Audirvana + 2.0

[Musicophile]

I found the library at:

USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Audirvana

 

I was working from memory. Traveling all week and writing this from an airport lounge.

[satbaba]

I care about sound quality, Do you have improvements?

[Cycleman]

I've never had a problem in iTunes or JRiver. In iTunes none of the Album Artist fields are filled. Even when some have auto populated I have deleted them. In JRiver when I select Show Default Tags or Show Tags With Values or Show Tags In Current View then Album and Artist show but if I select Show All Tags then Album Artist will show as Empty but the next selection is Album Artist (Auto) and that is populated.

 

Ive ve never had sort problems but I have chosen from the beginning to handle metadata where additional artists appear featured on a primary artist album by showing their name appended to the particular song title such as "Song Title [featuting Artist]

 

my choice may not work for others who have a heavy classical music collection or have many Various Artist or other compilation type albums (soundtracks etc) of which I do not.

 

Very similar choices up to now, using iTunes as my ripping program and library -- and also no problems up to now with iTunes combined with either earlier versions of Audirvana Plus, Amarra or Pure Music.

 

I've never used Album Artist, just Artist.

When additional artists appear on a primary artist album, I also append like this: "Song Title [with Secondary Artist]

By using the Compilation check box, for those albums with no primary artist, each track has its Artist tag and the whole album appears at the end of iTunes or the Remote app.

 

But when I used the Doug Script "This Tag That Tag" to copy the Artist tag to the Album Artist tag, and then imported the changed library into A+2, there were many, many duplicated tracks shown in its List View. And that's true even though A+2's metadata indicated that each duplicated name was the exact same file, since it shows its position on my external drive where all my music resides.

 

Again, it doesn't appear that A+2 is totally ready for prime time, so my two music computers will stay with a previous version as I test and test -- and get a bit testy -- on my work computer.

[mkrzych]

well, on the metadata you can't really blame A+, it just shows what you have (and what not) more clearly than Itunes.

 

On the latency for editing, don't have that, in spite of a late 2009 Imac.

 

OK, now when I went through my entire library and fix initially cover arts and some (not all yet) metadata, my feeling is that A+ 2.0 is so far rather "time to market" approach and lots of new features will come later - I hope. At this stage, it's only GUI with library management (also rather initial) and nothing else - that's my few cents.

 

However, this step was needed to stabilize the software and add more features later on.

 

Regarding the editing latency, I have it all the time - for instance adding some tags to the whole album songs or adding cover art to that album - about 500x500px each. Spinning beach ball for few second.

[Cycleman]

I was working from memory. Traveling all week and writing this from an airport lounge.

 

Not looking to correct you, per se, just help others who may get lost.

 

(And aren't airport lounges the worst places in the world to actually lounge!)

[jvlata]

I was working from memory. Traveling all week and writing this from an airport lounge.

 

Found my! I did a showallfiles under terminal.. I should not better ;-) delete all files inside..Now A2 is lunching ok

 

Imported only a few files.. some still have metadata wrong.. I may have to spend sometime in Itunes or just fix the metadata in A2.

 

Time to check SQ..

[Musicophile]

OK, now when I went through my entire library and fix initially cover arts and some (not all yet) metadata, my feeling is that A+ 2.0 is so far rather "time to market" approach and lots of new features will come later - I hope. At this stage, it's only GUI with library management (also rather initial) and nothing else - that's my few cents.

 

However, this step was needed to stabilize the software and add more features later on.

 

Regarding the editing latency, I have it all the time - for instance adding some tags to the whole album songs or adding cover art to that album - about 500x500px each. Spinning beach ball for few second.

With regards to "only" library management: a) isn't that what Damien promised us? And b) I actually think this is a major step forward towards independence from iTunes. Unlike others, I don't mind ITunes per se, but ITunes integration of an external player hardly ever really works 100% smoothly.

 

On top of this, you now can throw flac files at this without converting, and DSD files can be managed without the clumsy proxies.

 

All this in a "reduced fat" software package that is only a couple of MB

 

And with regards to your latency issues I recommend reaching out to Damien, that shouldn't be normal.

[Dreaming Jester]

A few initial observations here. It seems to play a little louder than the previous version and a bit less 'refined' but the latter may be pure placebo. Library management seems OK for the most part but for some unknown reason yesterday it loaded Real to Real / Brief Encounter by Marillion rip putting the first track of CD1 separately - today is OK?! Loading SACD ISOs just fine but doesn't seem to be able to edit the metadata directly - maybe separate tracks should be extracted? Maybe a bit more 'funky' interface would be nice, although I certainly appreciate the clean look, but maybe more options for colours or sth like the 'analogue volume pot' and hi-fi piece like design? Of course none of this is really crucial and if this (and further improving) level of convenience is paired with improving SQ, I wouldn't think V 2.0 would have serious rivals at this point

[mkrzych]

With regards to "only" library management: a) isn't that what Damien promised us? And b) I actually think this is a major step forward towards independence from iTunes. Unlike others, I don't mind ITunes per se, but ITunes integration of an external player hardly ever really works 100% smoothly.

 

On top of this, you now can throw flac files at this without converting, and DSD files can be managed without the clumsy proxies.

 

All this in a "reduced fat" software package that is only a couple of MB

 

And with regards to your latency issues I recommend reaching out to Damien, that shouldn't be normal.

 

Well, I am not saying that this release is not important - it is indeed, but not spectacular ;-)

BTW, how to add songs to playlist or use the playlist at all?

[Musicophile]

A few initial observations here. It seems to play a little louder than the previous version and a bit less 'refined' but the latter may be pure placebo. Library management seems OK for the most part but for some unknown reason yesterday it loaded Real to Real / Brief Encounter by Marillion rip putting the first track of CD1 separately - today is OK?! Loading SACD ISOs just fine but doesn't seem to be able to edit the metadata directly - maybe separate tracks should be extracted? Maybe a bit more 'funky' interface would be nice, although I certainly appreciate the clean look, but maybe more options for colours or sth like the 'analogue volume pot' and hi-fi piece like design? Of course none of this is really crucial and if this (and further improving) level of convenience is paired with improving SQ, I wouldn't think V 2.0 would have serious rivals at this point

 

ISO files unfortunate don't currently allow any metadata editing. You can either split them or wait for Damien's workaround which is already on his to list.

[Jud]

Well, I am not saying that this release is not important - it is indeed, but not spectacular ;-)

BTW, how to add songs to playlist or use the playlist at all?

 

The simplest method, drag and drop, is your friend.

[Dreaming Jester]

ISO files unfortunate don't currently allow any metadata editing. You can either split them or wait for Damien's workaround which is already on his to list.

 

Thanks, Musicophile. Do you share some of my first impressions? Or anybody else?

[Jud]

I was working from memory. Traveling all week and writing this from an airport lounge.

 

I like to bring along my Mac laptop (with A+ of course) and a few 128GB SD cards (which for me hold all my music - for you, Musicophile, it might amount to a "greatest hits") with a Dragonfly or Geek Out plus IEM headphones (Etymotic ER-4P), and air travel, especially long flights, suddenly become a lot less taxing.

[Bilderspiele]

A+2 is very accurate in comparison to 1.5.10. The latter sounds more moody. A+2 put you direct on stage. Actually listen to Miss E from DVD-Audio multichannel flac rip. Very impressive :-)

[mkrzych]

The simplest method, drag and drop, is your friend.

 

Well, does not work at least not in trial mode :-/

[Musicophile]

Thanks, Musicophile. Do you share some of my first impressions? Or anybody else?

 

I very much like the clean look, and never loved the skeuomorphic design of 1.5.

 

And re. your Marillion track, have you checked all metadata incl the album artist?

[Jud]

Well, does not work at least not in trial mode :-/

 

This is another one of those things that works for me, so we are probably talking past each other. What does the manual say?

[Musicophile]

I like to bring along my Mac laptop (with A+ of course) and a few 128GB SD cards (which for me hold all my music - for you, Musicophile, it might amount to a "greatest hits") with a Dragonfly or Geek Out plus IEM headphones (Etymotic ER-4P), and air travel, especially long flights, suddenly become a lot less taxing.

 

iPhone5 plus B&W C5 playing AAC256 is fine on the road, at least to me. Listening to Stephen Hough playing Mendelssohn right now while being annoyed by the obviously delayed flight.

[speavler]

is there dsd upsampling?

[Dreaming Jester]

I very much like the clean look, and never loved the skeuomorphic design of 1.5.

 

And re. your Marillion track, have you checked all metadata incl the album artist?

 

The clean look is OK but there's always room for improvement (or changes). Marillion album is freshly ripped, metadata done in XLD and it's fine. As I mentioned above, today both parts are loading just fine.

[mkrzych]

This is another one of those things that works for me, so we are probably talking past each other. What does the manual say?

 

OK, I figured it out - double click does not work, but ctrl+click open drop down menu with playlist options.

[stellablues]

Installed last night on an optimized mac mini boot from SD card.

 

Could not get the app to load with the CAD audio optimization script running. ran the deinstall script for that. loaded A2+ with exact settings from 1.5.10 (it gathered them automatically).

 

Importing my 1.2tb library took about 2 hours. started playing right away while loading in the background which was great.

 

Some albums did have the song files out of order. Many of my albums artwork are not appearing - where is it pulling them from?

 

Many albums don't have album artist field - is this affecting the artwork?

 

From my initial listening last night, sound quality is unfortunately not up to the level of 1.5.10 IMO - as background my system was sounding its absolute best just before the install as i had just added the JS-2 power supply and fan controller on Saturday. I would say like others it now sounds a bit shouty with a flattened soundstage and a somewhat metallic/grungy fuzz has appeared across all instruments. Will try some more tonight and see if I can get it running with the CAD script to see if that is having the effect.

 

I would hope that the upgrade price stays around for an extended time to the point when at least the sound quality is on par or better than 1.5.10. My .02

[Bilderspiele]

A+2 sounds superb. Never heard so much details in my DVD-Audio files befor.

 

Hope there is a upgrade path in the next four weeks befor the trial version runs out.

[sebassie]

After installing Audirvana 2 trial I built a library from my music which is stored on a Synology 713+. The music share on the Synology contains 6494 albums, 97.469 tracks. Each album has its own folder. If an album contains more then 1 cd each cd in that album has its own subfolder. All files have been tagged properly. Albumartist is set only if an album has more then one artist.

So far I use JRiver on my Mac and Logitech Media Server on my Synology. Both show the correct number of folders, albums, cd’s within albums and tracks. JRiver puts albums with similar title but different artists in one group.

After building the library in Audirvana only 74.834 of the 97.469 tracks present are shown in Audirvana. Quite a lot of tracks show and/or no track no., artist, album, composer and even a duration of 0.0. in JRiver and LMS these tracks are okay.

When checking the music share in the Finder it appears that 130 of the 6494 folders seem to have been modified in some way during the process of building the Audirvana library.

After ‘finishing’ this it appeared that about 700 tracks disappeared from my JRiver library. A rescan of JRiver added these tracks, but cover art was a mess.

Building the Audirvana library somehow screwed my music.

[Cycleman]

Another little fix I'd like to see:

 

When you sort by Artist in List View, let the user decide whether or not to ignore "The" in the artist name.

 

I mean, I expect to see The Beatles and The Band and The Byrds and The Beach Boys -- to name four old-but-still-bringing-pleasure groups -- all the way up the list in the "B" range and not all the way down in the "T" range.

 

Would you expect, or like, the same?

 

Dave, who thinks of the settings for Logitech Media Server which allows such "ignore" settings