[Currawong]

Quote:

integer mode is supported again and you can download the beta for free
 
fidelia and audirvana plus imho sound totally different with the latter providing a smoother sound.

 
Might have to give this a go. In case anyone can't find the link for the Audirvana Plus beta with direct mode: http://audirvana.com/?p=304

 

[Jmstrmbn]

let me know what you think.  Unitl I tried the most recent beta I thought fidelia and audirvana plus were about the same.  Now the only reason I switch over to fidelia are the plugins, which are coming in 1.4 or 1.5 of audirvana plus

 

[bixby]

Quote:

Speaking of Audirvana, what exactly does Integer Mode do? I've read that Lion doesn't support it. Is that a bad thing?

First you have to ensure your dac supports it.

 

[sferic]

Thanks to this thread I've gone whole hog into Fidelia. You can try out the whole thing free for 15 days, but wallets beware...
 
First off, ANYTHING is better than iTunes. Have been using Audirvana, and then Aurdirvana Plus for ages. GREAT upgrade, and a great deal. However, the iTunes integration is a bit clunky, and for the past several versions, if you "disable completely" iTunes playback, it will hose QT movie playback. Maybe not a big deal for most, and you just disable that and its fine. But it's a problem if you like to watch video and listen to unrelated music (a weird habit I've had since I was a teen). I do think Audirvana Plus is fantastic, and an incredible bargain.
 
Fidelia, though, hooked me. The SQ does sound better to me. I did a lot of ABing with Audirvana and there are more details. And the iPhone remote is killer for me. That said, basic ($20) plus Advanced ($50) plus FHX ($50) plus the remote ($10), if you get bitten, your talking $130 for the full package. That said, in audiophile terms, I can't remember the last time $130 got me such a nice upgrade to my computer audio setup. 
 
Fidelia's iTunes integration is very elegant. The player is elegant. The FHX is subtle but quite amazing. It adds a natural feel to the sound that's hard to describe, definitely takes the edge off.
 
And the iPhone app means I don't have to click on windows to find new music, skip tracks, etc. 
 
I have no need to add in AU effects, but if you're into that, there are 4 busses available. Awesome.
 
I really like their model of being able to try it, and add features ala carte. 
 
I'm running Mt. Lion, Schitt Lyr/Bifrost, and LCD-2 rev2 / PS 1000's. 
 
I'm hooked. 

 

[Jmstrmbn]

Quote:

Thanks to this thread I've gone whole hog into Fidelia. You can try out the whole thing free for 15 days, but wallets beware...
 
First off, ANYTHING is better than iTunes. Have been using Audirvana, and then Aurdirvana Plus for ages. GREAT upgrade, and a great deal. However, the iTunes integration is a bit clunky, and for the past several versions, if you "disable completely" iTunes playback, it will hose QT movie playback. Maybe not a big deal for most, and you just disable that and its fine. But it's a problem if you like to watch video and listen to unrelated music (a weird habit I've had since I was a teen). I do think Audirvana Plus is fantastic, and an incredible bargain.
 
Fidelia, though, hooked me. The SQ does sound better to me. I did a lot of ABing with Audirvana and there are more details. And the iPhone remote is killer for me. That said, basic ($20) plus Advanced ($50) plus FHX ($50) plus the remote ($10), if you get bitten, your talking $130 for the full package. That said, in audiophile terms, I can't remember the last time $130 got me such a nice upgrade to my computer audio setup. 
 
Fidelia's iTunes integration is very elegant. The player is elegant. The FHX is subtle but quite amazing. It adds a natural feel to the sound that's hard to describe, definitely takes the edge off.
 
And the iPhone app means I don't have to click on windows to find new music, skip tracks, etc. 
 
I have no need to add in AU effects, but if you're into that, there are 4 busses available. Awesome.
 
I really like their model of being able to try it, and add features ala carte. 
 
I'm running Mt. Lion, Schitt Lyr/Bifrost, and LCD-2 rev2 / PS 1000's. 
 
I'm hooked. 

I also enjoy Fidelia, I have yet to take the FHX plunge but based on the 2 week trial it will be my main player when/if I drop the dough.

 

[miceblue]

Quote:

Thanks to this thread I've gone whole hog into Fidelia. You can try out the whole thing free for 15 days, but wallets beware...
 
First off, ANYTHING is better than iTunes. Have been using Audirvana, and then Aurdirvana Plus for ages. GREAT upgrade, and a great deal. However, the iTunes integration is a bit clunky, and for the past several versions, if you "disable completely" iTunes playback, it will hose QT movie playback. Maybe not a big deal for most, and you just disable that and its fine. But it's a problem if you like to watch video and listen to unrelated music (a weird habit I've had since I was a teen). I do think Audirvana Plus is fantastic, and an incredible bargain.
 
Fidelia, though, hooked me. The SQ does sound better to me. I did a lot of ABing with Audirvana and there are more details. And the iPhone remote is killer for me. That said, basic ($20) plus Advanced ($50) plus FHX ($50) plus the remote ($10), if you get bitten, your talking $130 for the full package. That said, in audiophile terms, I can't remember the last time $130 got me such a nice upgrade to my computer audio setup. 
 
Fidelia's iTunes integration is very elegant. The player is elegant. The FHX is subtle but quite amazing. It adds a natural feel to the sound that's hard to describe, definitely takes the edge off.
 
And the iPhone app means I don't have to click on windows to find new music, skip tracks, etc. 
 
I have no need to add in AU effects, but if you're into that, there are 4 busses available. Awesome.
 
I really like their model of being able to try it, and add features ala carte. 
 
I'm running Mt. Lion, Schitt Lyr/Bifrost, and LCD-2 rev2 / PS 1000's. 
 
I'm hooked. 

 
Hm, you've got me interested now.

 
I'm using Audirvana [free] at the moment and I think it's a pretty fantastic player for playing less than 10 songs at a time (I'm using an old 2008 MacBook).

 

[paullindqvist]

What excellent thread!!!
 
Iv been testing quite a few players and without having my newly ordered DAC (Audinst HUD MX1)  i must say i prefer the sound, UI, and functionality of Audirvana plus.
 
Question:
Im testing the latest beta with direct mode, and im pretty sure ill purchase it once the trial period is over. I have one question though, i read earlier in this thread that one had to make sure that the DAC support direct mode ?
 
Does the Audinst HUD-MX1 support that ?
 
Again thanx for this thread!

 

[miceblue]

Quote:

Question:
Im testing the latest beta with direct mode, and im pretty sure ill purchase it once the trial period is over. I have one question though, i read earlier in this thread that one had to make sure that the DAC support direct mode ?

 
I'm actually not sure about that myself. In Audirvana [free], there is a check-box for integer mode. If your device doesn't support it, maybe the box will be greyed out.
 
 
 
In my brief comparison between Fidelia versus Audirvana [free], I've found that Fidelia does improve the soundstage and brings a little more warmth to my music (I'm using a FiiO E7 and Shure SRH940). Fidelia makes my music seem little more lively because of that added warmth. This actually sounds really good....

 
What kind of magic is this? Fidelia seems to sound better than Audirvana [free] while using less of my computer's resources. When I load a song into Audirvana [free], my CPU usage shoots up really high to pre-load the song (CPU gets as high as 180%!). In Fidelia, my CPU is hardly bothered at all (less than 10%) and uses only 83 MB of RAM compared to Audirvana [free]'s 129 MB for the same song.
 
Audirvana [free] settings:
Exclusive Access Mode
Integer Mode
User max I/O buffer size
Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre-load: 896 MB
Converter: Apple CoreAudio
Quality: Best
Forced Upsampling: Maximum sample rate upsampling
^When the last 2 settings are switched to the opposite settings, Audirvana [free] still takes up 210 MB of RAM, but very little impact on the CPU. There is a noticeable difference in sound quality too.
 
Fidelia settings:
Dither enabled (16-bit MBIT+)
Output converter: Apple High Quality (best quality)
Exclusive Access
Load audio file into physical memory
Dither shape/amount: Ultra/high

 

[paullindqvist]

Thanc Miceblue, well i guess i will found out soon enough. .-) It will probably get the DAC early next week.
 
I think you should compare audirvana plus with Fidelia and not the free version as the plus and free version does not perform the same. (especially not compared to the latest beta of the plus version)
 
http://audirvana.com/site/?page_id=143
 


 
 
As i haven't found fidelia to sound better, the price and UI is the two most negative things for me. UI is simply to big to be practical. (especially on a MBA 13")
 
Again i haven't tested with the DAC so this is just based on listening to with the internal soundcard on my iMac.

 

[paullindqvist]

The worst of the players iv tried is the Amarra which UI looks outdated (like ten years) it also told me i was running out of memory all the time ? I have 16GB which should be more then enough.
 
SQ was not better then any of the Audirvana version or fidelia imo. The price is[size=x-small] simply not justified for a product that looks it was written for windows 98, and with no apparent SQ advantage to my ears, i would not use it even if it was free.[/size]
 
 

 

[miceblue]

Quote:

Thanc Miceblue, well i guess i will found out soon enough. .-) It will probably get the DAC early next week.
 
I think you should compare audirvana plus with Fidelia and not the free version as the plus and free version does not perform the same. (especially not compared to the latest beta of the plus version)
 
http://audirvana.com/site/?page_id=143
 
[/snip images]
 
As i haven't found fidelia to sound better, the price and UI is the two most negative things for me. UI is simply to big to be practical. (especially on a MBA 13")

Unfortunately I have already tried the trial paid version and the beta is linked to that, which is linked to my computer. I should have paid more attention to how it sounded rather than messing around with the settings and volume knob. >.>
 
And yes I agree with the Fidelia's UI being huge for a 13" MacBook (I'm using a 13" MacBook with a 22" external monitor).
 
 
Quote:

The worst of the players iv tried is the Amarra which UI looks outdated (like ten years) it also told me i was running out of memory all the time ? I have 16GB which should be more then enough.
 
SQ was not better then any of the Audirvana version or fidelia imo. The price is[size=x-small] simply not justified for a product that looks it was written for windows 98, and with no apparent SQ to my ears i would not use it even if it was free.[/size]
 

 
Ugh Amarra's interface..is SO confusing to me. I recall having to open 3 different windows for Amarra to work as I wanted.
 

 

[niic]

I have tried the trial versions of Amarra and Amarra HiFi, Decibel and Audirvana Plus, and ended up purchasing Audirvana Plus.
Before using those players I used Songbird for about a month, and although it offers the same amazing song management as iTunes, it doesn't offer its controls nor could I find the amazing bump in sound quality I was hoping for.
 
Decibel was OK, but starting-up and quitting took a long, long time, as did loading new .flac files. The sound-quality was a major step-up from iTunes though, and the app is generally very stable, apart from sometimes - for unknown reasons - pruning my entire playlist. The interface is very clean and intuitive, but the lack of music management like in iTunes was a bummer, which is a problem that could have been fixed by offering an iTunes integrated mode, which unfortunately isn't present.
 
Amarra and Amarra HiFi were nice players, but as a lot of you have already mentioned: their interface looks very outdated, and it just couldn't get used to it. I also have a distinct feeling I'm using a toned-down, not-all-you-can-get-version when using HiFi. But their sound quality was very nice, and although I am definitely not audiophile enough to hear major differences between Decibel and Amarra I could tell it was slightly more to my liking.
Apart from the crappy interface, the app did start quickly and closed down quickly, and runs smoothly.
 
I then auditioned Audirvana Plus, and for some reason I really like the user interface, which really gives me the feeling of dedicating myself to listening to music, rather than just using it - like iTunes - to play in the background while I'm doing other things on the computer. The iTunes integrated mode takes a few seconds to start-up, but once it is playing it is very stable and runs smoothly. Importing new .flac files is very fast, but unfortunately it only keeps alphabetical order per import, rather than for the whole playlist, so I now have to scroll down to the end for the other Coldplay-songs I've imported. This is really the only thing that bugs me, but to overcome the problem I prune the playlist and re-import all .flac files on my computer again.
Between Amarra and Audirvana I couldn't hear a discernable difference in sound quality, and just like Amarra, I really like how Audirvana presents some of my favourite songs to me.
Furthermore the app seems to be very stable, and starts-up and closes down very quickly.
 
After about a week, I purchased a license for Audirvana Plus, and I have not regretted it since.

  For $49 it is a stable, great-looking player, and you never get the feeling there are any compromises in features or sound quality. Furthermore I feel the iTunes integrated mode is just a tad easier to get used to than that of Amarra.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Unfortunately I have already tried the trial paid version and the beta is linked to that, which is linked to my computer. I should have paid more attention to how it sounded rather than messing around with the settings and volume knob. >.>
 
And yes I agree with the Fidelia's UI being huge for a 13" MacBook (I'm using a 13" MacBook with a 22" external monitor).
 
 
 
Ugh Amarra's interface..is SO confusing to me. I recall having to open 3 different windows for Amarra to work as I wanted.
 

 
I simply load Amarra and leave it in the background, then play my music via iTunes with my usual playlists like normal.

 

[Rumbleripper]

Quote:

 
I simply load Amarra and leave it in the background, then play my music via iTunes with my usual playlists like normal.

 
I find the audio quality of Amarra better if I load the music into Amarra's playlist and then play from there as opposed to just running it off of iTunes and having Amarra in the background. 
Although it is much easier that way, the sound is not as good.

 

[Currawong]

From my understanding, Amarra is using a code base that originally wasn't Apple native and I imagine it is still being written using tools other than X-Code, hence the terrible interface. The only contact I had with them was through a company paid to do beta testing so I never got a straight answer why they don't move everything over to X-Code, which would allow them to solve the interface issue.
 
niic: Agreed about the sound of each. The difference is extremely subtle, but I prefer Amarra, even after trying the new direct mode in the Audirvana Plus beta.
 
As for compatibility, there are only a handful of USB audio chipsets and only a couple of those use custom firmware so the compatibility of direct mode in Audirvana Plus will depend on the chipset and firmware. I will have devices with most of them here so at some point I'll test and see which ones work.