Audirvana Plus 3.5

[DancingSea]

I’ve been getting quite a few random crashes.  Often crashes when I quit A+.  But has crashed other times, seemingly for no reason.

[DancingSea]

22 minutes ago, copy_of_a said:

AU Plugins realtime control does not work here (without realtime control AU Plugins work as supposed to).

Is this a known bug and will be fixed in a future update?

 

Aloha!

 

They didn’t work for me either at first.  I turned off real time and they worked.  Turned real time back on, and they’ve worked ever since....

 

3.5 still crashes a lot though...

[DancingSea]

For me, A+ 3.5 crashes nearly every time I quit the application.

 

Another issue is that if I go to an album by following the specific album link from a playlist, it displays each track twice.  If I go to the library album section and scroll through tons of albums to find that same album, the tracks are displayed properly.

 

The remote works ok.  Would be nice to be able to rate tracks from within the remote app instead of having to walk over to the Mac.  I’ve yet find a way to do that.

 

Do iTunes ratings (1 - 5 stars) translate to A+ 3.5?  Having to re-rate thousands of ratings is a bit overwhelming.  I place high value on curation.  I only listen to tracks I like on a CD and skip the ones I don’t.  As mentioned before, that’s one feature I enjoyed in Roon, the ability to rate tracks in the remote and the ability to easily “play favorites” from either the Mac or remote apps, with Roon skipping the unloved tracks for me.

 

It almost makes more sense for me to stick with iTunes for library management and ratings, and just drag specific rated tracks (or playlists) into HQPlayer, using HQP as a player only, especially if I’d have to re-rate every iTunes rated track in A+.

 

In my opinion, HQPlayer sounds better the A+ 3.5, as rudimentary as its library system  and GUI are.  The primary appeal of A+ 3.5 for me is a functional iPad remote, something Luxe and HQP do not have.

[DancingSea]

2 minutes ago, Nico said:

I can confirm this issue (as I already reported in post 336).

 

I had this issue, then it was fixed.  And now its back again.  For me, iTunes playlists imported into A+ 3.5 are totally jumbled in terms of order....

[DancingSea]

22 hours ago, damien78 said:

 

Other than the crash report you had sent me that showed the crash was caused by the Audio Unit plugin itself, if you have others, like the one exiting the application, can you send it to me by PM also?

 

Regarding iTunes rating, the issue is that iTunes is not storing it in the audio files metadata as it should be.

So you need to use the 2nd method ( sync with iTunes library) to retrieve them.

And the good news is that I've implemented this both ways: next time you click on Sync with iTunes, Audirvana will update iTunes with the ratings changed in Audirvana.

 

And then you'll use smart playlists, or filters with rating as criteria

 

Damien - what’s the difference between the two methods when importing from iTunes?  Do they both import iTunes playlists?

 

Also, which iTunes rating is imported in method 2?  The star rating (1 - 5)?

 

Thanks.

[DancingSea]

8 hours ago, damien78 said:

 

Only method 2 retrieves iTunes playlists.

And it is star rating that is synched

 

 

Am I correct that the iTunes star rating in A+ is only for albums?   For me, what’s useful is the star rating for each individual track in iTunes.  In addition, it would be helpful to be hit something that only plays 5 star tracks in a given album.

 

I used method 1 to import my DSD collection.  It’s displaying every album twice.  How can I fix that?

 

Also, with iTunes, are the individual track “love ❤️“ ratings synced in Method 2?

 

Thanks.

[DancingSea]

25 minutes ago, damien78 said:

Realtime processing (AudioUnits and/or SW volume control) is not active while playing to UPnP.

This is something I'll investigate for a future release. But note there'll be some latency due to the inevitable buffering of network players to avoid unwanted pauses in playback.

 

Hi Damien,

 

1) Repeating my DSD question.  With method one, from a folder on an external hard drive, all my DSD imports appear twice in A+ 3.5.  How can I fix this?

 

2) In Library, album view, my albums are not in alphabetical order.  They appear very randomly.  How can I fix that?

 

Thanks.

[DancingSea]

14 hours ago, Serpieri said:

 

I'm very curious about your duplicate files.  Does the File Location field show a slightly different volume path to the file or are they exactly the same?  As previously mentioned I have several days worth of duplicate tracks - a 27 days and change Library is now 36 days and change.  Originally these were distinctive by the slightly different and false volume location.  Since the upgrade many of these same duplicates are now showing the correct path to a single file.

 

I’m unsure how to check this.  Hopefully Damien will be so kind to address the duplicate issue.  For me, every dsd album is duplicated. 

[DancingSea]

Installed the latest update, DSD albums remain all duplicated, quite annoying!

 

I use Method 1 to monitor a folder on an external hard drive that has about 700 DSD albums.  If I delete the folder from the A+ Method 1 list, the duplicate DSD albums disappear, leaving only copy.  As soon as I re-add the DSD folder to the Method 1 monitoring list, all 700 albums are displayed twice.

 

Damien, any thoughts?

[DancingSea]

34 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

 

Delete all folders you have in prefs panel for music. Shut down Audirvana. Restart Mac. Restart Audirvana, it will ask for music folder if not, tell him where and see...

 

I’m sorry, I’m not clear as to what you’re referring to as “preference pane” to delete all the folders.

[DancingSea]

20 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

 

Audirvana.... preferences in the application... you see your folders to sync, delete them...

 

I see.  Yes, I’ve done that several times, including the restart.  The same issue persists. As long as the DSD folder is in the Method 1 sync list, all my DSD albums appear twice.  If I delete the folder from Method 1, the DSD albums are displayed correctly.

 

All my AIFF & ALAC iTunes albums display properly.

[DancingSea]

Aloha Damien,  

 

Maybe if I ask this question everyday, you’ll eventually respond 😇

 

Any guidance on why all my DSD albums appear twice in the library? That’s all 700+ albums. 

 

Thanks. 

[DancingSea]

35 minutes ago, damien78 said:

 

First you need to check where are your duplicated files using the reply made yesterday by Serpieri.

Then you'll decide which copy of the audio files to keep.

 

 

 

Aloha,  I’ve tried this.  However, right click by any means I have does not work in A+.  Two finger tap on the track pad, and CMD-Click, the normal ways to right click on a Mac for the last 10 years or so, do not work.  

 

Its worth noting the DSD files have been in the same location for years and did not show up as duplicates prior to 3.5. Thanks.

[DancingSea]

On 4/19/2019 at 9:53 AM, damien78 said:

They do. Right click, two fingers tap, Ctrl + click on the tracks header row shows the columns selection menu

 

Aloha Damien (or anyone else),

 

I was able to figure that part out and see the audio file location.  The duplicate tracks are all in the same location, how else could it be?

 

I discovered 2 things:

 

1) My DSD files are stored in a folder called "DSD Music".  In that folder, are a variety of sub folders, going several tiers deep.  The first tier has 233 folders, of which there are sub folders below that.  If in Method 1, I add all 233 1st tier sub folders instead of just the 1 master folder, no duplicates appear in A+ 3.5.4.  Its only if I just point A+ to the one master folder that duplicates appear.  But dealing with 233 folders in Method 1 is too much for me to juggle.

 

2) By pointing A+ to the 233 1st tier sub folders, 200 more albums were loaded into A+ than just using the one master folder.  This makes me wonder how deep does A+ look into a folder tree?  And how can I adjust how many tiers it scans?

 

Thanks!

[DancingSea]

I repeated all of the above and this time the results were different.  Everything is duplicated no matter how I go about it....  and if I delete everything from "Method 1", the duplications disappear.....

[DancingSea]

9 hours ago, OtisGus said:

Is it possible to use plug ins with Audirvana 3.5? Would like to have the option of using an equalizer at times. I cannot locate where the plug in options are.

 

It's there.  On the bottom of the main window, click on the speaker icon.  From there, select your output.  For instance, your DAC.  And in those settings, you can toggle to activate AU plugins...

[DancingSea]

I’ve also found the remote to be hit and miss when it comes to connecting. 

 

And the doubling of the dsd’s in my library remains unresolved. 

[DancingSea]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I just had an idea, are you by chance monitoring the same location, twice, in Audirvana? 

 

Not that I know of. In method 1, the dsd folder is the only thing listed.  Where else would it appear?

[DancingSea]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I don't know, and it's just a wild guess. DO you have method 2 enabled as well?

 

I do, but Method 2 is just for iTunes.  My DSD’s are in a different folder.  But on the same drive.  Any ideas?  

[DancingSea]

On a Mac, where does one look to trash the preferences?

[DancingSea]

Here’s a report on my Audirvana journey.  Going back to 2.6, A+ has always sounded too bright to me, no matter what I’ve tried, including Tube Saturator plugins that cost more the A+ itself.  3.5 fell into the same boat.  I’ve always preferred Amarra Luxe and HQP.

 

I recently swapped out my DH Labs T14 (silver) speaker cables for Audioquest Rocket 33’s (copper), and added a REL subwoofer.  Got better for A+, but still not quite there.  Then a few days ago I followed some EQ settings Copy_Of_A gave me almost a year ago.  All of that combined has A+ sounding amazing.  On par with Amarra Luxe, and very close to HQP, yet more functional than either.

 

Here are Copy_Of_A’s EQ recommendations.  I did boost the low shelf a little bit.

 

”

get this very nice and very, very good free EQ:
https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/

activate the filters I, II and III

 

set Filter I to:
peak (the symbol in the middle above the Q and FREQ button)
Q: 0.5
Freq: 60Hz
Gain: 0.3db

(see attachment 01)

 

set Filter II to:
low shelf (the symbol above the Q button)
Q: 0.5
Freq: 360Hz
Gain: 0.5db

(see attachment 02)

 

set Filter III to:
peak (the symbol in the middle above the Q and FREQ button)
Q: 0.85
Freq: 3.2kHz (=3200Hz)
Gain: -0.2db

(see attachment 03)

 

out gain (bottom right): -5db

This should get you close to something you might like…

 

For somewhat bolder bass increase the gain of Filter II (leave Filter I and Filter III as they are for the time being).

But don't overdo ...

 

If it’s still too bright decrease the gain in Filter III (start with -0.5db ... but I wouldn’t go lower than -1db).”

[DancingSea]

3.5 with Tidal has been crashing quite a bit today.  Plays fine with local files.  Crashes like every 15 minutes with Tidal...

[DancingSea]

9 hours ago, tipunch said:

 

Thank you, but where are the attachments?

 

The attachments are just photos of the settings. I copied the directions but didn’t include the photos. 

[DancingSea]

I’ve also been experiencing regular stuttered play, periodic short breaks in sound that resume playing quickly.  Any way to fix that?

[DancingSea]

1 hour ago, jamesg11 said:

Were these settings recommended just for your specific situation, or as generally good ones?

 

They were suggested as generally good ones for taming Audirvana brightness, if that's an issue....