KEF X300A are freakin' great.

[teruhata]

Hello teruhata,

 

I can not correct you as I have never heard either Amarra HIFI or Amarra (standard). I purchased Amarra Symphony (as it is now known) first and only. What Amarra standard and Amarra Symphony share in common is the Amarra engine. And I gather so does Amarra HIFI. What you will want to do, so I don't have to, is to visit Sonic Studio's website (again?) and review the features and release notes and then decide what you desire at the minimum. You might ask, if they all employ the Amarra engine, what would inspire me to spend the money for Amarra Symphony? Notice I am ignoring your initial response that you can not differentiate between iTunes and Amarra HIFI. I don't doubt you. I know members who find iTunes to be fine. Perhaps, that's a starting point for you. But as you may already know, certain formats are not supported by iTunes. And iTunes does not automatically change sample rate. So if you play one track that is 44.1/16 and the next track at 96/24, iTunes won't change to the track's sample rate automatically.

 

If you read my thread (it's a bit daunting at least in the length of the thread) you'll discover that many who purchased HIFI move on to either Amarra Standard or Amarra Symphony. And many who purchased Amarra Standard move on to Amarra Symphony. And many who encounter issues may choose to move on to...

 

Preliminarily, Amarra Symphony does what Amarra Standard doesn't. Please compare the features. I also employ iRC which I find indispensible. Amarra Standard doesn't employ the same edition of iRC. Nor offer the meters which I also find indispensible. There are other features not included with Standard but included with Symphony hence the different price points. You can always upgrade. Or you can trial Symphony and discover what differences, if any, you experience.

 

Admittedly, Symphony with iRC is expensive. But I believe you get what you pay for. And though I am a beta tester, I have paid full price for all the Amarra products I use/beta test. iRc can be employed with Symphony, AsQ+, and Amarra For TIDAL/HIFI.

 

Download the trials for each program and compare. Make sure you do your due diligence and read up about the features. If I can offer you an further help, I'll be glad to. I own them all save Audirvana Plus (2.XXX upgrade) and JRMC (never used it, ever). Roon at $449 (10% discount). HQPlayer at $137+. And the remaining Decibel, Fidelia Advanced, BitPerfect, Pure Music.

 

Take your time. Get familiar with how the programs perform. When I do critical listening, I use the Playlist mode of Amarra Symphony (no iTunes is involved) which is strictly Amarra engine with some other features like automatic gapless play etc. Pay now, enjoy now. You need to decide what delivers your enjoyment of the music and what price point you are willing to spend. That part is yours to discover.

 

Enjoy the music,

Richard

 

Hi Richard, i played the music in wireless mode, the songs won't play from Amarra and get switch back to play from iTunes instead. Do you know if this is normal?

[REShaman]

Hi Richard, i played the music in wireless mode, the songs won't play from Amarra and get switch back to play from iTunes instead. Do you know if this is normal?

 

Hello teruhata,

 

Wow! I am straining to answer your question. My KEFX300A are NOT wireless. My Mac Mini is connected to the KEFX300A by USB cable. As I am not familiar with the Wireless edition, allow me to take a guess, please:

 

Open AMS (Audio Midi Setup). Do you see as one of the devices KEFX300A? If not what do you see? Or open the System Preference folder and then Sound. In the output tab, do you see the KEFX300A? If so is it selected? If I am being silly, you can always email KEFDirect.com and pose the question to them.

 

Also, open Amarra, go to the Preference in the Menu bar at the top of your monitor, check Audio Devices. Is KEFX300A selected? If not, you can slide the bar to the KEFX300A and confirm as you can also access AMS from that page. I think upper right corner of the Preference/Audio Device window page.

 

Is any of what I just suggested applicable? Please let me know.

 

Best,

Richard

[Michele]

I'm looking at a new system and am considering the x300a.

 

I'd be curious if there are thoughts on: 1) direct USB connection to a laptop compared with 2) using the Apple Lightening Camera USB adapter and an iPhone. This adapter is supposed to bypass the iPhones internal DAC. So in theory there should not be a big difference in sound between the two.

 

Has anyone tested this?

 

Michele

[mistersprinkles]

Forgive me for necroing my own 2 yr old thread. I am having an issue with the X300As where the sound starts to fade out in terms of volume and dynamics after listening for a few minutes. Unplugging the speakers from the computer, turning them off, and reconnecting and powering them back up fixes this--- for awhile.

Will swapping to decent USB cables (I'm on the stock junk cables) make a difference or fix my problem? This is what was suggested by KEF tech support.

 

Best cables I can really afford would be the Audioquest Forest USB cables in 1.5m length x2.

 

Thoughts?

[Mordikai]

There is no evidence to suggest that expensive usb cables are any better at transmitting the required signal. Try any other usb cable of your choosing, don't worry about the price.