Audirvana Plus 3 (official thread)

[Red Jacket Mike]

I just installed 3.0.1; I previously had been using 2.6.3 with El Capitan (10.11.6) to keep Direct Mode active. I listen exclusively with headphones, and I like the SQ improvement I'm hearing. A bit wider soundstage, and I don't notice any restriction in the bottom end. No problems installing--I kept both the old and new versions, and everything is working perfectly.

[dahlberg]

It isn't negative. All the lower end is there, controlled. Many versions gave the feeling to have more low end extension, but in fact had something like "boomy" basses. One version: 2.6b16 (2.5.9.16) had very controlled low end (probably too controlled BTW). Version 2.6.6 gives the impression to have more bass but not as well mastered as 3.0. Not speaking of the other sound improvement of 3.0.

 

Strange thing, I was trying to do some more comparisons. So I listened to a track that I'm very familiar with at the same level I usually listen to it. The very low end is just as powerfull and a bit cleaner then before (2.6.6) so you might just as well disregard the earlier comments on that aspect. The strange thing then, when I was ment to go back to listen to 2.6.6 the library was empty and a scan for the library had started. Didn't have the time to wait for it so I cancelled it. So all impresions are still from memory but I will most likely not even try the earlier versions any more.

 

Thanks Damien, this was a great update.

[biosailor]

Just upgraded to Audirvana 3.0. Haven't installed the 3.0.1 upgrade yet, will do that on Monday. The sound quality of the new Audirvana is just superb! Well done, Damien! When I started to listen, I had the same impression as listening to the first MQA file in Tidal: somehow, instrument separation is better and the music sounds airier. I truly love what I'm hearing! The odd thing is, I have a hard time to decide if I listen to my albums via the Aurender N100H streamer or via Audirvana 3.0 [emoji4]. But that just tells me how good Audirvana became! Once again, a big compliment to the developer!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[jhwalker]

Minor bug (working as designed?) report: playing back purchased MQA files (FLACs converted to ALAC for compatibility with Apple devices), the data is passed through unmolested to my Explorer DAC (so the blue light comes on and it indicates decoding at 192k), but neither the source nor output shows as MQA in Audirvana.

 

I know you're not doing any decoding (i.e., just passing through the bits), but I'd think you'd want to indicate in some way the incoming file is actually MQA encoded.

[AmosM]

Next question is if I do turn on upsampling, does the first unfold still happen? So does it convert to MQA 24/96 and then apply the additional upsampler?

 

I have the same question, and additionally am curious if veteran A+ users kept their izotope settings the same from 2.66, especially up sampling, or is it time to start the tweak journey over again (not meant in a negative way).

 

I changed nothing from my 2.66 config and so far 3 and 3.01 sound wonderful, with MQA, non-MQA Tidal, and local files.

[jhwalker]

I have the same question, and additionally am curious if veteran A+ users kept their izotope settings the same from 2.66, especially up sampling, or is it time to start the tweak journey over again (not meant in a negative way).

 

I changed nothing from my 2.66 config and so far 3 and 3.01 sound wonderful, with MQA, non-MQA Tidal, and local files.

 

If you have a non-MQA DAC, Audirvana first does the MQA "unfolding", then applies any resampling, AU processing, etc.

 

If you have an MQA DAC, though, all resampling, equalization, etc., is disabled so the data can be passed-through bit-perfect to the DAC.

 

I'd like the capability to override this, though; i.e., if an MQA-capable DAC is detected, give us the choice to treat it as MQA (and thus pass through the data) or non-MQA (and thus do software processing).

[Abide68]

Hi,

 

I'm a new Audirvana user for my itunes, hd tracks and tidal libraries. In itunes i use iVolume for loudness adjustment. Do i need to turn this off in itunes before i can use replaygain normalisation in Audirvana?

[Innocent Bystander]

My library works just fine by the way :-)

 

Maybe you're lucky enough to have perfect metadata. Some of us have less than perfect metadata, typically a mixture of little of no metadata (old ripped LPs) and at best inconsistent metadata, which is a major issue with classical recordings, where nominally the same thing can have genre assigned as symphony, orchestral or just classical, artist can be assigned as composer, orchestra, conductor or soloist, conductor's name can be surname first, first name first, initials first, and ebpven miss-spelt, etc etc. And quite asside from these problems, I have some things where for no apparent reason only not all the tracks appear in the listing. The only solution I have found is to use VNC to control my headless Mac Mini instead of Audirvana's app, using Finder to browse then copying and pasting into the A+ play queue. Easy, but relatively fiddly, makes the app redundant and so a waste of money - and not easy for a non-computer-savvy family member to do. I first raised with Damien 18 months ago, when he seemed to understand the problem, but no fix yet despite numerous requests from people on Audirvana's own forum. If the sound quality hadn't been so good I would have abandoned A+ long ago. I hang on in hope, though I've stopped recommending to others.

[U2nite]

Actually I am in the market for a new DAC. I auditioned the Chord DAVE, the Aqua La Scala mkII Optologic and the Metrum Pavane so far but there are others I want to listen to before I decide. I read good things about the Lindemann musicbook products but did not consider them yet. I guess because they are to all-in-one for me. Such concepts come with sacrifices. Not having an AES/EBU input for instance. And I really want to make a big step compared to my Chord Hugo.

 

You are right, the Lindemann BL-10 monitors are something! I am sorry for the off topic, back to A+ v3.

I tried Audirvanan 2.6 with Chord Dave and Hugo 2 in CanJam in Singapore. Hugo 2 and Dave Sounds Fantastic. Hugo 2 is great value for money due to it's lower price.

[pl_svn]

Maybe you're lucky enough to have perfect metadata. Some of us have less than perfect metadata, typically a mixture of little of no metadata (old ripped LPs) and at best inconsistent metadata

 

it's not a matter of "being lucky": it's about working on your file's metadata

 

I hang on in hope, though I've stopped recommending to others.

hope that A+ will magically fix missing/bad/poor/wrong metadata? :-0

 

good luck with that

[bobbmd]

AmosM: please see my posts 110/169/214. I did exactly what you did from 2.6.6 to 3.00 now 3.01 and the only music that plays are MQA (which is absolutely wonderful) but no non-MQA TIDAL no Qobuz and no local files ie my iTunes library or my own created playlists from TIDAL(except the MQA playlists I made) or Qobuz. A+3 says it is playing non MQA TIDAL Qobuz and iTunes but no sound A+3 even tells me the bits in both upper corners.

[AudioDoctor]

No, A+ auto detects that Luxman is not a MQA device so I didn't change it.

I have tried my another Mac running OS Sierra, without direct, exclusive, and interge Modes and similar issues occurred! A+ starting load first track taking a long time and after shows "error to starting playback"...

I will try to remove Tidal app from my both Mac because I'm suspecting it may causing A+ issues

 

huh, you have me stumped.

 

It is my understanding the DA06 has a standard USB 2.0 compliant input.

[AudioDoctor]

it's not a matter of "being lucky": it's about working on your file's metadata

 

 

hope that A+ will magically fix missing/bad/poor/wrong metadata? :-0

 

good luck with that

 

I have put a ton of effort into my metadata and A+ starting with the upgrade to 2.6.6 screwed it all up... It is perfect everywhere else in every other player...

[Innocent Bystander]

it's not a matter of "being lucky": it's about working on your file's metadata

hope that A+ will magically fix missing/bad/poor/wrong metadata? :-0

good luck with that

To put it another way round if you prefer, some people may be lucky enough to have the time to work on their metadata, whether in a large 'catch-up' manner, or with every file added. If, like me, you were unaware of metadata when you ripped 100s of LPs, and then unaware that the metadata on CDs can be so inconsistent when you ripped 100s of them, ditto downloads, so you have many 100s of albums needing "working on", it is a huge task. And one that is totally unnecessary if the player will allow browsing by file structure, which is not exactly a difficult thing to include.

 

I didn't have a clue about the metadata issue until I changed my renderer to A+, and in some cases where I have tried fixing metadata, it hasn't always fixed the problem - e.g. albums where some tracks are simply not visible in A+ but others are in the same album, and metadata is quite consistent between them - even if the problem is something else, browsing by file structure gets around it.

 

I certainly don't expect A+ to magically fix the metadata, but what would be very simple would be to facilitate browsing by file structure rather than only by metadata, as do other players.

 

Damien, please listen!

[U2nite]

I just installed Audirvana 3.0.1; I previously had been using 2.6.6 with Mac OS (10.12.3). I keep Exclusive Access and Integer Mode active. I listen exclusively with headphones, and I like the SQ improvement I'm hearing. No problems installing. I deleted my old library files before installing 3.

Am using a Chord Mojo Dac. The library is working fine.

Audirvana 3 sounds great.

Thanks Damien for improving the Sound Quality, the new features and bug fixes.

[AudioDoctor]

@mgaluzzi

 

I wonder if Luxman made a change along the way regarding the DAC input. What vintage is your DA06?

[wdw]

To put it another way round if you prefer, some people may be lucky enough to have the time to work on their metadata, whether in a large 'catch-up' manner, or with every file added. If, like me, you were unaware of metadata when you ripped 100s of LPs, and then unaware that the metadata on CDs can be so inconsistent when you ripped 100s of them, ditto downloads, so you have many 100s of albums needing "working on", it is a huge task. And one that is totally unnecessary if the player will allow browsing by file structure, which is not exactly a difficult thing to include.

 

I didn't have a clue about the metadata issue until I changed my renderer to A+, and in some cases where I have tried fixing metadata, it hasn't always fixed the problem - e.g. albums where some tracks are simply not visible in A+ but others are in the same album, and metadata is quite consistent between them - even if the problem is something else, browsing by file structure gets around it.

 

I certainly don't expect A+ to magically fix the metadata, but what would be very simple would be to facilitate browsing by file structure rather than only by metadata, as do other players.

 

Damien, please listen!

 

Suggest you buy a copy of YATE. Not too pricey but is very easy and fluid in making changes to metadata. I have a lifetime sub to ROON (the supposed metadata master) and Yate is very much of use.

A+ is far superior to ROON in maintaining classical metadata, IMO.

WDW

[AmosM]

AmosM: please see my posts 110/169/214. I did exactly what you did from 2.6.6 to 3.00 now 3.01 and the only music that plays are MQA (which is absolutely wonderful) but no non-MQA TIDAL no Qobuz and no local files ie my iTunes library or my own created playlists from TIDAL(except the MQA playlists I made) or Qobuz. A+3 says it is playing non MQA TIDAL Qobuz and iTunes but no sound A+3 even tells me the bits in both upper corners.

 

I saw that earlier; it sounds like a hugely frustrating problem. I've been lucky thus far that my installations have gone smoothly. Hopefully you can troubleshoot this and solve it soon.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jos]

Suggest you buy a copy of YATE. Not too pricey but is very easy and fluid in making changes to metadata. I have a lifetime sub to ROON (the supposed metadata master) and Yate is very much of use.

A+ is far superior to ROON in maintaining classical metadata, IMO.

WDW

 

I do not know about YATE, but I will look into that. Mine approach is:

 

1) I use iTunes to ad and correct metadata and nothing else. For this work I use TuneUp & Song Sergeant. But be careful with Song Sergeant. TuneUp is quite harmless (album wise) and handy. I developed a workable approach for myself and I have from every album a backup copy in AIFF format, sorted by resolution. I also use Switch and DSD Master for conversion tasks outside iTunes I convert everything first to AIFF first, if necessary, and inside iTunes to ALAC, which is best for keeping metadata in ITunes.

 

2) I use ONLY use the Sync and RelayGain functionality in Audirvana and refresh sometimes, after working in iTunes.

 

So I have to do some 'hard' work in iTunes, but that's all. If you don't like this work, just use Tidal. For other people who don't want to use itunes, you could only use Audirvana, but I started with ITunes and don't want to change anymore.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[pl_svn]

I have put a ton of effort into my metadata and A+ starting with the upgrade to 2.6.6 screwed it all up... It is perfect everywhere else in every other player...

 

oh... ok, that's a whole different matter and I've been complaining about A+ "funny" metadata handling since v2.0

(btw... not even "that other app" is perfect. if/when you start looking at fine details you'll find plenty to complain about/disagree with. though, at least, all relevant stuff is and looks just great and the database is rock solid indeed! )

 

 

I certainly don't expect A+ to magically fix the metadata, but what would be very simple would be to facilitate browsing by file structure rather than only by metadata, as do other players.

 

I started ripping my CDs and listening to digital music in the '90s using SoundJam (acquired, later on, by Apple which used it as the foundation to build iTunes upon)

 

SoundJam did use metadata (albeit just basic ones) and honestly... I was astonished the day I saw my friends, those using PCs, had to use filepaths to have their music "properly" handled by their players

 

as others already suggested here above, there are excellent Mac apps (eg. Yate) for handling metadata and much of the work can be automated

nothing against A+ using filepaths too. but only as far as users can be in control of what and how those are taken into account: when in v 2.6 something of that was introduced... my library became a mess and I had to 1) wait for a fix, 2) start fresh *once more*

[mevdinc]

Just upgraded to Audirvana 3.0.1 and I also detected quite a bit of SQ improvement although I cannot fully use my system in my current listening environment!

 

I think the MQA sound is wonderful even with the first level of software unfolding done by Audirvana, and it's free! Non MQA music sounds better too.

@damien, One small problem I noticed is that the MQA info displayed by Audirvana is wrong, only some albums/tacks appear as 24/96 kHz and the rest as 24/44.1 or 24/192 or even as 24/352.8. I'm not doing any up-sampling in Audirvana!

However, the incoming MQA track info appears correctly on my DAC as either 24/88.2 kHz or 24/96 Khz as it should be.

 

Well done for improving the SQ yet again!

[Innocent Bystander]

Suggest you buy a copy of YATE. Not too pricey but is very easy and fluid in making changes to metadata. I have a lifetime sub to ROON (the supposed metadata master) and Yate is very much of use.

A+ is far superior to ROON in maintaining classical metadata, IMO.

WDW

I've tried a number of metadata editors, though not Yate. Yate might be better than others, but it is still inevitably a time-consuming process. I am trying to keep on top of new albums added (though as I mentioned, even when metadata looks consistent A+ has glitches and sometimes can't see all files in an album). To try to go through my whole collection may have to wait till I retire - and then a soul-destroying tedium that is scarcely imy idea of fun. But it is so unnecessary when implementing a simple file-structure browse facility would be a great feature for Audirvana, serving everybody else out there with imperfect metadata.

[OneHandWaving]

J@damien, One small problem I noticed is that the MQA info displayed by Audirvana is wrong, only some albums/tacks appear as 24/96 kHz and the rest as 24/44.1 or 24/192 or even as 24/352.8. I'm not doing any up-sampling in Audirvana!

However, the incoming MQA track info appears correctly on my DAC as either 24/88.2 kHz or 24/96 Khz as it should be.

 

I think the 'incorrect' values are the MQA correct and they're showing the resolution of the MQA tracks. If you've not got an MQA DAC then the software decoding in Audiovana has a maximum resolution of 24/88.2-96. If you had an MQA DAC you'd see 24/192 etc. on the DAC (assuming the MQA file is being passed to the DAC without any software decoding).

[Innocent Bystander]

oh... ok, that's a whole different matter and I've been complaining about A+ "funny" metadata handling since v2.0

....

 

I was astonished the day I saw my friends, those using PCs, had to use filepaths to have their music "properly" handled by their players

 

....

nothing against A+ using filepaths too. but only as far as users can be in control of what and how those are taken into account: when in v 2.6 something of that was introduced... my library became a mess and I had to 1) wait for a fix, 2) start fresh *once more*

 

But for the millions used to filing anything, not just music, on PC, Macs, and physical media in office filing cabinets, archives, libraries etc the hierachical process of genre/artist/album (and any additional categories desired) is second nature, and in managing such a system on your own computer, NAS or whatever simply requires consistency when creating a folder for a new artist (e.g. surname first), and adding a new album whether just ripped or downloaded is simply a matter of going to the appropriate artist folder and saving it. For me it was never a matterr of filing music that way to be found properly by a player, but filing in a logical and methodical manner allowing easy file management for any future access, and I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a player to accommodate that, as indeed others do.

 

Incidentally, A+ 2.6 caused me no additional problems, because to me its library facility was already useless!!

[Jud]

I think the 'incorrect' values are the MQA correct and they're showing the resolution of the MQA tracks. If you've not got an MQA DAC then the software decoding in Audiovana has a maximum resolution of 24/88.2-96. If you had an MQA DAC you'd see 24/192 etc. on the DAC (assuming the MQA file is being passed to the DAC without any software decoding).

 

I believe that's incorrect. A+ "unfolds" Tidal Masters for my non-MQA DAC to 24/192 as appropriate (for example, Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile