New Amarra 4

[DancingSea]

11 minutes ago, ddalmas said:

hi dancing sea ...how are you? its a long tine we don't meet....i apologize for contradicting you but i have a very good news ...i have just bought Fidelia fro apple store!! it is in download just now...i will follow you next days about it

i hope to have another good sounding player as you and other folks have stated in these posts

ciaociao

 

Aloha ddalmas - I'm doing well, good to hear from you.  My life would not be complete without a few stray contradictions by you!

 

As always, its most welcome.  And this is especially good news as recently Fidelia was no longer on the App store which caused me concern it was gone forever.  So I'm very happy it has reappeared. This gives hope they will continue to support Fidelia.

 

It sounds great.  Its library management isn't the best, but it does read one's entire iTunes library and playlists easily, no load times, its just there.

 

And the plugins we all like work as well.  Interested to hear your thoughts.  I prefer Fidelia to A+, no contest.

[ddalmas]

not yet experimented the sound...i will do it tomorrow but about library...no comment at all ...even though it does not have the scandalous behavior of A4 it is quite a great mess too ! i will see how to behave with it in next steps....But A+ is the real must in library management!! i realize that fidelia suffers of its ancient project...hope will be seriously upgraded in next future to go in line with more modern players

ciaociao

[ddalmas]

ah do you know if there is any app that easily builds playlists directly from the songs in the album folders ?

[DancingSea]

8 minutes ago, ddalmas said:

not yet experimented the sound...i will do it tomorrow but about library...no comment at all ...even though it does not have the scandalous behavior of A4 it is quite a great mess too ! i will see how to behave with it in next steps....But A+ is the real must in library management!! i realize that fidelia suffers of its ancient project...hope will be seriously upgraded in next future to go in line with more modern players

ciaociao

 

I just connect it to my iTunes library and use the search function in Fidelia to make selections.  Can then drag them to a playlist, or play directly from the search results.  It doesn't look as good as A+, but the library functionality is similar to my tastes and needs.  A+ is no library saint either.  And with my system of using A4L as only a player for a given night, Fidelia is a bit easier.

 

But yes, am hoping for an update.

 

4 minutes ago, ddalmas said:

ah do you know if there is any app that easily builds playlists directly from the songs in the album folders ?

 

Not sure.

[mneveux]

On 8/30/2017 at 4:44 PM, DancingSea said:

 

Yes. It's in the transport. Very annoying as it doesn't play all songs before repeating.  

Thanks, got it. It has a non-standard icon for shuffle.

[DancingSea]

1 hour ago, mneveux said:

Thanks, got it. It has a non-standard icon for shuffle.

 

 

[ddalmas]

hi to everybody...i am here after deep listening sessions of the 3 players to test(A4  A+ and Fidelia) well these are my impressions that i want to share with you:

A4 sound good by itself and it is the  compare starting point(But it has all the scandalous problems that everyone of us well knows!)

A+ is very nicely sounding, but it surely needs an helping hand to complete the sound quality, maybe only a good good saturator as you suggested (personally i use the Nick Crowl lab Tube saturator that i find nicely sounding and very complete in all its functions)...this way all the frequencies are well represented,maybe a little lack on the vocal range that is better represented in A4,on the contrary A+ seems to be more analytic on highs and scene representing .But its library management is simply extraordinary!!! A+ sees any change you do in the library folder in REALTIME so you do not have too worry about if your album is inserted in your album list...you don' have the time to go to A+ screen after having added an album to your folder that the album is already visible in the library....ain't GREAT?For me library manager is the point of force the decision to choose A+ as preferred player!and it sound quite good.

Fidelia i found  the best in sound quality added to facilities possibility of use.It is very essential to use a few commands and that's all...souds great and with add of the tube sat  it sounds maybe better than A4, i think, but without the scandalous faults and enormous lacks of A4 itself! on contrary Library management is quite not sufficient in our times and it has  ,with clear evidence, been left in the old times  when fidelia was born( i have just made an enquiry to Fidelia staff about their intention to upgrade to more recent needs ,and ,if ever i will have a response, i will let you know)anyway Fidelia  ,obviously only with a new and good library manager, will be elected to my preferred player as SQ/Friendly Use.(let's remember that listening to music is LISTEN and CONCENTRATE on MUSIC and not TECHNOLOGY)For now, waiting changes from A4 and Fidelia, my preferred and everyday use remains A+ with its fantastic realtime library updating system, the only one amongst all the players i have tested(from the basic iTunes, VLC,eccc.... to the more sophisticated  ones A4 F PM )

ciao ciao .....and...please  let me know your impressions and suggestions

[ddalmas]

i have also tested the old A3,more friendly to  be used..... but it sounds more poor than A4 on the contrary i have realized the amazing space scene of Fidelia!! the best in that

i wait for your comments

ciaociao

[Spherical Cow]

Amarra 4 is unuseable in its current state. It's slow, buggy, has a horrble interface, an inability to sort by genre, and is not a pleasant user experience. Why Amarra thought it would be a good idea to attempt to manage music via their ridiculously poor database makes no sense. I have not seen such poor software released since IBM released a DB front end from their UK division back in the early 1990s. Good grief!

[ddalmas]

complete agreeing with that!! everyone of us uses its preferred terms(scandalous , idiot,horrible ,and so on)but the result is the same and i must say that you have given a very well wearing comparison...back in the  90's !!!! please do not use this player ...it does not deserves any attention nor expense!In these last hours  i am really  enjoying with Fidelia ....very agreable sound...nor so the library but it was done  back in the early 2010 's without any support since long time...we only hope that the Fidelia staff would hear our requests with more attention than the staff of A4 does, (completely deaf & dumb!)

ciaociao

[Spherical Cow]

On 1/30/2017 at 6:52 PM, 94941 said:

Quote

Sonic advertised the upgrade from Amarra 3 all last fall as costing $5 bucks. You click on the link to upgrade and it's actually $25 dollars. It's freaking annoying. It's not the money (it's a small amount) but why do they have to lie about it and spring the higher price on us at the checkout page?

It's typical of Sonic who seem to think they're so good they can get away with anything and their customers will just take it.
 

Sadly, they keep proving that they are incompetent in both database design and user interface design. They do get the sound right IMHO; however, clunky interfaces and buggy software is not a recipe for success in 2017.

 

[Spherical Cow]

How bad is Amarra 4? Scanning in 35,000 songs is enough to make my Apple Pro Xeon powered, 32GB RAM, SSD drive machine sluggish. Do these folks ever test their software before release?

[Lio_B]

4 hours ago, ddalmas said:

i have also tested the old A3,more friendly to  be used..... but it sounds more poor than A4 on the contrary i have realized the amazing space scene of Fidelia!! the best in that

i wait for your comments

ciaociao

I have just installed Fidela trial, add my PSP PreQursor2 plugin (but difficult to hear a difference with or without the plugin)

Compared with A4L, Fidela is the software which is closest to A4 about SQ. (in blind test)

Very interesting, but my SQ preference go to A4.

Perhaps it could sound better with licence because of the advanced setting and izotope settings.

Regards

[DancingSea]

8 minutes ago, Lio_B said:

I have just installed Fidela trial, add my PSP PreQursor2 plugin (but difficult to hear a difference with or without the plugin)

Compared with A4L, Fidela is the software which is closest to A4 about SQ. (in blind test)

Very interesting, but my SQ preference go to A4.

Perhaps it could sound better with licence because of the advanced setting and izotope settings.

Regards

 

Best I can figure, its not possible to buy the advanced license anymore.  I have the paid version, and there's no place in the app to upgrade.   Back when I first bought Fidelia, one could upgrade on the Fidelia website.....

[DancingSea]

7 hours ago, ddalmas said:

hi to everybody...i am here after deep listening sessions of the 3 players to test(A4  A+ and Fidelia) well these are my impressions that i want to share with you:

A4 sound good by itself and it is the  compare starting point(But it has all the scandalous problems that everyone of us well knows!)

A+ is very nicely sounding, but it surely needs an helping hand to complete the sound quality, maybe only a good good saturator as you suggested (personally i use the Nick Crowl lab Tube saturator that i find nicely sounding and very complete in all its functions)...this way all the frequencies are well represented,maybe a little lack on the vocal range that is better represented in A4,on the contrary A+ seems to be more analytic on highs and scene representing .But its library management is simply extraordinary!!! A+ sees any change you do in the library folder in REALTIME so you do not have too worry about if your album is inserted in your album list...you don' have the time to go to A+ screen after having added an album to your folder that the album is already visible in the library....ain't GREAT?For me library manager is the point of force the decision to choose A+ as preferred player!and it sound quite good.

Fidelia i found  the best in sound quality added to facilities possibility of use.It is very essential to use a few commands and that's all...souds great and with add of the tube sat  it sounds maybe better than A4, i think, but without the scandalous faults and enormous lacks of A4 itself! on contrary Library management is quite not sufficient in our times and it has  ,with clear evidence, been left in the old times  when fidelia was born( i have just made an enquiry to Fidelia staff about their intention to upgrade to more recent needs ,and ,if ever i will have a response, i will let you know)anyway Fidelia  ,obviously only with a new and good library manager, will be elected to my preferred player as SQ/Friendly Use.(let's remember that listening to music is LISTEN and CONCENTRATE on MUSIC and not TECHNOLOGY)For now, waiting changes from A4 and Fidelia, my preferred and everyday use remains A+ with its fantastic realtime library updating system, the only one amongst all the players i have tested(from the basic iTunes, VLC,eccc.... to the more sophisticated  ones A4 F PM )

ciao ciao .....and...please  let me know your impressions and suggestions

 

 

Thanks for the observations.  I agree, A+ is very functional.  I use it in iTunes integration mode and it works very well.  Despite trying every setting known to man, as well as all of our plugin explorations, I have a difficult time with how A+ handles the highs.  To my limited audiophile vocabulary, the highs sound too jagged and compressed together.  I like smooth and rounded highs, but not muddy.

 

I like Fidelia very much, and with the search function, I can easily select a CD from my iTunes library.  Yes, its an outdated system, but it works ok - and sounds even better with the Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2.  

 

As a side note, way back when copy_of_a gave us his plugin/ A+ settings recipe, he listed the use of a dither plugin.  In the output section of the Fidelia preferences, there is a dither setting.  I find adjusting the dither smoothes out the sound quite nicely.

 

I do still use A4 as a player in which I load in a limited number of CD's at a time - which avoids most of its library madness.  I'm currently using it for my DSD files.  Even though the DoP update is not in place, the DSD converted to PCM sounds really really good - better than high bit rate FLAC or ALAC of the same recording. Fidelia doesn't handle DSD.

 

Another thing I appreciate about Fidelia that A4L sorely lacks, is I can create a playlist in iTunes and with no fuss, can easily play the playlist in Fidelia.  The A4L playlists are completely useable....

[DancingSea]

My sound ratings go like this:

 

1) A4L playing DSD

 

2) Fidelia with Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2

 

3) A4L playing anything other than DSD

 

4) Fidelia by itself

 

5) A+ with Wave Arts Tube Saturator 2 in iTunes integration mode, which I prefer to A+ in stand alone mode.

 

 

Functionality ratings:

 

1) A+ in any form

 

2) Fidelia

 

10) A4L

 

[DancingSea]

2 hours ago, Lio_B said:

I have just installed Fidela trial, 

 

Where did you get the trial?  Does the App Store offer a trial?

[DancingSea]

Have even found a place for iTunes/Bitperfect which are more forgiving of less than pristine recordings...

[foodfiend]

Looks like there are more fans of Fidelia now. Perhaps we should work on convincing Matthew Foust to resurrect it.

[rodelius]

Just installed A4 Luxe Demo on a fresh OS install.

Sounds great, but as others have reported, sound is shifted to the right when IRC is ON.

Yesterday I made a new set of measurements and filters to see whether DIRAC might have updated something, but results are identical.

New filters sound fine in Symphony 3 but they fail in A4L.

 

Any updates on this issue?

Could it be possible that it just don't work on the demo version?

Are they really selling the IRC feature to new customers knowing that it does not work?

[Lio_B]

On 01/09/2017 at 10:40 PM, DancingSea said:

 

Where did you get the trial?  Does the App Store offer a trial?

 Just put "fidelia software" in Google

I found 2 links for downloading the trial, don't no if i can post the link

regards

 

[ThunderMac]

I said that I would give chance to Ammara, despite all the criticisms regarding to its library functioning, so I bought Amarra Luxe and SQ+. Everything OK regarding to sound, but: 

• is there something/anything to do that Amarra will show correct order of songs. I gave up with “one compilation” showed as a “ten separate artists with one song”, but incorrect song order when I listen “one artist” album, this is really irritating. This is happening in about 10-20% of all albums. Erasing albums from amarra, updating library, re-tagging etc. won't work.

• (I also have problems with ammara remote (not showing album artwork etc.) but probably this is also a known fact?)

regards

[ddalmas]

you didn't trust in what is written in this forum.....now you have the fees of this! believe me use other softwares and yo will be happier.throw that nasty, but sound, A4 player in the trash and you life would be better.It is indecent that Sonic Studio ,after all these claims that they know that exist, has not built any upgrade since 1 or 2 months!!! a behavior that has no excuses ....stay away from them!

[quark]

2 hours ago, ddalmas said:

you didn't trust in what is written in this forum.....now you have the fees of this! believe me use other softwares and yo will be happier.throw that nasty, but sound, A4 player in the trash and you life would be better.It is indecent that Sonic Studio ,after all these claims that they know that exist, has not built any upgrade since 1 or 2 months!!! a behavior that has no excuses ....stay away from them!

 I absolutely agree.

Although my perfectionist character driving my Audiophile obsession forces me to still use Luxe because the sound is so good, so bloody frustrating.

I'm beginning to realise that they are happy knowing their software  frustrates almost every customer because it doesn't do what it supposed to, but many still use it because superior sound. Seems very much like they are just exploiting our Audiophile driven emotional insecurities. They know there's many problems they should fix, but it's just not their priority, it  really looks more like they don't care, after all they have their money now. 

But you are absolutely correct,  it's outrageous that there has been no updates to fix even one of the many many many basic functions that don't work properly. What is the point of playlist,  you can't change the order, you cant delete songs from the list, ridiculous. Creating a playlist in the order you want to listen to it takes you longer than it does to listen to it . The iOS APP has many functions also don't even work, so what's the point in having them. 

[quark]

Just now, quark said:

 I absolutely agree.

Although my perfectionist character driving my Audiophile obsession forces me to still use Luxe because the sound is so good, so bloody frustrating.

I'm beginning to realise that they are happy knowing their software  frustrates almost every customer because it doesn't do what it supposed to, but many still use it because superior sound. Seems very much like they are just exploiting our Audiophile driven emotional insecurities. They know there's many problems they should fix, but it's just not their priority, it  really looks more like they don't care, after all they have their money now. 

But you are absolutely correct,  it's outrageous that there has been no updates to fix even one of the many many many basic functions that don't work properly. What is the point of playlist,  you can't change the order, you cant delete songs from the list, ridiculous. Creating a playlist in the order you want to listen to it takes you longer than it does to listen to it . The iOS APP has many functions also don't even work, so what's the point in having them. 

 Just to add to my rant, I would suggest that anybody reading this forum wanting to find out if it's worth getting Amarra to not bother even trying, that way you won't get sucked in by the sound but desperately frustrated by its terrible function.