Amarra HiFi updates to 2.4.1

[REShaman]

Anyone happen to know if Sonic Studios has tested/verified Amarra with Mountain Lion as yet?

 

Not privy to this information. But with the release of Mt. Lion imminent, it stands to reason that Amarra will be compatible with Mt. Lion. Again I am merely surmising something reasonable (at least).

Best I can do at this time,

Richard

[stevebythebay]

Downloaded Mountain Lion. For safety, I'm using CloneZilla to backup the full SSD to external drive. Need to test restore, and then I'll be willing to update to the new OS X version...

[REShaman]

Installed 10.8 and my version of Amarra plays beautifully. Sounds as good as ever. Nary a stumble. Just crusin without any brusin.

Best,

Richard

[REShaman]

Not sure the fix for the Apple Remote App for the volume control IR is as good as it was before I installed 10.8. It sounds clunky when changing volume. Not favorable. Prefer the remote for my preamp and leave the Amarra gain to 0.0. Otherwise, so far, Amarra in Preload/Album is fine and sounding excellent. No issues with gapless play in Amarra mode or Playlist Mode. I haven't really taken the program through its paces with Mountain Lion. That's next.

Best,

Richard

[Marino Marco]

I had a kernel panic using amarra hifi today in Mountain Lion. "Your computer restarted because of a problem" it said after restarting.

[REShaman]

I had a kernel panic using amarra hifi today in Mountain Lion. "Your computer restarted because of a problem" it said after restarting.

 

Thought I responded to your post, Marino Marco. Very, very, very infrequently, I, too, will also experience a KP. But it is not peculiar to Amarra. It has happened with other computer audio players. Typically when this happens, and one follows the instructions to power down (meaning shut down) and then power up, the KP does not repeat. Some suggestions include rebooting into Safe Mode (holding down shift-key until you see the gray apple and releasing shift key. After booting up in safe mode, reboot back into "normal" mode. There are several reasons for KPs. Google and you'll find those causes easily. Would not worry about it unless the KPs are frequent.

Hope this is helpful.

Best,

Richard

[stevebythebay]

I had a kernel panic using amarra hifi today in Mountain Lion. "Your computer restarted because of a problem" it said after restarting.

 

As Richard indicated, and here's a bit more on the subject: Q&A: Dealing With a Kernel Panic - NYTimes.com

[Marino Marco]

thanks, guys. I did boot in safe mode and back into normal mode yesterday. Nothing happened so far. lets see.

[REShaman]

thanks, guys. I did boot in safe mode and back into normal mode yesterday. Nothing happened so far. lets see.

 

You're welcome.

 

Just to be clear. "Nothing happened so far", meaning since safe mode back to normal mode, no more KP? If that's the case, you are good to go. Here's another link in addition to the one stevebythebay provided: Resolving Kernel Panics

 

Good fortune.

Best,

Richard

[AudioDoctor]

I have not had a kernel panic since the early days of 10.4.x I think I will keep my music mini on Lion for a while longer.

[Marino Marco]

You're welcome.

 

Just to be clear. "Nothing happened so far", meaning since safe mode back to normal mode, no more KP?

Thats right.

 

If that's the case, you are good to go.

Good.

[REShaman]

I have not had a kernel panic since the early days of 10.4.x I think I will keep my music mini on Lion for a while longer.

 

As you wish. For the record, I only had one which is not unusual after a new build of OSX. My point, other than that incident, the program is stable and everything I am running including Amarra (including a new Beta) and the other computer audio players are A-OK.

Your call.

Best,

Richard

[Marino Marco]

Hi guys. I'm having trouble with Amarra Hifi.

I always leave selected "preload for ALBUM count"

 

Usually its fine, but suddenly since yesterday, its not gonna play

gapless anymore. I didn't change anything in the prefs, its still

ALBUM, but now when I click the first song of an album, the loading is

short, and the transition from first to second song has the gap. I

didn't change anything, but sometimes I use other players. could this

be the cause of the malfunctioning?

 

Has anyone faced anything like this before?

 

Hardware Overview:

 

Mac OS X 10.8

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.47f2

Serial Number (system): WQ942BM166D

Hardware UUID: DEE702A3-2282-5C98-B3F3-ECC1C427A81D

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

[One and a half]

Hi guys. I'm having trouble with Amarra Hifi.

I always leave selected "preload for ALBUM count"

 

Usually its fine, but suddenly since yesterday, its not gonna play

gapless anymore. I didn't change anything in the prefs, its still

ALBUM, but now when I click the first song of an album, the loading is

short, and the transition from first to second song has the gap. I

didn't change anything, but sometimes I use other players. could this

be the cause of the malfunctioning?

 

Has anyone faced anything like this before?

 

 

Marino, yes, happened to me. It occurred when I changed trial version of 2.4.1 to Symphony. Sonic Studio let me trial a Beta, which fixed the problem, plays gapless very good like before. Even you remove all sonic preferences from ~/Library/Preferences folder, the gapless does not play, yes I know. Not trouble with the machine, it's OK.

 

In the meantime, I uninstalled the Beta, and made a fresh install of Mountain Lion. Now with 2.4.1 gapless plays, set to Album like yours, works fine. The method is to use Amarra mode in iTunes, that's it, no cache. For memory amount, I set to 50% of available RAM, seems to work OK with this setting.

 

This is an observation, but the problem of the gapless feature being lost could be due to memory mangement which is OK most of the time, but has some holes as users are discovering. I would say the next release will fix that, but no idea when that is, sorry.

[Marino Marco]

Hi one and a half, how is it going?

 

Sonicstudio replied to me right about now. Here it goes just in case anyone happen to have the same issue.

 

Hello Marino,Thanks for your message and using other players may cause an issue. For instance, using Pure Music 'Hog' mode has caused issues with Amarra playback as reported by some users. We would recommend turning off all other players, perhaps reboot your machine. Then, prior to launching Amarra, navigate to Applications->Amarra 2.4->Extras folder and double-click on 'Delete Amarra Preferences.command'. When you launch Amarra, you will need to go in and reset your Amarra Preferences to Pre-load tracks and Album before you start loading tracks. Please give that a try and let us know how things go.

[Esprit]

I'm trying now Amarra "demo": it does not change the sample rate of the Mytek (firewire connected) and sometimes it does not like the iTunes AIFF files...

[dmccombs]

I found the same thing Esprit. When you use the Mytek with Firewire connection Amarra doesn't automatically change the sample rate. If you use the Mytek with USB though, Amarra does change the Sample rate. IT appears that there is an incompatibility between Amarra and the Mytek Firewire driver.

[Esprit]

IT appears that there is an incompatibility between Amarra and the Mytek Firewire driver.

It's a Dice (the same of Weiss). It's very strange.

[One and a half]

Hi one and a half, how is it going?

 

Sonicstudio replied to me right about now. Here it goes just in case anyone happen to have the same issue.

 

This is good to know, sometimes, when switching back and forth with players, both are on at the same time. Even though the player is OFF, there are artefacts left over that bite you.

[odiwan]

Hello I'm new here

 

Just downloaded Amarra, it sound great, i use PM since 2 years, but i noticed two bugs....

 

The first track take about 30 seg to start play, in preferences i activate preload 2 tracks, after the first track begins i can skip to other song almost instantly

 

my DAC only supports 44.1 to 96 , when i play a bigger frecuency track, like 192, amarra don't downsamples to 96, it uses the previous frecuency track, if it was 41,1 the 192 is played at 44.1, if it was 88.2 the 192 is played at 88.2

 

regards

 

Mac Mini 2011, SSD OCZ, 8Gb RAM Mountain Lion, NAS Qnap TS-456, cable Otichord, Marantz SA-15 S2 as DAC, Marantz PM-15, Sonus Faber Cremona

[ArcAngel66]

Hello I'm new here

 

Just downloaded Amarra, it sound great, i use PM since 2 years, but i noticed two bugs....

 

The first track take about 30 seg to start play, in preferences i activate preload 2 tracks, after the first track begins i can skip to other song almost instantly

 

my DAC only supports 44.1 to 96 , when i play a bigger frecuency track, like 192, amarra don't downsamples to 96, it uses the previous frecuency track, if it was 41,1 the 192 is played at 44.1, if it was 88.2 the 192 is played at 88.2

 

regards

 

Mac Mini 2011, SSD OCZ, 8Gb RAM Mountain Lion, NAS Qnap TS-456, cable Otichord, Marantz SA-15 S2 as DAC, Marantz PM-15, Sonus Faber Cremona

 

Amarra does not re-sample music while it's playing. Period. It will attempt to set your DAC to the proper sample rate for the song, so think of it as more of a "sample-rate switcher" and not upsampling/downsampling. This probably explains your issues, as it seems like Amarra is simply unable to switch your DAC for the 192 track.

 

However, if you open up the "Background Manager" from the "Windows" menu bar at the top, you can convert those files to sample rates that will work well with your DAC.

 

Amarra does this on purpose, by the way. I don't want to put words into Sonic Studio's mouth, but I remember reading a reason for it.

 

 

 

For the cache loading issue... how fast is your computer, where is Amarra/iTunes getting it's music from, and how much RAM do you have? Try using playlist mode with like, 10 songs. Set it to preload 1-2gb. You "should" see a popup saying it's preloading, and that should go away within a second or two - after that, play a song... Is there still that 30 second delay?

[odiwan]

thx ArcAngel66

 

I use amarra hifi demo, and can't see Background Manager in Windows menu, today i swith to load full disk in preferences, when select a album starts loading, begins play and stops al 0.0.0.15

 

Mac Mini i5 2,3Gh 8 Gb RAM, 120 Gb SSD OCZ vertex 3 for system and aplications, music stored in AIFF in a Qnap TS-465 (4x3Tb Hitachi HDD 24/7) gigabit network

[odiwan]

a hour ago i run audirvana, play a song and quit, then i run amarra and the tracks (full disk) load pretty well and start playing fine

 

the only thing remains is not send 96 when the track has bigger sample rate, 96 is max the optical output send and my Marantz SA-15S2 DAC accept

 

Where can i set the play cache to 4Gb?

 

regards

[REShaman]

a hour ago i run audirvana, play a song and quit, then i run amarra and the tracks (full disk) load pretty well and start playing fine

 

the only thing remains is not send 96 when the track has bigger sample rate, 96 is max the optical output send and my Marantz SA-15S2 DAC accept

 

Where can i set the play cache to 4Gb?

 

regards

 

odiwan, I believe Amarra Hifi does not allow you to set the cache for that Amarra version of the build. Amarra 2.4 and Amarra Symphony, yes. Hifi no.

Best,

Richard

[odiwan]

thx REShaman

 

I will try Amarra 2.4, if not play fine I will return to PM, but in my opinion Amarra sounds a little bit better

 

regards