The most revealing difference on revisiting the Rivo+ concerns something that is easy to praise and surprisingly difficult to get right: transients. We audiophiles have an understandable weakness for the leading edge. A struck piano key, a snare drum's crack, the initial bite of a guitar string or the sharp consonant at the beginning of a sung phrase can be wonderfully persuasive. Such events provide the punctuation of music, its sense of attack and forward motion. Get them right and a performance springs to life. Overemphasize them and the punctuation begins to look like the entire sentence. In my original listening, the Rivo+ sometimes seemed to arrive a fraction too early. Transients were sharply delineated, almost impatient as though the music had been asked to put its consonants in bold type. There was admirable precision but occasionally a little too much separation between the initial impact and harmonic body that follows. On recordings already inclined toward brightness, that extra insistence could become a touch of hardness. The initial strike stood apart from the tone it was supposed to initiate. It was not grossly aggressive. It was more subtle than that; a tiny displacement of emphasis, a slight tendency for the attack to announce itself before the instrument had fully arrived. Returning to the Rivo+ with Volumio 4, I find this aspect of its presentation more convincing. The attack no longer seems to jump the gun. Transients integrate better into the harmonic event, their edges belong to the sound rather than sit on top of it. A piano note begins with definition but continues into the wooden resonance of its body. A guitar string has its pluck, yes—but the pluck no longer is a separate little object placed in front of the note. A snare retains its crack without leaving a hard afterimage on the ear.
Most importantly, the transient now seems to happen at the right time. I do not mean that the Rivo+ has become slower or less explicit. Quite the opposite. The rhythmic message which was always a strength remains clear and the attack is still easy to follow. What changed is the relationship between attack and what follows. The leading edge feels less detached from the harmonic envelope, less like a spotlight and more like the first glint of light spreading across a moving surface. This is the sort of difference that can be difficult to capture in a measurement-free listening account. I cannot establish from listening alone which internal software changes might account for it nor would I claim that a firmware revision necessarily changes the digital signal's timing in a measurable way. What I can report is the perceptual result in my system: less transient insistence, less occasional edge and a more continuous relationship between attack, tone and decay. For me that is a meaningful improvement. Music is not a procession of isolated beginnings. It is a chain of events whose meaning depends on the relationships between them. A good streamer should preserve those relationships rather than draw attention to the seams.
These minute timing improvements delivered across a varied collection of recordings. Beautifully engineered acoustic performances now offered all the transient information one could want without becoming a demonstration of transient information. Conversely, mediocre recordings were not made artificially comfortable by sanding off their roughness. To my ears, the revised Rivo+ seems less likely to add its own sharp pencil marks to the recording's existing character. What is on the disc—or in the stream—has more opportunity to speak for itself. That for me is the more important sonic development. The Rivo+ has not abandoned precision in pursuit of mellowness. It has become less mannered about precision. As a result I found the revitalized Rivo+ able to better recreate instrumental tone while keeping its superb clarity and resolution. Maybe it's all in my head but if you told me that I had to downsize my system, give up the Lumin U2 and only use the Rivo+, I'd be fine. The U2 is still more organic sounding and polished, banishing the very last hint of digital sheen that still lingers with the Rivo+ but the difference is often so small that on most recordings it no longer matters. Like with everything else lately, the price of Rivo+ with its linear power supply has risen to $2'200 since my review and the market has not stood still. At this level, buyers can find transports with more elaborate interfaces, displays, storage options or different connectivity priorities. The Rivo+ will not win every comparison on specification count; nor is it trying to.
Its argument is one of concentration. It is a dedicated transport with serious connectivity, a mature software ecosystem and a sound that, in combination with the Lineo5, remains compelling against more expensive alternatives. The purchase is not trivial, especially once the external power supply includes. But neither is the performance. The price increase deserves to be acknowledged rather than wished away. What makes the revised package easier to recommend is that the everyday experience now better supports the investment. One is no longer paying for a capable transport while accepting a few unnecessary reminders of its unfinished edges. One is buying a complete musical tool with sonic refinements thrown in for good measure. That distinction may not show up on a feature comparison chart. It shows up over an evening when the playlist behaves, the interface stays out of the way, nothing inadvertently freezes and the music flows from one track into the next without a small technical interruption breaking the spell—and with no fatigue setting in. My original review was highly complimentary but stopped short of enthusiastic because the Rivo+ was musically persuasive but not quite polished enough in use. Volumio 4 has shifted that balance. The software is more composed and the sound I hear has a more natural relationship between transient attack and harmonic substance. The leading edge now belongs to the note rather than arriving as a separate announcement. That is enough to evolve my verdict. The Volumio Rivo+ with the Lineo5 combines open, resolved and superbly dynamic sound with now fully mature operational excellence. It hasn't become flawless or invincible but the little things that once stood between its considerable qualities and my unreserved recommendation have finally receded. The Rivo+ now lets the music take the lead—and knows when to follow.
