Burned Pecan Pi
Ok , based on positive reviews I bought a Pecan Pi streamer from Orchard Audio. Let me start by stating that I am probably the least tech savvy person on earth, I want to say that upfront. Took a few days to figure out, but got it working with my Tidal account and the Volumio software loaded onto the unit by Orchard. Worked fine for about a month. Then one day my girlfriend went to listen to a song, and,nothing… no sound. No indication on the Volumio app on my iPhone that anything was wrong. It appeared to be playing as usual. First I went through all of the Settings in the Volumio app and found nothing amiss. We had not changed or altered anything. I sent an email to Volumio and got a response telling me to read their FAQ page. ?? Of course there was nothing relevant to my situation to be found there. After a few more attempts to get help from Volumio it became clear they did not give a s**t and I was on my own. Frustrated, I closed my Volumio account (paid yearly, $40). We opened a new Volumio account and it fired right up! Played for about six weeks just fine. Then one night went to listen, and… nothing. Repeat above nonsense with Volumio CS and finally shut down my account again. Opened a new account (another $40 ), and again it fired right up, no problem. Take a wild guess what happened about a month later?! This time I Got Leo ( the owner) from Orchard on the phone and he had no answers. Sent a fervent email to Davide at Volumio literally begging for any help. He responded saying that they could not offer ANY help because,he stated “If you are using Orchard product we cannot support relative bugs and issues. Orchard uses unofficially Volumio OS and could not be full support on the latest version. They have their own motherboard and dac, so please refer to them for any incompatibility. Just to be more clear- Orchard uses the Volumio software without any kind of test and approval by our side. It’s not officially supported, it’s 3rd parties, and we cannot take care of something misused, you know” I literally could not believe this response, so I forwarded it to Leo at Orchard. His response to Davide at Volumio : “I do not understand your stance with my customer. I do not do anything special with Vol and I do not customize it. It is the standard image directly from your website running on a Rpi3B or 3B+ ; I don’t see a reason you are not able to support the customer. My DAC uses your fully supported 12S RPI-DAC overlay. Your comments to my customer about me not using fully supported hardware is not true”
Absolutely no response from Davide at Volumio. I sent one last email to Vol stating that as a paying customer this was completely unacceptable and demanding to hear from someone other than Davide. Shockingly, crickets. Don’t know what to do at this point. Haven’t asked but I highly doubt Leo at Orchard will take the unit back for a refund. Wanted everyone on this forum to know what a joke Orchard Audio and Volumio are, and to relay my experience. Please let me know if you have any advice; I am open to suggestions. I refuse to shut down my Vol account yet again and continue with this game.
Thanks for the knowledge, I can only imagine how frustrated you must feel. If it were me ( and im just guessing you have a hifi system) I would purchase a proper streamer one from the likes of Aurender or Naim or Marantz, then I would stream from one of the major services one that has a large selection. It dosent take that much to be really happy in the digital realm. Matt M
Matt M |
The volumio support forum was of no help? Since it's happening on a regular bases it might have to do with a billing cycle. If you payed by the month instead of annually does the same issue occur? You have an account that should follow you every time you reload you're software. Will Orchard sell you a new microSD card or show you how to load it on a new card? It may be a corrupt OS that Volumio can't automatically confirm and kills the account at their end. The Orchard is a good streamer but it's complicated especially for the non technical. |
miniDSP and Pro-Ject both ship with customized Volumio versions that play Tidal and Qobuz for free. I’ve never given Volumio a dime. You can play both subscription services over the free version using BubbleUPnP first. Try piCore player if you have access to the card. It’s Orchard’s device and they shouldn’t be expecting universal software to troubleshoot their designs. Good luck. I hope you have the volume set to fixed.
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Wow, thanks to those who have taken the time to respond. Makes me feel less stranded on an island. Didn’t know there was a Volumio support forum and will definitely look into it right now. Definitely going to look for something much easier to use. Does anyone know of a product that has the following features: 1. Very high quality streaming via Ethernet 2. ability to store streamed music 3. Excellent DAC 4. ability to rip and store CDs 5. compatible with Tidal and Qobuz and also Roon ready 6. under $ 3K Any suggestions greatly appreciated. New would be great but will consider something used. |
While I have not used Orchard- even though I was tempted- I ran Volumio on a RPI 4 W/HIFIBERRY with great success streaming Tidal. In the year or so I used it I don’t believe I ever had a problem. With the touch screen I found it to be a very functional and cool Streamer. Startup was tough as I wasn’t that savvy. Hope you find success. |
@fishdoctor I think your issue is with Volumio and not Orchard Audio. I have a PecanPi and a Starkrimson stereo ultra and I am a very happy customer. Leo is always commutative and ready to help. I do not use Volumio though. I use Ropieee which works with Roon. I have had zero issues with Ropieee, Roon or Orchard Audio. I personally would not use Volumio because I don’t like their business model. The PecanPi supports different streaming methods. Perhaps you want to contact Leo to see what your streaming options are and dispute your Volumio charge with your credit card company. |
You don’t specify exactly how you are playing. It has been some problems recently with Volumio and Tidal Connect. It works for me when running the web interface or the Volumio app to play Tidal that way. The support forum has some information. You could try UpnP and some other app. I shortly tried mConnect and it worked but I don’t remember if I played Spotify or Tidal then. At the end of the day I think we will see a lot more software related issues since software becomes more and more important combined with the fact that old school audio companies may lack knowledge in this area and that it is hard to make combinations of systems work reliably over time. [Edit] Forgot to say that I use a RPi 4. |
@fishdoctor Call Andrew at Small Green Computer, he can set you up with everything you’re looking for for about $2,500 or so. He helped me, although I already had a ‘renderer,’ I still think he could meet your price point, and I know he has the equipment. |
With your budget, there are a lot of choices for streamer/DAC combinations. There are multiple threads here. Welcome to the world of streaming. It’s filled with lots of hardware/software interactions with manufacturers pointing fingers at each other. It’s hard to be the plug and play of a good CD player. |
I looked at the Pecan Pi web site and noted their player has several different software options. Besides Roon and Volumio, they also offer it with piCorePlayer and MoOde Audio software. I don't have a Pecan Pi, but have been using a Raspberry Pi player with the piCorePlayer OS for a couple of years now with no problems whatsoever. It handles both my local collection, internet radio, and my Qobuz subscription without problem. It is also free, though PCP does accept donations.
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I have the same set up as you. Volumio is a bit buggy at times. I haven't experienced anything that powering off and back on hasn't fixed. Seems geared to folks who know their way around basic programing. That's not most people. On another system I stream direct from qobuz via a chromecast audio which is much easier. Sonically the Orchard pecan pi delivers but I personally regret not spending another few hundred for better functionality. |
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Right on with piCore/LMS. It does art much better than Volumio and plays many more streams free. Sure there is a learning curve, BFD. I put it on my RasPi 3 and Allo right from the web site. With Orange Squeeze you can access multiple streamers with one app. Some manufacturers allow you to open and load any OS you want. Moode is not mobile friendly and quite buggy. You are spec ing an Innous Zen Mini. I would save the dough and get the Pi to work.
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Open source platforms can be frustrating The streaming journey can blur the lines of audio, home networks, PCs and servers +1 on the Small Green Computer recommendation, Andrew is a wealth of knowledge and has a great ability to break the layers of complexity into understandable bite sized pieces For 3k you will find a solution that is easy to use, reliable and with nice SQ Would separate the DAC and steamer if budget will allow In my experience the final streaming destination was worth the journey |
So I'm confident your issue is not with the PecanPi but with Tidal Connect. I have the same issue as you do, on my PecanPi, but also on my other Raspberry Pi's running Volumio. Tidal works fine on both systems if you use the Volumio app or control Volumio through the web interface. But if you try to play music through the Tidal app using Tidal Connect, then it will not play. I'm not sure if the issue is with Volumio or Tidal, but it can't be a hardware or implementation issue with Orchard Audio. |
@fishdoctor I just send you an email. I hope that helps. |
