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Amarra Conclusions - Thumbs Up!


ciamara

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When using an SSD for these purposes, I highly suggest one drag the entire iTunes folder (located inside USERS/MUSIC) to the NAS drive to backup one's music database, file structure, and tracks. This will save countless hours of rebuilding.

 

I did this and just had an SS drive fail. It was replaced for free by the retailer that sold it to me. Fortunately I had my folder backed up in this manner. Even better, one could use driveclone to update the back up of this folder onto one's NAS drive, as you add new songs to your collection.

 

/Lee

 

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a nice reprieve from the Amarra argument that was getting wayyy otta control IMO. Anyway, could we start an SSD primer thread? Things like:

* best value and/or type of SSD

* best use of SSD internal drive (install OS/apps and leave "n" amount for favorite must-have tracks)

* best way to tell Itunes to leave SSD alone (i.e don't accidentally consolidate and mysteriously move "SSD'd" tracks to external larger music drive that houses iTunes data folder)

 

I realize that this primer might be a bit premature, what with all the knowledge on SSD's use in computer audio being likely gained in the last few months, but it's a start.

 

 

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Lee, would you mind revealing which SSD drive failed on you? The reason is I'm getting ready to purchase 4 OCZ Vertex 120 drives to use in a RAID 0 configuration for my music library, but I've been intentionally holding off because the technology has been evolving so much in the past few months. There seems to be a race between OCZ and Intel to see who can make the best, fastest and most reliable consumer SSD drives.

 

Gary

 

Intel NUC NUC8i7BEH Roon Server running Audio Linux in RAM -> Sonore UltraRendu (Roon Endpoint) -> Uptone ISO Regen -> Singxer SU-1 KTE -> Holo Audio Spring Level 3 DAC -> Nord One UP Monoblocks -> Spendor LS3/5as | Music controlled via iPad (Power Conditioning: Audience adeptResponse aR12).  Twitter: @hirezaudio

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Gary,

 

Actually, that OCZ Vertex 120 Gig is exactly the drive that failed. My retailer replaced it without question and I was back up and running within a few hours, having backed up my iTunes file structure. (I'd suggest you make this purchase from a reputable local retailer so you can return if it fails.)

 

The other OCZ drive I bought over a year ago for my Zalman works fine, no troubles (knock knock knock).

 

As Clay mentioned previously, the controllers on many of these drives can fail. I believe you can get in and tweak the drives so that the write block size is larger (haven't done this yet) and improve performance. I think this is the fix for OCZ drives that stutter. Again, I'm not that up on SSD technology and heard that the recent controllers are improved. Chris prefers the SLC drives, which are more reliable but generally smaller and double the price of MLC.

 

There is a good site on SS Drives here:

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-fastest.html

 

/Lee

 

 

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Lee and Gary, the person at the shop told me to choose the Kingston V+ instead of the OCZ because of reliability. He suggested Intel as top choice (distributed by Kingston and marketed as SSDNow I believe?) if you're willing to pay for the extra bit both for performance and reliability.

 

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**oops, please excuse this duplicate post

 

Lee and Gary, the person at the shop told me to choose the Kingston V+ instead of the OCZ because of reliability. He suggested Intel as top choice (distributed by Kingston and marketed as SSDNow I believe?) if you're willing to pay for the extra bit both for performance and reliability.

 

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Amarra 1.0.2 and Amarra 1.0.1 bring new stability and support for Snow Leopard. New fixes / features include ::

• Improvements for Non-Latin characters

• Improvements for playback on startup

• Support for Model Four Volume Control

• Improvements for Apple Remote and iPhone using "rowmote"

• Add Dither and Digital Volume processing to Amarra MINI

 

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Not sure who else is experiencing this, but I downloaded 3177 and just like 3175 and 3176, it will not play (read) any file that has either an underscore or brackets in the titles; john_whatever or [Disc 1]. 3162 works fine with these tracks... so while 3177 may very well sound better, it will not play all my files. The do say that 3177 has fixed these issues (I did email Lee Mincy with my problem characters and I understand I was not alone), but 3177 does not appear to have resolved them for me here.

 

a sample of what will not play:

 

public:Dave:Music:Aphex Twin:Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 [Disc 1]:1-05 Mould.aif

 

public:Dave:Music:Bill Ding:Trust In God, But Tie Up Your Camel:13 Vaporize.aif

 

public:Dave:Music:Jon Hassell:Jon Hassell_Peter Freeman:The Vertical Collection (Sketches):01 PowerMalay.aiff

 

public:Dave:Music:Radiohead:OK Computer Vinyl 24/96:07-Fitter Happier.aiff

 

a sample of what will play:

 

public:Dave:Music:Puscifer:_V_ Is For Vagina:09 Sour Grapes.aif

 

public:Dave:Music:Nine Inch Nails - aiff:Ghosts I-IV:36 36 Ghosts IV.aiff

 

public:Dave:Music:Medeski, Martin & Wood:Notes From The Undergound:10 Querencia.aif

 

public:Dave:Music:Kraftwerk:Minimum-Maximum [Disc 1]:1-03 Tour De France Etape 1.aif

 

 

Dave Clark[br]Editor, Positive Feedback Online

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I reported it to Jonathan, then went back to futz around. I can say for certain that the issue is filename length and/or path name length. I changed 5 albums that were causing problems and they now work (change it in iTunes and it immediately ripples to the folder names, etc.). For example "Charlie Haden & Antonio Forcione" is the artists name for a wonderful 24/96 album called Heartplay. I edited the artist name to "Charlie Haden" and Amarra now sees it, auto sample rates it and plays it in Weiss DAC2 at 24/96. Same with Bill Evans "The Complete Village.... 1961" edited down to "Vanguard 1961 (disc 1)" for example.

 

I'm not a techy but this looks like an easy fix for Sonic, yes or no?

 

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"I'm not a techy but this looks like an easy fix for Sonic, yes or no?"

 

Field length issues could be either 'yes' or 'no'. Assuming that it is a field length issue, it will depend, for example, on how pervasive the problem is. I'd still tend to guess that it shouldn't be a huge problem to solve, as it's not complex, per se.

 

clay

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello all,

 

Regarding issues with Amarra tripping on long file names and strange characters, I thought I'd fill you in on how Sonic Studio is addressing the issues.

 

1) Long Names -

Currently and name (soundfile or folder) needs to be less than 30 characters (32 max).

If the name is longer then it is "modified" by adding #XXXX (the finder changes the name).

 

This is all a result of "old" code in the file management.

 

We are just about to start testing the fixes for long file names in Amarra.

This would be a 1.2 release (in 2 months or so).

 

2) Non-Latin Character Sets.

This is support for "unicode" or two-byte characters.

It was this change after 3162 that broke things for Clay.

To do this right is a Major change and will take us into next year to fully fix.

 

3) For Now - Non-Latin - meaning japanese / chinese languages may have problems.

For this purpose there is a Menu Command in 3182.

If a customer has lots of files with Non-Latin then they may want to enable this and report back.

 

File => Extras => Enable Extended Character Sets

 

4) There are some characters like "/" and " " cause problems as they represent the folder "/" and the escape character.

 

I hope this helps some out there and apologize for the issues. Please know that we are working hard to resolve these issues and to make Amarra even better.

 

Regards,

 

Lee Mincy

Sonic Studio, LLC

 

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Lee,

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Let me repeat what I said recently in another thread. I am VERY satisfied now with the version of Amarra that I've been testing, despite having a few minor issues related to the unicode.

 

Lee, I'm a little confused by your comments above. You make reference to a version 1.2, without saying when 1.1 will be released. Can you clarify?

 

You also state that Amarra will change the names of the music files - presumably this is ONLY within Amarra itself, and not a permanent file name change on disk?

 

Thanks

Clay

 

 

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Hi everyone, new to the site which I found from looking into Amarra (fantastic site by the way, love it and will now be visiting regularly!). Just wanted to throw in my quick reaction to Amarra (demo'ing it right now). Have only had it going for an hour or so but I am absolutely floored! Demo'ing in two systems:

 

(1) Mac Mini -> Prism Orpheus -> SPL Phonitor Headphone Amp -> Denon AH-D7000 headphones

(2) Mac Mini -> Meridian 861v4 (optical in) -> 5.3 speakers (Meridian DSP3100's and Triad subs w/Velodyne SMS-1's)

 

I can't even really highlight specifically what it is that sounds better, its just that the whole musical presentation (tone, pace, dynamics, detail, extension, etc) is vastly more pleasing through Amarra. I can't think of anything else in my system that I have upgraded that has made such an audible difference regardless of $ (including the 861v4 upgrade from a 586.2). I want to spend more time with it to make sure there isn't any fatigue but so far I'm definitely a believer! Since I use iTunes for 75%+ of my listening the $995 doesn't seem so bad.

 

John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trinnov Altitude 32 - Audionet AMP5 - Vivid Kaya 90's (Transparent Reference, Synergistic Research PowerCell UEF12 SE, Roon Nucleus+, Keces, RAAL sr1a)

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Anyone with their ear to ground hear anything about when Amarra will release their Apple Lossless-compatible version? Thier website says "coming soon", but "soon" just isn't soon enough, when I read such glowing reviews.

 

I feel like I'm being left in the dust for the sin of having ripped my entire library to ALAC! Going for uncompressed over lossless just seemed pointless to me. And now I'm paying for my mistake. Chris, you were right - AIFF is the way to go. If for no other reason that it's more conservative. And ripping hundreds of CD's is not my idea of a fun weekend.

 

Also, what advantages does the full version offer over the mini? From their website, it seems like "sonic EQ" is the only difference (if you don't buy their hardware). Is that worth $600? I thought EQ was considered sort of an audiophile no-no.

 

Thanks,

Rascal

 

A: Mac Mini => Peachtree Nova => LFD Integrated Zero Mk.III => Harbeth Compact 7ES-3 | Musical Fidelity X-CAN V-8 => AKG K 701

B: Airport Express = > Benchmark DAC1 => Rega Brio-R => B&W DM 601 S2

C: Airport Express => AudioEngine A2

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Like Chris, I am listening to ALAC files via Amarra in the current 'test' version of Amarra. While I don't know the date, I will quite confidently predict that the next release of Amarra will include support for ALAC files.

 

FWIW, it's very simple to convert your ALAC files to AIFF in iTunes. You can even do it while listening via iTunes.

 

Just select the files to be converted, and click Create AIFF Version under the Advanced tab.

 

clay

 

 

 

 

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I've made a suggestion to Sonic Studio that I'll repeat here. I wonder if Amarra mini would be improved by at least having an preference option to do away with the GUI. At the moment I have to make iTunes smaller to accommodate a window that only repeats the iTunes play FF/RW buttons. As it is, Amarra automatically switches on and off as it plays uncompressed/compressed files, so why not do away with the Amarra window completely and have it just operate through the iTunes GUI?

 

regards[br]Michael[br]Mac mini & Amarra 3 | Weiss Minerva | CEC TL-51x | Octave HP500se | ADAM Tensor Delta active speakers. [br]MacBook Pro | V-DAC | Yamamoto HA-02 | ATH-W1000[br]AppleTV | DACMagic2 | Sugden A25 | ADAM HM2

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Interesting.....A request was put forward to implement an on/off indicator light only as the GUI quite some time ago. Doing so will utilize less system resources for those using legacy Macs and the result may be improved sound quality.

 

Certain indicator lights, (like an aircraft flight check list), may be considered valuable tools before playback sessions. In many music mastering facilities, one of the first procedures will be to play a HDCD file, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Definition_Compatible_Digital), to be used as an indicator of bit transparency. One may not realize how many times a simple incorrect setting changed playback in a technically incorrect manner.

 

An Amarra pilot light only may also be utilized in a similar manner. Perhaps there are others that do not require meters.

 

Regards,

 

Tim Marutani

Emeryville, CA

 

 

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