Network Audio Players/Servers

Most network bridge devices we've tested over the last few years – including Aurender's W20SE [HFN Mar '23], Grimm Audio's MU1 [HFN Dec '20], the Innuos Statement [HFN Jan '20], Auralic Sirius G2.1 [HFN Oct '22] and Antipodes Oladra [HFN Aug '23] – have fallen firmly into the 'high-end' category. Volumio's Rivo is, by contrast, a more compact and affordable transcoding/signal conditioning unit running custom software but fed from an outboard 'wall wart' PSU. In practice, the Rivo's data reclocking/buffering yields generally positive results although its jitter suppression via either galvanically-isolated USB or S/PDIF outputs is not quite to the level achieved by those far costlier hardware solutions with – crucially – their upmarket onboard PSUs.

Tested in as 'straight' a mode as possible via a local SSD/USB drive (Volume Normalisation, Mixer and Resampling all set to 'Off'), the Rivo's boost to performance was inferred via several outboard DACs including iFi Audio's NEO iDSD [HFN Mar '21], Mytek's Brooklyn [HFN Aug '17] and the dCS Vivaldi APEX [HFN Jun '22]. AudioQuest's budget DragonFly [HFN Mar '14] – a USB hub-powered DAC – provides a good indication of incoming data integrity and noise on the +5V supply, and here the Rivo halved the 300psec jitter seen via a standard PC USB source to 135psec (<100psec is possible). Circulating interference/noise was also squeezed [see Graph 1, below], boosting the DragonFly's A-wtd S/N from a sub-16-bit 94dB to a 17-bit 103.7dB.

Similarly, the repeating ±33/66Hz/99Hz sidebands seen from iFi Audio's NEO iDSD were reduced from 550psec to just 18psec (<5psec is possible) via the Rivo [see Graph 2]. Furthermore, with the Rivo's 'Resampling' engaged (quality set to 'Very High'), jitter was almost unchanged at 19psec via USB but actually deteriorated to ~600psec via S/PDIF. Finally, both the dCS and Mytek DACs provide full galvanic isolation/onboard reclocking, so very little difference in their inherent ~10psec jitter was detected. As usual, budget DACs are the greater beneficiary. PM