At the end of last year, I am glad I have some good try out on some well known brands on media streamer or player. Searching for a good player has been going on for me ever since I started with Hifi back in 2007. Most obvious to start will be a simple laptop connected to a DAC. From a windows based laptop to Apple MAC and even some try on Linux operating systems. During the early days of streamer or digital playback is mostly proprietary O/S. As times past, Android has become the dominant O/S in almost anything "SMART". 😄 No pun intended. There is always some kind of limitation on the file format, or compatible DAC, or it can as simple as O/S limitation. It was long journey for users like myself and some good manufacturer of this wonderful players keep going to better of the audio and of course for easier use.
By chance or not, I came across this group of hifi enthusiasts from Italy and the start of sharing on ideas and time to design a simple O/S for the aim of best of class in audio quality and also needs to be simple enough for the "IDIOTS" like me. It was year 2009 which I participated with this very fun groups of people in working out a platform which is known today as "Volumio". During the early days, the O/S is based very on single board computers which is deem to be the most simple and simple is good to have the very least of any kind of interference or disruption to the audio. After years of development and contribution from many members in the group which it grows to the current Volumio 3. It has been a long journey of 15 years to come to this. I am really happy that a free O/S can come such a long way. That is right, I have been in using Volumio for past 15 years since version 1. I can tell you is a lot of pain to even use it properly in the early days with limited hardware support, and software bugs and so on. The list goes on like forever. Around year 2016, Asus launch its first single board computer which is the Tinker board. It has all the power which rival any single board computer. Later around 2019 it launch the upgraded version of Tinker board S which I have been using since 2019. I have always been on a lookout of what can be something more.
I was quite lucky to have the chance to try out some of the really amazing player which was recently launch few months back. Starting of with Eversolo A6 than A8, follow by Fiio R7 and finally the high end player of Lumin U2. To be fair, Everysolo and Fiio is not a pure player but a player with DAC and other functions. The Lumin U2 is pure player and nothing else. Just like the Asus Tinker board I am using which is a pure player only. There are 2 critical component of any player. The first being the apps as it is the heart of the control for any of the mention players. A good apps will ensure nice experience of playback and navigating. Above all it need to be user friendly. The second critical piece of course will be playback compatibility either locally on files or streaming. Cannot deny that streaming is the main stream of users varying on different streaming platform. In my opinion, for local need is probably Spotify, Tidal and Apple. The very least any player should be able to cover this 3 streaming platforms. Although the dominant O/S for media players is the Android but can't ignore the many users of Apple around. The Airplay is almost something cannot be miss out in most devices.
Among the few players I have been given the chance to try out, I will rank it on the apps perspective as below:
1. Eversolo
2. Fiio
3. Lumin
Eversolo has the most intuitive apps among all the 3 brands. It covers all basis from user friendliness to practical functionality. Fiio is very simple which mostly rely on the mirror function which practically what is being displayed. Pretty much have all the needs but really is just a simple app. The lumin being at the bottom with the apps being stable which is a good thing but user friendliness is totally out of the window.
On playback compatibility will be rank as below:
1. Fiio R7
2. Eversolo A6 and A8.
3. Lumin U2
The Fiio is the winner here with its compatibility being the most versatile with its capability to play almost any kind of audio offline or online. Eversolo is pretty almost as close as Fiio with some downside of the files format support. Lumin at the bottom with only support of Tidal and Spotify with Apple support. Also the files format support is less than any of the 2 other players.
Of course what is an audio player of not comparing audio quality which rank as below:
1. Lumin U2
2. Eversolo A8
3. Fiio R7
4. Eversolo A6
With sound quality as the measurement, no doubt Lumin win over the Fiio and Eversolo. This are being compared with all units being output from its USB to Wadia DAC to be a fair comparison for them. Playback from local files like Wav or DSD, Lumin comes out ahead to the other players. Even from streaming perspective the Lumin do win over all the other players too. I think is fair enough to say with Lumin being the most high end players in this comparison, it is expected of Lumin to perform better.
Time to wrap up on the streamer / player topic from what is being try out last year. In conclusion, the android players do very well in serving the needs of many functions and features. The A6 and R7 probably is the most value for money with the units pack with all kinds of inputs and outputs. The software itself is like a box of candies. Its just full of goodies. The audio quality wise is definitely more than the average on most players with same price point of RM3,000 or so. The more expensive A8 is quite a big jump from the A6. Having a price tag of a little more than RM9,000 is not a small price. Definitely, for someone who is looking for full box of functions and audio quality is a good choice. Finally, the Lumin U2 with over RM20,000 price tag is really the big boy. I am sure there are many consideration for something of this price point and even more so to compare to similar price range unit.
On my personal journey of things, it is quite an ear opening or eye opening as well on how much things have change for streamer / player. Of course while trying out all the wonderful toys, naturally I am turning back to my own unit of Asus with Volumio as the O/S. In term of versatility of the player, Volumio is quite the clear winner among all. I have never came across an audio player that is able to play anything from an audio format. Digital is always the challenge with all kinds of format you can think of. Some might be more common than the other but there is always some odd ball around. When comes to GUI, the intuitive of the apps developed to Volumio is almost second to non. Even the Roon with its pretty nice GUI at most is the same as Volumio. The thing that Roon win over is the many hardware that adapt to it which makes Roon very successful and also making it quite costly. The comparison of Asus with the other players again with USB output to Wadia DAC is still the most all rounder with all kinds of genre being play. It can be rock, jazz, blues or pop, to disco. I am not sure about what other audio enthusiast will be listening to but for me, I will listen to almost anything under the sky. My personal preference is mostly rock or pop songs. Occasionally some electronic music with disco music too. I am confident to say at this moment, I haven't found something that is able to replace what I have still in the source player of digital. I am also lucky enough to listen to this little board on some very high end DAC with stellar price tag and I am surprised how good the outcome. Perhaps , my aim is not on the source player but should be on the look out of the next DAC.
