Audirvana + 2.0

[Sir Real B. Czar]

appledave,

May have no bearing, but I recommend more RAM regardless, especially if you have any DSD/DXD files.

Even a couple for 24/192 files can overwhelm 4GBs with the OS and software running.

 

Just my .27 pesos.....

[alcarp]

Is there a user manual for 2.0?

[Sir Real B. Czar]

Is there a user manual for 2.0?

 

why, yes, there is-

http://audirvana.com/delivery/Audirvana%20Plus%20User%20Manual.pdf

[Musicophile]

I'm testing A+2 on my work iMac, and so far I'm not happy with the album sort options.

 

The way I view albums in iTunes and the Remote app is alphabetically by Artist (the "artist" tag) and within Artist, alphabetically by Album (the "album" tag).

 

However, A+2 does NOT use the "artist" tag, does NOT even offer it as a View option, and instead will only sort by the "album artist" tag, which I never use. Therefore, I cannot sort albums on the screen the way I prefer.

 

As a workaround, at the moment I'm using the Doug Script "This Tag That Tag" to copy the "artist" tag to the "album artist" field -- across all 25,000 or so tracks in my iMac music library. This is just a test, and we'll see if that solves the A+2 sort problem.

 

But what about compilation albums, where the "artist" tag differs among its tracks. What would the "album artist" be for such compilation albums, in order to keep the album together in the A+2 view?

 

More comments to come.

 

Dave, who will stay with A+ 1.5.10 on his two main music machines until all of this views concerns and the play concerns other people mention are all shaken out

Indeed, A+ relies heavily on the album artist, and using dougscript to get the tag filled should give you the right sorting. For compilations, I just put "Various" in the album artist. Then your sorting should be fine.

[Musicophile]

I am concerned about the inability to co-exist with an existing install of 1.5.10 as my main rig. I installed A+ 2.0 on my notebook as a test, but it doesn't feel refined enough to use as my primary player. I think it has potential, but I would not put it on my main system right now (if it breaks 1.5.10).

 

On first startup, it crashed when I pointed it to sync with a folder on my Synology NAS. On second startup it had the folder named and began to import properly. Kinda neat in album view. One question, where is the 'True Random' that will just play from all songs in the library ... the simplest thing, but it only seems to randomize from within it's current album folder and then just stop.

 

Also the lack of customizable column views in List Mode is very annoying. I like to sort by various feilds but there isn't even view options for those beyond the default.

 

DE.

What's wrong with the list mode? I found it to be very flexible especially if you add the filters.

[Musicophile]

Exact same story at my place... it crashes after I went back to the old 1.6, and won´t load anymore.

 

Does anyone know how to import Playlists from iTunes to A+2.0? Would be nice to export them lists, and put them inside A+2

 

Best Regards Mit freundlichen Grüssen KnockKnock 

ITunes sync should import all playlists from ITunes as well. Note that it make take a while if you have a lot of playlists, and that smart playlists are exported, but not "Smart" as apple doesn't allow access to the criteria, only to the resulting song list.

[Cycleman]

Indeed, A+ relies heavily on the album artist, and using dougscript to get the tag filled should give you the right sorting. For compilations, I just put "Various" in the album artist. Then your sorting should be fine.

 

Thanks. That is one solution.

 

But since A+2 uses the "artist" tag in the list view, I really don't see why a subsequent version couldn't easily add that same tag as an option in the album view.

 

Adding more tag choices to the two main views doesn't seem like the most complex part of programming this near-totally new iteration of Audirvana.

[Musicophile]

Thanks. That is one solution.

 

But since A+2 uses the "artist" tag in the list view, I really don't see why a subsequent version couldn't easily add that same tag as an option in the album view.

 

Probably. Maybe worth opening a new thread with suggestions for a v2.1.

 

On the other hand, all albums with several artists would be shown several times in the list then, once for each artist. I agree, not an issue for the average pop/rock album, but for compilations and classical albums. I assume that's why Damien chose the album artist, as it it a unique tag.

[DreamOperator]

My mac is permanently offline. Is there a way to start the trial without a connection?

[nodolby]

because I have to pay the $ 39 upgrade if I bought the license just 6 months ago.

Does not seem right.

[Leeuwarden]

Could you guys please take the money-discussion to another place. Lets keep this thead for discussing 2.0 hic-ups and sound reviews.

[sebassie]

I downloaded the 2.0 trial version. Error retrieving trial license. Won't run!

[Bilderspiele]

Just installed 2.0 on my Mini/Yosemite PB2. Use testlicence. Import my multichannel flac files into Audirvana library. Use the Mini Late 2012 headless with iPhone Screens App. Works fine.

[nodolby]

Sorry!

[satbaba]

How Does the sound quality improvement?

[WeiseHeiliger]

For me, in comparison with 1.5.12 SQ of Audirvana 2.0 is much better.

 

MBPro 2013, 8GB RAM, Thunderbolt Port, Devialet 200

[MacArthur]

I am currently synchronizing my library located on a NAS Synology 1813+ on iMac 27" 3,4GHz ICore i7 with 32 Go RAM . Around 40 000 songs. The process is ongoing already for 6 hours and 75% completed.

Did some other uses noticed such a long time or not? No missunderstanding I am not complaining , just asking :-)

Thanks for your answers

Mac

[Bilderspiele]

How Does the sound quality improvement?

 

Like the little more warm sound of 1.5.10 more. 2.0 sounds a tick harder, may be more accurate to the source material. No problems here to switch between 1.5.10 and 2.0. But it's hard to find any SQ difference between these both versions. May be you need two Macs with same interface to compare. After a while I thought I was in the 1.5.10 version but found out that the 2.0 is running.

[Musicophile]

I am currently synchronizing my library located on a NAS Synology 1813+ on iMac 27" 3,4GHz ICore i7 with 32 Go RAM . Around 40 000 songs. The process is ongoing already for 6 hours and 75% completed.

Did some other uses noticed such a long time or not? No missunderstanding I am not complaining , just asking :-)

Thanks for your answers

Mac

 

Yes, large libraires take a while at first sync.

[mikapoh]

I think if you are coming from iTunes integration user, you will have no issue with album artist since iTunes also sort them by album artist.

[MacArthur]

Yes, large libraires take a while at first sync.

 

Thanks :-)

Mac

[mkrzych]

I have just downloaded trial of 2.0 and synchronized my music folder with it doing new separate A+ library. Few thoughts after first run:

 

1. Cover art and metadata hell - well, this is something what I supposed to be must have for all to walk through. Lots of cover art missed or not consistent metadata all sort of things to fix manually. It may of course depends on your library, but even files purchased from known, big labels have problems with proper tagging.

 

2. I am running Mac OSX 10.7.5 with 8GB RAM (late 2008 Macbook) and editing metadata seems to be sometimes very slow where A+ is not responding time to time for few seconds. Also, when doing it you need to go manually to Save button every time - is there any keystroke to hit and save the metadata? I think SQL database needs to be optimized in the further releases.

 

So far these two things bother me much, but overall, quite nice GUI layout and sound quality - which is the most important thing. As the request would be nice to have something like mini player instead of the whole window if needed.

 

Good job Damien!

[Bilderspiele]

2.0 sounds a little bit harsh compared to 1.5.10 in high volume levels. I switch back and forth. May be 2.0 plays the files some dBs louder?

[One and a half]

Appearance & use

 

I like the layout of the database and the metadata view is comprehensive. On a retina display, it fills out nicely, but for lower res monitors, the text could be too large. For classical, the information content and search functions should suffice. There's maybe more fields people would like to choose, but my preferences A+2 is OK.

To change metadata, looks like there's an external editor needed, unless you edit tracks one by one? Maybe there's a select all somewhere, sorry didn't explore.

Skins would be nice to change colours, can come later.

Album view is very good, displays cover art nicely, this is the preference I have also for Jriver. When the track plays, the INT, fs info is displayed, not obtrusive, but it's there in the right place.

The drag and drop playlists are cool. I didn't use the iTunes integration, I want to avoid more work. Responsiveness to commands is very good.

 

SQ & Technical

Hmm. I'm not on my main rig, using Sennheiser PXC-450 and Sony PHA-2 HP amp DAC. Playing Cowboy Junkies "Open" on DSD64 via DoP. Eeeuuww, sibilance is very bad, no low level details on the high hats, drums sound like paper bags. In comparison, Windows 7 Jriver20 ASIO driver is much clearer and involving. I'm not sure if the sibilance be tweaked out with filters, would require some effort.

There's three quiet clicks to start, 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear and we're off. Don't hear them again until a full stop occurs. If the volume is adjusted when playing DSD, there's no more output, stops dead. Restart A+2 required.

 

SQ wise the 1.5x sounded better, but the standard playlist was really ho hum, with A+2, it's the other way round. Have no doubt improvements are in the planning stages, will look forward to those.

[SavantGarde]

Some of my albums are shown as several identical-looking ones (i.e. with the same album art) in album view, with the album tracks divided (seemingly randomly) between them. These albums are shown correctly in list view, though. I've checked to see that the album tags (Album Title, Album Artist and Album Rating) for the tracks are identical, and they are.

 

Judging by this screenshot from audirvana.com, Damien seems to have had this problem himself …

 

Anyone here know of a solution?