Audirvana Plus 3 for Windows (Official Thread)

[Jud]

1 hour ago, matthias said:

 

Sorry Chris,

 

I see no reason for creating "official threads" even when some members are asking for.

We have now double threads for Audirvana for Mac and double threads for Audirvana for Windows which does not make sense at all.

 

Matt

 

It's created, but you don't have to use it.

[Jud]

35 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

That is not the point.

In the end you could have for any existing thread an "official thread".

Every member on this forum can create a new thread.

When we have an existing thread, why should Chris create an additional "official thread"?

 

Matt

 

Ah - Because in the past for A+ on Mac, there have tended to be multiple threads on the same topic, and people complained they sometimes had to search all these multiple threads to find what they wanted.  So it was done by request in order for forum members to know the one thread to go to.  We are thinking A+ on Windows will be sufficiently different to merit its own thread.

[Jud]

Oh well - I think if this is the most important problem in your life, you are very fortunate.  

 

Whatever you decide about where you want to post, I hope you get answers to your questions there.

[Jud]

The answer of course is always "When it's ready," and the prediction business, even by Damien himself, is a hazardous one!  

[Jud]

1 hour ago, Dinamoe said:

So my big question is this:

 

Does Windows have something comparable to Macs Direct or Integer Mode?  

 

We will see.  

 

I have liked something called "kernel streaming" in Windows. If and when it would be available in A+ I don't know.  And like Direct and Integer Modes on the Mac, some people will tell you it makes no difference.

 

That's my personal equivalent, but whether and when Damien feels it would be worthwhile, and whether it would make any difference for most users if it was offered, I don't know.

[Jud]

7 minutes ago, mansr said:

Windows has WASAPI exclusive mode which lets the application set the sample rate/format bypassing the usual audio mixer giving bit-perfect output to the DAC. Depending on drivers, ASIO may also be an option. I would assume that A+ supports at least the former.

 

WASAPI and ASIO currently. Edit: And playing through something like a microRendu or other streamer device.

[Jud]

On 6/23/2018 at 1:03 AM, juanitox said:

Audirva+ windows  Beta  works fine with  T+A Dac8 DSD using wasapi  with PCM or DSD limited to 128DSD

 

with ASIO output only PCM works,   native DSD failed after few seconds as PCM to DSD over DSD64

 

still some works to be done ?

 

Damien was working to get the ASIO driver of the T+A to work with DSD. I haven't seen in the Audirvana forums yet whether he has succeeded with that or not.

[Jud]

13 minutes ago, Lang Ht said:

I have the problem with A 1.0. My Os is latest Win10 pro. My Dac is Chord 2qute. When A play sacd iso only noise sound. In setting A show the dac can play to dsd512. This is an error because it should be dsd 128 only. I try set A play dsd via DoP but there was not this option. Please fix this. Thanks you

 

The DAC output resolution setting is not automatic. You must set it to DSD128 yourself.

[Jud]

Just now, Lang Ht said:

I tried but can't there aren't option I could change

 

Interesting. I have two places to set the resolution, one for the DAC capability and the other for the desired upsampling target rate. Can you post a screenshot?

[Jud]

3 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

I installed this today and I feel this is no where ready for release. 

 

I spent quite a while to get my library in order, correcting all my tags etc. If I use JRiver, MusicBee or Foobar2000, they will import my music perfectly. Audirvana is all over the place. I have artists that are randomly mixed with artists that don't start with the same letter.

 

The whole program just feels clunky and just plain buggy.

 

Anyhow, hope it gets ironed out. But if I can't get a trial later because it shows I have used one already, I doubt I will look at it again.

 

Audirvana Plus is very good about adhering to standards for metadata, where other apps may be more forgiving or may follow iTunes (which A+ will do on the Mac, but...).  I personally like this because I know if it's good for A+ it's good for anything, but for many people it's a PITA. 

[Jud]

Just now, Screwdriver said:

 

Well looking at the meta data in Audirvana shows nothing is wrong and the artists should order correctly. But, I found out what the problem is. My Music directory is located in two folders under Music. HiRes and Standard. Currently I am re-ripping my old low resolution MP3's to FLACs, deleting the old files and adding the new to the HiRes folder. Audirvana is looking in the first folder, and then the next....ordering the first, then ordering the next. Instead of ordering all files under the parent Music directory. No other audio player I have tried does it this way.

 

Got it.

 

A+ for Windows clued me into the fact that I'd mis-numbered tracks in an album, duplicating the 18th track as #18 and #19, and coming out with a total of 21 tracks rather than 20. Everything else was happy to show me the tracks as I'd mis-numbered them, but A+ persisted in showing me two #18s and the last track as #20 until I recognized my error.  So the fact it is persnickety about the way it does metadata can be either a pain or a help, depending on the situation.

[Jud]

On 7/9/2018 at 1:36 PM, Screwdriver said:

Another question...

 

Is Audirvana for Windows a stripped down version of the Mac one? I ask because there is the absolute bare minimum in config settings compared to other well known media players.

 

I didn't see if anyone answered this.  What sort of settings are you looking for?

[Jud]

15 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

If you hear a "clear" difference, then you are not running bit perfect. When I run both in bit perfect, there is zero sound difference.

 

Some of us heard differently at some point.  Of course this is subjective and unreliable, but more significant purchasing decisions have been made on less objective bases, so let us have our fun.  (There is some discussion on the Web by engineers regarding reasons for bit perfect software to sound different, including by Gordon Rankin, who popularized the async USB interface found in most modern DACs).

[Jud]

17 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

 

I don't have the Mac version, so just guessing.

 

Like changing the look....colors, skin. Being able to sort albums, artists etc. Basically just more control on how the program behaves.

 

So far Damien has not done much with the Mac version regarding things like skinning. 

 

Sorting does work nicely on the Mac - I've got my sorting using 7 items of metadata in priority order (with many more possible if I wanted), and it works just the way I would like it to.  I know Damien intends to get this done for the Windows version soon. 

[Jud]

16 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

Sorry if this sounds like I am being a jerk, and I really do hope this works out in the long run....and I might even check it out down the road. But there is no way this should have left beta.  Running JRiver ASIO with no DSP's etc, sounds exactly the same, yet JRiver is heads and tales more functional as an audio player. I cannot even make sense of how Audirvana sorts files except that it looks at my two separate audio folders under the parent Music, sorts them individually and then sorts the contents. Even that sort makes zero sense.Then there is not even a simple way to sort when viewing the artists. Jriver, Foobar, MusicBee, Roon all sort correctly.

 

And the kicker in all this....it crashes every singe time I close the program.

 

Here is the main thing. I have six days left in my trial. There is zero chance I would pay for this now in it's current state and I am not willing to pay to take a chance that this will be a suitable player for me in the long run. I just feel this is basically a pay to beta test program.

 

I think you are right about the preliminary or testing nature of the current version. If you are not comfortable paying for the software in this state, that's absolutely understandable.  I personally am happy to contribute toward development based on Damien's track record with the Mac version, but that is my own decision.  Whatever you decide, it would be helpful for you to submit a portion of your crash log to Damien, so he can understand and fix the problem.  Thanks.

[Jud]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:34 PM, Screwdriver said:

Well there ever be an option to offload re-sampling to you GPU? I have a NVidia 1080Ti that is getting lonely when I am only playing music.

 

Why would you need to?  I can run DSD512 in the Windows version on a miniPC with an i5 chip. 

[Jud]

2 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

 

I can run it on my i5 6600k/32GB RAM...but it skips if I do anything else. BTW, are you talking about 24/88 or higher to DSD512?

 

In HQPlayer and CUDA offload....it is as smooth as butter with hardly any CPU use.

 

With my main computer, I'm in exactly the opposite situation.  ?  i7-8700k, GTX1060, so mine hiccups on HQPlayer when I try CUDA offload, not when I don't.

 

And yes, the i5 4210u chip will upsample higher resolutions if I pause the first track to let the conversion process get a bit of a head start. 

[Jud]

8 minutes ago, shoom said:

KS would also be a nice option.

 

I believe that's planned for some point as well.

[Jud]

2 hours ago, Guilded said:

Damien78: When will we have the Android Remote?

 

I am not Damien, but I can say that I have tried to gently persuade him to retire from the prediction business.    I know this is something that is anxiously awaited (and so does Damien).

[Jud]

1 hour ago, Jazzbass12 said:

Hi,

Newbie here to High Res audio and using A+. I am using a Dragonfly Red with Surface Book2. 

Is there any advantage/disadvantage to upsampling  EX: 16x44 FLAC? I set mine to "Device Maximum Frequency".

Thanks

 

I think the answer is to try it and see whether you like your Dragonfly's entire internal upsampling chain better, or allowing A+ to do the initial upsampling to the Red's maximum input frequency, then having the Dragonfly's internal upsampling take it the rest of the way.  We all have our own impressions, but have a listen and see which you personally prefer.

[Jud]

36 minutes ago, lucretius said:

 

Another issue I came across:

 

Audirvana Plus cannot see my dlna/UPnP renderer (Marantz NA6005).

 

Thanks.

 

There's at least one person on the Audirvana+ forum using an NA8005 and it's working, so I don't think it's a manufacturer implementation issue.

 

Are you certain the renderer is running DLNA/UPnP (is it discoverable by anything besides A+)?  If yes, does turning it off and on while A+ is running do anything?

[Jud]

2 hours ago, lucretius said:

 

I disabled a couple of virtual network adapters created by VMware Workstation.  Now, the Marantz NA6005 is discoverable by Audirvana Plus for Windows.  I will need to test further. 

 

However, this behavior is not optimal.  Having to enable and disable the virtual network adapters everytime I want to use VMware Workstation is cumbersome AND I will not be able to run VMware Workstation at the same  as Audirvana Plus. This should be addressed. 

 

 

 

If you enable the virtual network adapters after your streamer is discovered and working, is the streamer knocked off the A+ view?

[Jud]

2 hours ago, bodiebill said:

P S The above problem does not occur with the Audirvana macOS version

 

Then perhaps the UI on the Mac version is faulty, because I am pretty sure A+ doesn't upsample DSD.

[Jud]

Well perhaps things have changed considerably on the Mac side since I began to use the Windows version.

[Jud]

By the way, I will gently disagree with whether upsampling DSD is essential, since conversion to PCM is necessary as an intermediate step. I would tend to purchase PCM versions (if the same mastering), since with DSD to DSD conversion the final conversion will be from the intermediate PCM anyway.