New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana

[optimist]

Being an early convert to computer audio I was using pc and mac till the arrival of Audirvana.

At last I have found a convenient and very good sounding player for my flac files.In the past I was using foobar and mediamonkey.

The last thing that I need now in order to get rid of pc is a plugin for APE lossless music files.

Can we have it please ?

Congratulations for an excellent job done.

 

 

 

[khollister]

First draft of an Audirvana playlist how-to (to be turned into a full manual) is now available for review:

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Post-your-Audirvana-tips-here-No-general-discussion-or-questions-use-main-thread#comment-75676

 

Please use that thread to discuss this rather than adding even more to this one.

 

Keith

 

[Richny]

After the latest update, I find that when I check the audio midi settings after launching audirvana, they show 44.1kh, 16 bit-1 channel audio. I change them to 2 channel in the audio midi window, but they keep resetting back to 1 channel. Is anyone else having this problem? I am using a usb dac connected to a mac mini. This was not happening before the last update.

 

[57gold]

Inputing the three lines in Terminal?

 

Except, message is prefaced by "launch daemons"

 

[iamoneagain]

Jud, thanks for the step by step instructions. Unfortunately I ran into a serious problem installing Xcode. At some point my Applications folder disappeared and none of my programs would run anymore. The installation stopped halfway. When I tried to reboot I got a folder with a question mark. Then when I restored from Time Machine, only got the Apple screen with wheel spinning forever.

 

I had to completely reinstall OSX and then do a migration. Somewhat my drive with all my iTunes files got also deleted, so I had to manually copy from Time Machine.

 

So with all these issues, I decided not to try to install Xcode again. I'll just wait for the releases. Gapless was the big one I was waiting for and I haven't had any other problems so far, so future releases are not as urgent.

 

[57gold]

Love the immediacy, punch and energy that your player brings to 14/44.1 CD rips and would love to hear upsampled versions of the same to 88.2 which is what seems to bring something special to my system ( Wadia 861i DAC fed by the WaveLink) with other players.

 

I guess that means a witch to limit upsampling to a max rate, which is something I believe you may have been considering.

 

Will be sending a contribution as I am very grateful for your efforts to date and look forward to future enhancements.

 

Peace from the tropics...Tampa Bay.

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

@57gold: I'm sorry but I really can't make it any simpler for you.

 

If you open Terminal.app, you should see a window with a command-line prompt inside it, with a " % " at the end of the prompt line.

 

All you have to do is copy'n'paste the 3 lines below, one at a time, and hit the key after each line.

 

cd /System/Library/LaunchDaemons

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.usbmuxd

sudo launchctl unload -w com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

 

To un-do it you do the same thing in reverse, open Terminal.app, and copy'n'paste these 3 lines, one at a time, and hit after each one.

 

cd /System/Library/LaunchDaemons

sudo launchctl load -w com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

sudo launchctl start com.apple.usbmuxd

 

I'm afraid there's little else I can help you with if you cannot copy and paste 3 different lines of text into a Terminal window. You should probably not bother pursuing this usbmuxd issue any further if that is the case.

 

 

[57gold]

That's what I did...but after the first line (return) I was prompted for a password, so I input my system password (retrun). Then I copied second line (return) and then third (return) and got the message above.

 

Only other attempt to monkey with Terminal was to turn off Spotlight...and it worked.

 

Am a low tech guy...tube amp for guitars, none that couldn't have been made in 1966, old guitars (1950s and 1960s), analog effects (tube tape loop for echo...digital delays are less musical)...love Macs, because they are generally fool-proof, inuitive. Never written a line of code...not proud, but others are way better at such things.

 

Thanks for your patience.

 

[wgscott]

I just used

 

sudo launchctl unload -w com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

 

Normally this (the -w) puts in key/value XML entries to disable and prevent loading, but when I converted the binary file to ascii and looked at it, the modification didn't stick (although the unloading worked).

 

OK, now I see it in /private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd/overrides.plist

 

The launchctl command does work. However, to make sure it is really dead, I changed the path to the usbd thingie to /usr/bin/true

 

I watched them bury Nixon too just to make sure it really was finally over.

 

[SidHo]

How old were you when Nixon died, 11?

 

[wgscott]

217 in dog years.

 

 

[57gold]

Do the lines that I tried work, temporarily or through reboots?

 

Apparently, this issue, sucking up CPU, doesn't happen with other players like Decibel?

 

 

 

 

[wgscott]

The command either needs to be issued within the directory that has the file, or, equivalently, use the full path to the file, i.e., you should issue the following command:

 

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist

 

This turns it off, for good. It survived the 10.6.7 update at least.

 

Here is what is going on:

 

launchctl is a command-line utility that lets you alter LaunchDaemon plist files, even if they are binary, like this one is.

 

unload is an argument to launchctl that tells it to stop the process and unload it. To get this to "stick" hopefully forever, we add the -w argument. The rest, i.e., /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.usbmuxd.plist, is the path to the actual LaunchD plist file.

 

The Deamon is always running, whether or not iTunes is launched. It never used to be that way. I am skeptical that this could be the cause of the sonic degradation, but I haven't had any time to listen, and this thing annoys me enough that I want to take it out, even if it is silent.

 

The -w writes a "Disabled" notation into another plist file, that lives in a separate location, and therefore it doesn't get overwritten. To reverse the effect of the above command, simply change "unload" to "load".

 

[goldsdad]

Hi wgscott

 

"The Deamon is always running, whether or not iTunes is launched. It never used to be that way. I am skeptical that this could be the cause of the sonic degradation, but I haven't had any time to listen, and this thing annoys me enough that I want to take it out, even if it is silent."

 

 

10.2.1 is not the first iTunes associated with a permanently running usbmuxd.

I'm still using 10.1.2 as follows, but perhaps 10.2.1 installs a newer MobileDevice.framework including newer usbmuxd which is resulting in sound degradation in some systems.

 

Mac Mini mid-2010

OS X 10.6.6

iTunes 10.1.2

 

Reboot with the only connected USB devices being keyboard and mouse (actually plugged into keyboard).

Immediately open Activity Monitor.

usbmuxd is running.

 

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

Created: 19 October 2010 21:50

Modified: 19 October 2010 21:50

 

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework

Created: 31 March 2010 22:12

Modified: 25 February 2011 23:20

 

 

I doubt that info will be much help, but there it is, just in case.

 

 

[wgscott]

I guess I should say I would be surprised. Anyway, yes, it looks like it was there before. It should be a user-configurable option, since there is no reason to run this thing if you don't have an ipod or something to plug in.

 

In general, these processes should be silent and consume next to no CPU or memory, so it is surprising (to me at least) to hear one can hear its presence. That suggests some sort of defective implementation.

 

[jhwalker]

I don't think anyone in the know is suggesting that it's the CPU / memory utilization that is causing the issue - I have yet to hear any reasonable theory why high CPU or memory usage should impact sound quality *as long as* there is still free memory and CPU to handle the music playback. It has to be some sort of defective implementation of this particular routine, as you say.

 

[Johnny Moondog]

When I read the initial comments about the usbmuxd.plist file, I moved it into a Documents folder with a note to myself describing it's original path location. My MacMini is a dedicated music server with no iPhone or iPod ever connected to it. So I figure there is no need for the file to be there. Any chance I've made a mistake and it might affect something else related to playing music?

 

[wgscott]

Moving out of the way should be fine, once you reboot, it is as if the file never existed. Some update might replace it with a new one, however, so the launchctl command has that little bit as an advantage.

 

[57gold]

Cut and pasted and got: "no such file or directory nothing found to unload" message...perhaps it's because "unload" happened on earlier attempt?

 

 

[elcorso]

@wgscott the MobileDevice will mount all the time,

 

Even if you kill the lunch of usbmuxd with your command line MobileDevice remains open all the time, since iTunesHelper that the OSX launch at the beginning, lunchs by default: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/A/MobileDevice.

 

Then, when you use an USB DAC or USB Interphase the OSX see it as an MobileDevice, and lunch usbmuxd again (because remains on the OSX Library). The worst thing is usbmuxd lunch & quit on a very fast flashing process, hard to see in the Activity Monitor, damaging the SQ on computer music players under the USB interfase all of them, they begin with normal SQ, and finish with bad SQ after several sample rate switch.

 

Regards,

 

Roch

 

[Riot Nrrrd]

@57gold:

 

Unless you copy and paste your ENTIRE Terminal session here, I can't help you. Quoting single messages gives me NO context whatsoever. Your "cd" (change directory) command might have failed, who knows what could've happened.

 

The first rule of debugging is, MORE information is far more preferable to TOO LITTLE. You are providing too little.

 

 

[lexbro]

Great work, I would support but am getting clicks and pops on playback of flacs, aifs, mp3's. I am using an iMac 2.4 Ghz core Duo running OS X 10.6.6 USB Audioquest interconncet into a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC. I've tried different preference settings but nothing has worked so far. Is there anything you can suggest?

 

[Cherrington]

I'm having the strangest problem. I've selected my DAC in my MacBook Pro's sound preferences; it's showing up in the Audio Midi Setup; and it's showing up in Audirvana preferences, but the sound is coming out through the laptop's speakers. This is only happening with Audirvana. When I listen to iTunes or a movie or anything else, the sound comes through the DAC without a problem. To make it even weirder, this just started happening; Audirvana was working just fine all day yesterday. Any ideas what's going on?

 

[Blu]

You could try opening System Preferences> Sound and make the 'Builtin Output' the choice. Then open Audirvana and choose your DAC as the choice for exclusive access.

 

[Cherrington]

Thanks, Blu, for the suggestion. I tried your idea of selecting built-in output as the choice in System Preferences, but I'm afraid it is still refusing to come out through the DAC. So I also tried making built-in output the choice in Audio/Midi Setup and then making the DAC the choice in Audirvana under exclusive access, but still no luck. It's quite baffling, especially since it was working just fine the day before. Everything else, including lesser audio programs, are working fine through the DAC.