[monsieurguzel]

I've been using Pure Music for a while now and lately I'm kind of questioning the value of even using it in my setup.  While it does tend to clean up the bass a little and make it slightly more "analogue" than itunes on my mac....already consists of a WA5 and LCD2 which is already dark(ish) and full bodied.  Adding Pure Music makes it all a little more bassy but not necessarily a "better" sound than straight itunes.  I doubt that many can really hear that much difference to warrant a $700 pricetag of Amarra.  You can accomplish very similar effects by tweaking the EQ ever so slightly

 

[AVU]

Quote:

AVU: You probably wouldn't benefit at all with just a Sparrow. 

well right.  I'm certainly not saying there's not a difference.
I'd get better than a $200 amp and dac before spending $700 on software!

 

[santacore]

I bought the mini version of Amarra and feel it's well worth the money. The sound difference was like getting a new dac or new source. Plus, having auto sample rate switching is a huge deal for me since my collections varies from 44.1k to 96k.

 

[dallan]

Quote:

I bought the mini version of Amarra and feel it's well worth the money. The sound difference was like getting a new dac or new source. Plus, having auto sample rate switching is a huge deal for me since my collections varies from 44.1k to 96k.

It is getting a new source.

 

[dallan]

Well for the moment i can eat my words.  Amarra has gone all Mickey Mouse on me.  This has happened a few times in the past and reopening it has worked, or at worst restarting my computer.  That is not working now.  When i turn on Amarra mini or go back and forth to itunes, it plays fast and voices are high pitched like sped up.  Any one have ideas, i have already tried downloading the current version and restarted my computer several times.....anyone??
 
 
 
Edit, wait it works okay with 24 bit????
 
And now its fine???? freaky.  It was set on 16 bit before too, guess it's a bit fickle.  
 

 

[dallan]

 
It speeds up occasionally (chipmunks voice) with regular recordings and even restarting the computer won't fix it.  The only thing that fixes it is opening up a 24 bit file and playing it and then reopening the 16 bit???? Anyone know why.

 

[Budley007]

Quote:

This product seems to have been all but forgotten on Head-Fi. Likely explanation - no one seems to be able to explain precisely what it does. While I bought it, and consider it to noticeably improve the sound of my system, I can understand why people are more reluctant to spend money on software rather than on tangible products - DACs, headphones and amplifiers. I find some irony in this, however, as how many of us can open up those nice metal boxes and explain what is in them?

You may be correct, but I'd wager it's because this software is Mac only.  Like it or not, there's a significant number of us Windows users that are "culturally" and financially chained to our hardware/software investments.  I wish I could afford both.

 

[dallan]

When it came time to get a new computer, or actually when i was getting close i made the switch to mac.  I was a long time PC user and the Amarra software was a contributing factor since a lot/most of my music is computer based.  Much better sound and it was one of the many things i did to fight the fatigue i was getting with computer audio.  I did Amarra with a the Diverter as a usb->s/pdif converter and those combined fixed all issues. 

 

[dallan]

Well, the problem of the speed up seems to be related to my Digital Link dac.  They are looking into it but for now it only happens about every week or two and is fixed by opening a 24 bit file then going back to the regular file.  Probably be a patch later but not much of a problem, worth it for the SQ.  I also went ahead and did what i have been wanting to do for the last year, upgraded to the full version, what an extravagance.  Very happy with Amarra, a cornerstone of my system.

 

[ninjikiran]

I think software will outpace hardware, considering the type of processing power on your typical PC is miles ahead the kind of performance you can get out of chips in even the most high end DAC's.  With software algorithms becoming increasingly complicated if it can do what is normally done in hardware better than any other solution it might very well be worth the price for some.
 
If it were a simple music player/library app given the vast amount of free apps around it would be worthless.  Personally I don't believe in audio players as transports for audio to have differences in sound, it makes no logical sense.  But say someone released a plugin for FooBar or Winamp or xxHighend which rivaled hardware functionality or even bettered it to the point of being perfect than your paying for thought out code and not the jewelry of a high end component.
 
If anything I feel no piece of equipment(excluding headphones) should have their own sound to them.  Given you can give music your own unique sound signature through software even more efficiently and fine tuned. 
 
 
Now lets assume the claims made are true, is it worth $1500?  Perhaps to someone with tons of cash but it probably is a tad exploitative.  But then again most of the high end audio industry are either exploitative or highly inefficient(which to some degree that is the fault of mentality).  Will they be the first? I highly doubt it.  I am going to bet there will be competition within the years.  Cheaper cost wise, but holding the same kind of power.  Personally I wouldn't pay that much money for a piece of software.
 
 
Just my 2 cents, I have no real opinion on the product and am just basing this on some first page posts.  My gut feeling is the same as most people but keeping an open mind is important~ 
 
As for it being Mac only, I am going to get a little dirty and under handed here and say.  Mac users are willing to spend more for less when they buy their computers and generally fall victim to the Mac vs Windows arguments which make Mac OS out to be some kind of god.  They are still good computers so don't get me wrong,  As such Mac users generally have a higher bracket of income and are less inclined to pirate software.  Thus it would only be more logical to release software on a system which you will probably see greater return and less chance of piracy from a business perspective.  You can say that there are more Windows users in the world but according to head-fi in most of the higher end threads people are connecting their devices to a Mac of some kind.

 

[googleborg]

I guess the high price was so they could make some money on it before it was cracked, which it has been btw.
 
 

 

[dallan]

Price is way lower than originally for Amarra and mini.  I actually was a PC owner and got a mac when i got the most recent computer and Amarra was one of the main reasons i did.  So I wasn't a Mac person.  Guess now i sort of am......

 

[Currawong]

Sometimes Amarra doesn't switch sampling rates and so you get music sounding as if the playback speed is wrong.  I've filed so many bugs with them it's not funny.  While they have been fixing them, I really don't understand what is going on with their coders, as the interface looks terrible, when all it needs is for the designers to use Interface Builder to make it.

 

[dallan]

I had that problem and it is a the dac that is changing the sample rate it seems.  At least i had it with the mini, when switching to the internal speakers it is fine.  So they are trying to get together with PSaudio to get a fix, in the mean time i can fix it by switching to a 24 bit file and then back to what i want and it adjusts itself.  Try that for the time being and see if it works for you.  I think they are trying to use a variety of dacs that we have out here not just one and that may be the problem. 

 

[darknessproz]

Paying a whole load of money to get a buggy software with crappy interface? Doesn't make sense to me.
Quote:

Sometimes Amarra doesn't switch sampling rates and so you get music sounding as if the playback speed is wrong.  I've filed so many bugs with them it's not funny.  While they have been fixing them, I really don't understand what is going on with their coders, as the interface looks terrible, when all it needs is for the designers to use Interface Builder to make it.