Amarra - anyone using it?

[Jeb Listens]

  Amarra for Tidal is finally available for the Mac.  Haven't time to do any testing.  Only saw webpage is updated.

Nice one! Thanks - downloaded and testing it now! Will post impressions tomorrow. 

 

[Jeb Listens]

I'll be interested to hear other people's experiences in case this is partly an issue with my bandwidth but everything seems very slow and navigation seems very clunky to me - searches are slow to return results & the whole thing seems to get confused and laboured very easily.   Visually and intuitively it's like taking a step back 10 years.   Playing the files however is fine and just as quick as the Tidal App.
 
However good it sounds, in its current form there's no way this could replace the Tidal App for me. It would drive me crazy.   I guess right now I'm feeling it would be preferable if Amarra just piggy-backed the Tidal desktop app for playback only (like HiFi does iTunes) rather than attempt to approximate the whole navigation and user experience.   That probably means that SQ is going to be best for me unless this gets some serious revision. 
 
Sonically, after an hour of testing I do feel that it offers *perhaps* a slight improvement but its very close to call at least to my ears and with my equipment.  
 
I commend Amarra and wish them luck in all they are doing and hope that this will, in time, become a little more polished. 
 
 
Jeb.

 

[iamoneagain]

  I'll be interested to hear other people's experiences in case this is partly an issue with my bandwidth but everything seems very slow and navigation seems very clunky to me - searches are slow to return results & the whole thing seems to get confused and laboured very easily.   Visually and intuitively it's like taking a step back 10 years.   Playing the files however is fine and just as quick as the Tidal App.
 
However good it sounds, in its current form there's no way this could replace the Tidal App for me. It would drive me crazy.   I guess right now I'm feeling it would be preferable if Amarra just piggy-backed the Tidal desktop app for playback only (like HiFi does iTunes) rather than attempt to approximate the whole navigation and user experience.   That probably means that SQ is going to be best for me unless this gets some serious revision. 
 
Sonically, after an hour of testing I do feel that it offers *perhaps* a slight improvement but its very close to call at least to my ears and with my equipment.  
 
I commend Amarra and wish them luck in all they are doing and hope that this will, in time, become a little more polished. 
 
 
Jeb.

 
Yeah, I like the Tidal app much better than the Amarra one. And Tidal one isn't even that great compared to Spotify.  Like you, I wish they were able to just build something into the Tidal app itself to improve sound quality.  The interface didn't need to be remade.  
 
On the positive side, I do hear all the things the newsletter talks about.  Wider soundstage, better dynamic, and a blacker background.  I also like the fact that it preloads multiple tracks so when you skip to the next one, it's instant.  So if sound quality is your top priority and you can forgive the clunky interface, Amarra is your best bet.
 
This is kind of like there other players.  I find their stuff the clunkiest but in the end it sounds the best in my system.  I've tried over and over to use Audirvana + but it's just not as musical sounding as Amarra.  I think HQ Player was equal if not better but there is no ALAC support and their interface isn't great either.  Think the ultimate solution will be with Roon and HQ Player integrated. Then have a great interface that combines your home and Tidal music with all sorts of meta data and discovery features and best sound quality.  I suppose you could Roon now with Amarra sQ but still not going to be as good sounding as Amarra for Tidal.

 

[Jeb Listens]

   
Yeah, I like the Tidal app much better than the Amarra one. And Tidal one isn't even that great compared to Spotify.  Like you, I wish they were able to just build something into the Tidal app itself to improve sound quality.  The interface didn't need to be remade.  
 
On the positive side, I do hear all the things the newsletter talks about.  Wider soundstage, better dynamic, and a blacker background.  I also like the fact that it preloads multiple tracks so when you skip to the next one, it's instant.  So if sound quality is your top priority and you can forgive the clunky interface, Amarra is your best bet.
 
This is kind of like there other players.  I find their stuff the clunkiest but in the end it sounds the best in my system.  I've tried over and over to use Audirvana + but it's just not as musical sounding as Amarra.  I think HQ Player was equal if not better but there is no ALAC support and their interface isn't great either.  Think the ultimate solution will be with Roon and HQ Player integrated. Then have a great interface that combines your home and Tidal music with all sorts of meta data and discovery features and best sound quality.  I suppose you could Roon now with Amarra sQ but still not going to be as good sounding as Amarra for Tidal.

I think you are bang-on the money with your points about meta-data features etc & by the sounds of it I need to give Roon a trial too.   With giving up physical media, looks/info are very important to me and when I'm playing an album I want to be able to leave the screen displaying an attractive high res picture of the album/artist.  I want to be able to see all my favourite albums laid out beautifully. 
 
It seems like so far of all the services/players I have tried none of them can quite pull it all together.   I have some hopes for Apple Music via iTunes but disappointingly at the moment that seems to be very buggy to me too - some of the features seem to disappear then reappear and currently performing searches only seems to bring up artist radio stations.  
 
Having said that the home-screen is very attractive and apple seems to understand the importance of creating an attractive personalised interface which will help people discover new music.  It has a nice mix of some very interesting well thought out playlists and album selections based on the very few preferences I specified (e.g.  "Bob Dylan's Bitter Break-Up Songs"  or "Sufjan Stevens Deep Cuts").   This is in contrast to the jumbled mess on the Tidal app home-screen, which is a shame because they obviously have some very nice curated content too once you start digging down into the genres.
 
It seems like we're in the middle of a bit of a confused time now with everybody rushing to market with services which don't quite tick all the boxes.  Hopefully in time one will surface that ticks all of mine.  For now it's probably going to be either Apple Music or Tidal with Amarra SQ.  Must check out Roon though! wow.... pricey!
 
Jeb

 

[iamoneagain]

I'll keep this short since this is an Amarra thread, but I just tried Roon and it's everything I was complaining Amarra for Tidal and the Tidal app are missing.  It had some much data.  The artists albums are in order by year and you can even reverse the order.  There are star ratings to know which are the better ones.  Bios and links to similar, influenced, followed artists.  It even has lyrics on most songs.  It also combines your local library with Tidal.
 
I'll give Amarra for Tidal a very slight win for sound quality but if you enable exclusive mode and integer mode in Roon, it has really great sound. Just missing a hint of sweetness.  I enjoy this sound mode more than running it through Amarra sQ since it looses a little dynamics and black background going thru Soundstream first.  But the interface is incredible, so might be worth the very slight hit in sound quality.
 
So my only question is the price worth it?  I can get Amarra for Tidal for $40 and have better sound quality with a clunky interface.  I could just stick with Tidal app and use Amarra sQ, which I got for free for being a long time Amarra user.  Or I could pay out over $100 for Roon.  I'll test all my options over the trial period and see what I end up with.  Right now music discovery is high on my list since Tidal has a huge library and I don't just want to play what I've already owned or familiar with.  The Tidal app has some discovery features and I have other sites I can use but it's nice to have built into the app itself.  Right now Amarra for Tidal has no discover features but I'm sure will be added over time.  I just don't see it being anything like Roon has done.

 

[Jeb Listens]

  I'll keep this short since this is an Amarra thread, but I just tried Roon and it's everything I was complaining Amarra for Tidal and the Tidal app are missing.  It had some much data.  The artists albums are in order by year and you can even reverse the order.  There are star ratings to know which are the better ones.  Bios and links to similar, influenced, followed artists.  It even has lyrics on most songs.  It also combines your local library with Tidal.
 
I'll give Amarra for Tidal a very slight win for sound quality but if you enable exclusive mode and integer mode in Roon, it has really great sound. Just missing a hint of sweetness.  I enjoy this sound mode more than running it through Amarra sQ since it looses a little dynamics and black background going thru Soundstream first.  But the interface is incredible, so might be worth the very slight hit in sound quality.
 
So my only question is the price worth it?  I can get Amarra for Tidal for $40 and have better sound quality with a clunky interface.  I could just stick with Tidal app and use Amarra sQ, which I got for free for being a long time Amarra user.  Or I could pay out over $100 for Roon.  I'll test all my options over the trial period and see what I end up with.  Right now music discovery is high on my list since Tidal has a huge library and I don't just want to play what I've already owned or familiar with.  The Tidal app has some discovery features and I have other sites I can use but it's nice to have built into the app itself.  Right now Amarra for Tidal has no discover features but I'm I'll sure will be added over time.  I just don't see it being anything like Roon has done.

Awesome as you say... it's an Amarra thread so i'll also be brief but I feel like all of this talk is relevant for comparisons!
 
I've been experimenting more with Amarra for Tidal and I do agree that the sound quality is very good indeed - to my ears 2 elements that l feel relatively comfortable speaking about are extra depth and sparkle up top.  Could be placebo.  I do feel the difference is quite subtle and i'm still in somewhat of a honey-moon period with Tidal anyway given the improvement I felt over Spotify.    It's a shame the interface of Amara is so disappointing especially when it accompanies the premium service from Tidal.
 
I'm going to give Roon a go -  it put me off slightly that they wanted card details up-front and you can only cancel by email... especially when such large sums of money are involved - but I'm sure it'll be fine!
 
I watched a video of someone giving a walk-through of Roon -  it did look very nice but I'd like to ask you how effective you think it would be using it solely for Tidal music as opposed to it being primarily used for local media and it being a nice option for Tidal to fill in the gaps?  I have some local media but certainly not enough to form a real foundation for how the whole thing would work.
 
The other issue I guess I would have with it is that I presume you can't make playlists in Roon that would simultaneously appear in Tidal for offline syncing on iPhone for my music on the go?  In that sense I guess I would find myself using the Tidal desktop app as well... which isn't ideal.  Perhaps these features will get added in time?
 
Although Roon is pricey its one of the few times where it seems like good value for us UK'ers.  For Tidal $19.99 apparently = £19.99 whereas $10 (£6.50) a month for Roon doesn't seem so bad. 

 

[iamoneagain]

 
Awesome as you say... it's an Amarra thread so i'll also be brief but I feel like all of this talk is relevant for comparisons!
 
I've been experimenting more with Amarra for Tidal and I do agree that the sound quality is very good indeed - to my ears 2 elements that l feel relatively comfortable speaking about are extra depth and sparkle up top.  Could be placebo.  I do feel the difference is quite subtle and i'm still in somewhat of a honey-moon period with Tidal anyway given the improvement I felt over Spotify.    It's a shame the interface of Amara is so disappointing especially when it accompanies the premium service from Tidal.
 
I'm going to give Roon a go -  it put me off slightly that they wanted card details up-front and you can only cancel by email... especially when such large sums of money are involved - but I'm sure it'll be fine!
 
I watched a video of someone giving a walk-through of Roon -  it did look very nice but I'd like to ask you how effective you think it would be using it solely for Tidal music as opposed to it being primarily used for local media and it being a nice option for Tidal to fill in the gaps?  I have some local media but certainly not enough to form a real foundation for how the whole thing would work.
 
The other issue I guess I would have with it is that I presume you can't make playlists in Roon that would simultaneously appear in Tidal for offline syncing on iPhone for my music on the go?  In that sense I guess I would find myself using the Tidal desktop app as well... which isn't ideal.  Perhaps these features will get added in time?
 
Although Roon is pricey its one of the few times where it seems like good value for us UK'ers.  For Tidal $19.99 apparently = £19.99 whereas $10 (£6.50) a month for Roon doesn't seem so bad. 

 
I think it would work fine for just Tidal as well. When you click on a genre or do a search, it's always combined with your local albums first and then a Tidal section.  So yours would mostly just have the Tidal section.  I haven't figured out the playlist feature yet.  I did give Roon a try over a month ago (for a day) when I thought it would be a great way to find Playlists for Tidal.  At the time it only made playlist within Roon that didn't show up in Tidal.  I emailed to cancel with my complaints and they said this feature was coming within the next month and asked if I wanted an extension on the trial.  I just canceled.  I only tried it again after frustration with the Tidal app and now Amarra's. 
 
For me, when I go to an artist, I want to see their albums laid out in chronological order by when they were originally released.  Not mixed up because of rereleases.   It's also nice to have a review of the album right there. Roon gives you that.  They also have it genres broken down it's all these sub-genres, to narrow down your selection.  And then the I believe they have a much larger list of similar artist, laid out by similar, influenced, and followed.  So pretty much what last.fm would show you built right in.
 
I believe Amarra for Tidal's approach is sound quality over everything else first.  So they have cache play with preloaded track, which is a great feature.  I'm not sure I understand why the artwork and all the other info takes so long to load.  I have a playlist with over 2500 songs and it takes forever. On Tidal and Roon, it's instant.
 
So I think if I post anything more about Roon, I'll do it in Roon thread, unless it's more of a direct comparison to Amarra. 

 

[Jeb Listens]

Cool good plan - I will post on the Roon thread too though at some point will combine with Amara SQ too.

 

[bobeau]

I just downloaded a trial of Amarra for Tidal today.  Have been using Amarra SQ w/ Tidal for maybe 4-5 months to this point.
 
I was prepared to hate it, the UI leaves me somewhat non-plussed (no hardware controls, really??).  The quick skip-ahead is great though.  But I certainly wasn't going to shell out $40 for what I thought would be a marginal sound quality improvement at best.
 
On that note... I couldn't believe it.  With my modest rMBP -> Concero HP -> IE800 setup, this over the Tidal/SQ combo is a clear audible improvement.  To be fair in some ways I like just the Tidal app by itself vs. Tidal + SQ... SQ seems to somewhat sweeten/diffuse the sound a bit.  But this is unmistakenly a solid leap forward.  
 
Prior to Tidal I was using MOG/Beats for the past few years - to me this is just as much as a jump forward as was moving from Beats to Tidal w/ their native player.  If you can get over the UX issues it's a no-brainer, and for sure check out the app in trial mode.

 

[omasciarotte]

Originally posted by pigmode /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 

…Amarra still has a seriously crap gui, plus why have a parametric equalizer and have only 5 bands?

 
The UI is a personal preference but, I’m curious why you’d want more than 5 bands of EQ…

 

[pigmode]

db Quote:

  Originally posted by pigmode /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 

…Amarra still has a seriously crap gui, plus why have a parametric equalizer and have only 5 bands?

 
The UI is a personal preference but, I’m curious why you’d want more than 5 bands of EQ…

 
 
Check out the link in my signature--not knowing anything about the use of equalizers, it was simpler to use  iTunes.  I did however do a $50. upgrade to Amarra Symphony, and have been playing with it today.
 
Its a four band equalizer. The current settings i'm playing with:
f - 18000, 8000, 4000, 1000
db - 3.5, 3.5, 2.0, 0.0
Q - 1.5, 2.5, 1.0, 1.0
 
 
 
P.S. The above is great for the Grado RS-2i, but the Senn IE800 might be a different story, or at least a more complicated adjustment. The latter probably needing to be turned down across the lower midrange as well. 

 

[omasciarotte]

  Check out the link in my signature--not knowing anything about the use of equalizers, it was simpler to use  iTunes.  I did however do a $50. upgrade to Amarra Symphony, and have been playing with it today.
 
Its a four band equalizer. The current settings i'm playing with:
f - 18000, 8000, 4000, 1000
db - 3.5, 3.5, 2.0, 0.0
Q - 1.5, 2.5, 1.0, 1.0
 
P.S. The above is great for the Grado RS-2i, but the Senn IE800 might be a different story, or at least a more complicated adjustment. The latter probably needing to be turned down across the lower midrange as well. 

 
Hey man,
 
You didn’t mention which flavors of EQ you’re using; parametric, shelf, etc. but, from the look of your setting, it seems you’re going for a pleasing sound rather than corrective measures.
 
You may want to try a preset I created for my Etymotics but would be a good starting point for personal customization of your IE800. Since I don’t have permissions to do it, I can’t attach a ZIP’d SQ2 file, Amarra’s preset file format. Instead, if you head over to seneschal.net and contact me via the Contact page, I’ll e-mail it to you. UnZip it and save it somewhere that you’ll remember its location. Select it with the OPEN button, switch to FLAT then to CUSTOM and the preset should then be “in circuit,” allowing you to listen and muck about with it.

 

[pigmode]

2, Quote:

 

  Check out the link in my signature--not knowing anything about the use of equalizers, it was simpler to use  iTunes.  I did however do a $50. upgrade to Amarra Symphony, and have been playing with it today.
 
Its a four band equalizer. The current settings i'm playing with:
f - 18000, 8000, 4000, 1000
db - 3.5, 3.5, 2.0, 0.0
Q - 1.5, 2.5, 1.0, 1.0
 
P.S. The above is great for the Grado RS-2i, but the Senn IE800 might be a different story, or at least a more complicated adjustment. The latter probably needing to be turned down across the lower midrange as well. 

 
Hey man,
 
You didn’t mention which flavors of EQ you’re using; parametric, shelf, etc. but, from the look of your setting, it seems you’re going for a pleasing sound rather than corrective measures.
 
You may want to try a preset I created for my Etymotics but would be a good starting point for personal customization of your IE800. Since I don’t have permissions to do it, I can’t attach a ZIP’d SQ2 file, Amarra’s preset file format. Instead, if you head over to seneschal.net and contact me via the Contact page, I’ll e-mail it to you. UnZip it and save it somewhere that you’ll remember its location. Select it with the OPEN button, switch to FLAT then to CUSTOM and the preset should then be “in circuit,” allowing you to listen and muck about with it.

 
 
Thanks for the offer--email sent. 
 
I'm using parametric setting, but really need to research and test some of the other settings. Today I'm using this set for the MBP > ie800, the system I think I'll try to set up Amarra for specifically.
 
 
f: 14000, 6000, 2000, 800
db: 2.4, 2.2, -2, -2
Q: 2.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0
 
Now that I'm in the ball park with equalization, I may also be back in the camp where Amarra is almost indispensable. 

 

[bigtube]

I don't know about 1450$ for it I will ask my dealer. I paid 650$ and like it. It has A IRC filter that you can control the speed at which frequencies come to your ears.

 

[toby23]

My experience with Amarra for Tidal has been awful.
While the sound is better than the default, the rest of the experience is horrible.
 
- The customer service ignores my queries on why the app doesn't work (custom EQ won't save/load).
- The UI experience is horribly awkward and uncomfortable to use, sometimes albums require multiple clicks before they load the track listing, sometimes nothing happens at all.
- The green progress bar is a constant reminder of a sluggish and badly written piece of software
- The whole thing is so slow and ungainly, it makes what should be a pleasure a chore.
- The EQ will not load my saved presets and will not save a preset between closing and opening the app
 
Then I discovered Roon.

While Roon could be considered expensive, I personally love the sound quality and the user experience is absolutely fantastic and has reinvigorated my passion for discovering music, which is what I loved about Spotify and am now enjoying again with Tidal.
 
Roon is everything that Amarra for Tidal isn't.
 
I know that there is a lot of love for the Amarra sound but I have not been convinced by it.
I also tried running Tidal through the Amarra SQ+ and found the quality was worse than the Amarra for Tidal app.
 
I know this sounds like marketing for Roon but I have been totally converted and am now considering a lifetime sub.