New OSX Opensource audiophile player : Audirvana

[damien78]

Joebah, have you tried unselecting "use max I/O buffer" ?

 

In addition, how can you characterize the clicks & pops (frequency, occurrence (beginning of song, in the middle, all the time, ...) ?

 

Damien

 

[Joebah]

I have "use max I/O buffer" checked.

 

I don't believe the clicks and pops are constant through the songs: I only notice them during the passages where there is some silence between notes, for example. They sound most like the sound of a vinyl record playing. At first I thought maybe the recording had been sourced from vinyl. But then realized that didn't make sense, given that it is from HDTracks, and also confirmed that I don't hear them in the same tracks on my other players.

 

[damien78]

Ok, what about unchecking the "use max I/O buffer" ?

 

[Joebah]

I misread your first message. After trying it with the "use max I/O buffer" UNCHECKED, the clicks and pops seem to be gone. I will continue to test and let you know how things go.

 

Any idea why the max I/O buffer would cause this?

 

Thanks!

 

[damien78]

The driver advertises buffer sizes it can't manage.

This is rarely discovered as most often users want minimum buffer size to reduce latency.

Whereas for SQ, we want to minimize interrupts to fill the buffer, and thus maximize the buffer size.

 

If by any chance you still have a 10.6.8 boot, can you get in debug info the buffer size range ?

 

Damien

 

[Joebah]

I have been using Lion long enough to find that I have had no problems and have deleted my old 10.6.8 backup...

 

[hifikg]

Does Audirvana work with Lion? Integer mode also?

 

[wgscott]

Yes

 

No

 

 

[cyclo]

From the Decibel website ...

 

"Decibel is compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). Exclusive access (hog mode) works correctly, however

 

audio is not sent in the device's native format due to an architectural change in Apple's USB audio driver."

 

[Fitz Music]

When I try to use integer mode in Audirvana, I get a CPU over message and clicking (or is it thumping?) with all high resolution files from 88.2 through 192--even though I can play the same files without problems in integer mode with Pure Music.

 

If I uncheck the integer mode box in Audirvana preferences, the files will play. I am not using the Mac Mini for anything but music playback.

 

I often prefer the Audirvana sound to Pure Music, but would like to have the benefit of integer mode also. Anyone have an idea what is going on?

 

FM

 

[ChadHahn]

When I highlight and then click on some songs in iTunes to play in Audirvana it starts to load my whole iTunes library from that point. As I recall I used to be able to just click on a song or two or an album with out having everything load.

 

Am I doing something wrong?

 

Thanks,

 

Chad

 

 

[senmurv76]

Hi Damien,

 

Im am having trouble trying to disable the volume control on my mac mini and A+. I have the "DAC only" option selected as the volume control type but I am still able to control the volume through A+ and the volume slider in OS X. I have restarted A+ twice and have played a few songs (since there is a message saying "note that changes will be effective only upon next playback start.". This is a bug or am I doing something stupid or both?

 

EDIT: Last night I upgraded to 10.7.3 and I'm not sure if my A+ started behaving like this after the OS upgrade but I do remember that the volume control in A+ and on my mac was disabled when I had the "DAC only" option selected as the volume control type in A+

 

[damien78]

@senmurv76: can you check using the Debug Info (Audirvana Plus menu) if your DAC is not offering volume control ?

When you are in DAC only, this is normally the only possibility.

BTW, what is the color of the volume knob LED cursor ?

 

Damien

 

[senmurv76]

Damien,

 

Below is the debug info followed by a screen shot of my settings. The knob color is blue:

 

{rtf1ansiansicpg1252cocoartf1138cocoasubrtf320

{fonttblf0fswissfcharset0 Helvetica;}

{colortbl;red255green255blue255;}

margl1440margr1440vieww10800viewh8400viewkind0

pardtx560tx1120tx1680tx2240tx2800tx3360tx3920tx4480tx5040tx5600tx6160tx6720pardirnatural

 

f0fs24 cf0

Audirvana Plus rev. 1.1.2 debug information:

running on Mac OS X 10.7.3

 

Active Sample Rate: 44.1kHz

Hog Mode is off

Devices found : 4

 

List of devices:

Device #0: ID 0x22 Built-in Output Manufacturer:Apple Inc. Model UID:AppleHDA:33 UID:AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,2:0

Device #1: ID 0x43 HDMI Manufacturer:Apple Inc. Model UID:AppleHDA:33 UID:AppleHDAEngineOutputDP:1B,3,1,2:0

Device #2: ID 0x3b Schiit USB Interface Manufacturer:CMEDIA Model UID:Schiit USB Interface:0D8C:0304 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:CMEDIA:Schiit USB Interface:fa130000:1

Device #3: ID 0x36 SPDIF Output Manufacturer:CMEDIA Model UID:Schiit USB Interface:0D8C:0304 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:CMEDIA:Schiit USB Interface:fa130000:2

 

Preferred device: Schiit USB Interface Model UID:Schiit USB Interface:0D8C:0304 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:CMEDIA:Schiit USB Interface:fa120000:1

 

Selected device:

ID 0x3b Schiit USB Interface Manufacturer:CMEDIA

Model UID:Schiit USB Interface:0D8C:0304 UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:CMEDIA:Schiit USB Interface:fa130000:1

5 available sample rates up to 192000.0Hz

44100.0

48000.0

88200.0

96000.0

192000.0

 

Audio buffer frame size : 14 to 6144 frames

Current I/O buffer frame size : 512

Physical (analog) volume control: No

Virtual (digital) volume control: Yes

Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2

Simple stereo device: yes

Channel mapping: L:Stream 0 channel 0 R:Stream 0 channel 1

 

1 output streams:

Stream ID 0x3c 2 channels starting at 1

5 virtual formats:

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @192.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @96.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @88.2kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @48.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @44.1kHz

 

10 physical formats

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit @192.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit @96.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit @88.2kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit @48.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24bits little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit @44.1kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16bits little endian Signed Integer @192.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16bits little endian Signed Integer @96.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16bits little endian Signed Integer @88.2kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16bits little endian Signed Integer @48.0kHz

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 16bits little endian Signed Integer @44.1kHz}

 

 

[senmurv76]

If I select "DAC only" or "DAC if available, else software", the knob color turns blue. If I select "software only" the knob color turn green. I cannot get the knob to turn red.

 

[damien78]

This means your DAC is offering software (digital) volume control.

When you select "Software only", you engage the dithered volume feature of A+.

 

Damien

 

[Chacruz]

I got reports from owners of Macs models from before end 2008 that direct connection of their DAC had clicks in hog/integer mode. It was fixed by using an USB hub that brought the needed power.

 

In addition, it is always better to ensure you connect your DAC (or the hub) on a non-shared usb port.

Here is an extract of the "optimize your mac for audio playback" 2 pages I've written for AMR (soon to be posted on their site, along with my Integer mode tech paper)

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

I have a 2008 Macbook Pro and have the popping sound when I try to use the Integer Mode (Audirvana+) with my Halide DAC HD.

Perhaps a silly question:

I remember reading somewhere that using a hub may degrade the sound. Is this correct?

Thanks!!

[brlawyer]

This means your DAC is offering software (digital) volume control.

When you select "Software only", you engage the dithered volume feature of A+.

 

Damien

 

And which of those is better? The blue gauge set for 0dB, or the green one at the same level? I am also using the Nuforce Icon HDP, and I have never seen it enable the red knob.