Recent arrivals in the network audio arena have followed a familiar path: a lesser-known brand delivering a product promising performance to challenge the established big-name players in this field. The likes of Eversolo, HiFi Rose, and WiiM are among these ‘disruptors’, and as you may have seen in these pages in recent months, companies such as Auralic and Lumin seem to be responding to these new challenges with models such as the Auralic Vega S1 reviewed last month.

Volumio is somewhat different: it’s not making its products in China, Korea or other points East, and it dates back to 2013, when it started as a hobby of founder Michelangelo Guarise. It began its business first making an app, then developing it into a software package, currently available for installation on Windows PCs and the Raspberry Pi DIY computers. Its first hardware product was the Primo network player, in 2018; the latest is the one we have here, the Motivo.

As the product-naming might suggest, Volumio is Italian, based in Florence, and unusually in today’s hi-fi market, that’s where its products are all handmade, with a serious dose of Italian design flair. The Primo is still in the catalogue, with its minimalist design, having been joined by the Rivo network transport for use with external DACs, and the Integro, an all-in-one streaming amplifier. The existing products, while compact, have followed conventional audio separates proportions, being wide and slim.

The Motivo, however, is different. Selling for £1799, it’s a square – just under 20cm on each side, and 5.4cm tall – slanted tabletop device, complete with an 8in touchscreen display, and can function as a streamer, a network transport and a headphone amplifier. What’s more, and despite those Italian-styled ‘lifestyle’ looks, it can be upgraded with the addition of Volumio’s £399 Lineo5 power supply, designed to be used with all the company’s streamers as well as other products accepting a 5V/5A supply. More on that later.

And there’s nothing basic about the specification here: as well as streaming from network libraries, and USB storage connected to it directly, the Motivo works with services including Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal/Tidal Connect, YouTube, Bandcamp, Pandora and Fusion DSP, is also Roon-ready, and offers internet radio. Wireless services include Apple Airplay, Sonos and Google Cast, High Res Audio and Bluetooth 5.0, and it can handle audio files at up to PCM 384kHz/24bit and DSD256 thanks to its ESS Sabre digital-to-analogue converter, mounted in a custom-made digital section, and feeding both standard RCA-type and XLR balanced connections fed by an analogue output stage. This can be run at line-level into a conventional amplifier, or with variable level direct into power amplification of active speakers, and the balanced output is achieved using supplied adapters plugged into rear terminals also doubling as headphone outputs, the headphone function being driven by a dedicated amplifier from Texas, with separate outputs for high- and low-impedance headphones.

When used as a transport into an offboard digital-to-analogue converters, the Motivo can deliver digital data via optical and coaxial ports, one of its two USB-Type A connectors, and an I2S link to DACs providing this ultra-high-quality connection. This uses an HDMI-type port, but since different companies use various configurations of the pins within this link, the Motivo lets you select the brand of your I2S DAC on a pull-down menu, and will then adjust its output accordingly. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only transport offering so wide a range of these configurations. The transport implementation is an enhanced version of that found in Volumio’s Rivo unit, and uses dedicated reclocking, galvanic isolation and separate PSU rails for each digital output.

That’s just about all the bases covered, but you can also connect a USB optical disc drive to the Motivo, and either play CDs or rip them to connected storage, while choosing the music to play involves the familiar swipe and tap motions either on the display screen, Volumio’s excellent app, or even via a web-browser screen. One feature of which Volumio is very proud is its AI-driven system, which allows the user to tell the Motivo what they want to listen to, and have the unit create a customised playlist to ‘take you off on a musical tangent’. It’s very clever, and works well with song-based popular music, but I have my doubts how useful it will be to classical listeners.

The Motivo is powered by a computer-type plug-top supply, connecting via a coaxial socket on the player’s rear; as already mentioned, the Lineo5 can be substituted here, and does bring a worthwhile increase in clarity to the sound – not that the ‘standard’ configuration is lacking in any way. It’s just that the Lineo5 brings a little extra finesse to what’s already an exceptional product, combining those ‘lifestyle’ looks with an extremely impressive sound.

Performance

Whether used in a system as a network player, or on a desktop driving headphones, the Motivo is a delight. From new it sets itself up quickly and simply, including the near-inevitable automatic update, and after that it just works, streaming music without problems, and offering the kind of swipe and tap operation familiar to any smartphone or tablet user. The display is big and clear, its clarity matched by the partnering app, and that makes browsing and playing music a pleasure.

Playing the Mahler Academy Orchestra’s recording of the Ninth Symphony ‘on period instruments’, the degree of insight offered by the Volumio allows the experience of the unusual sound of familiar music to be appreciated fully, while the dynamic ability and bass weight is striking right from the off, the instrumental lines still readily apparent even in the large-scale orchestral passages. What’s more, this combination of warmth and resolution suits well the fine Pentatone recording of solo piano on Charlotte Hu’s ‘Metamorphosis’ recital of Liszt: there’s excellent definition, and a percussive sense of the strings being struck, while the ambience around the instrument is revealed impressively.

Neither does the Volumio need brand-new state of the art recordings to be heard at its best: with the vintage archive material on Somm’s two-album set marking Holst’s 150th birthday, including Savitri and – of course – The Planets, the player’s combination of warmth and detail proves a captivating experience. Mind you, it also relishes the latest volume of the BBC Philharmonic’s survey of Eric Coates under John Wilson, capturing all the romance of the Four Centuries Suite with a sound combining nostalgia with exceptional recorded dynamics in the great swell of the Valse.

This is a fine addition to the choice of network players on the market: it looks different enough to appeal to those discouraged by bland black boxes, is simple to use, and yet delivers performance to challenge the best at and around its price, and in some style.

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