[JoeDoe]

Out of Audirvana, Fidelia, and Bitperfect, which are you using and why?
 
Comments from users who've tried more than one especially welcome!

 

[JoeDoe]

Bump

 

[muziq]

Using Bitperfect at the moment, but after trying Audirvana at a recent meet, I'm seriously considering it.  I didn't get much time to mess with it, though, so I don't have much to go on outside of the marketing fluff plus the comments over on Computer Audiophile. Would value any thoughts or comparisons with Bitperfect, too!

 

[georgelai57]

I bought bitperfect and I tried the 15 day trial for Audirvana. I gave up on both, the main reason not having anything to do with sound quality. I find that sometimes they hang. And sometimes when I just use normal iTunes it won't work unless I quit iTunes and get back in again. I hate things like that.

 

[JoeDoe]

I bought bitperfect and I tried the 15 day trial for Audirvana. I gave up on both, the main reason not having anything to do with sound quality. I find that sometimes they hang. And sometimes when I just use normal iTunes it won't work unless I quit iTunes and get back in again. I hate things like that.

That's happened to me with Audirvana but so far, other than the slow library scan time, Fidelias been great!

 

[Supperconductor]

Audirvana with Integer mode on my Peachtree Audio iNova or my iBasso D10 - sounds fantastic. I have a Light Harmonic GEEK on order, can't wait to hear that combo.

 

[muziq]

I bought bitperfect and I tried the 15 day trial for Audirvana. I gave up on both, the main reason not having anything to do with sound quality. I find that sometimes they hang. And sometimes when I just use normal iTunes it won't work unless I quit iTunes and get back in again. I hate things like that.

I ran into a hanging problem with Bitperfect on my Macbook Pro--especially when my listening session was over or I needed to pause for something like a bathroom break.  I found that the error was on the keyboard side of the set-up (meaning me); I was sometimes minimizing or closing iTunes before closing Bitperfect, or otherwise interfering with the signal that Bitperfect expected to see.  Once I changed my workflow to closing or quitting Bitperfect first, then moving on to whatever I needed to do next (quit iTunes, swap cables, etc), the hanging stopped.  It's janky, but it works for me, especially since with Mavericks, it allows Integer mode with ALO International.
 
Haven't really looked into Fidelia yet.  

 

[brhfl]

I just use iTunes and manage the output settings myself... but if I were to start using one of the above, it'd be BitPerfect. Out of the way, and (relatively) no-nonsense. 

 

[JoeDoe]

How about an interest bump, especially since Fidelia just released a solid update.

 

[brhfl]

  How about an interest bump, especially since Fidelia just released a solid update.

BitPerfect just went version 2 as well.

 

[Red Jacket Mike]

I use both Audirvana Plus and BitPerfect; I was recently having some problems with static between tracks with both of these players.  I thought it was either updating to Mavericks 10.9.2, or maybe iTunes 11.1.5, and for a few days I tried everything to clear up the issue.  It turned out to be the driver for my W4S DAC-2.  Downloading the newest version solved everything.
 
I don't hear much of a difference in sound with BitPerfect over iTunes alone; I got it when it first came out mostly for the auto sample switching.  With Audirvana, I might be hearing a blacker, more silent background with some recordings.  Both of these apps work very well, once you get the settings tweaked.  
 
I still like iTunes for its library features and organization, though.

 

[Rogwp]

I don't hear much of a difference in sound with BitPerfect over iTunes alone; I got it when it first came out mostly for the auto sample switching.  With Audirvana, I might be hearing a blacker, more silent background with some recordings.  Both of these apps work very well, once you get the settings tweaked. 

Any suggestions for the best settings?
I have a MacBook Pro with Aune DAC and listen to most music genres (except heavy rock), I also like iTunes for its library.

 

[Red Jacket Mike]

If you go to the BitPerfect blog page (http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/p/faq.html) they have recommended choices for all of the BitPerfect preference settings.

 

[drhonk]

  How about an interest bump, especially since Fidelia just released a solid update.

Agreed ... The combination of their latest update and their FHX headphone processor has been really good.

 

[cebuboy]

I have been using A+ for some time now and find it good for my needs, sounds great to my ears,  stable enough except for failing to go to the next track sometimes and simple enough to operate, basic library management needs some refinement though...
 
Currently trying out Fidelia, sounds good, well not as good as A+ to me. Library management is better than A+. I stil can't figure out the settings though... Are the upgrades worth it? How do you work the settings? What do those options mean?