Audirvana + 2.0

[Musicophile]

I finally made the decision to abandon ITunes mode and I will miss the superb library management.

 

Almost all of my library is classical music in aiff and DSF format.

 

Would you be adding a function to connect to meta data service providers like grace note ....?

When metadata is updated via Audirvana, does it actually update the aiff n DSF meta data or is updated in Audirvana proprietary database? Would be good to do it on the file itself so they are transportable to other platforms.

 

To my understanding, Audirvana systematically writes into the actual file metadata. At least all modifications I do on ALAC and DSF files show up in Jriver automatically.

[lkypeter]

I thought so and would be good if Damien can confirm. For last played field, it does not seems to be updating when played by Audirvana. On the reverse, iTunes religiously updates these fields in the file itself but not other metadata. Queer priority.

[odelay]

Changes made in metadata through Audirvana, can be seen in metadata apps like Kid3 (freeware). So you can verify this for yourself ?

[dahlberg]

Can you check the sort criteria in the view settings?

This issue is very likely to be caused by tracks with missing metadata that are not sorted, so can be fetched in random order.

Adding "File Location" as the last sort criteria will ensure all tracks get sorted.

 

Damien

 

File location is checked.

I have not gone trough the metadata.

 

This can happend anywhere in my library so I dont belive it's tag related.

If it does there is no other way out of this behaviour then to restart the program.

This has never happend in 1.5.xx

 

A bit strange that it's always 11 positions wrong.

[edo]

I recently added a couple of 18" subwoofers to reinforce the low end of my listening room. I am using a Marantz 8801 as a pre/pro, Odyssey Khartago for mids/highs and a pro amp for subwooferage.

 

I use a 2014 Mac Mini > usb > spdif convertor > coaxial in to 8801. Using a Panasonic RP91 > coaxial > 8801 playing just rebook cds has waaayy more impact and fullness in the bass department than the Mac using Audirvana 2.0.9 playing even high rez files.

 

Is there a setting in Audirvana that will increase bass weight and impact?

 

Is it as simple as opening the graphic equalizer in preferences and bumping up the lower end of the frequency curve?

[goldsdad]

Is it as simple as opening the graphic equalizer in preferences and bumping up the lower end of the frequency curve?

 

Won't you discover the answer by trying it?

[edo]

Won't you discover the answer by trying it?

 

It dawned on me at work and I tried it on my laptop, just not in the listening room

[Superdad]

Audirvana Plus has the excellent Izotope MBIT+ dither module, that can dither to any of the bit depths 24, 20, 16, 12 or 8 bits, built in, but doesn't give the user any control over the bit depth (as e.g. HQPlayer and Pure Music does). Correctly applying noise shaped dither to the stream, just before output to the DAC, can enhance the effective dynamic range by a considerable amount.

 

User control control over the bit depth of the dither is crucial in two common cases

1. When the max bit depth the DAC can receive is lower than that of the USB interface. (E.g. I have a NOS DAC that can receive only 16-bit data, but my USB interface works with 32-bit data. In this case Audirvana applies 24-bit dither, which is useless.)
   
2. When wanting to apply dither corresponding to the actual linear range of the DAC, to prevent the carefully noise shaped dither turning to mush. (E.g. MBIT+ can dither to 20-bits, which is the approximate linear range of my Apogee Mini-DAC, so I'd like to be able to select that instead of having to use the default 24-bit dither, which probably won't do much good.)
   

Since MBIT+ already has this feature it shouldn't be hard to implement – just add a few checkboxes in the settings panel Also, I've noticed people in this thread have clamoured for more SQ improvements in the past and this would be a way to achieve that

 

 

Your suggestion is an EXCELLENT one!

 

One of the biggest SQ bumps I had in using HQ Player was when I changed "Max DAC bits" to 20 or 24. My WaveIO USB>I2S board was accepting 32-bit data, but my NOS PCM1704K DAC board was oblivious to that depth. Once I dropped the setting in HQP, its dither options (I settle on NS4 or NS5) did wonders. Even without dither turned on the SQ seemed way better at the lower settings (still SRC up to 192 or 384).

 

So adding such control would be a boon to A+ users.

[Foggie]

I hope this isn’t redundant, but looking for clarification on upsampling PCM to DSD in A+. I asked in the Lampi thread that I thought it was possible to upsample PCM to DSD 128. A couple responses were:

 

A+ does not upconvert PCM to DSD as far as I know.

JRiver, HQ Player and Foobar do.

This is on the fly conversion and creates a DSD stream that the Lampi DSD Dac can play, no problem.

You can convert offline too with tools such as Saracon, and Korg Audiogate (the old version).

 

2. Audirvana does not allow conversion to DSD at all. So it would not work for your purposes if you specifically want to convert everything to DSD; i.e., it will play back your DSD content, but will *not* convert your PCM content to DSD for use with you Lampizator. JRiver *does* support converting PCM to DSD so that, if you choose, you can convert all your music to DSD for output to your DAC.

It all comes down to what you need / want. I think I have *all* the major music players that run on OS X because not a single one does everything I want

 

So the simple answer is no and that A+ will play native (.dsf files) DSD (64/128) and can downconvert to PCM if needed, but if wanting to upsample PCM in A+, the “highest” rate is DXD (384)? I think the terms upconvert, conversion, native is what was throwing me. Its been a really long week.

 

So basically the only real alternative to perform PCM to DSD upsampling (mac) is with HQ player + Jriver (or at least those are the most "preferred")

[orgel]

So the simple answer is no and that A+ will play native (.dsf files) DSD (64/128) and can downconvert to PCM if needed, but if wanting to upsample PCM in A+, the “highest” rate is DXD (384)? I think the terms upconvert, conversion, native is what was throwing me.

 

I think you've basically got it. Just a couple of minor points:

 

As far as PCM and DSD rates, A+ will take a look at your system's capabilities and upsample (within either PCM or DSD but not between the two) to whatever your DAC can output (subject to your settings).

 

You might be clouding the issue a bit by thinking of converting from PCM to DSD or vice versa as necessarily upsampling or downsampling. It's really apples and oranges, since DSD is a 1-bit format and PCM is a multi-bit format.

 

--David

[Foggie]

I think you've basically got it. Just a couple of minor points:

 

As far as PCM and DSD rates, A+ will take a look at your system's capabilities and upsample (within either PCM or DSD but not between the two) to whatever your DAC can output (subject to your settings).

 

You might be clouding the issue a bit by thinking of converting from PCM to DSD or vice versa as necessarily upsampling or downsampling. It's really apples and oranges, since DSD is a 1-bit format and PCM is a multi-bit format.

 

--David

 

Thanks, appreciated. The other two gentleman I quoted answered it as well, it just wasn't clicking.

 

The four hrs of sleep/night are taking its toll. However, new cables, DAC AND news on the regen (I'm in second batch) are keeping me going! I just upgraded to 2.x as well, but now am having database issues with the latest rev. Ooy.

[Foggie]

Recently upgraded to 2.x (using 2.0.12). I realize how important it is to have metadata properly setup. However, why is it on some music, artwork shows up in Win explorer but not finder and therefore not in A+ (not sure if that's a direct correlation)? OR, artwork shows in A+ and explorer but not in finder?

 

I would assume it has something to do with the embedded functionality. Although, I have verified the items in question to the best of my ability that the metadata is solid. I don't get it. I have went through a number of files (again) and re-applied the metadata, then selected the "Synch" button. Some of the files update (in the A+ GUI) and some do not. I'm guessing an option is to delete the SQL lite files and perform a full synch, which I may try and let it run overnight.

 

It appears that A+ operates "differently" (to what extent I don't know) with ext drives on mini v.s. a NAS in so far as library updates (performance, synching, correctly propagating changes to library).

 

I'm using a NAS, headless mini (Mavericks) and a win7 wkst in office to rip/manage library using dbpoweramp Ref15 as well as dbpoweramp or MP3tag to edit existing files in question, again with mixed results as explained above.

[pl_svn]

afaik what happens (or not) when synching to files on a NAS (I'm using one myself) is beyond Damien's control

(I believe it is an OS "issue")

 

a "Resynch All" (or "Reset library") option in A+, though, would be very appreciated

[Dyson]

a "Resynch All" (or "Reset library") option in A+, though, would be very appreciated

 

+1

[Musicophile]

Damien, a favor, whenever you change the Album information, the album art gets lost. This is an annoying feature, would it be possible to keep the album art?

[damien78]

Damien, a favor, whenever you change the Album information, the album art gets lost. This is an annoying feature, would it be possible to keep the album art?

 

When changing the album title in the "track details" panel (with all the other track metadata), you change the album for the track, and not rename the album.

To rename the album, change its title in the "album details". This way the album art is kept as only the title is renamed.

 

Damien

[Musicophile]

When changing the album title in the "track details" panel (with all the other track metadata), you change the album for the track, and not rename the album.

To rename the album, change its title in the "album details". This way the album art is kept as only the title is renamed.

 

Damien

Nice trick. Merci beaucoup!

[damien78]

Recently upgraded to 2.x (using 2.0.12). I realize how important it is to have metadata properly setup. However, why is it on some music, artwork shows up in Win explorer but not finder and therefore not in A+ (not sure if that's a direct correlation)? OR, artwork shows in A+ and explorer but not in finder?

 

I would assume it has something to do with the embedded functionality. Although, I have verified the items in question to the best of my ability that the metadata is solid. I don't get it. I have went through a number of files (again) and re-applied the metadata, then selected the "Synch" button. Some of the files update (in the A+ GUI) and some do not. I'm guessing an option is to delete the SQL lite files and perform a full synch, which I may try and let it run overnight.

 

It appears that A+ operates "differently" (to what extent I don't know) with ext drives on mini v.s. a NAS in so far as library updates (performance, synching, correctly propagating changes to library).

 

I'm using a NAS, headless mini (Mavericks) and a win7 wkst in office to rip/manage library using dbpoweramp Ref15 as well as dbpoweramp or MP3tag to edit existing files in question, again with mixed results as explained above.

 

On a local drive, synchronization is automatic, happening upon notification from OS X of a file change (in real time if A+ is running, or at startup if it happens when it was not running).

This OS X feature (the one used by both Time Machine & Spotlight FYI) is not available for NAS drives, that's why a full scan (of the modified dates of the files) is needed for these. And thus clicking on "Sync" on them.

 

But for both methods, if upon a change the file last modification date has not changed (and this is not an expected behavior), the file metadata is not updated.

BTW, if you're doing changes on your NAS using a different computer (a Windows one ?), can you check if the time of your different computers and the NAS? Maybe one is set in the past?

 

If you need a complete rescan of the files metadata as the first time, the easiest way is to remove the folder containing them from the sync list, and add it again.

 

Damien

[pl_svn]

If you need a complete rescan of the files metadata as the first time, the easiest way is to remove the folder containing them from the sync list, and add it again.

 

... unless, as it happened recently here, something went so wrong (corrupted library?) that A+ still shows tracks/albums even after removing, in Preferences", all synched folder :-/

 

Damien: I have no issue re-loading all my music (... well... ) just I find very, very, very annoying having to recreate all my smart playlist when something goes wrong and have to start fresh :'(

 

unless there's a trick I'm not aware of to save/reimport them

[SavantGarde]

On a local drive, synchronization is automatic, happening upon notification from OS X of a file change (in real time if A+ is running, or at startup if it happens when it was not running).

The "or at startup if it happens when it was not running" part hasn't been working well for me. Audirvana just suddenly stops updating the library at startup. At one time the feature suddenly started working again and then worked for a couple of months before stopping again. As it is now, I have to either keep Audirvana running when making changes to my synced folders, or sync manually upon startup. Maybe you should look into it when you get the time.

[Foggie]

On a local drive, synchronization is automatic, happening upon notification from OS X of a file change (in real time if A+ is running, or at startup if it happens when it was not running).

This OS X feature (the one used by both Time Machine & Spotlight FYI) is not available for NAS drives, that's why a full scan (of the modified dates of the files) is needed for these. And thus clicking on "Sync" on them.

 

But for both methods, if upon a change the file last modification date has not changed (and this is not an expected behavior), the file metadata is not updated.

BTW, if you're doing changes on your NAS using a different computer (a Windows one ?), can you check if the time of your different computers and the NAS? Maybe one is set in the past?

 

If you need a complete rescan of the files metadata as the first time, the easiest way is to remove the folder containing them from the sync list, and add it again.

 

Damien

 

Thank you Damien for the response/info,

 

I checked all systems (mini, Win7 wkst, NAS) and all are using the correct date, time zone settings etc..

[pl_svn]

@Damien

 

PLEASE! let's get in touch: just added an 8 tracks album to A+ library and... "Total tracks" ("Music" in list view, no filter) increased instead by 17 :-/ (meaning there are now duplicates)

 

Library rebuilt from scratch (once more) a little more that one week ago, A+ 2.0.12, files on a NAS, ethernet connection to Mac mini

 

 

aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!

 

 

 

EDIT: ooops... looks there also was a second album (9 tracks) I added since last manual re-synch so... sorry Damien: I'm an idiot

 

(well... actually I'm still "a bit nervous" about this duplicates issue I've seen too many times)

[Musicophile]

Damien,

 

one more bug report, occasionally, when I switch from Library mode to Itunes mode, A+ crashes.

[RunHomeSlow]

Damien,

 

one more bug report, occasionally, when I switch from Library mode to Itunes mode, A+ crashes.

 

 

+1

 

and this, don't know if bug or normal... in iTunes mode missing a number 6 ?

 

[damien78]

Thank you Damien for the response/info,

 

I checked all systems (mini, Win7 wkst, NAS) and all are using the correct date, time zone settings etc..

 

Ok. If you encounter one you know has not synched automatically, can you check its modification date from the Mac?