Audirvana Plus 3.5

[yukio]

Hello

I use Audirvana 3.5 as a player on a 2.23ghz MacMini late2009, 8gb of RAM and 250gb SSD disk completely dedicated to the function of a music machine present on an external 4TB 3.5 hard disk. With some files it happens that if they are played at 0 oversampling they always appear in the same points while listening to the clicks / pops. If, however, I carry out oversampling, the defect disappears. What can it depend on? How can I listen to the same files without oversampling?
Thanks
Alessandro

[Ernie]

Recently moved to audirvana from roon. The only two things I miss so far are 1) the ability to look at my qobuz favorites by genre (with over 1000 albums it is cumbersome to look thorough a completely mixed library) and 2) the ability to use volume leveling on qobuz material...qobuz is making this info available to roon now and it would be great if audirvana could use it as well, as they do with Tidal. Any thoughts on this Damien? Or does anyone have any good workarounds, especially for the genre sorting?

 

thanks

[damien78]

21 hours ago, Ernie said:

Recently moved to audirvana from roon. The only two things I miss so far are 1) the ability to look at my qobuz favorites by genre (with over 1000 albums it is cumbersome to look thorough a completely mixed library) and 2) the ability to use volume leveling on qobuz material...qobuz is making this info available to roon now and it would be great if audirvana could use it as well, as they do with Tidal. Any thoughts on this Damien? Or does anyone have any good workarounds, especially for the genre sorting?

 

thanks

 

Nice move ;) thanks!

 

I've already requested Qobuz these very same features, but the way Audirvana has integrated Qobuz is technically different than roon.

Audirvana uses the Qobuz API to access Qobuz services, that is the recommended way to ensure always up to date data, and thus immediate access to latest albums as soon as they are available on Qobuz.

 

These two features are currently missing in the Qobuz API.  I've been told volume levelling is coming soon.

The volume levelling one is even not available in their own player. Weird Qobuz have not implemented it first in their own player first.

Hopefully you won't have to wait too long.

[jimdukey]

Is Volume Leveling the same as Normalization?

[Ernie]

I am using the term to refer to corrections to gain that are implemented to compensate for differences between  albums as a result of the recording or mastering process. Allows me to keep the volume setting the same on my amp but have the tracks sound approximately the same volume

[Ernie]

Thanks Damien....I understand..

[jos]

On 1/29/2020 at 4:21 PM, biosailor said:

No hurry whatsoever in reporting back!

 

Enjoy Sonarworks.

I bought Sonarworks Reference 4 with microphone, but that is certainly not enough to get you started; you also need an audio interface device, including a USB cable to connect this device to your MAC. But you also need a microphone cable and two output cables (balanced or not) to connect the audio interface to your microphone and amplifier. Important: buy your cables long enough. In my case about 10m. each to move around in my living room. Total cost, including Sonarworks, is about 330 euro. I phoned Thomann for all of this stuff and they give me some good advice regarding the different brands and qualities I could use. I noticed that they have a lot of expertise in this field and are one of the cheapest too. Soon I will start my room measurements and let you all known the results in combination with Audirvana.

[yukio]

I consider it a great limit of A + remote control that does not allow to reverse the signal polarity. I use a Mac mini and to change the polarity of the signal I am forced to connect it to a monitor and go to Audirvana’s preferences. It would be a great thing to be able to make that change directly from A + remote control. 

I have been asking for the implementation of this important function for almost two years but I am not being answered.

Is it a function that nobody else cares about?

 

 

[biosailor]

55 minutes ago, yukio said:

I consider it a great limit of A + remote control that does not allow to reverse the signal polarity. I use a Mac mini and to change the polarity of the signal I am forced to connect it to a monitor and go to Audirvana’s preferences. It would be a great thing to be able to make that change directly from A + remote control. 

I have been asking for the implementation of this important function for almost two years but I am not being answered.

Is it a function that nobody else cares about?

 

 

 

You could install TeamViewer to get access to your Mac.

 

I was always wondering why one would want to reverse signal polarity. I someone can enlighten me?

[matthias]

On ‎2‎/‎4‎/‎2020 at 8:41 PM, Ernie said:

Recently moved to audirvana from roon. The only two things I miss so far are 1) the ability to look at my qobuz favorites by genre (with over 1000 albums it is cumbersome to look thorough a completely mixed library) and 2) the ability to use volume leveling on qobuz material...qobuz is making this info available to roon now and it would be great if audirvana could use it as well, as they do with Tidal. Any thoughts on this Damien? Or does anyone have any good workarounds, especially for the genre sorting?

 

Please, can you share some impressions about SQ of Roon vs. Audirvana?

Thanks

 

Matt

[biosailor]

On 2/5/2020 at 10:47 PM, jos said:

I bought Sonarworks Reference 4 with microphone, but that is certainly not enough to get you started; you also need an audio interface device, including a USB cable to connect this device to your MAC. But you also need a microphone cable and two output cables (balanced or not) to connect the audio interface to your microphone and amplifier. Important: buy your cables long enough. In my case about 10m. each to move around in my living room. Total cost, including Sonarworks, is about 330 euro. I phoned Thomann for all of this stuff and they give me some good advice regarding the different brands and qualities I could use. I noticed that they have a lot of expertise in this field and are one of the cheapest too. Soon I will start my room measurements and let you all known the results in combination with Audirvana.

So, the mic cannot be connected straight to your pc running Sonarworks? At least my calibrated mic works straight with my Mac and REW.

The USB cables connecting mic and DAC have to have a certain length to be able to measure comfortably. I had to take my device out of the rack to get everything connected. Our cat enjoyed it!

 

[BentonT]

Windows 10 question - I’ve been working on tagging which can be difficult....

 

First question is about jpg’s. There’s one that I’ve deleted from it’s folder and replaced (same folder) with a better quality jpg. 
 

To be clear, the old jpg is gone, it doesn’t exist on the machine. 
 

Yet, when I view either album artist view or albums for that artist, the old jpg is on display. 
 

Second question: when multiple albums exist for an artist, an album can show as “artist also appears on”. In other words it doesn’t show up with other albums for that artist. 
 

i’m using mp3tag and always populate the ‘artist’ and ‘album’ fields. 

Re-booting the machine doesn’t help these issues. Looking for a clue to resolve. 

 

[RunHomeSlow]

in album view, click on an album... then click on tag editor icon on the right... click change under the cover preview.

 

When no cover is embedded on the files, Audirvana will read the cover or folder .jpg or .pdf or others i don't know in the album folder... when it is embedded, you have to update it yourself...

 

oups, just saw your are on windows... might be the same

[Ernie]

Matt... regarding sq in roon vs audirvana. As stand alone products I prefer the sq of audirvana.  However I was using roon with hqplayer which at least puts in on par with audirvana. I was not making use of all the metadata roon provides so could not justify the subscription cost. However, I almost stayed because of all the ways it allowed me to organize my qobuz library. I have old ears, so check them out. 

[jos]

6 hours ago, biosailor said:

So, the mic cannot be connected straight to your pc running Sonarworks? At least my calibrated mic works straight with my Mac and REW.

The USB cables connecting mic and DAC have to have a certain length to be able to measure comfortably. I had to take my device out of the rack to get everything connected. Our cat enjoyed it!

 

 

In addition: It's best to watch this video first, I did.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh7GJvJmy1w

 

My first measurements and Sonarworks correction afterwards:

 

 

 

My first impression is that it sounds tighter and more balanced. I totally agree with the reviewer that using a stand would better the measurements. Next week I will try a second measurement.

 

 

[BentonT]

5 hours ago, RunHomeSlow said:

in album view, click on an album... then click on tag editor icon on the right... click change under the cover preview.

 

When no cover is embedded on the files, Audirvana will read the cover or folder .jpg or .pdf or others i don't know in the album folder... when it is embedded, you have to update it yourself...

 

oups, just saw your are on windows... might be the same

Hey thanks for that. I just loaded the correct cover and also corrected the band name which fixed the other issue.Good stuff! Thanks for your help RunHomeSlow!

[Anrad]

On 1/28/2020 at 6:32 PM, Hoshi said:

I’ve solved my issue when upsampling to DSD512.  I read on another forum that someone was able to get DSD512 and A+ to run flawlessly on a late model Mac with a mRendu.  I ended up moving a newer 2018 MacMini from another location to my music room and switching out my late 2012 MacMini.  I’m only running 8GB of memory compared to 16GB on the older Mac but now have zero issues.  Using a mRendu 1.4 as a renderer.  

I have a similar problem using M2Tech Young Mk3 DAC USB connected to MBP (late 2011, 8GB RAM, High Sierra). When playing DSD files, the first track goes smoothly, but the next track does not hear sound. I need to stop and restart the track (and so on). Tried various buffering and seting values but no improvement. Maybe mRendu is next step.

[buonassi]

On 5/4/2019 at 3:50 AM, damien78 said:

Though I'd question the usefulness of dither to compensate for the 24th bit precision. The DAC noise floor limits such precision. Lots of reviewers test DACs with tracks mastered at -40dB or even -60dB to test the noise shape of the very low level signals/details of DACs output. (FYI, it's better to have constant white noise than a pattern).

 

So your software 'algorithm' is not using dither at all?  Not even standard 1-bit TPDF?

 

I typically run my amps full tilt and use software to control volume at around -30dB (ish).  I'm probably just being paranoid, but have always assumed dither would preserve the justification of the bitstream so that quantization noise was eliminated.  Having 6dbs of white noise (unshaped) always made me 'feel better' but can't say I heard a difference TBH.   Probably because I have a 32 bit DAC and -30dBs is far above the noise floor.  So, I kind of see your point with the 'usefulness'.  But those who use a 24 bit DAC and attenuate heavily by software may still find dither useful.  

 

I gather in this case we'll have to use a dither AU plugin?  

[edtsui]

Hi, fellow Audirvana users, I have a problem that I would need your advice.

I have been an Audirvana user since its inception but have only upgrade from the 2 series to 3.5 in recent days.  I like the sound quality and the new UI.  I have also succeeded to transfer my database and playlists into the new application, but I have some problems with a number of playlists.  One got really messed up.  I could not find a way to delete and redo playlists in 3.5.  Any advice on how best to address this problem would be much appreciated.

 

Ed

[RunHomeSlow]

Right click it and delete... click plus sign to add a new one

[copy_of_a]

On 2/8/2020 at 8:21 PM, buonassi said:

So your software 'algorithm' is not using dither at all?  Not even standard (...) TPDF?

 

Just one thought... with regard to a common misconception about Dither:

 

Dither does not simply „mask“ distortion (truncation).

It REMOVES distortion!

 

The whole thing about Dither is to PRESERVE the harmonical content of the source when reducing bit depth.

We - always (!) - can only chose between distortion (audible) or noise (inaudible) when reducing bit depth.

Damien decided to go the distortion route 🙄 ... and herewith discards the accurate (and well documented) way digital audio should be processed 😞

 

Now ... I am so absolutely committed to Audirvana and it‘s faboulous sound that I‘ve meanwhile offline upsampled my entire library to 88.2kHz/96kHz and playback without upsampling in Audirvana.

Lots of work!

Sound is great!

 

Still ... what a sloppy/lazy design decision on behalf of Damien! Unbelievable!

Even more unbelievable that nobody cares ... on a forum where you‘ll find for instance hundrets of pages about the „sound“ of USB-cables (that often not even meet the USB 2.0 specs)...

 

I‘m really baffled (and extremely pissed) about this - both the designer and the bunch of unaware users - ... but at least I‘ve found my (personal) workaround.

 

Full stop.

[edtsui]

Thanks RunHomeSlow for the advise on how to delete a playlist.  I have two other questions/problems.

1. When I add albums to 3.5, I cannot see them in 'Added Recently'!  Can anyone advise how to fix the problem.

2. I used to be able to 'Shift click' to select multiple albums and drag them to a playlist, but just cannot figure out how I can select mutiple albums listed consecutively to drag and drop into a playlist.  Any suggestions that I can do that in 3.5

Thanks

 

Ed 

[RunHomeSlow]

Right click that playlist and edit it or see what the options are:

mine i want to see last month (30 days) albums in recents playlist (it is a smart playlist

can't remember if it was already there with software or i've done one myself.

 

For the covers when you put your mouse over a cover you can see three dots on the right... Add to play queue, click the other one and play next or add to end...

 

 

[Piano Man]

8 hours ago, copy_of_a said:

 

Damien decided to go the distortion route 🙄 ... and herewith discards the accurate (and well documented) way digital audio should be processed 😞

...

 

Still ... what a sloppy/lazy design decision on behalf of Damien! Unbelievable!

Even more unbelievable that nobody cares ... on a forum where you‘ll find for instance hundrets of pages about the „sound“ of USB-cables (that often not even meet the USB 2.0 specs)...

 

I‘m really baffled (and extremely pissed) about this - both the designer and the bunch of unaware users - ... but at least I‘ve found my (personal) workaround.

 

Full stop.

 

I also prefer perfectionism over pragmatism in many areas.

That reminds me the early days of the CD when it was extremely easy to hear differences in quantisation noise between CD players, for example in pianissimo passages of piano recordings.

 

However, as you know, when reducing bit depth to 24 bits or more, the difference is very difficult to hear. Did you generate and compare upsampled 24 bit files from the same source with dithering and with truncation, with otherwise equal parameters? 

 

I see at least two reasons for Damien not to implement dithering:

- Lack of time/priority: improving stability and compatibility with file formats and D/A hardware is more important 

- CPU load: I don’t know if dithering is a significant CPU effort as compared to upsampling, but Audirvana is all about decreasing computer activity as much as possible when playing music. Is it possible that dithering to 24 bit creates more noise by CPU activity than it removes? Such effects would be difficult to reproduce since upsampling and loading into memory only happens from time to time, e. g. depending on streamed data arriving. 

 

Maybe I’m wrong, and maybe there’s more, what do you think?

[copy_of_a]

9 hours ago, Piano Man said:

what do you think?

CPU load of dither is totally negligible.
super light processing wise...

 

I see no reason to intentionally violate the rules and no reason not to design an accurate „bit perfect“ audio player.

For those who think they don‘t need dither (like Damien) you could implement a switch to turn on/off dither as the last processing step. Easy.
And above all ... it was available in previous versions of Audirvana (iZotope MBit+). Unfortuately it was abandoned in v3.5...