Plāys with Audirvāna - Announced

I am not sure of the purpose for this. Using AS, my Mac Book Pro plays straight into my Schiit LIM flawlessly, as far as I can tell.

Hadn't realized Audirvarna had a Windows version, trialing it now, liking sound much better than Roon. Have run into a few local USB HW issues,

hasn't worked so far with SRC-DX, some kind of synch issue and with a Cayin RU6 it skips 353/384 speeds with Asio, shows 706/768 instead,

won't play either but all else works well. Since it does UPNP to HQPlayer well this isn't stopping me, looking good for keeping it after trial period.

I currently use Audirvana 3.5 (the old non-subscription program) at the beach, on a Windows laptop. It has played through several USB dongle Dacs, and plays well through an AudioEngine wireless steamer into the home stereo. These are fairly simple use cases, and I never considered difficulty.

Rapidly Increasing complexity of the audio software/hardware field is real though, and I can see some of the players trying to protect their customers with these types of approval programs.

Yup, I've posted elsewhere that I failed to get Audirvana to work reliably over my wireless network using UPnP on an Auralic streamer. Auralic uses their own UPnP implementation and admitted their hardware doesn't work with Audirvana. I wanted an endpoint that could make Qobuz sound better so UPnP hardware needs to work with Audirvana for me.

That endpoint is the Volumio Rivo, a streamer released last year that enables me to use UPnP for Audirvana, Airplay 1 with my old iTunes server which the whole house is connected to, and Spotify Connect. This way, all user personas (spouse, son, and me) can get what they want from the home audio system. (Incidentally, Auralic upgraded their firmware to Airplay 2 which killed support for Airplay 1 wireless devices. So another reason Auralic is off the table in my world.)

If a new streamer is needed in the future, I will be looking for this certification.

I wonder and hope this will lead to better UPnP implementations on a broad range of gear.  Now to go test it on the Rivo!

rjf

I bought a Madison Wattson 6 weeks ago, without getting technical, it gets 2 thumbs up from me. I use an Uptone EtherRegen switch upstream followed by an AQ Vodka cable to the Madison. The network is pretty quiet with linear power supplies powering the router and the other switch. I listen to Qobus, Tidal and some internet radio through the Madison. It works very well. I could  have just bought a NAS for my less than 1 tb library, but I wanted to compare the sound quality with a direct connection to the Madison's limited digital inputs (TOS and COAX). I used Channel D's Pure Music in the past to good effect with my Macs, but it does not support current Mac OS so it was time to try Audirvana Studio. Within 10 minutes of using Audirvana I was sold, it's fantastic! Installation was easy and right away I was playing from my library in the onboard 1 TB SSD  drive, wirelessly streaming Quobuz, Tidal and radio channels where I could also select the resolutions offered. This all through iFi's GoBar and Meze 109 pro. Later the same day I noticed Audirvana's announcement of "Plays with Audirvana" and saw that Wattson is one of the group. I thought about that for a moment, took the Madison out of standby and then checked the Audirvana output destination…. and there was the Madison (upnp)as an option! So suddenly I was able to send anything playing through Audirvana on my Mac to the Madison! You can't see what you are playing on the Madison (iPhone) app, BUT when I raise volume level in Audirvana, I watch the volume raise on the Madison app! Woah! Immediately what followed was a flurry of AB-ing between wired-streaming Qobus direct to Madison and Macbook/Qobuz/Audirvana/Airplay. Direct to Madison wins, but the differences are fairly subtle.. Amazing! Fortune has smiled on me, as I kind of lucked into this. Now I can take advantage of the bells and whistles in Audirvana, like EQ and my functionality has dramatically improved. I am a  happy camper. Before getting into Audirvana I ordered a Matrix X-SPDIF3 DDC  to clean up the Macs output and convert from USB to SPDIF COAX, so soon I will find out how the direct input compares.

On 5/18/2023 at 6:51 AM, feelingears said:

Yup, I've posted elsewhere that I failed to get Audirvana to work reliably over my wireless network using UPnP on an Auralic streamer. Auralic uses their own UPnP implementation and admitted their hardware doesn't work with Audirvana. I wanted an endpoint that could make Qobuz sound better so UPnP hardware needs to work with Audirvana for me.

 

That endpoint is the Volumio Rivo, a streamer released last year that enables me to use UPnP for Audirvana, Airplay 1 with my old iTunes server which the whole house is connected to, and Spotify Connect. This way, all user personas (spouse, son, and me) can get what they want from the home audio system. (Incidentally, Auralic upgraded their firmware to Airplay 2 which killed support for Airplay 1 wireless devices. So another reason Auralic is off the table in my world.)

 

If a new streamer is needed in the future, I will be looking for this certification.

I have had those problems too with a Yamaha MusicCast streamer and replaced it with a Lindemann audio bridge II, alongside Asset UpNP on my NAS. Now I am streaming with or without my computer without any problems. It’s great that Audirvāna is taking this initiative to make devices ‘Audirvāna Ready’!

Does "plays with Audirvana"  make any difference when using a windows NUC plauing Qobuz/Audirvana studio to a mRendu/ADI 2 dac ?

On 5/21/2023 at 7:48 PM, bobfa said:

I wonder and hope this will lead to better UPnP implementations on a broad range of gear.  Now to go test it on the Rivo!

 

 

rjf

I don’t think so, unfortunately, because they all want to create their own eco-systems, like Apple for instance has done. For Audirvāna and Roon it’s a ‘must have’ to survive. Small brands will participate first, I think.

Please do not quash my optimism!