New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana

[4est]

"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 :-)"

 

Time machine may be the item you are thinking about.

 

[mingusamongus]

@elcorso :

 

Hello & thank you for information and help. I'm using a Musical Fidelity V-Link; can you tell me what's the difference, concerning sound quality :

 

- renaming /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist to prevent usbmuxd from starting & reboot

 

- deleting both usbmuxd files & reboot

 

- reinstall OSX 10.6.6 and iTunes 10.2 (after deinstalling iTunes 10.2.1)

 

??

 

 

[khollister]

The first two options do the same thing, the second is just more destructive.

 

Given that I still had usbmuxd running on an old OS X 10.6.5/iTunes 10.1.1 clone image, I'm not certain dropping back to iTunes 10.2 is going to fix things. Frankly, I noticed something going a little south a while back, but wrote it off as something else.

 

I think that certain DAC's or S/PDIF bridges trigger usbmuxd when the sample rate is changed even with older versions of iTunes.

 

Just nuke the plist file and leave 10.2.1 installed.

 

[elcorso]

@mingusamongus & @ khollister,

 

Problems started after OSX 10.6.4 & iTunes 10.1.1: Hard to find items, I have it only in Mac Mini 2010 installation DVD.

 

At least, regarding Audirvana, trashing usbmuxd files & AppleMobileDevice items, the SQ returns to normal: the best for my ears!

 

Even Decibel SQ improves by doing this.

 

At this time it is better to Quit and then Relaunch Audirvana, when you listen to a different sample rate. For example: If you are listening to 16/44.1 and then you want to listen something in 24/88.2, Log out Audirvana, before switch to a different sample rate.

 

There is no problems with Firewire devices, is a matter of the USB ones, since Apple has a lot of 'iSomething' to sync. with iTunes, he forget about us, the HD music lovers...

 

Damien is working on this fix.

 

Regards,

 

Roch

 

[khollister]

Well that explains why I was having problems on 10.1.1.

 

"trashing ... AppleMobileDevice items ..."

 

Care to share exactly else what I need to go after? I have stopped usbmuxd from loading already.

 

UPDATE: - found them

 

AppleMobileDevice.kext

AppleMobileDeviceHelper

AppleMobileSync

com.apple.pkg.AppleMobileDeviceSupport.plist

com.apple.pkg.iTunes.AppleMobileDeviceSupportDelta.4.0.10.2.plist

 

[khollister]

OK - trashed the kernel extension and the entire MobileDevice framework folder. Definite improvement after rebooting, even with switching sample rates in Audirvana.

 

Thanks for the tip on the MobileDevice stuff. Since this is a dedicated music server, I really could care less about butchering the OS since none of this will ever get used on this machine. My Mac Pro handles all of that.

 

[elcorso]

@khollister I do care to share the discoveries from my insomniac nights, you have skills butchering the OS, but not all the Mac users, then I don't want to be blamed if somebody destroys his OS…

 

Regards,

 

Roch

 

[elcorso]

@khollister I found another usbmuxd:

 

/System/Library/Folder/Subfolder/Subfolder

 

Please don't ask me exactly where, I'm sorry but I don't remember. But I do remember it was 'in use', since I can not empty the trash can before I reboot. The previous two I trashed, don't.

 

Regards,

 

Roch

 

[mingusamongus]

Let me try to summarize :

 

Sound Quality is getting worse since Updates after OSX 10.6.4 / iTunes 10.1.1

- the problem (less SQ) concerns only USB-DACS and USB/SPDIF-adapters (not optical out)

- evident only with Audirvana and Decibel

- usbmuxd causes the problems when Audirvana changes sample rate

- SQ is even worse without changing sample rate

 

Workaround for people who don’t need any isync (no ipod, iphone, ipod touch…) :

- delete usbmuxd & AppleMobileDevices stuff (q : why? Are there any more effects beside usbmuxd?) to prevent usbmuxd from getting started

- downgrade to OSX 10.6.4. / iTunes 10.1.1

 

Solutions for those who need USB-sync :

- perhaps with a future OSX-Update?

- Audirvana-Update?

- rename /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist?

 

Thank you for helping!

 

Kind regards

 

Gerd

 

 

[khollister]

Renaming, moving or deleting the usbmuxd plist file will stop usbmuxd from starting on my system. Since I have clone images available for my Mini and can restore the complete SSD image in a few minutes, I have no hesitation in trying to further streamline the OS. My opinion is it certainly can't hurt removing anything that potentially interferes with the USB ports, and servicing the mobile device sync falls in that category.

 

At this point, I am more inclined to think OS X 10.6.5 & 10.6.6 have at least as much to do with this as iTunes 10.2.1 because usbmuxd was permanently loaded on my 10.6.5 installation with iTunes 10.1.1.

 

It is confusing, which is why Roch was concerned about publishing all of the info lest someone hose up their computer. I need to do some more testing - even after deleting all of this stuff, I'm still not sure I didn't hear an improvement after rebooting.

 

I need to poke around in the dev docs and see what else might be referenced relevant to iOS device syncing.

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

Re: usbmuxd

 

You're not supposed to remove/rename/delete .plist files.

 

Use "launchctl" to stop/unload the job. See this page for details:

 

http://ss64.com/osx/launchctl.html

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

Hello,

 

I just started using Audirvana tonight. (Whoa, big display window there.)

 

I opened the playlist window, clicked "+" to add a list from a directory of WAVs.

 

That worked fine. I stopped playing the 2nd WAV file and decided to try other types of files to see what is supported. So I selected all the files from the WAV directory in the Playlist and clicked either "-" or hit the key to delete them.

 

After this first time, every time I've tried to open a Playlist in this way, when it comes up and I navigate to a directory, all the music files (except .m3u) are all greyed out!

 

I even went back to my original folder with the WAVs and the same thing happened.

 

I quit out of the app and restarted it. Still get the same behavior.

 

This kept happening until I did something (perhaps it was repeated clicking on the "-" even though the Playlist window was empty?) and it magically started working again.

 

Strange bogon or did I do something wrong?

 

P.S. Any APE/SHN format support planned? I don't really care, I don't have that many APE/SHN files (should just convert them to FLAC, really); just curious.

 

 

[Jud]

Don't know whether Damien has APE/SHN support planned. Just wanted to note that support for various formats could be something that people with coding chops might help with.

 

Damien's asked around before for others who'd like to help out; I imagine he'd enjoy the interchange with other programmers. I very much regret that I know nothing about programming, because this looks like the type of thing I'd love to get into if I had the knowledge.

 

[damien78]

Thanks Jud, that's exactly what I'd like to see happen.

And for this particular files format handling, it could be either by coding another "AudioFileLoader" child class, or better by adding the handling of this file format to Erik de Castro Lopo's libSndFile. This way it'll work for Audirvana, and for may other apps that use libsndfile.

 

In the mean time, XLD (or other) can be used to batch convert the tracks to FLAC, or AIFF, ...

 

@Riot Nrrrd: The Load Playlist menu command is meant for loading playlists (.m3u & .m3u8), and not track files. You add tracks either by:

1) using the "+" button under the playlist

2) drop tracks or folders from the finder

3) drop tracks from iTunes

 

Damien

 

[Wavelength]

Gang,

 

The Apple dev team would like a clear understanding of the problem so I can write this up and put it on their radar.

 

Can someone detail this please? Roch, KH can you email me this?

 

Thanks

Gordon

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

Thanks Damien,

 

I was just going through my audio files trying to see what ephemera I have and whether Audirvana supported them. I see it plays my (few) WAV/AIFF/FLAC files just fine along with MP3s, but not SHN/APE or the lossy OGG. No biggie - I really should just convert those to more user-friendly formats anyway.

 

I would argue from a UI standpoint that having a "Load File..." entry in the "File" menu bar menu - even if it does nothing more than the equivalent of pressing "+" in the Playlist window - would be Really Useful.

 

BTW does "drop tracks from iTunes" mean just like it sounds? Selecting a track in iTunes and you can drag'n'drop it over onto the Audirvana Playlist window? Interesting (if so), never tried doing that before, didn't realize it was even possible.

 

 

[4est]

just like it sounds...highlight a play list, an album or a track and drop it on the playlist window.

 

[iamoneagain]

Drop and drag is exactly as you described it. I keep Audirvana just to the right of iTunes so I can quickly drop tracks in there. You can also just select the album cover or album name to drop the whole thing in there instead of selecting all the tracks.

 

This why I'm not a fan of the CD player look. It takes up too much room and overlaps iTunes.

 

There is also this iPhone Remote hack that works great with this program and Decibel.

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Audirvana-Decibel-Remoteapp

 

[4est]

I hate to say, but I do not care for it either. The CD player overlaps part of the iTunes window. I would love for Audirvana to be one window with appropriate buttons as I too keep iTunes open (but my iTunes is to the right-opposite of yours).

 

Alas... it sounds good though. Thanks again Damien!

 

[iamoneagain]

Yeah, might make more sense to keep player to the left especially if you setup iTunes browser to be on left instead of top. The overlap issue would be more of problem though, since buttons would be covered. If you just use Apple remote, doesn't matter.

 

I believe it was already discussed that a future version may include an option for simplified player with buttons at top of playlist window.

 

Other good news is Damien has fixed the gapless problem I was having. He was able to recreate problem on his end and quickly find a fix. He has already posted code change but I don't know how to make updates on my own. It will be included in his next release.

 

[happykev]

So it appears that when I removed all the usbmuxd files on my Mac, my iPhone no longer shows up in iTunes.

 

Does anyone know how I can gain access to this file so I can restore it back into the appropriate folders?

 

Should I simply reinstall iTunes?

 

Riot Nrrrd made reference to this in a recent post.

 

Thanks-

Kevin

 

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

I hate to say "I told you so", but this is why you never, ever remove system files from a Mac. "launchd" has a defined interface - "launchctl". It is there to enable/disable, start/stop system daemons. Use it.

 

@happykev: Do you still have this file?

 

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

 

If you have that, you need only obtain a copy of

 

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

 

from another computer with your same OS on it.

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

Thanks everyone for confirming how the drag'n'drop from iTunes works and thanks to iamoneagain for the hack for Remote!

 

Of course, ironically part of the reason I am trying out Audirvana is because I don't like running the behemoth that is iTunes, here on my poor old 2 GB MacBook Pro eating all system resources in its path

 

Personally I don't mind the CD player look (it sort of looks like an "audiophile reference player"), but I have a 30" Apple Cinema HD Display and even on that it's huge! Roughly 880x220 pixels (not even counting the "feet") is an awful lot of screen real estate, even on a 2560x1600 monitor. Surely a 440x110 version could still be legible?

 

 

 

[happykev]

Luckily I've got a Time Capsule, so I was able to run Time Machine and restore these two usbmuxd files to their respective folders.

 

Rebooted and now my iPhone appears in iTunes. PHEW!

 

Gotta love Time Machine!

 

Do I understand correctly that these usbmuxd files cause the sound quality in Audirvana to diminish?

 

Thanks-

Kevin

 

 

[sidssp]

A lot of people believe that is the case but I have not experienced sound quality degradation, with or without usbmuxd loaded. I am using Mac Mini to Benchmark DAC-1 USB and it sounds as good as ever. Maybe it is DAC dependent.