktop system but in case of a room Hi-Fi   setup when it's a few meters far from you you  don't really see the display at this angle very   well I don't really think that's a problem because  if you're sitting few meters away from the device   you're not going to use the touchcreen anyway  in that case you're using a control app on your   phone for example and everything is conveniently  used from there you have all of the same info and   the same UI just on your phone in your hand now  while on the topic of this UI and operating system   and controlling app I have to say this while in  general in the past I had really good experience   with Volumio and its reliability over several  of my streamers in just raspberry pies and also   previously with volumio Rivo this time around I  did experienced several glitches and bugs that   needs to be smoothed out and fixed for example  when a song plays and it ends and the next one   begins infos screen is stuck on the previous song  and that doesn't change until you personally click   on any other song in the queue only then will this  info screen unfreeze and keep showing you the the   real information also this happened several times  while I was browsing my music library and I want   to play a different album or a different playlist  and I clicked that play button queue that was   being played at the moment before my new Choice  clears but the new one doesn't start to play and   sometimes I only needed to repeat the play button  but in few occasions it just wouldn't accept any   play commands from any playlist and I would need  to restart the device I think that this is a very   new device and both software and Hardware will  probably be made to work better together with   a few updates that is unfortunately the reality  of more and more complex operating systems and   platforms that we are using for our music and  something similar happened for example with   Eversolo DMP A6 and A8 when I reviewed them  their user interface and their software was   lacking but with several updates it's now one of  the best softwares there is when it comes to music   streaming in my opinion and with volumio being  like software company first I really hope they   will smooth out these few bus and glitches with  future updates now just two pieces of information   before we continue to talk about its performance  and its sound volumio Motivo sells for €1750   but that price same as it was with rivo and all  volumio products includes worldwide shipping and   all the taxes and in some countries that might not  be too significant but for example for my country   Serbia taxes and Custom fees pile up to 30% of  the base value of the product so for me this   is personally very important and significantly  lower than if I would to order something from   company that lists you the price only and then  shipping and taxes and custom fees pile up to   like 30% more this is the end price that you as  a user pay to get this on your doorstep another   piece of info is that if you don't want to use  volumio operating system natively with its own   user interface you can connect to it several  different ways for example tidle connect Spotify   connect UPnP or DLNA connection from a thirdparty  software and also Roon app that is supported this   is Roon ready device but at the moment of this  review it's not certified yet because run certif   ification process is several months long but it  will come for sure now let's talk [Music] sound   I started using motiv as a digital platform only  using its digital outputs to feed my external DAC   and I have to say that in that case I really liked  its sound now in one way it's very revealing and   open and there is plenty of detailing and that  goes across the frequency spectrum but I was   especially surprised at how informative it sounds  in the mid-range and there's lots of inner tone   textures there tiny stuff happening small small  details from the recording but at the same time   nothing is ever edgy and there is pretty great  naturalness to the sound also dynamics of the   sound are great it's quick it's Lively it's  it's fastpaced but once again like many other   devices that can achieve that but by being a bit  overly lean and thin in the Baseline which gives   the perception of great detailing in the upper  frequencies that's not the case with Motivo it's   just quick Nimble really fastpaced but tones  do have boldness they do have weight that goes   equally for the Baseline for the mid base but  also mid-range for example I listen to some of   my favorite vocals and they do sound big and bold  and chasty while at the same time those vocals   having that great tonal harmonic richness and  that voice texture and sandiness and everything   that a real vocal can have lastly sound staging is  great Motivo and its digital outputs creates big   wide and tall Sound Stage and it's just a very  engaging listen very clear and informative but   also very natural and also even bold sounding and  to assess its qualities I quickly compared it to   First volumio Rivo from the same company this is  just a digital platform digital streamer without a   DAC without a headphone amp we'll talk about those  in Motivo later but it comes at half the price and   the volumio states that Motivo has the basically  same digital section as Rivo but slightly improved   and I would say that's easily noticeable I compare  them directly next to each other and first of all   Rivo is itself a fantastic digital streamer with  great detail retrieval yet come a natural kind of   sound big Sound Stage but Motivo is doing all  of that slightly better tones are a bit more   energetic and palpable Sound Stage is touch wider  and there's even a bit more information especially   in that mid-range that I raved about just now  and yes in terms of value in terms of price to   Performance ratio Rivo is probably better because  it costs half the price but it offers like I don't   know 85 90% and these are just very personal  numbers that I'm pulling out of my because there   are no objective ways to put numbers to sound  and to what you hear but to put it simply Motivo   sounds every bit as good as Rivo and then some and  I'll compare it to Eversolo DMP A8 like everything   they offer a little bit later for now let's move  to the analog outputs of volumio [Music] Motivo   the DAC section uses saber DAC chip but it also  follows the sound of the digital section quite   well there's a great detail retrieval but there's  also quite good naturalness to the sound and   detail retrieval mostly comes from the mid-range  and it's not intrusive not sharp not edgy even   though you might expect that from a saber it's not  it's not just a DAC chip it's everything around   it and with Motivo here they did a great job of  utilizing that DAC chip to its full potential I   believe because it does sound truly revealing and  there just very little to complain about the sound   of the analog output and if you would like to  improve the DAC section of the volium Motivo with   your external DAC you should know that you cannot  simply do that by drawing even like a slightly   above $1,000 us for something like Denafrips  15th which is a great DAC or gustard r26 you   would get sound that's different with gustard for  example it would be bigger deeper and Bolder but   in terms of resolution and information retrieval  it would actually be slightly less revealing than   what Motivo is doing then a Frip series 15th is  similarly revealing of details and tone textures   it has a bit slower but warmer Baseline than  Motivo and also slightly more extended and more   zingy Highs but at the same time it sounds a  bit colder and to really and truly make that   upgrade and not not just a side grade and don't  get me wrong side grades can be okay if you look   for a specific kind of sound but to make a true  upgrade in performance in every way I had to use   Laiv Harmony DAC which just sounded bigger more  palpable more spacious than Motivo and had more   inner tone texture but that's a DAC that's $2700  what I want to say with this is that internal da   conversion in the Motivo is of a really high  quality and you should never think of it as   an afterthought if you buy Motivo I suggest  you use its internal DAC and this leads me to   a comparison with Eversolo d mp8 i compare them  head to head and they're quite similarly priced   the mpa 8 is slightly more expensive and that  price doesn't include worldwide shipping and   taxes covered so it it is more expensive and  I like the look and the feel of the mp8 it's   bigger it looks more authorative it looks more  like a proper Hi-Fi component and also the mp8   has richer connectivity and richer feature set  so you think about that and do you need any of   those things that A8 has and Motivo doesn't you  can always see that for yourself but now I'll   talk about their sonic performance and Sonic  differences so when I compare them directly   and they firstly started using them as digital  transport using their digital inputs the same   ones of course when I compare them going to a  same Standalone DAC I noticed that Motivo does   sound better now dm8 is itself a very good digital  streamer and and I do think it's slightly better   than Rivo that I mentioned previously it's  a bit more Dynamic Punchy and has slightly   wider Sound Stage but Motivo is even slightly  better than that it stretches that Sound Stage   width even further and the tones inside of  it appear to be bolder and richer within our   tone texture so in a direct comparison DMP  A8 appears to be just a bit more analytic   and less full and less Rich than Motivo here it's  not a huge difference by any means it's actually   very very close in many decent Hi-Fi setups you  would have difficulty to notice the difference   but given that the system is transparent enough  and can convey that Motivo does have a small   Advantage when it comes to Sonics then moving  to the DAC sections and the analog outputs   the Gap is basically the same Eversolo here has a  pretty good DAC section it's based on the akm chip   and it's it's a really good performer there is  nothing wrong with it it sounds natural it sounds   revealing it also doesn't suffer from some nasty  digital kind of sound characteristics it's just   a really good sounding DAC but once again like  with the digital outputs Motivo offers slight   slightly more lifelike slightly Bolder and filled  with more harmonic richness with more inner tone   texture tones than Eversolo and Eversolo in a  direct comparison once again sounds slightly   thinner and just slightly more analytical even  though in isolation it doesn't sound like that   at all simply motiv is slightly better [Music]  sounding finally let's talk about the headphone   amplifier because Motivo has one integrated too  and what I noticed when I connected several of   my headphones first of all it doesn't wield some  sort of really high power but it's decent enough   I tried several headphones some of them are  not so sensitive for example Verum 2 and I   was always having enough power but regarding the  tonal character it's slightly different than the   DAC output section because headphone output  actually has some pleasant warmth and Baseline   heaviness and heftiness added and that's not  much it's not creating some base head kind   of tonality on this headphone output but you  do notice it and I actually quite liked that   kind of tonality tuning for headphones like  vrm2 or highin for example because they do   have that very revealing very neutral kind of  linear kind of tonality and a little bit of   Base wared makes them quite enjoyable to listen  to detail retrieval in absolute terms is good I   didn't feel like I missing anything speed and  quickness of transient response is also good   and just the feeling of the Sound Stage around  me the spaciousness around me was not lacking   I expected maybe because this is a fairly  compact form factor headphone amplifier will   have to suffer and that might be an afterthought  but I didn't notice anything like that even the   Sound Stage and spaciousness was quite decent so I  wanted to quickly compare it to several Standalone   headphone amplifier to see where it's set and for  that I first started with topping L70 and topping   L70 appears to be slightly more analytical and  focused a bit more on higher frequency detailing   but it also does sound drer and a bit more  congested compared to motiva internal headphone   amplifier and even though L70 did have more power  if you need drive if you have really inefficient   headphones that headphone amp will perform better  that said if your headphones can be driven well   with the Motivo internal head amp like basically  all of mine could I did prefer motiva sound   signature a bit warmth a bit of calmness and just  being a bit more laidback but even more spacious   than the topping less tense less congested brought  win for internal Motivo zamp and then I moved to   topping a70 and that's where internal Motivo  zamp was stopped because a70 Pro Sounds really   authorative in the Baseline but it has more detail  retrieval it has more open mid-range and Highs   transients are quicker snappier and drive and  punch are simply better so to be quick here that   amplifier did sound better than what Motivo packs  inside but that's a bigger more powerful external   headphone amplifier and it's really good one so  that puts motiva's internal head amp somewhere in   between L70 and a70 pro performance which is for a  integrated headphone amplifier in a device that is   a fantastic digital platform it's a fantastic DAC  and it's a very very good headphone amplifier all   in one and considering the level of performance  on all of these outputs I think that its price is   very competitive and when that software gets  polished just a bit more it will be an easy   recommendation at this price point and that's  all I hope you like the video see you next time [Music]

2024-09-08

Show video