[ev666il]

So Audirvana Studio was released yesterday evening. I’ve only had so much time to play around with it, but it seems its spiffy new UI looks as good as it isn’t ready for prime time.

It’s got better integration of your local library with your streaming service of choice and a bunch of cool features, such as a HD analyzer that checks if tracks actually have content past 16bit and/or 22khz (which is the bandwidth for 44.1khz recordings.)

BUT the UI also has bugs and missing functionality that I and several other users reported on the Audirvana community forums. Font is very small with no option to increase its size; no sorting options for Tidal artists (turns out this is actually possible, albeit counterintuitively); no playlists on the left sidebar (you can still access your playlists but it's not as immediately obvious as it was in Audirvana 3.5)… Needs some polishing.

Kernel Streaming on Windows sounds really good but I can’t play any of my files that are higher than 16/44 with it (I can with WASAPI; already reported.)

 

[ghfiii]

Amazon HD now included in Amazon unlimited

Lossless audio now for all customers

 

[ghfiii]

Sent an email to Schiit and asked about a Freya S wait list:

Hello Griff,

I apologize however the Freya S has been discontinued.
All the Best,
Tom E.

 

[myquealer]

Sent an email to Schiit and asked about a Freya S wait list:

In a recent livestream Jason mentioned they found metal for 300 Freya S and that it's likely coming back for a limited run. I wouldn't be too discouraged by that message from customer support.

I'm glad I got my Freya S when I did.

 

[myquealer]

Amazon HD now included in Amazon unlimited

Lossless audio now for all customers

Nice! I've been debating downgrading to normal quality on Amazon since almost all my listening is vinyl.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Apple Lossless and Amazon HD new pricing (still not sure about sound quality--I need to re-evaluate their player and see if it has improved), and soon, Spotify lossless are all great news--more options that aren't lossy-hiding-in-lossless packaging maybe-defacto-music-takeover maybe-kinda-sorta DRM schemes.

 

[Ripper2860]

Hopefully Qobuz will follow shortly w/ a price reduction. In addition, one can hope that Spotify is also taking note of the new pricing when they officially introduce their HD offering.

(I'm not really sure how much more Tidal can take before it just folds. Hopefully they're not compounding things by handing money over for MQA licensing.)

 

[ghfiii]

In a recent livestream Jason mentioned they found metal for 300 Freya S and that it's likely coming back for a limited run. I wouldn't be too discouraged by that message from customer support.

That's why I asked. I watched the stream live and about had a heart attack when @Jason Stoddard said that

Griff

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Today's topic is how to mention MQA without mentioning MQA. Who'd like to go first? Jason?

--more options that aren't lossy-hiding-in-lossless packaging maybe-defacto-music-takeover maybe-kinda-sorta DRM schemes.

 

[RickB]

So Audirvana Studio was released yesterday evening. I’ve only had so much time to play around with it, but it seems its spiffy new UI looks as good as it isn’t ready for prime time.

It’s got better integration of your local library with your streaming service of choice and a bunch of cool features, such as a HD analyzer that checks if tracks actually have content past 16bit and/or 22khz (which is the bandwidth for 44.1khz recordings.)

BUT the UI also has bugs and missing functionality that I and several other users reported on the Audirvana community forums. Font is very small with no option to increase its size; no sorting options for Tidal artists (turns out this is actually possible, albeit counterintuitively); no playlists on the left sidebar (you can still access your playlists but it's not as immediately obvious as it was in Audirvana 3.5)… Needs some polishing.

Kernel Streaming on Windows sounds really good but I can’t play any of my files that are higher than 16/44 with it (I can with WASAPI; already reported.)

I'm using it and the "Analyzing audio files" is taking forever. It's already restarted once because my internet connection went out and caused the program to crash. I find it hard to believe they didn't realize they should've made that a background process invisible to the user and with the ability to save its place if the process is interrupted.

The sound quality is great, it sounds warmer to me than 3.5.

 

[Ableza]

Apple Lossless and Amazon HD new pricing (still not sure about sound quality--I need to re-evaluate their player and see if it has improved), and soon, Spotify lossless are all great news--more options that aren't lossy-hiding-in-lossless packaging maybe-defacto-music-takeover maybe-kinda-sorta DRM schemes.

 

[Balthazar B]

Amazon HD now included in Amazon unlimited

Lossless audio now for all customers

I'm sure Amazon has had this queued up for a while, just waiting for Spotify to deliver lossless...but Apple making its move probably triggered Amazon to announce:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/17/22440090/apple-music-lossless-audio-dolby-atmos-support-audio

Will be interesting to see if some kind of price war erupts when all the major players -- including Google -- have made lossless just table stakes.

 

[Ableza]

Beware of MP3 files converted to FLAC being called "lossless."

 

[Roy G. Biv]

But a FLAC converted from an MP3 will have ALL of the information that the MP3 had. So LOSSLESS!

Joking, obviously.

 

[Ken G]

Beware of MP3 files converted to FLAC being called "lossless."

Can't speak for Amazon, but supposedly Apple gets much of their digital content from the record companies in 24/96 and down converts to mp3 so they should have most of their lossless content ready to go. fingers crossed.