AyreWave- A New OSX Audio Player Released AT RMAF

[Amused]

I totally didn't see that iTunes button on the interface

With that said, the plug-in is awesome and running independently is pretty damn nice.

 

The only thing I find missing now is the ability to toggle playback options via the interface, bypassing the need to navigate the "Control" menu. Being able to switch and see which playback option you're on would be a great usability feature. I'm sure it's on Stephen's to-do list, or will be.

 

Lastly, is anyone experiencing lapses in playback? Every so often, the song will cut out for a fraction of a second and then start back up again, as if I accidentally tapped the pause button. This is definitely new with the 1.2 update.

 

Thanks for the insight - Jason

 

[freddie40]

Stephen,

 

I just figured out the iTunes Plug-In. Very Nice. Now there is no need to load my entire library :)

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

 

[Paul R]

... but I see that it was a feature inserted into the program today with an upgrade to 1.2. Nice.

 

I like that when you search for an album, you get a display of just that album. Not bad!

 

It does take about 27 mins to load my iTunes library though, which is a trifle long to wait for startup.

 

In answer to the person who asked why load the entire library - because I want to be able to play any song or album when I want to play it- without any serious delay. Listening to one album will sometimes set me off wanting to hear something similar I remembered from another album. I like, and want, that capability.

 

I can wait a version or two until you guys decide to get it working with remote.

 

-Paul

 

 

[CG]

Freedie40:

 

I guess I just have never felt any desire to look for 24 bit files or anything of that sort. It's always by artist and then maybe album. Sitting down and listening to music, is, well, sitting down and listening to music.

 

But, that explains it. Thanks.

 

[CG]

"In answer to the person who asked why load the entire library - because I want to be able to play any song or album when I want to play it- without any serious delay. Listening to one album will sometimes set me off wanting to hear something similar I remembered from another album. I like, and want, that capability."

 

Well... I find that I can do just that perfectly fine by using [Command]-O or the iTunes button. Less crap stored in memory, too. No 27 minute wait, either.

 

[Paul R]

But you can do it a lot faster if you have the entire library loaded and you type the song, album, or artist name into the search box.

 

No button pushing, no navigating among thousands (for me) at least of folders, and 10's of thousands of tracks.

 

As I said, it isn't a terribly big deal for other people perhaps, but it is to me. The clicking problem when it upsamples is a far more serious issue.

 

I wish the program and developer well.

 

-Paul

 

 

[wgscott]

Mine works with my library on the external drive, and I long ago made and then forgot I had made a sym link.

 

The syntax, in case anyone else wants to do this, is as follows:

 

Say your external drive has the library in

/Volumes/DigitalMedia/Media/Music/iTunes

 

and you don't have anything in /Users/yourname/Music. Then just move /Users/yourname/Music out of the way (or delete it) and issue the command:

 

ln -s /Volumes/DigitalMedia/Media/Music /Users/yourname/Music

 

This has the added advantage of preventing iTunes from opening when your external drive is not mounted.

 

[elcorso]

Charles Hansen, I can't believe your statement regarding Audirvana: " Since everyone says that it sounds best in integer mode, I haven't really spent any time with it in floating point".

 

I do love your Ayre products, they are so true to the music that you should notice the huge improvement with Audirvana under Integer Mode!

 

If I can't go under Integer Mode to 24/176 nor 24/192, I believe I get a lot of better SQ with 24/88 or 24/96 under Integer (Halide Bridge), that with a floating (then not Integer) 24/176 or 24/192 (Wavelink).

 

For a music player app with iTunes complete integration I'll stay with Pure Music, I don't find it buggy at all.

 

My two cents regarding music SQ taste, and not to establish a debate.

 

Regards,

 

Roch

 

[Russell_L]

I also had the clicking problem and posted about it a few months ago in this thread, and I worked a fair amount with Stephen in trying to get to the bottom of it. I had concluded that it only occurred when a USB DAC was used with an "older" Mac (it happened with my 2008 MacBook Pro and a 2006 Mac Pro) and with exclusive access (hog mode) enabled. There was no clicking with my 2009 iMac. After some experimenting, Stephen discovered that using a powered USB hub between the Mac and the DAC solved the problem. (I solved the problem by buying a new 2011 MacBook Pro. ;-) )

 

Russell

 

[Alan Brown]

Great work, really appreciate the new features coming back to the system after a busy few months.

 

My library is stored on a NAS, and Decibel found it instantly. I don't understand all the features, some of which may have appeared in previous updates without my noticing - but I'll work through it.

 

I just found the volume control lurking toward the bottom of the window on the left - that is a useful addition! Is it a dithered control, or a similar arrangement to the iTunes control (which I understand cuts dynamic range when in use)?

 

Also, I want to thank you for the pre-amplifier gain settings, which would have been great when troubleshooting my new DAC which had clipping issues. This is all fixed now, but it's a great addition to the programme.

 

Thanks again for the audio-bargain of the decade.....

 

[Alan Brown]

Having a lurk on Stephen's forum reveals the volume control is similar to the iTunes one. Still handy though...

 

[Jud]

Charles writes:

 

Audirvana doesn't seem to work in integer mode with our DACs -- at least the current one that is 192 kHz capable. (It may work with the earlier 96 kHz limited versions.) Since everyone says that it sounds best in integer mode, I haven't really spent any time with it in floating point.

 

This statement was absolutely correct when it was made yesterday. But software can change quickly, and so we have this good news from Damien (Audirvana's developer) in another thread just this morning:

 

And... regarding the class 2 USB DACs using the XMOS chip [including the QB-9 and Wavelength DACs], I've fixed the bug that prevented them to enjoy integer mode. More tonight with the upcoming release...

 

My apologies for this somewhat off-topic post in a Decibel thread, but I figured anyone who wanted to try various players with some of the best DACs available should have updated information.

 

[goldsdad]

Hi Stephen

 

I'm trying 1.2 and like the improvements since 1.0.

 

There is still a wee problem that I reported way back. When the first track on the list is playing, the 'back' button is grayed and you can't skip back to the beginning of that track without first jumping forward to the next track.

 

Also, I would find a 'year' column in the track list to be very useful. Last time I suggested it, the next release had a bunch of new optional columns - almost everything except 'year'

 

 

 

[AudioExplorations]

Stephen-

 

A BIG thanks for implementing last.fm scrobbling! I will purchase because of this feature alone and move over to Decibel from Audirvana. SQ is fantastic as I remembered (I don't think I would be able to ABX any of the different players discussed around here).

 

Also excited about Growl which I understand is customisable and could be setup to display cover art as new tracks are played.

 

The icing on the cake would be cover art loaded from the file 'folder.jpg' (if embedded not present) as this would sort out cover art for my 2500+ FLAC album library.

 

Thanks again!

 

[Amused]

I may have missed it in this thread and I apologize if I did, but what's Decibel's equalizer set to? Is it dynamically based off of iTunes' settings, hard coded, something else, or none? I can't seem to find these details anywhere.

 

Thanks - Jason

 

[Part-Time Audiophile]

No idea if this is even feasible, but how about support for Pandora One within the tool? I'd love to be able to bypass core audio for these Adobe Air programs.

 

[Charles Hansen]

Decibel is designed to be an audiophile music player. The goal is to not tamper with the signal at all. The only concession to that policy is to add a (defeatable) volume control. There is no equalizer in Decibel.

 

Decibel also is different from programs such as Amarra and PureMusic that "attach" to iTunes. It is a complete stand-alone player. The only thing that you can use iTunes for is to select songs to be transferred to the Decibel playlist.

 

(iTunes itself is nothing more than a database and music organizer. In a stock OS X setup, all of the actual music playback is handled by QuickTime, which is *both* an audio and video rendering device, and CoreAudio, which comprises the audio software routines built into OS X.)

 

[Amused]

Hi Charles,

 

Thanks for that tidbit. Apparently, I've forgotten it as it sounds quite familiar.

 

Comparing the sound between Decibel and Amarra isn't as night and day as say, comparing it to iTunes. However, with the addition of the iTunes plug-in, the stand-alone aspect is becoming extremely convenient and favorable. As of late, I've been launching Decibel more than Amarra because of this. Excellent update!

 

- Jason

 

[Paul R]

That clears that up for me quite a bit.

 

So players like iTunes and Amarra are really just "hooking" into iTunes and taking over the duties that Quicktime normally performs.

 

Any chance that a Decibel version in the future might do the same thing? The sound from Decibel is excellent, but I greatly prefer managing the playing and selection of my music from iTunes.

 

That is indeed, why I tend to run Amarra the most - it is there but it "gets out of the way" and lets me control the playback from iTunes, either at the console or remotely. It's also only a mouse click away to switch into "Quicktime" playback if I want to stream something without using Airfoil too.

 

Pure Music does the same thing, but arguably, not as cleanly.

 

If there was an option to do something similar with Decibel, it would be worth paying quite a bit more to be able to access it. Probably a lot harder to do than to ask for of course.

 

-Paul

 

 

[AudioExplorations]

Stephen,

 

Thanks for the apple IR remote support! I would love to see the up&down buttons on the Apple IR remote control the player volume- this would be very useful for those running DAC straight to power amp without the luxury of a DAC remote control.

 

Thanks,

Joost

 

[Charles Hansen]

So players like Pure Music and Amarra are really just "hooking" into iTunes and taking over the duties that Quicktime normally performs.

 

Presumably that is what is happening, although they aren't talking and the software is not open source.

 

Any chance that a Decibel version in the future might do the same thing?

 

Virtually none that I know of.

 

One of the beauties of Decibel is that it is at least 10x smaller of a program -- less memory, less CPU activity, less hard drive space, less everything. And you can easily run it in stand-alone mode.

 

On the other hand, it integrates well with iTunes. It is trivial to make a playlist in iTunes and then import it to Decibel with a single mouse click. Or import your entire library if you want to just put it on shuffle. Or just sort by genre and import that genre for shuffle play.

 

And that is without even using the new "plug-in". I haven't yet tried it and don't know what it does. But really, you are talking at most a few mouse clicks compared with Amarra or PureMusic. But that doesn't mean you should use it. If you prefer a different player, then that is the one you should use. It's great that there are so many choices now.

 

Two years ago, there was ONE choice - iTunes, take it or leave it...

 

[sbooth]

With the current version if you hold down the up/down buttons the device volume will be adjusted. However, right now there is no way to adjust the digital volume with the remote.

 

[Mercman]

Charlie,

 

"One of the beauties of Decibel is that it is at least 10x smaller of a program -- less memory, less CPU activity, less hard drive space, less everything. And you can easily run it in stand-alone mode."

 

I don't agree with this statement. Decibel is 26 MB in size, Pure Music is 4.5 MB, and Amarra is 56.1. I don't find that Pure Music uses more CPU than Decibel. As for memory, Pure Music and Amarra load the entire file or group of files into memory before playback. Memory use will be greater if gapless-memory playback is activated.

 

Pure Music makes minimal use of the iTunes interface. Unlike Amarra, it does not run iTunes as a ghost program totally making memory playback a waste of time. In Playlist mode, Amarra drops the iTunes ghost and sounds much better.

 

If you wish to prove just how successful Pure Music is with its tiny contribution from iTunes, just listen to the feature Less Is More. I can't hear a difference running Pure Music with or without iTunes.

 

I like Deibel very much and listened to it today. But your facts were not quite right.

 

Thanks,

 

Steve

 

[freddie40]

Maybe Charlie could use Jon Kyle's excuse, "not intended to be a factual statement."

 

LOL

 

Dave

 

[Charles Hansen]

Steve,

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my original post. I wasn't comparing Decibel to other "add on" players. I was comparing it to iTunes itself.

 

I don't know how big iTunes is on the Mac but when you install it on Windows, all of the components add up to many hundreds of megabytes. Here are the uninstall instructions, direct from the Apple support website:

~~~~~~~~~~

Use the Control Panel to uninstall iTunes and related software components in the following order and then restart your computer:

 

iTunes

QuickTime

Apple Software Update

Apple Mobile Device Support

Bonjour

Apple Application Support (iTunes 9 or later)

 

Important: Uninstalling these components in a different order, or only uninstalling some of these components may have unintended affects.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sure that, just like extricating Internet Explorer from Windows (as mandated by the European anti-monopoly decision) is hard, extricating iTunes from OS X would be equally hard.

 

To me one of the the beauties of Decibel (and Audinirvana) is that iTunes need not be used. In fact, since iTunes is apparently just a database manager for QuickTime, it would be interesting if someone could come up with a way to launch just iTunes without the rest of the baggage. It might make PureMusic and/or Amarra sound even better...