Audirvana Plus 2.6

[audiocanyon]

I just purchased v2 a couple months ago and don't have any use for MQA, so I doubt I'll be purchasing an upgrade at this point. v2 is working fine for me. However, if there are other features in v3 besides MQA, it might be worth considering. I guess I'll need to wait and see.

[Dyson]

Just released Audirvana Plus 2.6.4 with bug fixes:

• Fix FLAC loader issue leading to playback stopping sometimes in last 2s of a track
  
• Fix inability to remove offline sync folder
  
• Fix inability to select multiple albums in albums view with cmd-click
  
• Fix Play Queue not updated upon track metadata change (e.g. play count)
  
• Fix shuffled playlist on shuffled at start
  

 

To not deviate too much from this thread topic (2.6), I've replied on Jud's new thread for the Audirvana Plus 3 & MQA topic

And by the way, Sound Quality is getting better and better!!! It's just lacking the very deep bass control of beta 16 :-)

 

It is a bit shorter on the reverbs as well but that makes it sounding a bit more forward, and thus more usual (I don't mean it must be so... it's more like we are used to).

 

I really hope you will be able to implement again the optimisation(s) that did the low end of b16 so wonderful.

 

Congratulations!

[HardrockInMiniMac]

Just released Audirvana Plus 2.6.4 with bug fixes:

• Fix FLAC loader issue leading to playback stopping sometimes in last 2s of a track
  
• Fix inability to remove offline sync folder
  
• Fix inability to select multiple albums in albums view with cmd-click
  
• Fix Play Queue not updated upon track metadata change (e.g. play count)
  
• Fix shuffled playlist on shuffled at start
  

 

To not deviate too much from this thread topic (2.6), I've replied on Jud's new thread for the Audirvana Plus 3 & MQA topic

 

Hi Damien, just installed the latest version.

 

I have playlists from my Highresaudio Integration that I have not created. One is "shortlist_23524..." and more numbers etc.

It does not load and neither can I delete it. I created another one under Highresaudio Playlists and cannot delete that one either.

I logged on / off Highresaudio but no way to get rid of these artifacts.

 

Any idea?

 

Thanks, Chris

[fourstrings1891]

I wonder how some always spot a SQ difference between versions (including beta versions), when the only thing Damien did was to correct a few interface bugs.. [emoji849]

[Dyson]

I wonder how some always spot a SQ difference between versions (including beta versions), when the only thing Damien did was to correct a few interface bugs.. [emoji849]

maybe because there are? the mystery of computer science :-)

[watercourse]

My first impressions on TIDAL MQA.

 

I never normally use the TIDAL player but I tried the MQA content through it and I have to say it sounded very good. I'm very familiar with Joni Mitchel's Blue album, playing the first track sounded very nice, clean and airy with nice details.

Then I played the same track (of course, 44.1 version) via Audirvana and I thought it sounded a bit laid back and was very surprised at the difference until I discovered that I had the volume normalisation on! Please don't use this option, it destroys the music, I had it on for convenience so I could just play many different albums one after the other on the same volume setting on my DAC. Never using it again, that's for sure!

 

Anyway, I think the same track up sampled to 352 and played in Audirvana sounds almost just as good as the MQA version played by TIDAL. Of course, Audirvana at the moment uses the 44.1 version of the track. I have a great system but not in in ideal listening environment, so the test is no way comprehensive but it's enough to give me a good idea.

 

This small test showed again what a fine player Audirvana is and I'm sure the MQA material decoded and up sampled/played in Audirvana will sound better still.

So, not having to own a dedicated MQA based DAC to be able to play the 88.2 and 96 MQA material via the upcoming Audirvana 3.0 is great news. Especially if TIDAL continues with not charging extra for the new MQA material!

 

Happy listening.

Mev

 

During my three month trial of Tidal, it sure sounded to me like all albums were normalized. Very similar to the sonic characteristics of ReplayGain implemented in A+ 2.6.

 

My own rips into WAV and FLAC had greater dynamics and treble extension compared to Tidal. However, this is not to say that Tidal sounded bad, just a tad more polite, and pretty close to Redbook quality using A+ and my disc players as reference.

 

Anyone else feel the same way?

 

Alternatively, I would be interested if people thought Tidal streaming sounded better than rips or hi res files. And if MQA was an improvement from standard Tidal Hi Fi.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[SavantGarde]

maybe because there are? the mystery of computer science :-)

… or maybe the mystery of cognitive science .

[mevdinc]

During my three month trial of Tidal, it sure sounded to me like all albums were normalized. Very similar to the sonic characteristics of ReplayGain implemented in A+ 2.6.

 

My own rips into WAV and FLAC had greater dynamics and treble extension compared to Tidal. However, this is not to say that Tidal sounded bad, just a tad more polite, and pretty close to Redbook quality using A+ and my disc players as reference.

 

Anyone else feel the same way?

 

Alternatively, I would be interested if people thought Tidal streaming sounded better than rips or hi res files. And if MQA was an improvement from standard Tidal Hi Fi.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

 

I meant I had the ReplayGain on in Audirvana which made the music sounded a bit compressed in comparison to the MQA version I listened to via TIDAL player.

With ReplayGain turned off Audirvana sounded almost just as good as the MQA track.

 

I'm not sure if TIDAL applies any volume normalisation but the MQA track sounded fine to me.

[watercourse]

Hi mevdinc,

 

Your post was clear about how you had ReplayGain activated accidentally. It just triggered a related question about Tidal sound quality, whether Tidal normalizes tracks (I can't find any info online), and A+ upsampling of lossless files.

 

Some friends outside of Computer Audiophile that I have spoken to about Tidal sound quality have opinions about Tidal Hi Fi in comparison to their own rips. I just wanted to hear from people at CA.

 

My two cents is that A+ sound optimization on home rips generally sound better than A+ sound optimization on Tidal Hi Fi streams. With MQA files now available via Tidal, there is now a question of whether it has better SQ now than before Tidal MQA.

[mevdinc]

Hi mevdinc,

 

Your post was clear about how you had ReplayGain activated accidentally. It just triggered a related question about Tidal sound quality, whether Tidal normalizes tracks (I can't find any info online), and A+ upsampling of lossless files.

 

Some friends outside of Computer Audiophile that I have spoken to about Tidal sound quality have opinions about Tidal Hi Fi in comparison to their own rips. I just wanted to hear from people at CA.

 

My two cents is that A+ sound optimization on home rips generally sound better than A+ sound optimization on Tidal Hi Fi streams. With MQA files now available via Tidal, there is now a question of whether it has better SQ now than before Tidal MQA.

 

Understood.

 

With my limited listening test I can say that the MQA files sound better than the normal versions. Not surprising I guess since MQA mastered files are 88.2 or 96.

Can't wait to hear the MQA masters via Audirvana 3.0!

[HardrockInMiniMac]

Understood.

 

With my limited listening test I can say that the MQA files sound better than the normal versions. Not surprising I guess since MQA mastered files are 88.2 or 96.

Can't wait to hear the MQA masters via Audirvana 3.0!

 

...when I activated replayGain I checked "preserve album dynamics" so there should not be any compression effect IMHO.

[mevdinc]

...when I activated replayGain I checked "preserve album dynamics" so there should not be any compression effect IMHO.

 

I meant to try that myself, now that you mention it I will, thanks for the tip.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

I meant to try that myself, now that you mention it I will, thanks for the tip.

 

A little off topic, but I am familiar with the dynamic range subject, the so-called "loudness war" etc. and started to change out 30% of my library (redbook CDs) against their previous high DR release from the 70ies-90ies. It is quite difficult to find high DR recordings beginning 2000 until today. Now with this feature in Audirvana I can measure the DR for every song on every CD and compare that to the DR Database, which is on the Internet and features exactly my coy of the CD alongside all other versions.

 

I can confirm that Audirvana shows exactly the same value like the database and I cannot hear any reduction in dynamic range when checking " preserve album dynamics".

By the way: All the highres / downloaded siblings of redbook albums I own have significantly lower DR-values than the original. In every case I know the currency for high bit versions is a loss of dynamic range and I have numerous popular examples in my database.

And that is something you can hear right away when switching between the same song on different versions of the album.

[jamesg11]

A little off topic, but I am familiar with the dynamic range subject, the so-called "loudness war" etc. and started to change out 30% of my library (redbook CDs) against their previous high DR release from the 70ies-90ies. It is quite difficult to find high DR recordings beginning 2000 until today. Now with this feature in Audirvana I can measure the DR for every song on every CD and compare that to the DR Database, which is on the Internet and features exactly my coy of the CD alongside all other versions.

 

I can confirm that Audirvana shows exactly the same value like the database and I cannot hear any reduction in dynamic range when checking " preserve album dynamics".

By the way: All the highres / downloaded siblings of redbook albums I own have significantly lower DR-values than the original. In every case I know the currency for high bit versions is a loss of dynamic range and I have numerous popular examples in my database.

And that is something you can hear right away when switching between the same song on different versions of the album.

Very interesting - can you discuss a specific example or two of your albums & their comparative DR figures?

[fourstrings1891]

- Fast scrolling is instantaneous on my (in computer terms ancient) mac pro. After installing a PCI based SSD in my 2006 Pro (only for OSX and applications like A+) it really flies (and sounded a lot better as a bonus). So maybe it is a hardware and not a software problem?

I'm using a mid-2014 MacBook Pro. The issue is with the software. I just tested, and and the scrolling seem to stuck after ~10 rows. It's a bit better if I scroll really slow. This is using the computer's trackpad. If I use a mouse it works better, the scrolling doesn't stuck at all, but it stutter and can't render at full speed when scrolling fast.

 

Scrolling in album view is very smooth though.

[fourstrings1891]

I can confirm that Audirvana shows exactly the same value like the database and I cannot hear any reduction in dynamic range when checking " preserve album dynamics".

I don't get the same result in A+ compared with dr14meter (used for the Dynamic Range Database). Two examples:

[font=courier new]A+        dr14meter
[/font][font=courier new]
Analyzed: Blood Donation / Artist: Mariam The Believer

DR6        DR7
DR8        DR8
DR6        DR7
DR8        DR8
DR7        DR8
DR7        DR7
DR9        DR10
DR10       DR10
DR7        DR8
DR6        DR7
DR5        DR6
DR11       DR12
DR7        DR7
---        ---
DR6        DR8

Analyzed: Beyond The Blue Horizon [1997 remaster] / Artist: George Benson

DR12        DR12
DR12        DR13
DR13        DR13
DR12        DR12
DR13        DR13
DR14        DR15
DR14        DR14
DR14        DR14
---         ---
DR14        DR13[/font]

Also, I'm not sure A+ calculates the "Album DR" the same way dr14meter does.

[HardrockInMiniMac]

Very interesting - can you discuss a specific example or two of your albums & their comparative DR figures?

 

Let's take a real hammer.

 

Steve Earle - Copperhead road

Original CD is DR 16-18, the HDTrack I purchased is DR 7-9!

[HardrockInMiniMac]

I don't get the same result in A+ compared with dr14meter (used for the Dynamic Range Database).

Also, I'm not sure A+ calculates the "Album DR" the same way dr14meter does.

 

You might be right, I have not double checked because when I checked all my CDs with the Windows version of DRmeter I simply noted the average value on the CD and not that Audirvana recalculates them they are in range of what I expect because I know I did not rip anything below DR10 from CD to FLAC losless. That way I can tell that all the HD siblings I purchased since I moved to computer music are less dynamic and that is what Audirvana also shows me, maybe with an offset to the DR database of +/- 1.

[Dyson]

And by the way, Sound Quality is getting better and better!!! It's just lacking the very deep bass control of beta 16 :-)

It is a bit shorter on the reverbs as well but that makes it sounding a bit more forward, and thus more usual (I don't mean it must be so... it's more like we are used to).

I really hope you will be able to implement again the optimisation(s) that did the low end of b16 so wonderful.

Congratulations!

In fact I'm even happier because latest version (2.6.4) is a perfect match for my full size speakers!

I still prefer 2.6b16 for headphone and near field monitor listening though.

 

Isn't life great?

[sebassie]

Library management after upgrade to 2.6.4 is a mess again.

In a previous post (#419) I mentioned the mess after upgrading from 2.5.4 to 2.6. Later I tried 2.6.2 and 2.6.3. There were no problems, but this were upgrades, no fresh installs.

Yesterday I upgraded from 2.6.3 to 2.6.4 after adding some albums to my NAS. Library scan appeared to be automatic. During scan the main screen was black, no albums shown. I selected the track tab hoping to see some information. No way, the program crashed.

I restarted the program. Again a automatic scan, finally resulting in a library containing about 70% of my albums.

I did a fresh scan after deleting the library files. Again a black screen. After finishing the scan Audirvana started scanning again. I terminated the scan and restarted the program. This time almost all albums were shown, but not all!

Automatic scan can be disabled in the library window. This does not work. Every time scanning starts when starting Audirvana.

I tried a fresh install of 2.6.3. Same problems. The previous install was an upgrade from 2.5.4 to 2.6.3. So I repeated that. Problems persisted. So I returned to 2.5.4. No problems now.

As I am running Sierra on an iMac I tried the above on a Mac mini running Yosemite. Same results.

My conclusion is that the library management in 2.6.x is still buggy.

All my files are properly tagged with Yate. I encounter no library problems with other software like JRiver and Aries lightning DS.

I hope that Damien can solve this buggy library management before launching version 3!

[odelay]

Since installing 2.6.3, I have had the same crashes when opening the iOS app. A workaround is to play from Splashtop - and use A+ iOS remote while music is playing.

 

Anyone having this problem with the latest version?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[bazzvid]

Ho hum, so its back to iTunes,dahh,yes crashing,almost as soon as AV is opened,done all the resets @ defrag.If it helps AV was open but not playing anything,played a couple of tracks ok,then opened itunes to delate something from the libary CRASH havent been able to open it since.im on 10.11.6.

[watercourse]

@bazzvid and odelay: are you all making sure that you clear out the playlist before opening the iOS app? Doing so seems to address the crashing for me.

[bazzvid]

unfortunately AV is crashing before i can do that on the desktop,@ ipad app wont open if the desktop isn't open,

[RunHomeSlow]

unfortunately AV is crashing before i can do that on the desktop,@ ipad app wont open if the desktop isn't open,

 

Maybe you want to start from scratch... i wrote that for someone else elsewhere

 

Go to the main library folder... PrivilegedHelperTools... Trash the com.audirvana.Audirvana-Plus file

Go to the main library folder...LaunchDaemons... Trash the com.audirvana.Audirvana-Plus.plist file

Go to User... home Folder... library... Applications Support... Audirvana...Trash the AudirvanaPlusDatabase.sqlite file

Go to User... home folder... library... Preferences... trash com.audirvana.Audirvana-Plus.plist file

Restart MAC just to be sure... This will reset pretty much Audirvana like new.