New Amarra 4

[GregWormald]

Careful with the new Amarra Luxe 4.3.xxx.

I've had it crash while playing an album in iTunes mode and NOTHING (re-starts, re-installation, re-ripping the album,...) will get it to play that album. It plays fine with just iTunes.

 

 

[Lio_B]

the notion of "sounds better than" is very subjective and personal to everyone, the debate would be too long ?.
Comparing a sound heard in real life by an instrument and trying to get closer to it with its system, I find that HQPlayer is the most realistic.
Amarra is good, but color slightly the reality.

Amarra will give more physical presence than HQP, but sometimes too much.
this is just my opinion and I understand that many prefer Amarra SQ.

[merging]

Precisely compared with the real instrument, I believe that mooring recreates "the live" better. It better preserves the harmonic cover of the instruments, captures or reproduces better the "acoustic space" and allows the listening of the different layers of the grave; Roon is far from this. The EQ of A4L is simply the best

[MemoryPlayer]

23 hours ago, Lio_B said:

Amarra is good, but color slightly the reality.

 

...slightly or a lot?

[ThunderMac]

After year of using audirvana I want to upgrade to latest amarra 4.3.473  (on Yosemite 10.10.5) to see what’s new there, but after upgrading and launching I get a massage “Amarra Luxe cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Amarra Luxe works with this version of OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and OS X. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.”

 

I uninstall and reinstall amarra few times but no success. What else can I do? 

[ThunderMac]

Some more information s regarding to this problem:

 

Application Specific Information:
dyld: launch, loading dependent libraries

Dyld Error Message:
  Library not loaded: @executable_path/libqobuzplugin.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/Amarra Luxe/Amarra Luxe.app/Contents/MacOS/Amarra Luxe
  Reason: no suitable image found.  Did find:
    /Applications/Amarra Luxe/Amarra Luxe.app/Contents/MacOS/libqobuzplugin.dylib: code signature invalid for '/Applications/Amarra Luxe/Amarra Luxe.app/Contents/MacOS/libqobuzplugin.dylib'

    /Applications/Amarra Luxe/Amarra Luxe.app/Contents/MacOS/libqobuzplugin.dylib: code signature invalid for '/Applications/Amarra Luxe/Amarra Luxe.app/Contents/MacOS/libqobuzplugin.dylib'
 

[GregWormald]

10 hours ago, ThunderMac said:

After year of using audirvana I want to upgrade to latest amarra 4.3.473  (on Yosemite 10.10.5) to see what’s new there, but after upgrading and launching I get a massage “Amarra Luxe cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure Amarra Luxe works with this version of OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and OS X. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple.”

 

I uninstall and reinstall amarra few times but no success. What else can I do? 

 

Since Mojave is 10.14 I wouldn't be surprised that the latest Amarra doesn't work with 10.10.  While it does have bugs Amarra is usable. I'd be checking with Sonic Studio what the appropriate version is for that system.

[Taz777]

I noticed the subtle renaming of Amarra 4 Luxe to Amarra Luxe during the recent update. To be honest, I've had no issues recently with Amarra Luxe on Mojave running on my iMac. It sounds unfathomably good and a direct A-B comparison of my Tidal collection between Amarra Luxe and the Tidal desktop shows that Amarra Luxes produces a noticeable improvement of my music. Sonic Studio are audio alchemists to my mind!

[DancingSea]

What sounds best can be so system specific.  I have a Direct Stream Junior DAC that upsamples everything to DSD 1024.  I recently upgraded my XLR cables between DAC and Amp from AQ MacKenzie to AQ Colorado.  With the Roon front end, and HQP upsampling everything to DSD 128 before sending it to the DAC, it does sound noticeably better than A4L.  Smooth, organic and full, yet with a much better soundstage.  The Colorados reveal this difference much more than the MacKenzie’s.  They also reveal the gap between iTunes integration mode and just straight Amarra.

 

I still enjoy the Amarra sound, so not intending to cast shade upon it.  Last night it buzzed, clicked, and periodically crashed like the good old days.  I championed the “load a few albums only” approach from way back.  After using Roon, which functions in a flawless and dynamic fashion (albeit way too expensive), I’m not sure I could go back to the small batch dance of A4L.

[GregWormald]

5 hours ago, DancingSea said:

<snips>After using Roon, which functions in a flawless and dynamic fashion (albeit way too expensive),

 

"Too expensive" is also personal.?

 

While I am happy with many of my "too expensive" *things*, I haven't tried Roon. Maybe I'll give it a trial run.

 

It would have to sound much better than AL me to spend my money on it. While I hate the bugs in AL, and the lack of flexibility in the library, I really enjoy its musical presentation.

 

The last release version won't do iTunes mode with any regularity for me. When it does, the difference between iTunes mode and AL itself (or in browser control) has been enough to make me stop using iTunes mode--despite its convenience. (Hey, I still play LPs, despite the inconvenience.)

 

What I can't work out is: When you have one of the best sounding players, why can't you get the other bits to work, it has been years. I have a ebook management app-- "Calibre"--which works absolutely perfectly with over 40 000 titles, pics, metadata, sorting, format change/edit, etc. etc.!! And it's Donationware.?

 

[ronmad1]

I switch between A4 and HQPall the time and would hate to have to choose to only have one of them. Just talking straight PCM, both upsampling (using the best filter for each album on HQP; none of the filters ever sounds the same as A4) and playing thru my cheapish system (my speakers have plenty of grunt but diamond tweeters that can be a touch hard, which makes Audirvana painful to listen to and definitely gives an advantage to A4 which is more rolled off).

 

I think there is a pattern to my choices. I see that, when I want to turn up the wick and put myself inside the soundstage a bit, I go for A4. The sounds merge more into a coherent deep stage. The thing A4 does really well is give you the physical force of the music: someone blowing hard against a reed, the tension of a drumhead or steel strings. You can really hear the stick on the drumhead. It does a great job on cymbals, too: they aren't white noise, you can really get a feel for the size of the different cymbals. The bottom end has that force: someone dropping bombs on the kick really gives you a start. Vocals are right in your face and super believable. A complicated multimic mix, however, can be too much for A4, and you quickly get a list in your head of the albums you shouldn't feed it. I think everthing I just said would come under the heading of 'analog', I could write the same of an SET amp.

 

    Switching from A4 to HQP, the first reaction is like the whole sound took a shower: so much space and clarity to each instrument. Suddenly you can pick apart the layers of Ellington's horn writing, follow the logic of what Ron Carter or John Paul Jones are doing. The big coherent enveloping soundstage and the sense of urgency are gone; there are just instruments picked out in a very black space, and I find that I use HQP when I am going to play things at lower levels rather than take a bath in the sound. With the bloom coming off, you can follow the interplay of a drummers hands and feet, separate out the original sound and the effects, basically it tells you what's there and what people are thinking when they play. HQP handles any kind of mix, it's not phased by density and the bottom end is a good weight rather than being punchy. 

[DancingSea]

3 hours ago, GregWormald said:

 

"Too expensive" is also personal.?

 

While I am happy with many of my "too expensive" *things*, I haven't tried Roon. Maybe I'll give it a trial run.

 

It would have to sound much better than AL me to spend my money on it. While I hate the bugs in AL, and the lack of flexibility in the library, I really enjoy its musical presentation.

 

 

Roon actually doesn’t sound that great, it needs HQP.  A4L is much better than Roon alone, for sound quality.  But the Roon library management, programming, and remote are really really good.

[church_mouse]

I thought I would unarchive and update A4L to try out the Qobuz integration. I must be doing something wrong because, whilst I can play from “favourites” and “playlists”, if I search and click to play something in the right hand search returns the track gets selected, pops into “now playing” but then disappears yet in the right hand panel the icon for playing is showing.  

 

Any ideas?

 

I am sure I must have misunderstood the selection process but I cannot figure out how else to search and play in Qobuz.

 

Sadly, I also see library management is still astonishingly bad.

[copy_of_a]

 

On 12/23/2018 at 4:54 PM, merging said:

the EQ of A4L is the best: true mastering quality.

 

On 12/24/2018 at 5:02 PM, merging said:

The EQ of A4L is simply the best

 

This is marketing blabla. There are quite a few "mastering grade" (whatever...) EQs out there and there is no "best" or "worst"... just different approaches and different feature sets.

However, there's an issue with the implementation of Sonic Studios EQ into Amarra 4 - when you enable the EQ (only switching it on with a flat curve, so no changes to any band applied) the top end gets somehat dull and loses sparkle... and therefore the sound image loses spatiality. The effect is moderate but clearly audible. So not really "transparent" (at least not in Amarra).

[merging]

Is the best,  for its  filters and its development in general,  no bla, bla, bla....If you´re used to working with mastering tools, you´ll know what Iam talking about. 

[Lio_B]

7 hours ago, church_mouse said:

I thought I would unarchive and update A4L to try out the Qobuz integration. I must be doing something wrong because, whilst I can play from “favourites” and “playlists”, if I search and click to play something in the right hand search returns the track gets selected, pops into “now playing” but then disappears yet in the right hand panel the icon for playing is showing.  

 

Any ideas?

 

I am sure I must have misunderstood the selection process but I cannot figure out how else to search and play in Qobuz.

 

Sadly, I also see library management is still astonishingly bad.

 

Sorry can't help you, Amarra won't start again !!!

 

And finally I don't want to make again the effort to understand why and search the solution to just start Amarra, unbelievable ...

[copy_of_a]

45 minutes ago, merging said:

Is the best,  for its  filters and its development in general,  no bla, bla, bla....If you´re used to working with mastering tools, you´ll know what Iam talking about. 

well, then... so be it ?

Since you are so experienced with mastering tools you can certainly hear what's going on at the top end (spatiality) when you turn on the EQ (without adjustments) in Amarra.

[merging]

Use professional converters of study, merging, prism ADA8. In DA and using A4 as a player I do not have that "flat" experience.

[Lio_B]

deleted sorry

 

 

[Lio_B]

On 12/27/2018 at 9:10 AM, church_mouse said:

I thought I would unarchive and update A4L to try out the Qobuz integration. I must be doing something wrong because, whilst I can play from “favourites” and “playlists”, if I search and click to play something in the right hand search returns the track gets selected, pops into “now playing” but then disappears yet in the right hand panel the icon for playing is showing.  

 

Any ideas?

 

I am sure I must have misunderstood the selection process but I cannot figure out how else to search and play in Qobuz.

 

Sadly, I also see library management is still astonishingly bad.

 

fter total re install it's OK

 

No problem with "Search" fonction with Tidal or Qobuz, and OK with "Now Playing"

 

I Choose the album on Qobuz and play it, it's OK with "Now playing":

 

[church_mouse]

@Lio_B  I see you are searching by Artist.  That works for me too, but searching by Track fails every time.  Does Track search work for you?

[Lio_B]

same for me,

 

Searching by tracks show results on Qobuz but when you select a track, the message is:

 

unable to find selected album

 

it works with Tidal

 

[church_mouse]

Thanks for the confirmation @Lio_B.

 

i guess it was always too much to expect them to release an update which actually worked properly.

[Lio_B]

Amarra last version is not working properly with the library.

My albums are correctly loaded, but when I launch amarra, there is a spinner wich never stopped and finally I must force to stop Amarra... Qobuz & Tidal are working

If I had to reinstall each days to hope a normally work...

I'm fed up with this software ?

 

[church_mouse]

My final two penn'orth of confusion before I archive this latest release:

 

Initially, I was struggling to find my Qobuz Favourites within the UI but realised they get amalgamated with my local music in My Music (no problem there) save that when using the desktop software none of the Qobuz Favourites will play - I just get a message that Amarra was unable to find the selected album.  However if I use the IOS app, playing my Qobuz Favourites does work!

 

On the other hand, playing Qobuz Purchased tracks works in the desktop app but does not work in the IOS app.