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New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana


damien78

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I know we only care how lossless files would sound for this new player (which is fantastic so far), but I do have some MP3 files and experiencing periodical drop outs (every 5 secs or so). I'm trying this on a 2008 Mac mini with 2GB RAM, with USB feeding a DAC.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 1 month later...

same as @blu

 

If I used force upsample with SRC libSampleRate, the music pauses for 3 seconds every 5 seconds or so. No glitches if I use Apple CoreAudio, and everything works excellent!

 

The thing is this is a dedicated clean Mac Mini 2010 with 8GB of RAM.

 

Any suggestions? Since I really do think that SRC is a superior upsampler and feeding the data via 24/192 asynchronous USB link would have been audio-nirvana.

 

 

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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@jhwalker

 

My best guess is that Blue and myself are upsampling to 192kHz(max). Since SRC digital filter may be somewhat more complex than Apple CoreAudio, it maybe the case. WaveEditor with Izotope algorithm takes several minutes to offline upsample one track.

 

Is there a way to set max sampling rate (e.g. 96kHz?)

 

Damien?

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Lowering the Quality slider down one notch seems to fix the drop-out issue. It now plays fine at both 4x and max 192kHz.

 

I can't tell any difference in sound quality between AppleCore's best and SRC's "better". However for piece of mind, will leave it there.

 

To me, I can't see the the reasons to limit upsampling to 2x or 4x for modern sigma-delta DACs. In theory it may make sense as the math would have been easier, but sigma delta modulators will oversample it to the max anyway and software upsampling are preferable to hardware ones.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Damien,

 

As reported, upsample to 192kHz is fine with quality slider down a notch, ie "better" rather than "best".

 

Can you kindly explain what's the slider quality refers to?

 

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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I did a listening A/B test last night using one track (Jennifer Warnes - Lights of Lousianne)

 

Compared to NO force upsampling, libSampleRate "high" has expanded soundstage width and depth but focus and definition suffers. The overall presentation is a bit "soft". I couldn't test "Max" setting because of the problem listed above. Another problem is that the GUI becomes unresponsive until the track is fully loaded into memory, however controlling via apple remote is fine.

 

Apple CoreAudio "Max" setting has similar soundstage width/depth but with slightly higher noise floor. Image focus is better and is about the same as no upsampling.

 

I'm going to stick with CoreAudio for now.

 

(Force upsampling to 192khz and DAC used is ESS SABRE9018 based with asynchronous 32-bit USB transfer.)

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Looked at the thread again, I finally able to make it work. After press "play", I need to "pause" it so that the progress bar is way beyond the track mark. Just like what you do on youtube.

 

It's inconvenient if you have to do this every time to listen to a track, but..

 

The sound quality is awesome! The definition and focus is improved and the music is fuller on the low end.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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libfsrc looks good, but looking at the charts and can't imagine it will use less CPU power.

 

In the site, it is interesting to see how hardware sample rate converters perform compared to software-based (for instance the Mytek 192 and Weiss SFC2).

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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After flirting with the new Audiofile-Engineering Fidelia for the past 48hrs and fooling around with Decibel over the past week or so, I'm coming back to Audirvana.

 

My own rankings of the three music players...

 

Audirvana (upsampled) > Decibel > Audirvana (native) > Fidelia > Fidelia (upsampled)

 

Which is a bummer for me since I did have very high hopes for Fidelia's iZotope SRC. But in upsampling mode, the soundstage collapsed. Music that used to image well beyond the far left and right side of my speakers now are now no longer and just emitting from the speakers themselves.

 

Fidelia's overall sound is clean and clear but leaner and more hifi-ish, not as natural.

 

The buggy Audirvana still reigns sonically, so keep it up Damien!!

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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"While I agree Audirvana reigns sonically, I can't agree it's "buggy" :)"

 

Sorry for being a bit harsh. Yes, it also works absolutely fine for me except when pushed to the extremes (hog mode, memory playback, upsampling best settings to 192kHz). There are some "beta" symptoms such as cracks and pops, stuttering, and sometimes music just stops. And this is on a brand new dedicated Mac mini with 8GB ram and SSD.

 

In any case it is really great player and Damien did a tremendous job with it.

 

Kudos.

 

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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@4est Understood. I did tried and can't really tell the difference between max and integer upsampling, so opted for integer. However, CPU load still too excessive.

 

The problem probably compounded because I'm doing 32-bit overkill (rather than 24-bit). I can't limit the bit rate with asynchronous USB to this DAC. (The DAC I'm testing now is the new Calyx Dac with 16x - yes 8x per channel - ESS SABRE 9018 - and 32/192 USB link). That probably also part of the CPU load problem.

 

I also tried Audirvana with 24/96 through Halide bridge. No more hiccups but still CPU running at 100% on both core.

 

Damien, you mentioned libfsrc, that may be a nice solution for quality vs load?

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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The new Integer mode takes Audirvana to the next level.

 

Same with @Lars, the most noticeable change is soundstage layering is much better and it is wider than anything I have tried.

 

I'm running my DAC through a Halide Bridget which uses streamlength code and it's working fine.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Damien,

SQ beats everything else out there!

However, 0.6.0 now gets my Mac Mini to freeze during "initializing audio device". Not everytime but when I load a new large play list.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Damien,

 

When loading playlist with many songs (file-add, or drag from iTunes), when press "play" it says "initializing audio device", then the computer just freeze. I can't do anything except pushing the power button to shut it down.

 

Not every time, but 50% of the time.

 

I'm using a dedicated Mac mini 2010 8GB and Halide Bridge USB/SPDIF converter to my DAC.

 

Your latest version sounds super detailed (like Fidelia) and at the same time organic (like Pure Music). Sound stage now extended beyond what was possible and the speakers "disappear" better than before. Bass pacing is perfect. Integer mode lives up to its promise.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Weiss Hong Kong spokeperson commented that Weiss DAC202 runs in 32bit mode so it is superior to and does not need such capability.

 

The ESS 9018 chip used in the Weiss DAC202 is the only chip today that can accept true 32-bit data path up to the conversion stage. Since Apple CoreAudio is 32-bit floating, that may be where he is coming from. Unlike for Halide Bridge, for instance, where it can accept only 24-bit, then mapping a 32-bit coreaudio floating down to 24-bit is probably inferior to 24-bit integer mode direct.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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With the latest release I am having the same problems.

 

The weird thing is that it does not happen every time, about 3 out of 5 times.

When it works, it is great.

 

I can confirm that with the Calyx DAC I can do integer mode at 32/192.

 

Listening to it now (works this time) at upsampled 32/176.4 integer via USB to the Calyx.

 

Best sound I can ever squeeze from this DAC, better than firewire to Weiss DAC202 (floating). Soundstage is super wide and deep!

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 1 month later...

3) Really need a menu command to erase all tracks (with a keyboard shortcut). Doing Select All and then Delete (which has no keyboard shortcut - delete key doesn't work) is a pain.

 

I press "command+A", then "delete" key. Works on mine.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 3 weeks later...

For the life of me I couldn't understand why re-compiling would affect sound quality. But the new version is noticeably different with a thicker midrange and/or solid center image. It's not clear whether it is better, but definitely not the same.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 3 weeks later...

Firewire DACs are quite different fromn USB ones. Weiss uses custom Firewire driver which provides user selectable buffer range and, when set accordingly, pulls data from the computer using DAC's clock - similar to an asynchronous USB protocol.

 

My understanding is that Firewire streams do not use word and L/R mark as in a standard USB protocol, and is not possible to run in integer mode. Weiss does not think that this has any effect on the performance though.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 4 weeks later...

And... regarding the class 2 USB DACs using the XMOS chip, I've fixed the bug that prevented them to enjoy integer mode. More tonight with the upcoming release...

 

I tried two XMOS based USBs with integer mode, no issue so far.

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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Comments here seem to suggest that SRC is slightly more natural but "softer" while CoreAudio is "crisp". Which is ironic because the SRC's output looks cleaner (compare them at src.infinitewave.ca). SRC uses quite a bit more computing power than CoreAudio, so at 24/192kHz there may be pauses if you don't have the fastest Macs.

 

 

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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ITunes is a great library browser and I prefer using players that utilise it (such as pure music.) Dragging albums or songs from iTunes to Audirvana works for me.

 

Mac Mini ? Weiss DAC202 ? ML 326s ? ML 532h ? Wilson Sophia3

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  • 2 weeks later...

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