[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

What do you mean it achieves a 4D experience?  Does it transport you through space and time?  If not, it's not 4D.

well as long as it doesnt stop you from traveling through time normally it could still technically be considered 4d...
 
 

 

[uelover]

This is getting too ridiculous lol.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

This is supposedly "4D" so it must be different lol, it has a whole 'nother dimension to it! As far as coloration goes it says that it "Maintains the integrity and realistic tonal characteristics of the original recorded audio when processed"; also that it "Achieves a 4D experience from as few as 2 output channels, stereo speakers or headphones, yet is compatible with multi-channel presentation formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS". All I know is that it sounds great and I've never really been one for surround processing for music and I usually prefer the stereo mix to the surround mix when I have a choice, even with my speaker system where I can choose between full surround or bi-amped towers. But this is something special, and going back to music without AstoundSound when I a/b really does sound like mono in comparison.
 
It's a free trial, and I would love to hear what someone else thinks of it. AFAIK I am the only one at Head-fi to try this so far as nothing turns up in the search engine.

As long as it doesn't cause one to go backwards in time.  Actually, the ad copy about 4D experience is a really clever way of applying marketing speak to the phenomena of wasting time.  

 

 

[mrspeakers]

 
Quote:

 
 


This is supposedly "4D" so it must be different lol, it has a whole 'nother dimension to it! As far as coloration goes it says that it "Maintains the integrity and realistic tonal characteristics of the original recorded audio when processed"; also that it "Achieves a 4D experience from as few as 2 output channels, stereo speakers or headphones, yet is compatible with multi-channel presentation formats such as Dolby Digital and DTS". All I know is that it sounds great and I've never really been one for surround processing for music and I usually prefer the stereo mix to the surround mix when I have a choice, even with my speaker system where I can choose between full surround or bi-amped towers. But this is something special, and going back to music without AstoundSound when I a/b really does sound like mono in comparison.
 
It's a free trial, and I would love to hear what someone else thinks of it. AFAIK I am the only one at Head-fi to try this so far as nothing turns up in the search engine.

 
Hiya Grokit.  
 
I gave it a shot, and thought it had a huge coloration on the sound.  I couldn't listen any more than a few minutes on any track.  While it created more "space," the midrange became quite objectionably resonant and bloated, and it really jacked up low-level reverb and other location/ambience cues to the point of distraction, even at "low" settings, and doing A/B left me clearly preferring the native sound.
 
It may be our setups, or perhaps just different preferences and taste.  I've always preferred neutrality and transparency to space, but plenty of other people are way more interested in space than tonal balance....  YMMV

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

 
Hiya Grokit.  
 
I gave it a shot, and thought it had a huge coloration on the sound.  I couldn't listen any more than a few minutes on any track.  While it created more "space," the midrange became quite objectionably resonant and bloated, and it really jacked up low-level reverb and other location/ambience cues to the point of distraction, even at "low" settings, and doing A/B left me clearly preferring the native sound.
 
It may be our setups, or perhaps just different preferences and taste.  I've always preferred neutrality and transparency to space, but plenty of other people are way more interested in space than tonal balance....  YMMV

 

Oh well, thanks for trying it out. I really liked the effect at first out of my LCD-2 but more so on some songs than others. I think the effect breaks down if the music isn't recorded well, it just seems to amplify the distortion. But on well-recorded music I do like it. Vocals can be hit or miss but where I am really liking it is for solo instrumental performances. I was listening to George Winston's piano renditions of Doors music (Night Divides the Day, excellent), and it feels like I am at a live chamber concert. To me it makes the music more immersive, but I understand that it isn't for everybody. I am looking forward to trying it with movies, that should be interesting as it supposedly is compatible with the cinema surround cues.
 
I will be buying it for the 2 of 3 of my Macs that will run it, for one head rig and one speaker rig. It's cheap and fun, and is easy to turn on/off. And when I get a chance I will check out that Chesky binaural recording with it, that should be interesting...
 
So is this similar to Canz3D after all? The only two-channel surround processing I've tried before this was Dolby Headphone and Creative's X-fi, and AstoundSound is leagues better than those.
 

 

[uelover]

No sure if anyone experienced the same thing as me. Initially when I switched from iTunes to Decibel and Audirvana, I thought that the jump in SQ was quite back.
 
Then, now when I listen through iTunes, I realized that the jump is not actually that big and that I could actually make do with iTune alone.

 

[starbux48]

Where can I find the script that lets you drag songs from iTunes over into Audirvana?

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

No sure if anyone experienced the same thing as me. Initially when I switched from iTunes to Decibel and Audirvana, I thought that the jump in SQ was quite back.
 
Then, now when I listen through iTunes, I realized that the jump is not actually that big and that I could actually make do with iTune alone.

The power of auto suggestion is very strong in this one, Ohbiwan...  

 
Glad you are working your way through this quagmire!
 
 

 

[MrQ]

.

 

[iamoneagain]

Finally happy with Amarra.  I found a workaround for the few albums the were giving me looping problems.  I had to convert to WAV and then back to ALAC.  For some reason converting to AIFF and back didn't fix the problem.  I just got around to trying out gapless and it is indeed flawless with no seam between tracks.  Also haven't had any real stuttering problems when playing directly from iTunes. I'm hoping they find a way to get gapless without the use of a playlist so the player can be totally in the background.  For now it's back to being my chosen player.   I like being able to use iTunes directly again and the iphone Remote fully works.

 

[KingStyles]

Just got the newest version of amarra loaded up and it sounds great. Seems a little clearer than the previous version.... or maybe the vacation I just got off of repaired my hearing.

 

[starbux48]

Played around today with Audirvana with settings of SRC on and upsampling set to maximum sample rate.  Also installed a utility that shows me % utilization of both cpu cores on my Macbook Pro.  With both of those turned on both cores went up to 100% and stayed there.  One question I have is this...if am just using the computer at any time to simply play audio via Audirvana, is there any downside to letting the processors run at 100%?  I would think that they would generate more heat, but are there any other reasons not to do this?
 
I ran out of time on my paid evals for Pure Music, Amarra, and am running in trial mode for Fidelia.  Haven't tried Decibel yet (to be honest found the page to download it and there were several choices and being new to Macs didn't know which to get).  I liked Pure Music.  Amarra Mini was nice but both it and full version out of my budget now, and did not like the Junior interface.  Liked Fidelia plus they have an iOS app for my Touch.  Like Audirvana as much as any and it's free.
 
I believe I can hear an improvement with the SRC and max upsampling turned on, but will my Mac suffer anything as a result of those high cpu %?
 
Oh have downloaded Vox and running but best I can see is it still being developed?  I know the others are.  Also, sent some emails to Channel D support.  Fast replies, very helpful.  Same for email for product feature add request to Fidelia support.  Very quick response.  I like that.  Those replies alone make me think if I need to tweak any piece of my software or hardware setup, the developers & tech supt for those companies will be there to help me.
 
On side note, highly recommend tech response from HRT MusicStreamer support.

 

[starbux48]

FYI unless it's old news.  Nice program in beta now to export playlists from iTunes in .m3u format that programs like Audirvana can read and use.  Not sure of their release date yet or cost (think it'll be something).  Will post more later when it's out if anyone is interested.

 

[uelover]

Hmm you can access your iTune playlist directly from Finder and add them accordingly to Audirvana. Maybe just a step more but it will be forever there for you (for free).
 
Having your computer running at 100% CPU utilization will generate an enormous amount of heat which will then shorten the lifespan of your mac.
 
The highest temperature I have hit with Audirvana was 95 degree celsius. I could almost boil water on it.

 

[afton]

This is awesome Currawong! Thanks  
Do you know any audiophile music player for Windows?