[Left Channel]

@Chopin75 over on ComputerAudiophile people have been complaining endlessly about Ammara 4 bugs and shortcomings, especially library issues. The developer has announced plans for iTunes integration (on Mac only) so that users can rely on iTunes for library management and Amarra for sound quality. The most recent announcement is here [link].

 

[mgunin]

Which one do u prefer now, audirvana vs Amarra may I ask?

I haven't upgraded Amarra since 2.6. In general, Audirvana is much more convenient and is used 80% of the time. Still, old Amarra has some kind of smooth/analog-like (yet still very detailed) tonality which I prefer for some recordings.

 

[aamefford]

I use A4L. It sounds great. My goodness it behaves like a kluge though. The remote app is useless. One has to slowly scroll and update the library contents every time one opens it. And then it glitches and one has to start over. I use it, because I’ve spent money on it, and I really don’t want to spend more money elsewhere. Audirvana and JRiver seem to be the options for Mac?

 

[aamefford]

Ive tried the update, 4.2 or whatever. The kluge has changed, but not improved. The remote app is still pretty pathetic. One must still manually scroll through the incremental chunks of library as it loads onto the app. God help you if you want to play Yo-Yo Ma or ZZ Top. And then it will crash and you get to start all over. Or Amarra will crash. And you get to start all over. Pity, as it sounds good. There is just no excuse for this level of suckiness with a a modern day, commercial software. I’ll keep checking in as new updates are released. I’ll not spend further money with sonic studios though. I’m off to check what seems to be regarded as the best option for macs, or for dual platform, and finally move on.

 

[GungaDin]

Ive tried the update, 4.2 or whatever. The kluge has changed, but not improved. The remote app is still pretty pathetic. One must still manually scroll through the incremental chunks of library as it loads onto the app. God help you if you want to play Yo-Yo Ma or ZZ Top. And then it will crash and you get to start all over. Or Amarra will crash. And you get to start all over. Pity, as it sounds good. There is just no excuse for this level of suckiness with a a modern day, commercial software. I’ll keep checking in as new updates are released. I’ll not spend further money with sonic studios though. I’m off to check what seems to be regarded as the best option for macs, or for dual platform, and finally move on.

Amarra is the most frustrating software I've ever used and I remember the days of Windows 3 and other “primitive” software. Absolutely nothing is easy or smooth with Amarra. I recently put a new SSD in the Mac mini I use with Amarra and, following the instructions to the letter, have not been able to reinstall Amarra. Every aspect of Amarra is a disaster except for the sound, which is very good. The problem is getting to the point where you can actually get any sound out of the damned thing. For the last couple of years, I've stopped listening to the many music files I have and have just used streaming instead because Amarra is such an endless pain in the...neck. Streaming may not be ideal in various ways but at least it gives you some music to listen to.

 

[Left Channel]

Have any Amarra for Mac users here tried the new iTunes integration? I'm hoping that will reduce the frustration factor.

 

[aamefford]

Have any Amarra for Mac users here tried the new iTunes integration? I'm hoping that will reduce the frustration factor.

Hmmmmm, I hadn’t considered that. Then again, I’m really trying to get away from iTunes completely. I used to use iTunes and bitperfect. That was a decent solution, save for iTunes.....

 

[Chopin75]

Hmmmmm, I hadn’t considered that. Then again, I’m really trying to get away from iTunes completely. I used to use iTunes and bitperfect. That was a decent solution, save for iTunes.....

Why not just use audirvana, designed for MAC that shuts down the background activities. I have be using the demo, very easy to use though setup is a bit comfusing and you may need to select DSD over DoP manually to get DSD out. It automatically finds your albums in your drive or folder that u manually assign to. It sounds much better than J media center

 

[aamefford]

Yep, this looks like where I am heading. I think I’ll test both Audirvana and Roon. I can’t really afford Roon, but I’m very curious about it.

 

[Left Channel]

Hmmmmm, I hadn’t considered that. Then again, I’m really trying to get away from iTunes completely. I used to use iTunes and bitperfect. That was a decent solution, save for iTunes.....

Amarra and Pure Music are both integrated with iTunes now. They also vie for the title of "best sound quality" in reviews, but can't seem to get library management right. Amarra in particular has been a mess, and this is their response. Audirvana and Roon are their own deep rabbit holes, and I suggest first trying the Amarra iTunes integration (which may still be in beta, not sure) before committing the time necessary to master and tweak one of the others to your liking. Please let us know if you try it.

 

[GungaDin]

Amarra and Pure Music are both integrated with iTunes now. They also vie for the title of "best sound quality" in reviews, but can't seem to get library management right. Amarra in particular has been a mess, and this is their response. Audirvana and Roon are their own deep rabbit holes, and I suggest first trying the Amarra iTunes integration (which may still be in beta, not sure) before committing the time necessary to master and tweak one of the others to your liking. Please let us know if you try it.

I'm baffled by the problems Amarra has with library management. Foobar, which is a free download, has had excellent library management for a dozen years if not longer. Amarra, which soaks their customers every year or more for another $50 or $100 bucks or whatever, is a total train wreck with library management. Does effective library management somehow interfere with Amarra's sound? Is it really that complex? Is the Amarra team just too lazy or too cheap to work on it? I don't get it. Maybe they should look at what Foobar has done for a decade and try to learn a few things.

 

[Chopin75]

You guys should try out Audirvana download 15 day free trial. It seems the library management is easy and simple. You can see the pics of the album and there is a button to click so the digital booklet would pop up. I think you can do some custom made genre classification. I only have 10 or less albums so far so it is obviously easy to manage.
You can then compare if it sounds better than amarra and Pure Music.
It also can be sinked with iTunes and Roon and some other stuff like MQA I think.
You need to manually select if you want to shut off unneeded programs to get best sound. You may also have to select manually to force all DSD files to play as DSD or it may do PCM instead.
Can convert PCM to DSD which works quite nicely.

 

[SonicStudio]

Hi All,
We understand it has been a challenge using Amarra Luxe and we are sorry for any inconvenience, It truly is a delicate balance to provide features and still maintain exceptional sound quality. Every tweak on a computer can have an impact on the sound, it's just not as simple as 'bits is bits'. That said, we've continued to make improvements and have a new build for the Mac you are all welcome to test out. It's available at: https://downloads.sonicstudio.com/Amarra4Luxe/Amarra_4_Installer.4.2.402.zip. We recommend clearing your library and re-scanning to take full advantage of the update.

For those that use iTunes, click on the icon on the far left of the transport window to enable iTunes mode. Once enabled, remember to select tracks from iTunes and Amarra will play them back.

We will be coming out with another update shortly that supports Amarra Play - our iOS- based app that will allow for streaming to your mobile device or downloading to your mobile device for offline use from your local library, upsampling to 96k and MQA playback included. More information will be available later this week. If you happen to be at SXSW in Austin, check out: http://www.mqa.co.uk/professional/mqalive to hear more about the future of streaming audio and hear a live concert, streamed from London and get an idea of what's to come with Amarra Play.

 

[Chopin75]

Hi All,
We understand it has been a challenge using Amarra Luxe and we are sorry for any inconvenience, It truly is a delicate balance to provide features and still maintain exceptional sound quality. Every tweak on a computer can have an impact on the sound, it's just not as simple as 'bits is bits'. That said, we've continued to make improvements and have a new build for the Mac you are all welcome to test out. It's available at: https://downloads.sonicstudio.com/Amarra4Luxe/Amarra_4_Installer.4.2.402.zip. We recommend clearing your library and re-scanning to take full advantage of the update.

For those that use iTunes, click on the icon on the far left of the transport window to enable iTunes mode. Once enabled, remember to select tracks from iTunes and Amarra will play them back.

We will be coming out with another update shortly that supports Amarra Play - our iOS- based app that will allow for streaming to your mobile device or downloading to your mobile device for offline use from your local library, upsampling to 96k and MQA playback included. More information will be available later this week. If you happen to be at SXSW in Austin, check out: http://www.mqa.co.uk/professional/mqalive to hear more about the future of streaming audio and hear a live concert, streamed from London and get an idea of what's to come with Amarra Play.

But it looks like it still cannot do native DSD or DoP, the latter is coming soon ??

 

[SonicStudio]

But it looks like it still cannot do native DSD or DoP, the latter is coming soon ??

Yes, we are testing that now however we also have some other pressing items that need to be address including the Windows solution. We working as fast as we can on this, hope to have it available soon.