[ajreynol]

Audirvana! is pretty cool. I think I'd like it more if I could access my iTunes library and playlists like I can in Fidelia.

Sounds great, though.

 

[vert]

I agree with you, Audirvana has taken huge strides since the addition of integer mode. It was quite mechanical and hard sounding before.

 

[mrspeakers]

Nice UI.  Definitely will try it.

 

[grokit]

I might have to try Audirvana as well for the occasional FLAC files that I listen to on my Mac.

 
Quote:

No need a for a blind test. Toslink via a macbook is a very high jitter connection and the DAC (even with a clock) will not be able to handle the connection without major sound degradation. There's a night and day difference between Toslink and a low jitter USB converter.

 
Quote:

This is your opinion on Toslink, it's not a "fact," and you are in fact wrong in that Toslink jitter can be reduced just as well as USB, and many products exist to do this.  

 

I have tried optical through a coax converter with it's own jitter clock with a couple of different DACs and had very different results. On one it made a very audible improvement and on the one with an excellent jitter re-clocking system of it's own not so much. So I would agree that it really depends on the DAC's individual capabilities.

 

[Currawong]

Looks like they have vastly improved the UI for Audirvana, so I might have to give it another go.

 

[Hero Kid]

Quote:

Looks like they have vastly improved the UI for Audirvana, so I might have to give it another go.

My thoughts exactly. I'm currently using Decibel after trying everything else.
 
 

 

[tru blu]

Unfortunately, I can't get Audirvana…only runs on Mac OS 10.6. Oh, well…
 
I should add that Ecoute's social-media initiatives aren't really available yet, which is making it kinda useless to me.

 

[iamoneagain]

I really liked Audirvana's sound too but still had issues with it.  Main thing is it doesn't do perfect gapless on my system.  I hear when tracks change.  It also forces midi to 24 bit.  So if you use it and then go back and try you other players, they may not sound as good as you remember.  Decibel sounds best in 16 bit on my system and I think it ends up sounding better than Audirvana in the end.  Audirvana sounds a little more open but I find myself enjoying my music and listening longer when I use Decibel.  It's also the only one I haven't have any bugs with.  Amarra is the worst, Fidelia doesn't even open anymore, Audivrana has occasional skips, and Pure Music acts weird if you play around with iTunes menu. 
 
 

 

[uelover]

Quote:

I really liked Audirvana's sound too but still had issues with it.  Main thing is it doesn't do perfect gapless on my system.  I hear when tracks change.  It also forces midi to 24 bit.  So if you use it and then go back and try you other players, they may not sound as good as you remember.  Decibel sounds best in 16 bit on my system and I think it ends up sounding better than Audirvana in the end.  Audirvana sounds a little more open but I find myself enjoying my music and listening longer when I use Decibel.  It's also the only one I haven't have any bugs with.  Amarra is the worst, Fidelia doesn't even open anymore, Audivrana has occasional skips, and Pure Music acts weird if you play around with iTunes menu. 
 
 

Hmm the previous version of audirvana does force midi to be set to 24bit but the latest version doesn't. I have mine playing at 16bit.
What is the spec of your mac? I am using macbook pro and I get gapless play too.
 
Hope that you will be able to fix those bugs and enjoy audirvana because it triumphs decibel on my system!
 

 

[bulmanxxi]

Audirvana forces my MIDI to 32-bit, which totally messes up the audio for any other player and the system, and only a PRAM reset/restart fixes it.  There is still no search box for long playlists.  Otherwise, the developer is making regular updates so far...  Can't really say "trumps" the other player though.  They each sound good albeit perhaps just slightly different.

 

[iamoneagain]

Quote:

Hmm the previous version of audirvana does force midi to be set to 24bit but the latest version doesn't. I have mine playing at 16bit.
What is the spec of your mac? I am using macbook pro and I get gapless play too.
 
Hope that you will be able to fix those bugs and enjoy audirvana because it triumphs decibel on my system!
 

I think the midi setting depends on what DAC you use and how it's hooked up.  I use mine thru optical.  I get gapless with Audirvana but there is this micro-gap that you can barely hear.  It's the same way on Amarra.  With Decibel and Pure Music, gapless is perfect.  I like Decibel's method better than Pure Music for achieving gapless. Pure Music loads entire album into memory while I think Decibel only had up 2 tracks loaded at any time.  

 

[Rdr. Seraphim]

I'm in the process of upgrading my older generation iMac (G5 w/2GB), so take this with a grain of salt. Once I get my new MacBook Pro, I'll test it again.
 
Does PM load the entire folder for a given album? Presently, while playing my FLAC media -- running PM in hog/hybrid/memory mode -- it starts the next track gapless while loading the rest of the track into memory. However, it does this one track at a time. Is this maybe the result of my limited memory model? What is your experience with more memory?  
Quote:

I think the midi setting depends on what DAC you use and how it's hooked up.  I use mine thru optical.  I get gapless with Audirvana but there is this micro-gap that you can barely hear.  It's the same way on Amarra.  With Decibel and Pure Music, gapless is perfect.  I like Decibel's method better than Pure Music for achieving gapless. Pure Music loads entire album into memory while I think Decibel only had up 2 tracks loaded at any time.  

 

 

[iamoneagain]

Quote:

I'm in the process of upgrading my older generation iMac (G5 w/2GB), so take this with a grain of salt. Once I get my new MacBook Pro, I'll test it again.
 
Does PM load the entire folder for a given album? Presently, while playing my FLAC media -- running PM in hog/hybrid/memory mode -- it starts the next track gapless while loading the rest of the track into memory. However, it does this one track at a time. Is this maybe the result of my limited memory model? What is your experience with more memory?  


 

 
 
Pure Music will load entire album only if gapless is checked within iTunes settings for each album.  Otherwise it loads one track at a time.
 
 

 

[bulmanxxi]

The 32-bit forcing of MIDI is actually happening WITH and WITHOUT DAC, so it doesn't seem to be related to the DAC.

 

[IPodPJ]

Decibel and Play have the best sound quality, but the worst user interfaces.  Decibel has a tad more detail precision. Play has better midrange and bass fullness and a wider soundstage.  No other Mac program even compares in the SQ department.