Audirvana Plus: Direct Mode

[ted_b]

Does anybody know if the TC Electronic interfaces especially the Impact Twin are capable of integer/direct mode??

 

PM this guy. He is more than implying that he got integer mode in PM (back with SL of course) using the Impact Twin.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/pure-music-1-8-a-7346/index10.html#post87031

[SteveS1]

Damien,

 

I've been looking forward to giving this a try and I'm not disappointed. Using, AV+/Hog/Direct with Weiss 202 Firewire it is sounding terrific and very stable so far. I have little other than 16/44 AIFF rips, finding a lot of HD reissues of back catalogue pretty meh - but I've mixed in the odd higher sample rate recording and no issues to date. I've been enjoying Amarra 2.4/PM but imo your app has taken things a little further on sonically with no need for quirky gapless playback routines. Great work.

[Esprit]

Does anybody know if the TC Electronic interfaces especially the Impact Twin are capable of integer/direct mode??

The Impact is a FW card, TC Electronic is the Dice Driver developer, Dice Driver doesn't support integer mode

[augomol]

Hi, Damien!

On my Arcam rDac Direct Mode in the Audio System panel it is absent (Mac OS Lion 10.7.4)

how to fix it?

 

[ted_b]

Hi, Damien!

On my Arcam rDac Direct Mode in the Audio System panel it is absent (Mac OS Lion 10.7.4)

how to fix it?

 

 

Stupid question but...do you have the latest beta A+ (the one with Direct mode) installed? There a several versions of A+ one could have/own, and it's easy to pick the wrong one, possibly?

[augomol]

Stupid question but...do you have the latest beta A+ (the one with Direct mode) installed? There a several versions of A+ one could have/own, and it's easy to pick the wrong one, possibly?

Of course I used last beta version A+ (1.3.9.2).

[augomol]

Of course I used last beta version A+ (1.3.9.2).

Sorry. I reboot my Mac Mini and he appeared

For optimal use I check Direct Mode and Exclusive access mode?

[Esprit]

I'm listening to SD songs (44.1kHz).

A+ beta says:

____________________________________

"Direct Mode audio path

 

Currently playing in standard 32bit float mode

Device: 2ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float, 8 bytes per frame @176.4kHz

 

Active Sample Rate: 44.1kHz

Hog Mode is on"

____________________________________

 

What does @176.4kHz mean?

[damien78]

I'm listening to SD songs (44.1kHz).

A+ beta says:

____________________________________

"Direct Mode audio path

 

Currently playing in standard 32bit float mode

Device: 2ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float, 8 bytes per frame @176.4kHz

 

Active Sample Rate: 44.1kHz

Hog Mode is on"

____________________________________

 

What does @176.4kHz mean?

 

This sample rate info is not accurate. The "active sample rate" is the right one.

Argh, as you are also inspecting the Debug Info, I'll have to fix this also

 

Damien

[augomol]

This sample rate info is not accurate. The "active sample rate" is the right one.

Argh, as you are also inspecting the Debug Info, I'll have to fix this also

 

Damien

Damien, For optimal use A+ I check Direct Mode and Exclusive access mode?

[coot]

How do I get 1.3.9.2? When I tell A+ to upgrade it tells me 1.3.9.1 is current.

[ted_b]

How do I get 1.3.9.2? When I tell A+ to upgrade it tells me 1.3.9.1 is current.

 

Damien tells us all (and has a link) in his announcement (first post of this thread). It's on his blog at A+.

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/audirvana-plus-direct-mode-12261/#post159313

[stefangustaf]

I have now tried with direct mode. When playing 24/96 track I got a distortion starting quite low but after a while increasing.

The sample rate switching is also a little bit unstable often I have to try twice before it works.

I am using Snow Leopard and the DAC is Weiss Minerva.

 

//Stefan

[jcpom]

Using direct/integer mode, I had to try several times to play 44k after playing 96k. Also get occassional clicks.

[SteveS1]

Whoops spoke to soon, the upgrade to 1.3.9.2 is producing clicks 16/44 to F/W Weiss 202.

 

Steve

[kennyb123]

Whoops spoke to soon, the upgrade to 1.3.9.2 is producing clicks 16/44 to F/W Weiss 202.

 

This happens in my case too with my Weiss Minerva. No clicks at first, but then over time they start occurring. I've found that restarting A+ can temporarily remedy this. Hi rez content generates more clicking.

 

Also, last night I added DSF files for the first time. Version 1.3.9.2 crashes when I try to play these. The shipping version plays these just fine. I will send Damien the crash logs tonight.

 

I hope these issues can be resolved soon. Listening without Direct Mode isn't as enjoyable.

[orgel]

This happens in my case too with my Weiss Minerva. No clicks at first, but then over time they start occurring. I've found that restarting A+ can temporarily remedy this. Hi rez content generates more clicking.

 

Same here, although with the Mytek Stereo 192. Could this be an issue related to FireWire/DICE in the current beta build? No such problems with the release version.

 

--David

[ctle]

Same here, although with the Mytek Stereo 192. Could this be an issue related to FireWire/DICE in the current beta build? No such problems with the release version.

--David

 

There must be an issue related to FW in the beta release, I've switched to USB and had no problem with audio dropouts since.

[a.dent]

There must be an issue related to FW in the beta release, I've switched to USB and had no problem with audio dropouts since.

 

I've had dropouts with USB into my Audio-GD Ref-5.

The dropouts seem to be intermittent and unpredictable.

[BobP63]

Hi Damien,

Any chance we'll see 1.3.9.3 this weekend?

[damien78]

Hi Damien,

Any chance we'll see 1.3.9.3 this weekend?

Yes, definitively this WE

[juliocat]

Yes, definitively this WE

 

Thanks Damian, this program has been the best inversion i made to my system!!!

 

Even in beta version works and sounds much better than Amarra.

[BobP63]

Yes, definitively this WE

 

Great, really looking forward to it.

[jhwalker]

Just wanted to add: I've spent some time this weekend listening to all the various permutations my system is capable of using Audirvana Plus:

 

 

1. Mac Mini > Optical > Schiit Bifrost > Onkyo AVR
   
2. Mac Mini > Optical > Onkyo AVR
   
3. Mac Mini > HDMI > Onkyo AVR
   
4. Mac Mini > USB (Integer mode) > Schiit Bifrost > Onkyo AVR
   

 

1 & 2 sound virtually the same, nothing much to pick between them, but optical out on my Mac Mini is limited to 96k and the sound is almost *too* smooth. I want to like 3 (since my HDMI interface is capable of all sample rates up to 192k and it's the most direct route to my AVR), but it sounds a bit "brittle" to my ears - some grunge in the sound and bass transients tend to be distorted, not presented cleanly. 4 is in a world of its own: the sound is much more open and has a nice "bite" to it, avoiding both the smoothness of the optical and the brittleness of the HDMI.

 

So, in my system, USB integer mode is the way to go. I continue to have some near-kernel panics (Audirvana Plus handles this now by detecting the incipient kernel panic and simply not playing, which is better than a crash, I suppose) and am having intermittent problems with USB on my Bifrost (sound suddenly gets very digital, with a high shrieky overlay on the music - generally clears up spontaneously in a few seconds, but sounds awful while it's happening - anyone else having this issue?), but I'm willing to put up with some teething pains to get the great sound out of integer mode.

 

PS - The USB / Bifrost shrieky sound issue may be specific to my system - I'm trying each of the various USB ports and have tried three different USB cables (from relatively high-end down to bargain store brand) with no perceptible effect on the issue; i.e., it keeps happening intermittently, at all sample rates, without warning or any seeming correlation to what type of music is playing, etc. It's a puzzlement, just wondering if anyone else has heard this with their Bifrost.

[les24preludes]

I'm a musician so I really look forward to any advances in my sound system - Mac Mini OSX 10.7.4. I have a USB DAC - a RAKK DAC with USB input board.

 

I've been unlucky here - managed to get sound in the beginning by selecting "USB DAC". Then I started to switch between exclusive access and direct mode. Couldn't get direct mode to work and tried switching back then the whole thing went dead. No sound from iTunes native mode, no streaming TV, no sound anywhere. The player seemed to have locked - it wouldn't start any tracks. Since the whole thing went dead and I couldn't get sound I had to uninstall the whole trial version.

 

For a brief moment I got what seemed like nice smooth sound. Where do I go from here? I can't have my system go down - must have glitch free access. Help!!

 

Andy