New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana

[xsajohn]

Excellent tip - thanks!

 

OSX continues to amaze. :-)

 

[damien78]

Hi, I've just released 0.7.3 to make playlist usability dreams come true

 

• Playlist columns width and order are remembered between launches
  
• Added album track number column in playlist table view
  
• User Prefs toolbar icons update (Thanks to Atilla Taskiran)
  
• First track to play is the one highlighted by the playlist selection (as in iTunes)
  
• Bug Fixes:
  
  Cmd+W closes User prefs and debug windows
  
  • Non-integer mode stream format selection limited to mixable but integer
    
  • Correctly display duration of tracks longer than one hour
    
  • Start playback when double clicking on any track in the playlist (including the first one)
    

 

On a next release, I'll add prefs to set up restrictions on max sample rate for users with SPDIF bridges that offer sample rates above their connected DAC.

 

Damien

 

[Ajax]

Hi Keith,

 

Thanks for your tip on adding playlists etc already constructed within iTunes. Works great.

 

You were right about minding my own business - I obviously didn't realise how closely you were working with Damien.

 

You offer to write a "how to" manual is great appreciated.

 

Lesson learnt and please accept my apologies.

 

[SidHo]

I've been getting the little red box showing up more often of late. Would increasing my ram to 4gigs make this less likely or is it as the red box says only because of not enough CPU power?

 

[elcorso]

@SidHo,

 

Are you in last iTunes 10.2.1?

 

Roch

 

[SidHo]

Thx for reply elcorso.

No actually I never use iTunes. I always use the file window, or what ever you call it to find what I want to play. I guess your thinking iTunes would eat up some ram memory or CPU? When last the red box appeared I wasn't running any other programs except what may be running in the background.

I guess what I'd like to know is - could the red box appear from lack of memory or is the CPU maxing out. I don't want to get more memory if it won't help this specific issue. If it is more likely CPU working too hard I'll have a serious look at what might be running in the background.

 

[damien78]

@SidHo: elcorso refers to issues happening after iTunes has been upgraded to 10.2.1, iTunes being running or not. It seems this upgrade is messing up low level audio components of OSX.

 

Regarding RAM, if you have only 2GB, you may want to lower the audio buffers RAM size until you don't get the paging issues (down to 512MB or even less). Note that having a buffer size under the track size means that the track will be loaded (transparently) in multiple chunks. This increase HD activity, but the decrease in SQ is worth it (no more stuttering!).

 

@keith: this makes another tip for your list

 

Damien

 

[elcorso]

@SidHo & Damien,

 

I get the CPU overload red flashing sometimes after iTunes 10.2.1 upgrade, even if iTunes is NOT running.

 

This upgrade lowered the SQ of all the computer music player app's, and I believe I have all of them.

 

Roch

 

[Jeff In San Diego]

...on the destructive power of that iTunes upgrade? I would like to read more about this.

 

thanks

 

[SidHo]

I have been getting more red boxes of late and it was after upgraded to latest iTunes version which I use only to backup my iPad and iphone4, never for listening. It seems weird that could effect sound quality or the computer when it's not running though. I'd be interested in learning more. Is this documented somewhere? I did a google but didn't find anything.

 

[khollister]

I will check this evening - I think (hope) my dedicated Mac Mini is still running 10.2.0 since I have software update disabled. If so, I can do a fresh clone of the boot drive and listen, then update iTunes and listen again. If it is worse, I can roll back the boot drive to the clone very quickly (it's only about 12 GB on an SSD)

 

[khollister]

The only time I have gotten the red overload indicator is when the sample rate changes for the next track. It will occasionally stutter and recover or sometimes I have to stop playback and restart. It always plays perfectly on the restart if it doesn't fix itself in a second or two.

 

I have 4 GB of RAM, absolutely nothing else running and 3GB allocated to the buffer.

 

[Jeff In San Diego]

Interesting now to correlate the change in sound I heard with my iPad2 acquisition (which was also when I relented to upgrading iTunes).

 

I thought I was have a string of "bad ear days". I wound up listening to Pandora through the computer's internal speakers all day Sunday just because my main system sounded so much worse than normal. With the low quality internal speakers, my expectations were much lower, so I was able to enjoy the art of the music despite the low quality of sound.

 

Hope this either gets fixed soon by a new Apple update or somebody figures out what OSX driver can be back-rev'ed to get back the creamy goodness that was Audirvana a couple weeks ago.

 

[khollister]

OK - I had already updated iTunes to 10.2.1 on the Mini, but I had a cloned image with 10.6.5 and iTunes 10.1.1 from the same machine with the same OS X configuration.

 

Listened to 10.2.1, cloned the 10.1.1 OS back to the SSD, listened, updated iTunes to 10.2.1 and then recloned the drive back to the 10.1.1 image.

 

Yup, they screwed it up. I'm pretty sure the 10.1.1 version of iTunes on my OS X 10.6.5 clone sounds better with Audirvana - more air and space, better clarity, better sense of "room" (ambience retrieval).

 

Since this is used for nothing other than music, I'll just stick here for a while.

 

Seems to switch sampling rates better too - no red overload boxes so far.

 

Obviously iTunes 10.2.1 must have updated a Quicktime component with an inferior sounding version of a CoreAudio library. Since iTunes is not running, I can't imagine what else it could be.

 

Damien will probably figure this out, but it would be interesting if someone with a DAC that supports integer mode can hear the difference. I seem to recall Damien saying he only used the barest minimum of CoreAudio including the 32 bit FP HAL. Since an DAC whose driver supports native mode (24 bit integer) presumably bypasses the 32 bit float conversion, it would help narrow down what went wrong.

 

[elcorso]

usbmuxd is the guilty,

 

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/Resources/usbmuxd

 

This is a low level system file that in previous versions of iTunes (prior to 10.2.1) was called by iTunes only when you asked for synchronization between iTunes and external devices like iPhone's, iPad's, iEverything, etc.

 

But, after 10.2.1 it is present (launched) all the time, and this affects SQ mostly in USB dacs or USB interphases like Wavelink, HiFace EVO and others.

 

To fix this problem I can remove iTunes (they are instructions for this on Apple support page), and then reinstall the old one I have in stock: 10.2

 

Or I can wait to apple to do the fix.

 

Somebody just call to tell me there is a new OSX upgrade: 10.6.7, I'm really scare of the upgrade..., but maybe could fix this issue ???

 

Cheers,

 

Roch

 

[khollister]

Uh, on my older OS X 10.6.5 image with iTunes 10.1.1, usbmuxd is running and when I kill it it immediately restarts. This is an image I cloned back over by boot drive, so it's not like it was left over from removing iTunes 10.2.1

 

Not sure that's it

 

[khollister]

You can stop usbmuxd from loading by removing (or renaming)

 

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

 

usbmuxd is only needed if you are syncing an iDevice of some sort.

 

[elcorso]

I placed before a simple explanation of usbmuxd problems, a OSX part for USB external device synchronization, the problem is when the OSX see your USB Link or DAC (as when you switch to a music file with a different sample rate than previous one) as an iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.

 

Here is a detailed explanation from some Apple Developers forum:

 

Updated to iTunes 10.2.1(1) this morning and weird usbmuxd behavior started immediately.

Here is Console's last reference to usbmuxd a minute before I started installing the update.

Mar 10 08:36:26 Mac-Pro com.apple.usbmuxd60: usbmuxd-207 built for iTunesTenOne on Oct 19 2010 at 13:50:35, running 64 bit

Towards the end of the update process the Install log shows iTunesHelper was launched

Mar 10 08:38:53 Mac-Pro _spotlight374: Begin script: runiTunesHelper

and at that same time Console reported

Mar 10 08:38:53 Mac-Pro com.apple.usbmuxd358: usbmuxd-211 built on Jan 13 2011 at 04:20:21 on Jan 13 2011 at 04:20:21, running 64 bit

Since then Console has been reporting excessive usbmuxd warnings...

 

Right now I'm trying OSX 10.6.7 with iTunes 10.2.1.

 

At the beginning everything worked fine, but after listening to some other music files, the problem started again and continued...

 

Right now I'm going the complicated way, deinstalling iTunes 10.2.1, and then installing 10.2.

 

If this dosent't work I'll make a clean system install, and will install again iTunes 10.2

 

Roch

 

[audiozorro]

I have also seen the CPU overload red flashing on occasion and I have 8GB RAM. Sorry for the lack of details since I'm not near my music server now, but I have problems with both Audirvana and Decibel running in Exclusive or Hog Mode in Memory Play. I noticed that the fan in my MacBook Pro occasionally comes on, whereas before it never did and the computer was dead quiet.

 

Also I spent considerable time yesterday to discern sonic differences between players that before were easily recognized. Very frustrating and made me wonder if this was all in my head.

 

Any way to easily uninstall the iTunes 10.2.1 upgrade?

 

[elcorso]

@audiozorro how to uninstall iTunes,

 

By Apple:

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1224

 

It looks complicated, but it is really easy,

 

Roch

 

[iamoneagain]

Haven't check back here in a while. Anyway with latest update I'm still getting that tiny click between tracks. I'm using optical out with the player set at the following: all low level playback options checked, SRC with force upsampling at none. Memory at 2304 mb on a 8gb iMac.

 

[audiozorro]

Apple sure seems to make it difficult. As a longtime Windows user I am used to a simple Uninstall button for removing most application software. Windows also creates Restore Points where the user can restore the computer to a state several days or months ago that worked fine. Upgrades can be so damaging or unappealing, so there should always be an easy way to rollback new installs. Is there anything comparable for Mac computers?

 

After searching the Internet, I am somewhat surprised by the number of problems with this latest version of iTunes posted by users. If this is the future, then buyer beware. I am starting to think that a strip down Mac computer or a dedicated music server like the Auraliti L1000 is very appealing.

 

If I follow the steps to remove iTunes form my computer the last thing I want to read is that last sentence, “To reinstall iTunes please download and install the latest version.” Where do I find the previous versions of iTunes?

 

 

[elcorso]

Please download it from here:

 

http://appldnld.apple.com/iTunes10/061-9637.20110302.Tnz2t/iTunes10.2.dmg

 

After removing iTunes 10.2.1 please download and reinstall OSX 10.6.6 from here:

 

OSX 10.6.6 combo update:

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1349

 

Then install iTunes 10.2

 

Good luck,

 

Roch

 

[Encore]

"usbmuxd is the guilty ... after 10.2.1 it is present (launched) all the time, and this affects SQ mostly in USB dacs or USB interphases like Wavelink, HiFace EVO and others."

 

OK, that would explain why I didn't hear the improvement in my system that I heard at a friend's place some time ago when switching from my netbook w Foobar to a Mac w Audirvana.

 

BTW--I also got the red overload button when switching sample frequencies, incl. a loud burst of white noise in the speakers! Makes one really hesitant to give up on a preamp ... :-S

 

I was considering getting a dedecated MacBook Pro for music playback but gave up on it after the disappointing sound in my system. Now I may just try with a barebone installation on my current MacBook Pro--reinstalling everything after the test is a breeze with Time Machine :-)

 

[happykev]

I deleted both usbmuxd files and then installed Mac OSX 10.6.7 and rebooted my Mac. The files are still gone so I may have solved any sound degradation issues myself.

 

GIve it a whirl!

 

Kev