What is it with these brands nowadays? Calling their devices “special edition”, “signature edition”, “ultimate edition” or “reference grade”. All kinds of superlatives to indicate that they have come up with some kind of “super version” of a product? Well, to be honest, the shoe fits. It fits right into my alley. I see a great resemblance with gastronomy. If you visit a Michelinstar restaurant, the chef often presents you his “signature dish”. What does that mean? Plain and simple. It’s the best that he and his restaurant has to offer. The créme de la créme as they say in French. Or: the best of the best. Back to our world of audio and video. When a manufacturer calls its product the “signature edition”, it means that it’s the best product they can offer you. All research and development has gone into that one product, all the best components. Conclusion? When you read the title of this review and saw “Signature Edition” of the R_volution PlayerPro 8K … you know you’re probably in for a treat! Bon appétit !
Time for a R_Volution
Who still plays movies from an actual blu-ray player? Right, what year do think it is? It’s 2025. That means that we’ve (almost) all took part of the “digital revolution”. We store our content on a NAS or HDD/SSD based server or player with internal disc storage capacity. You know it’s all about convenience. It was a few years ago that we reviewed such a digital media player from Zapitti. In fact we reviewed 2 of their players: the Zapitti Pro 4K HDR media player and the “Audiocom Cinema Edition” version of that same player (think of it as the “Signature Edition”). That were great players for the price. The standard version scored 85/100 lacking Dolby Vision and offering a somewhat restrained audio performance. The “Audiocom Cinema Edition” delt with that problem, hence the 92/100 score and “Best of high end AWARD” back then. Fast forward to today, Zapitti is no longer and from the underlying software company “Group Archisoft” emerged the brand R_volution back in 2023. The brand recruited Zappiti’s lead developer and product designer to swiftly innovate. Within a year, they unveiled the PlayerOne, a 4K UHD player and the proprietary R_video app for AI-driven library management. And so the “R_volution” started.
Similar product line-up with contemperary features
When you visit the website of R_volution, you’ll find a simalar product line-up as with Zapitti at the time. Their offer starts with the PlayerMini, then the PlayerOne, PlayerOne 8K and PlayerOne 8K Signature Edition. At the top of the range we find the PlayerPro 8K and PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition. R_volution also offers dedicated storage products like the NAS, NAS Ultra, NAD Storage and NAS Storage Ultra. A clear line-up that can serve everyone’s needs, at every performance level and price category. At first glance, the products are up-to-spec of what we expect in a modern digital media player.
Signature dish ingredients
Our first introduction to the R_volution brand starts right at the top with the PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition. The sympathetic French brand presents this product as the “Ultimate Elite Digital Media Player”. In fact it’s an upgraded version of the PlayerPro 8K with premium electronic components. Here’s alist of the improvements over the original model:
- Enlarging the buffer capacitors on the linear power supply with best possible capcitors for each voltage output;
- Adding special filter capacitors to the linear power supply;
- Shielding the linear power supply from the display unit with a 1,5mm thick, massive pure copper plate;
- Adding special rubber damping to the capacitors on the linear power supply;
- Replace and enlarge all capcitors on the mainboard for all primary and secondary voltage regulators;
- Adding special capacitor for the clock power supply;
- Adding an extra filter to the clock power supply;
- EMI shielding of all secondary SMD clocks;
- Damping of the bottom of the case;
- Damping of the multi-floor HDD docks;
- Adding a massive steel plate with a special highly dampening compount material to the top cover;
- Adding massive aluminum feet with rubber insulating;
- Replacing the power inlet with the high-end Furutech FI-03 Rhodium inlet;
- Enhanced cooling system;
- Improved mainboard layout;
- Completely reworked mainboard PCB;
- Increased buffer capacity on the mainboard;
- Upgraded clock with independent power supply with ESR capacitators;
- High-end SPDIF coaxial output;
- Fully recapped linear power supply with high-end capacitators and additional filtering: ;
- All USB ports on the main PCB are equipped with large buffer capacitators;
- Two HDD ports with special dampening;
- HF filtering on all wires;
- Special sealing compound on large capacitators to reduce resonance effects.
That’s quiet an impressive list of modifications/upgrades if you ask me. Let me quickly put your mind at ease. I hear you thinking: why do they have to change half of the components? Is the standard version performing sub-par? Not really. It’s all about finding the right ingredients for the specific dish. While a regular dish might be great, finding those premium components to add just that extra flavor intensity is often challeging. Another striking comparision would be an Audi A6 and RS6. It’s all about the performance upgrade.
R_Volution Playerpro 8K Signature edition features
As I mentioned before, this digital media player is a modern device, provided with future-proof features. Let’s take a closer look. To start off, the intent of the player is for its users to experience the original film’s audiovisual quality; untouched and in its purest form.
The Dolby Vision VS10 video processing surely helps in that regard. This engine elevates image fidelity across all content types and output signals. It enhances conversion quality between SDR, HDR and Dolby Vision, while its 12-bit processing reduces posterization or banding effects.
The PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition is obviously compatible with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, the device is engineered to seamlessly match the newest 8K Ultra HD video content, including HDR with Source-Based Tone Mapping (SBTM). It can upscale your video content to a whopping 8K UHD resolution (7680 x 4320 pixels).
Artificial Intelligence Picture Quality (AI-PQ) video procession technology improves local contrast and color dynamically based on images using artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence Super-Resolution (AI-SR) technology uses the power of artificial intelligence to dynamically improve image clarity, detail, edge sharpness, and reduce video noise when upscaling Full HD video content to 4K or 8K resolution.
For all you people with stacks of Blu-rays and/or DVD’s lying around, rest asurred: this player features Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray menu support. This feature is compatible with both ISO and BDMV.
The R_volution PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition features a dual 3.5 inch SATA rack with anti-vibration system and hot-swap capability and can handle up to 64Tb of data on a single partition, roughly the equivalent to 1.600 Blu-rays or 800 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays on just one hard drive.
Free R_video functionality is included with the player. It boasts a sophisticated interface for navigating your film and TV series collection. R_video performs a thorough scan of your videos, wether they are stored locally or on a network-attached storage device. It gathers all the essentials: cover art, backgrounds and details like cast, director, release date, and rating. Filtering by genre, sort by ratings, length, or release date or delve into synopses, preview trailers … all with the simple press of the PLAY button.
The unit comes with a backlit ultra fast response remote contole unit, compatible with both RF and IR.
Heart of the player is the Amlogic S928X mutimedia processor, complete with an integrated Dolby Vision and VS10 engine. This powerhouse is comprised of four ARM A55 cores running at 2.0 GHz and a superior ARM A76 core at 1.9GHz, alongside an extra core dedicated to system operations.
The media player offers HDMI 2.1a output for connecting the latest UHD 8K TVs, projectors and AV receivers. It’s also equipped with a professional 75 Ohm coaxial digital audio connector. Another piece of exceptional gear is the onboard TCXO clock with an accuracy of 0.1% for prestine digital audio quality and video precision.
Another great core feature is the high-performance power supply equipped with a Toshiba linear voltage regulator and powered by a massive 81 Watt copper toroidal transformer, ensuring a noise-free signal for enhanced image quality, more accurate colors, deeper blacks and superior audio and visual precision.
Cinema films are traditionally shot at 24 frames per second, most videos or Blu-ray files are encoded at 23.976 fps. R_volution Real Cinema technology preserves the original frame rate, ensuring cinematic smoothness and artistic integrity.
To finish this prestigious features list, let’s mention the Dolby Multi-stream Decoder MS12 the compatibility with IP and IR control systems including ProControl, RTI, Control4, Crestron, Savant, Philips Pronto, Elan, URC and Logitech Harmony.
See and you will hear
Listen and you’ll see was once the baseline of the popular speakerbrand “Bowers and Wilkins”. I turned it around because it’s very applicable in this case. You can consume content in a few different ways with this player: hook up a USB-stick, play from the internal drives or use the network player to acces your local storage (NAS). Whatever option you choose, they all represent smooth, fast and agile operations. For completeness, I used the network player to acces my Synology.
Let’s start big with some scenes from the latest Superman. Starting up the movie was blazing fast in comparison with our Zapitti. In no time the ice cage was coming out of nowhere and Krypto was licking Superman’s face. The image quality is simply stunning. What a feed for our Formovie UST laser projector !! Colors were vivid, deep and with convincing authority. The picture resolution was both defined and smooth: every detail was noticably present without excessive sharpness.
Moving on the new Fantastic Four format. Let’s dive in the epic battle at the end of the movie, presenting a nice challenge for amps and speakers. Dialogues are crystal clear. Each voice can be distinguished seperately with beatifull tonality and timbres. Incredible dynamics boost the immersive experience of getting sucked into the fight. Punches arrive in your gut. Explosions happen with convincing force. The overall sound is neutral, balanced and very dynamic. Some of that “restrained sound” that we experienced with former Zapitti players is completely gone.
Let’s head over to dino world. I chose the scene where the stranded family meets a T-Rex sleeping alongside a river. The oldest daughter heads over to a crash-site to retrieve some gear and an inflatable raft. The music in this scene helps build up the tension. The player translates the composer’s intentions flawlessly. Of course at some point the T-Rex wakes up and all hell brakes loose. Dynamics increase, tension rises. Footsteps of the big beast plunge into the room, leaving me looking around thinking the creature is actually entering the room. Audio is just pristine ! Again vocal details add to the immerisve experience. Vocals are free, filling the room with space and air around them, not pasted on eachother along with sound effects and music. It’s like watching 3D audio.
Matrix Resurections is my personal reference in terms of color grading. You’re blind if you don’t see that the guys in post had some budget. Euhum. It’s almost like next generation colors. While we are nearly reaching the full potential of rec2020, this movie feels like it’s pushing the boundaries. Deep blacks are just stunning. Colors are rich and vibrant. Every part of the image is outlined, showing no edges, but rather refined gradients. Contrasts of the higher dynamic range were just spectacular.
Mission impossible? Quiet the opposite. Will this be the last chapter in a long list of Tom Cruise movies? Not sure. What I am sure about is the sound quality that comes out of this player. Feed it to any decent AV processor or receiver and you’re in for a feast! The soundstage is wide, high and layered. You benefit from this getting full insight into the transparent sound. One last thing that I also noticed when reviewing the latest top model Samsung OLED (95F): the picture quality has become so good that you can individually evaluate the quality of scenes. Some stand out in the most positive way posible, others … well they should have taken more time/budget to …
Maximum resolution of the Formovie UST is of course limited to 4K UHD. Unfortionately we weren’t able to test the 8K capabilities of the player. Upscaling regular Full HD television content offered excellent results. To sum it up, we’ve got a reference grade player on our hands. Digital first. While the Zapitti had an expensive DAC on board, offering added value, R_volution opts for the fully digital media machine option focussing on the best possible sound and picture quality.
Connections
Front
- USB port
- Dual HDD rack port
Back
- Dual Wi-Fi antenna connectors
- RF antenna connector
- USB Low-noise audio ouput
- Dual USB 3.0 ports
- Analog audio connectors
- Professional coaxial digital connector
- Optical digital connector
- HDMI 2.1a connector
- IR in connector
- LAN connector
Software list
- Superman 2025
- The Fantastic Four – First steps
- Jurassic World – Rebirth
- The Matrix – Resurections
- Mission Impossible – Final reconning
Hardware list
- Lyngdorf Audio MP-60 AV Processor
- Purifi Audio EVAL5 mono 1ET9040BA Deluxe amplifiers (L, R)
- Lyngdorf Audio MXA-8400 8-channel power amplifier (woofer L, woofer R, L surround, R surround, L back surround, R back surround)
- Lyngdorf Audio SDA-2400 2-channel power amplifier (L front height channel, L back height channel)
- Lyngdorf Audio SDA-2400 2-channel power amplifier (R front height channel, R back height channel)
- R_volution PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition
- Roon Server for bitperfect Tidal streaming
- Lyngdorf Audio Cue-100 speakers (L, R)
- Lyngdorf Audio BW-20 passive boundary woofers (L, R)
- Lyngdorf Audio FR-1 speakers (L surround, R surround, L back surround, R back surround)
- Lyngdorf Audio MH-2 speakers (L front height channel, R front height channel, L back height channel, R back height channel)
- Oehlbach Powerstation 909 multiple socket strip (2 pcs)
- Oehlbach High End Power Cable 4m (2 pcs to feed Powerstations 909)
- Oehlbach High End 8K – Ultra High-Speed HDMI Cable (2 pcs)
- Formovie Theater Premium Utra Short Throw 4K Triple Color Laser TV
- Vovox Excelsus XLR cables
- Vovox Sonorus XLR cables
- Vovox Excelsus speaker cables 5 (L, R, woofer L, woofer R)
- Devine Neutrik SpeakON 2 x 2.5mm speaker cables
- Vovox Excelsus power cables
(*) We pre-select gear we review to offer you products that represent solid investments and offer great overall performance. That’s why most of our reviewed products receive such high scores and get the “Best of high end AWARD”.
R_volution PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition
€2599This audiovisual “Signature Dish” was cooked by a three-star Michellin manufacturer. The R_volution PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition is a marvelous piece of gear. It tick all the boxes. For the asking price of 2.599 EUR you get a reference grade digital media player that will serve you for quite some time. How nice of R_volution to offer the posibility to start off with the PlayerPro 8K and perform the upgrade to “Signature Edition” at a later stage, dividing the cost. In comparison with our previous reference player, the Zapitti Pro 4K HDR Audiocom Cinema Edition, the R_volution PlayerPro 8K Signature Edition presents a real step up. Make that 4 or 5 steps in fact. Best of high end AWARD !!
Pros
- Pristine audio
- Video precision
- R_video functionality
- Quiet operation
- Fast/agile operations
Cons
- Digital first media player
- Black only
