Getting
Started
Guide
Sit down & listen!
COLOFON
Version 1 dated April 5, 2015.
Supporting Volumio version 1.5.
Written by Sven Van Caekenberghe.
We reserve the right to change products or"
their features at any time without prior notice.
Consult http://audio359.eu for newer versions.
Copyright © 2015 Audio 359. All Rights Reserved.
Audio 359 is a commercial activity of Wolf 359 BVBA.
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Welcome to the world of Audio 359.
This short Getting Started Guide will help you set up
your Audio 359 Set One. In just a few steps you will
be enjoying high quality music playback.
Sit down & listen
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Table of contents
What’s in the boxes ? Unpacking
Assembling the stands
Connecting & positioning the speakers
Setting up the player/streamer
Accessing the interface
Playing an internet radio stream
Using Airplay
Using UPNP
Storing music on the player/streamer
Ripping CD’s
Acquiring HD audio
Using a NAS
Recommendations & Warning
Limitations
Safety guidelines
Warranty policy
Return policy
Troubleshooting & Support
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What’s in the boxes ?
Unpacking
Carefully unpack everything, taking care not to
damage the packaging. You should have received
one big box containing 3 boxes: one for the
speakers, one for the stands and one for the player/
streamer.
Make sure to double check that you received
everything as advertised. The included data sheet has
detailed listings of the contents of each box.
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Assembling the stands
The stands require assembly. Unpack all parts. There
should be 2 larger bottom plates, 2 smaller top
plates, 2 bigger vertical poles and 2 smaller vertical
poles. Next there are a number of plastic bags
containing screws and assorted items.
Locate the 8 flat top screws and use them to
assemble the top and bottom plates to the poles.
This will be easiest to do with the poles in a horizontal
position. Watch out to use the correct side of the
plates, there should be a provision for the screw to
sink a bit inside the plate. You might need to help
align all elements properly.
The spikes are optional. They help to isolate the
speakers from the floor and stand itself. We
recommend using both the bigger bottom spikes
and smaller top spikes. There are also little circular
pieces to help prevent the spikes from damaging
your floor. The spikes also make it easy to fix any
wobbling due to an uneven floor. !
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Connecting &
positioning
the speakers
Unpack the speakers and put them on the stands.
The heavier speaker is the left one, the lighter speaker
the right one. You will need the long, thick speaker
wire, the 3.5mm mini-jack to mini-jack audio cable
and the power cord, as well as the remote.
Thread the uncovered ends of the speaker wire into
the holes perpendicular to the speaker binding posts
on the back - you should loosen & fasten each screw
on the binding post as appropriate. Make sure the
red & black marked posts on the left & right speaker
correspond - the speaker wire has a lighter & darker
thread to help you with this.
The stands allow you to partially hide the speaker
cable by running it inside the main vertical pole.
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Before connecting the main power cable, double
check that the voltage selector is correct for your
situation. Put the main power switch from the O to
the I position.
When the front light on the left speaker is pulsating,
the system is in sleep mode where it uses very little
energy. Push the big knob to wake the system. You
can control the master volume turning the big knob.
The most convenient way to control your speakers is
by using the remote. Fix the battery of the remote to
get started. There are 4 buttons: volume up & down,
sleep/wake and mute/un-mute.
Test your speakers independent of the player/
streamer by connecting your smartphone or portable
music player using the 3.5mm mini-jack to mini-jack
audio cable.
Your speakers will sound great out of the box and will
get better over time. No need to do anything else
but listen to them, but give them at least 30 to 50
hours break-in time before doing any critical listening.
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You should try to create a perfect listening triangle,
but keep in mind that you have quite a margin to be
flexible.
Leave at least 2 meters between the left and the right
speaker (A). Keep the speakers away from the side (D)
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A
B
B
D D
C
C
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and back (B) walls. It is optimal to make them
equidistant. Do not put speaker in corners.
Angle the speakers inward just a bit. Your primary
listening position should be equally far from each
speaker (C). C should be greater than A, although
some people prefer them to be equal for a very wide
stereo field.
With the included speaker stands, you automatically
elevate the speakers to the optimal listening height.
The acoustics of your listening room will influence
sound quality as well. In general, some dampening to
reduce the echo in a hollow room is recommended.
Curtains, carpets, furniture, books or even decorative
objects can be used to this effect.!
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Setting up
the player/streamer
The smallest & lightest box contains the player/
streamer. Inside you will find the fully assembled unit
as well as a power supply and a power cable.
Always be careful when physically manipulating the
unit: the circuit boards are sensitive. Never touch the
electronics. When (un)plugging anything (in), don’t
use too much force. Be gentle, it will work in the end.
Use the 3.5mm mini-jack to mini-jack audio cable to
connect the audio input of the left speaker to the
audio output of the player/streamer. Note that there
are multiple connectors that look similar. You have to
use the 3.5mm mini-jack audio output of the top
circuit board, the HiFiBerry DAC+ (Digital to Analog
Converter).
The power supply is of the standard USB type.
Connect the power cable with the larger USB
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connector to the power supply. The other end of the
power cable has a MicroUSB connector that goes to
the power in MicroUSB connector of the unit (the
leftmost connector, just below the DAC’s audio out
connector).
The unit has no on/off switch. To turn it on, you just
plug it in. To turn it off, it is recommended, though
not strictly necessary, to use the interface to properly
shut down the operating system. Then you can
unplug it.
A home network is required to use the player/
streamer. Most people will use their a 2.4 GHz
compatible wireless network, but that is optional.
If you do not intend to use a wireless network, you do
not have to do any further configuration. Just connect
the standard RJ-45 Ethernet port to your network and
you are done.
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To start using the wireless network, you have to
configure the unit with your wireless network settings.
You do this by first making a temporary wired network
connection. Then you enter the name (SSID) and
WPA/WPA-2 Personal password of your wireless
network and save these settings.
After this you can power down the unit and
disconnect the wired network. The next time you
power up the unit, it should automatically connect to
your wireless network.
How to connect to the player/streamer’s interface is
described in the next section.!
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Accessing
the interface
The software running on the player/streamer is called
Volumio. The main interface to control the player/
streamer is presented through a web application. You
use any PC, tablet or smartphone that is on your local
network to connect to a special address.
http://volumio.local
http://volumio
Use the first address on Apple devices, the second on
Windows, Android and Linux devices.
The web interface is responsive, it adapts to different
screen sizes. The player/streamer is fully autonomous,
it can play back music completely on its own. You can
use the interface to start music using your phone,
check which song is playing half an hour later on your
computer and finally stop the music using your tablet.
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Let’s have a look at the main components of the
Volumio interface.
The playback tab is the default main view. It tells you
which song is playing and at what quality. The left
circular dial show you how far along the song is, the
right dial allows you to control the volume.
Conceptually you are always playing a playlist, which
you can see in the third tab. The first tab allows you to
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browse available music and add it to the playlist. Note
that there is a difference between adding a song to
the playlist and playing a song - playback can be
done from any song in the playlist. This allows you to
dynamically compose and manipulate a playlist.
In the following sections we will briefly discuss how to
use the different capabilities of the unit.
The top right menu contains advanced settings. Most
of them should not be changed. You can easily break
your player/streamer this way.
The last entry of the menu allows you to properly turn
off or reboot your unit. Just like with any computer,
doing a proper shutdown is recommended. Note
that you can safely let your unit run for days or weeks
on end, it consumes about 5 Watt.
We recommend to set the volume to 90% or 95%
and use the speaker’s remote to make further
corrections.
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To use a wireless network, we have to enter its
parameters.
Enter the exact name (SSID) and WPA/WPA-2
Personal password of your wireless network and save
these changes. The status information should confirm
that you are successfully connected to your wireless
network.
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Power down the unit and disconnect the wired
network. The next time you power up the unit, it
should automatically connect to your wireless
network.
Give the unit a couple of minutes to boot completely.
You should also see a little blue led inside the WiFi
dongle in the top USB slot of the unit.
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Playing an
internet radio stream
Probably the easiest thing to do is to use the player/
streamer to play back an internet radio station. A large
number of stations come predefined.
Go to the browse tab and select the web radio
category. A long list of stations will be shown. Note
that not all of them are guaranteed to work.
Try the one called LinnRadio - LinnJazz &
LinnClassical will do fine as well. This stream consists
of high quality audiophile recordings and sounds
quite impressive - especially given the fact that none
of the standard artificial sound manipulations of
popular radio are applied.
An easy way to add a radio stream is by locating its
PLS file and copying that over to the player streamer.
Let’s say we want to add BBC’s Radio 3.
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In the Wikipedia article on BBC Radio 3, https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_3, a number of
different streams are listed. One is called “Worldwide
stream URL (HTTP progressive, 128 Kbps MP3)” and
has an address that ends in .pls. If you click it, your
browser will most probably start playing the radio
stream. You’ll want to save it somewhere and name it
something like “bbc-radio3.pls”.
Next, use your computer’s file browser to look for
network volumes. You should see a Windows (SMB)
volume called volumio. Open it and go to the
WebRadio folder. In it you will see all the predefined
stations. Copy your .pls file in there.
Now you go to the library part of the settings menu
and click the Update Library button. After a while
your new internet radio station should appear in the
list next to the others.
You can also manually copy/edit the contents of a .pls
file to add a raw stream URL. You can read more
about the PLS file format at http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/PLS_(file_format)!
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Using Airplay
One of the most convenient ways to play music
through the system is by using Apple Airplay.
Take any Apple device, or the iTunes application on
Windows and look for Airplay audio output devices.
In the list of available devices you should see a new
one named volumio. Select it to stream audio to it.
Due to the nature of Airplay, the receiving device, in
this case our player/streamer, does not know which
song it is playing, or even that it is playing music from
an external source.
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Using UPNP
The player/streamer functions as a UPnP media
renderer that can play back music.
Use Windows Media Player’s Streaming menu to
enable access to a network device called volumio.
Now go to any song in your library and use its menu
to play it to volumio.
In the playback tab of the volumio interface you will
see the information of the song that is currently
playing.
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Storing music on
the player/streamer
The player/streamer comes with a factory installed,
removable 64 Gb USB 2 memory stick that can hold
at least 200 uncompressed albums. Storing music
locally on the player is the most stable and problem
free form of music playback since no networking or
other devices are involved.
Provided you already have digital audio files in a
supported format, like MP3, AAC, ALAC or FLAC, all
you need to do is copy them onto the USB stick.
You could theoretically copy the files over using the
fact that the unit exports its storage as a Windows
(SMB) mount over the network (smb://volumio).
This option is rather slow and not recommended for
copying large amounts of data. The faster solution is
to use the physical drive itself.
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Turn off the player and carefully remove the USB drive
(the very small USB device below the WiFi dongle).
Now put the drive in your computer and copy digital
audio files to it.
You can use any folder/directory structure you like.
The most common one being artist/performer/band
name at the first level and album name at the next
level.
Plug the drive back in and (re)boot the player. Go to
the library settings page and click the Update Library
button. After a while your new music should be visible
in the USB directory of your library.
For the player to recognise, order and display song
information requires proper tagging of the files. Note
that the actual filenames are unimportant if tagging is
done right. Essential tags are title, artist, album and
order info (track N of M). Currently, album artwork is
not used by the interface.!
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Ripping CD’s
Converting a music CD to digital audio files is called
ripping. We recommend converting your CD’s to a
non-compressed format such as FLAC or ALAC.
There are many programs that can help you with this
task. Take care that the proper meta information is
used to tag the files. Essential tags are title, artist,
album and order info (track N of M).
Some of the best programs use elaborate techniques
to get bit perfect copies of the data, bypassing the
error correction algorithm of CD’s, and comparing
your data with data signatures available on the
internet.
When you keep on having trouble ripping a specific
CD, it can help to try a different computer with a
radically different CD drive.
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Acquiring HD audio
CD quality music is technically defined as 44.1 kHz /
16 bit digital music. The Audio 359 player/streamer
with its advanced DAC can play back even higher
resolution digital music, up to 192 kHz / 32 bit
resolution.
You can buy HD Music from different internet stores.
A good place to start is HDtracks, one of the
pioneers in this niche.
http://www.hdtracks.com
When you open an account you can download a free
sampler. We highly recommend you do this to find
out for yourself how you experience the added
quality. A sensible next step is to buy one of your
favourite albums in HD quality and compare it to the
copy you know well.!
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Using a NAS
Many music lovers already have a large collection of
digital music carefully assembled over the year. As
long as you can offer this data over your network as a
standard Windows share (SMB), the player/streamer
is capable of accessing & playing it.
Open the library tab of the settings menu and click
the Add New Mount button under NAS mounts. You
will need the hostname or IP address of the file server
as well as the remote directory. You might need a
username and password, unless the NAS is publicly
accessible in which case you can leave those fields
blank. Give your new mount a nice name as well.
Click Save Mount and if all is well, the mount is
recognised and appears in the list under NAS
mounts.
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For example
Name: HD-Audio
Remote Address: 192.168.1.219
Remote Directory: sven/HD Audio
Will result in the following
NAS/HD-Audio //192.168.1.219/sven/HD Audio
Next an automatic update of your library will start. This
might take a while, after which your files will become
available for playback.!
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Recommendations
Here are some recommendations on how to use the
player/streamer in practice.
Playing music locally stored on the player is the most
stable and problem free form of music playback since
no networking or other devices are involved.
The Volumio software can do much more than what is
described in this guide. To learn more, visit
http://volumio.org
Warning
The Audio 359 Player/Streamer ships as a fully
assembled, configured & tested combination of
hardware and software that works as advertised. If you
change settings not described in this guide, you
break warranty and support. We will try to help you,
but we might no longer be able to fix the unit.!
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Limitations
The functionality described in this guide has been
tested to work well in practice. However, as an
evolving piece of software, there are some limitations
at the moment.
Browsing very large music collections can be slow at
times. Adding more organisational structure, more
levels, might help.
Anything that requires network access depends on
the quality of your network, both wired and wireless,
in particular streaming. Other heavy users on your
network, video streaming, file copying or backups,
might cause interference.!
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Safety guidelines
Here are some guidelines to maximise your safety
while using the system.
The Audio 359 Set One contains electrical/electronic
equipment that should be treated as such. Use it
indoor, keep it away from moisture and heat sources.
The player/streamer in particular, with its open &
accessible circuit boards, should be treated with care.
Never touch the inner components and be careful
manipulating it. In normal day to day use, there
should not be any problems though.!
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Warranty policy
We offer the standard European 2 year limited
warranty on defective parts or faulty workmanship.
The A5+ speakers come with an extended 3 year
warranty. Repair or replacement is free during the
warranty period, provided you ship the products back
to us, well packaged.
Contact us at hello@audio359.eu beforehand.
The warranty does not cover damage caused by
accident, misuse, abuse, neglect, excessive moisture,
lightning, power surges, other acts of nature,
unauthorised product modification or repairs, or
failure to follow the instructions outlined in the
documentation.
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Return policy
Any purchase made on the Audio 359 Store comes
with a 30 days, no questions asked, money back
guarantee. We feel we offer the sound, features, and
overall quality of systems priced much higher.
If you’re not completely satisfied contact us at
hello@audio359.eu within 30 days of delivery for
return instructions.
Return the product in its original packaging in likenew, undamaged condition with all included
accessories and we’ll give you a full refund of your
product purchase price.
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Troubleshooting
When the unit is not working properly, you can do
some basic checks and take some elementary
actions.
In case of trouble check all connections. Try to
determine whether the normal LED’s are on (steady
red power LED, steady green DAC LED when playing,
blue LED for Wifi activity). Rebooting the unit can fix
some problems.
When the browse library view does not contain what
you expect, do a library update.
Support
When you have a problem using the unit you can
contact us at hello@audio359.eu with your support
questions.
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