Amarra - anyone using it? - Page 33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Sneis 

Congrats, have always wanted to try out Amarra but have had a really hard time justifying the cost.  Still rocking Audirvana osx side and Foobar windows side.

You went A+ or standard version? I need a new trial because I have Audirvana, but the plus version sounded better to me. However, did not upgrade and it was featured in a slightly different system than I have now. Fidelia recaptured my attention last night with the new Headphone option. Anyone here demo this feature with Fidelia? Right now, will make the best of Amarra HiFi and may upgrade if I don't fall for the other two players.

Formerly in my system, Pure Music always led the pack of OS X players I had installed. Once I heard Amarra, I never looked back. This spring will be time for a complete evaluation. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silent One 

 

You went A+ or standard version? I need a new trial because I have Audirvana, but the plus version sounded better to me. However, did not upgrade and it was featured in a slightly different system than I have now. Fidelia recaptured my attention last night with the new Headphone option. Anyone here demo this feature with Fidelia? Right now, will make the best of Amarra HiFi and may upgrade if I don't fall for the other two players.

 

Formerly in my system, Pure Music always led the pack of OS X players I had installed. Once I heard Amarra, I never looked back. This spring will be time for a complete evaluation. 

I'm running the free older version; I think it was the release right before he started the Audirvana+ business model.  I know he updated the free version but I'm a little afraid to download it.

I finally upgraded to Amarra 2.4 but I had a password issue when it asked me to pick a new one.  I contacted tech support, and they reset my password and then called me on the phone to walk me through the install on their dime, and it worked.  This of course deactivated Amarra 2.2 so I can't compare them (I passed over version 2.3.3).

I can say that my audio skipping issues with a 2.4Ghz Core2Duo 8Gb/750Gb Macbook Pro are resolved.  However, now when I try to play music that's on an iTunes shared library on the network (via home sharing inside iTunes) I get no audio without clicking on the button to disable Amarra.  They said they'd look into this on their setup and get back to me.  Any music that's in the local iTunes library plays fine.

Anyone else here who can't hear music that's coming from an iTunes shared library when using Amarra?  

The work around for me right now is to click "import" on the music I want to hear and then I'll play the music from my own iTunes library.  My network is fast enough that this isn't a big issue for me.  Overall, I am still very happy with the audio improvements with Amarra, coupled with being able to use iTunes to control my listening, library and playlists.

I hope Tech Support is able to overcome this issue for you, HeadphoneAddict. Not that you won't be able to enjoy the music. But once worked out, your mind will be free to enjoy the music in a higher state of mind, knowing things are as they should be. 

Well, I can also say my skipping bug seemed fixed.  I played some tracks that I know used to skip in the older version and they played fine.  For the most, I am now just using in cache mode/direct play instead of using the playlist. In this mode, Amarra is just as easy to use as the other players. I'll have to do some more testing, but I may prefer the sound of direct mode.  Then I'd only use playlist for gapless albums.

So only issue I came across is I have some tracks that are in 88.2 kHz and Amarra can't play them. It's switches back to iTunes mode and shows them as 44.1 files, so doesn't even adjust the sample rate for me.  I haven't found what sample rates Amarra plays other than the max rate.

Just found out about the new pricing structure - great news!  Unfortunately lack of flac support in iTunes and an otherwise horrendous UI are deal breakers for me.  JPlay in Windows is an overall better solution IMO with its integration with JRiver, which is also a full-fledged HTPC solution with great smartphone apps to boot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimchee411 

Just found out about the new pricing structure - great news!  Unfortunately lack of flac support in iTunes and an otherwise horrendous UI are deal breakers for me.  JPlay in Windows is an overall better solution IMO with its integration with JRiver, which is also a full-fledged HTPC solution with great smartphone apps to boot.

Fluke allows for the addition of FLAC files to iTunes.  I believe it's freeware as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly21029 

 

Fluke allows for the addition of FLAC files to iTunes.  I believe it's freeware as well.

Fluke is very buggy and slow when the files are on a share.

IIRC, it also lacks support for vorbis tags, which is huge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimchee411 

 

Fluke is very buggy and slow when the files are on a share.

Not sure what you mean by "on a share."  At any rate, I personally look to circumvent iTunes whenever possible anyway and find the number of players that rely on integration disappointing.  Amarra's playlist sounds damn great and does away with any need for iTunes.  It's just too bad that it's so damn clunky to use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly21029 

 

Not sure what you mean by "on a share."  At any rate, I personally look to circumvent iTunes whenever possible anyway and find the number of players that rely on integration disappointing.  Amarra's playlist sounds damn great and does away with any need for iTunes.  It's just too bad that it's so damn clunky to use.

"On a share" = network storage, i.e. files are on a server or NAS rather than local hard drive.  I agree, Amarra does sound damn good, but its usability is sorely lacking.  Completely outrageous at $700+, somewhat ridiculous at $189, and maybe OK at $49 when considering the sound quality.  I haven't had a chance to compare Amarra and JPlay side-by-side, but JPlay is the only other playback software that has impressed me like Amarra does, though maybe not to the same degree.  In addition I have used Pure Music, Decibel, Fidelia, Squeezeplay on Mac, Squeezeslave-WASAPI, Foobar2000 WASAPI, and others not worth mentioning and those 2 stand out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly21029 

 

Not sure what you mean by "on a share."  At any rate, I personally look to circumvent iTunes whenever possible anyway and find the number of players that rely on integration disappointing.  Amarra's playlist sounds damn great and does away with any need for iTunes.  It's just too bad that it's so damn clunky to use.

Integration with iTunes was the major draw for me, since I have hundreds and hundreds of smart playlists in iTunes that I use to play my music.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict 

 

Integration with iTunes was the major draw for me, since I have hundreds and hundreds of smart playlists in iTunes that I use to play my music.

You and many others, I'm sure.  As a feature, iTunes integration is a boon.  As a requirement, it can be a hinderance.  I'm rolling equipment again making it difficult to take yet another player into consideration, but a quick listen to the latest build of Fidelia gave me the impression that SQ had improved over the previous version. (it sounded too "digital" to my ears in the past)  Completely self-contained AND with access to one's iTunes library with an intuitive user experience... that's how it's done. :)

After an exciting few hours picking up the new Sennheiser Amperior yesterday and being very, very impressed with how it sounds (though I want to burn it in some more), I checked my Facebook page to discover that Sonic Studios had given me a free copy of Amarra due to my participation in their recent giveaway. About an hour after emailing them to claim my prize they had replied and Amarra Hifi had been installed on my Mac. What a day!

I tried the Amarra Mini demo about a year previously and enjoyed its integration with iTunes (my main Mac music source), and sometimes it worked well, but it often cut out and took too long for my preference (about 2-4 seconds) to play songs when I selected them. Compared to that experience, Amarra Hifi has been most welcome! 

With all of my current headphones, when Amarra is switched on, music just sounds better. The soundstage is more expansive, and recordings are presented with more sonic weight and PRaT. (The latter has worked wonders for my recently acquired HD 800, which since reviewing it here am currently using in combination with a Black Dragon cable another head-fier lent me - it now holds up better for rock music than any other HD 800 setup I've yet, with probably more benefits to be discovered.)

So far, I am very grateful for the enhancements created by Amarra Hifi and highly recommend it.

Just upgraded to the newest version of Amarra Hifi which incorporates gapless playback (my only previous reservation with Amarra Hifi) and reportedly increased sound quality. Kudos to Sonic Studios!