Audirvana Studio

[The Computer Audiophile]

As the title says, please use this thread for all the new Audirvãna Studio discussions.

 

I can't share the press release yet - "Information under embargo until Sunday 9 May 18:00 CET"

 

 

[ThatPhil]

Screenshots of the webpage on mobile that was up yesterday but was taken down 

[bobbmd]

Will Audirvana Studio run on Apple Catalina or will I have to buy a new MacMini M1?

[matthias]

What about the payment?

Subscription?

 

Matt

[The Computer Audiophile]

Details coming in a couple hours.  

[The Computer Audiophile]

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

WORLDWIDE LAUNCH OF AUDIRVĀNA STUDIO   For its 10th anniversary, Audirvāna will benefit from a total makeover and launch Audirvāna Studio on 16 May 2021: a major evolution of its HD audio playback software now offered as a subscription. Information under embargo until Sunday 9 May 18:00 CET Paris, May 9 2021   Today at 6pm Paris time, during a Facebook Live Audirvāna founder and CEO Damien Plisson will unveil the new Audirvāna Studio, a complete overhaul of his HD audio playback software, enriched with numerous new features. It will be available on May 16 only as a subscription service for US$69.99 per year, or US$6.99 per month(1), and will be constantly evolving and improving. The previous version 3.5 of the software will no longer be available.   Founded in Paris in 2011, Audirvāna is a French company that publishes and markets a software of the same name: "the best way to play music from a computer". It has developed and improved a unique technology over time, forging the ultimate digital audio playback software for all music professionals and enthusiasts, and a solution to manage and organize one's music whether it comes from a local music library or an HD streaming service (such as Tidal or Qobuz). Its software is available for MacOS and Windows 10 and comes with a free mobile Remote app compatible with iOS and Android devices.   A MAJOR EVOLUTION OF THE AUDIRVĀNA SOFTWARE Always at the forefront of audio performance on a computer, Audirvāna Studio exclusively offers Kernel streaming mode on Windows 10: an incredibly transparent playback mode, as close as possible to the machine language. This avoids all intermediate software layers. Mac users are not left out as Audirvāna Studio is already natively compatible with Apple Silicon and makes the most of Apple's latest generation of processors in terms of audio performance. An additional oversampling algorithm, "R8Brain", has also been added to allow users more options in optimizing the interaction with their system and converter. The user experience and interface have also been thoroughly redesigned, taking into account the numerous suggestions received by customers during a major survey conducted last year. (1)69,99 € or 6,99 € per month | 64,99 £ or 6,49 £ per month | 8.990¥ or 899¥ per month.

BACK IN BLACK

Many new features have been added, including: • Mixed favorites and playlists, combining local music and music from streaming services • An access to more than 120,000 Internet radio stations and podcasts • An enhanced metadata editor including an online metadata recovery function • A unique playlist editor for easier navigation • Faster and more intuitive smart search in all sources • A playback console giving an overview and access to all advanced audio settings • In-app assistance explaining all possible settings • An HD track profile checker to evaluate files of presumed high-resolution quality • A new version of the Remote application for mobile devices (iOS and Android)   A SERVICE NOW ONLY OFFERED BY SUBSCRIPTION Audirvāna Studio will now only be offered as a subscription service at a price of for US$69.99 per year, or US$6.99 per month(1), and with no commitment. This will significantly lower the access price to the software. This choice, which breaks with the perpetual license model of previous versions, marks a strong desire to provide a constantly improving service to all its customers – with no need to pay for updates every 2 or 3 years -, in line with the increasingly rapid changes in computer environments and quality support. Current users of versions 2 and 3.5 will be able to test the new software and receive a preferred rate to adopt Audirvāna Studio before the end of July 2021 while most recent license purchasers will be offered a no-cost conversion of their purchase to a subscription.   A NEW BRAND IDENTITY To mark the opening of a new chapter in the brand's history, its visual identity is also evolving: Audirvāna is now spelled with a "long A," like Nirvāna in Sanskrit, emphasizing the original meaning of the name and the quest for perfection and absoluteness that it embodies. The new logo, simpler and more readable, is accompanied by a symbol that is both technical and spiritual, freely inspired by the "ajna" and its mantra "Om": the original sound.

ABOUT AUDIRVĀNA Audirvāna was founded by Damien Plisson, a very talented French developer, trained at Ecole Centrale and UCLA, acknowledged as an expert among the audiophile community. Since its launch, Audirvāna has become “THE reference in audiophile playback software on Mac” (WHAT HIFI -2017). It is also available on Windows 10 since mid 2018. Its sound quality and reliability have also won over sound engineers. Audirvāna has received many awards, such as the “Audio Excellence Award 2016” from the Japanese magazine Audio Accessory, the “Exceptional Product – 5 Stars Award” from iCreate magazine in September 2017 as well as the "Remarkable" price of the VUmètre journal in 2018.

PressRelease_AudirvanaStudioUS.pdf

[jhwalker]

Pretty brutal reaction on the Facebook livestream to the "subscription only" model :/

[matthias]

For someone who uses Qobuz only without having local files and without using internet radio I see no reason to "upgrade" to the new version.

 

Matt

[bobbmd]

Again I ask do you need Apple silicon/m1 to run Audirvana Studio or will it run on Apple Catalina? I have a late 2012 mini i7 and can not upgrade beyond Catalina.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, bobbmd said:

Again I ask do you need Apple silicon/m1 to run Audirvana Studio or will it run on Apple Catalina? I have a late 2012 mini i7 and can not upgrade beyond Catalina.

Nobody knows. 

[Saffuria]

Unsampling? Am I missing something?

 

[RunHomeSlow]

4 hours ago, bobbmd said:

Will Audirvana Studio run on Apple Catalina or will I have to buy a new MacMini M1?

 

It will run under Catalina

[RunHomeSlow]

16 minutes ago, bobbmd said:

Again I ask do you need Apple silicon/m1 to run Audirvana Studio or will it run on Apple Catalina? I have a late 2012 mini i7 and can not upgrade beyond Catalina.

 

It will run under Catalina and on Late 2012 Macmini

[jimdukey]

Subscription?

Never Mind.

I like HQ better on Mac anyway.

My AV sounds boxy compared to HQ.

[DuckToller]

33 minutes ago, bobbmd said:

Again I ask do you need Apple silicon/m1 to run Audirvana Studio or will it run on Apple Catalina? I have a late 2012 mini i7 and can not upgrade beyond Catalina.

@damien78

[Marco Klobas]

@Saffuria A typo, I guess. 🙂

[Gilles]

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro running A3.5 and High Sierra, can't run a more recent OS on this computer.

I listened to the Facebook Live and did not hear how long they will support 3.5 and which is the oldest OS they will support.

Audirvana's website has also not been updated with their new offering.

Does anyone has a clue?

 

[matthias]

12 minutes ago, Gilles said:

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro running A3.5 and High Sierra, can't run a more recent OS on this computer.

 

I have the same running Audirvana/Qobuz. So far it is perfectly working without issues same as High-Sierra.

If it is working you do not need any Audirvana support for 3.5 at all.

The single issue might be that the Qobuz API will not work somewhere in the future with this configuration.

But Spotify HiFi is on the horizon :-)

 

Matt

 

[Saffuria]

55 minutes ago, Marco Klobas said:

A typo, I guess. 🙂

Ya, all this facebook presentation it's been a "typo".

[Russell_L]

Will it have the ability to have multiple libraries (NOT using them at the same time)?  In iTunes/Apple Music, there’s an option to select which library you want to use upon launch of the app. AFAIK, you can’t do this with 3.5 (not easily, at least) and it would be great if this feature were in Studio.

[bobbmd]

@RunHomeSlow thanks for both answers - what a relief 

[Whya Duck]

A few thoughts on the move to a subscription model for Audirvana Studio.

 

1. Either (a) a subscription model or a (b)yearly fee for maintenance seem to be the only options for ensuring a steady revenue stream to support continuous app development. For those users who listen to music thru Audirvana several times a week, long-term support of the product (through future desktop and mobile OS releases) is important. (a) With a subscription new users can begin using Audirvana Studio at a lower cost that the current $96 USD purchase price. (b) The yearly fee for maintenance is less attractive to Audirvana because some users may choose to discontinue the "upgrade" and stay with their current release. In the end, I think the subscription model is the most appropriate one for a music app.
2. With the subscription model, users will expect continued product enhancement. instead of major releases (that include additional app functionality) every 2 or 3 years, I imagine we'll see feature enhancements several times a year.
3. The $70 USD/year subscription cost is a little higher than I'd like, although it's definitely less than the other popular music app's subscription cost. I appreciate the "discount" to $50 USD/year for current Audirvana owners; it would be fantastic if that price were to continue after the first year. I think $50 USD/year is a really easy cost for most current Audirvana users to justify.
4. I'm excited about the product redesign that better integrates local (library) music and that from streaming services. I'm hoping the exploration feature (that allows you to view similar artists/albums available on your streaming service) while playing a local (library) track will extend to listening to Internet radio. It would be fantastic to be able to stream www.fip.fr and favorite the current song or album that's streaming.
5. I'm hoping the install-on-multiple-computers-but-only-play-from-one-at-a-time licensing feature will support switching between 2 computers via the iOS remote app. I can see the use case of having Audirvana installed on both a laptop and a headless PC and desiring to be able to control switching between the 2 without needing to interact with the Audirvana UI on the headless computer.
6. Although I've only owned Audirvana for 1 year, Damien was super responsive to the one major issue I had with iOS remote playback (whose root cause was a large (>2MB) album art image for one of my library albums.

I'm looking forward to Audirvana Studio's release next weekend. I'll trial the app and begin my annual subscription as soon as the trial expires.

[Gilles]

Thank you, Matt.

 

I see that my questions were not clear.

 

I certainly understand that I do not need support for 3.5 if I have no problem, but what if I do have problems?  I remember that Manuel said that they will continue to support 3.5 but I did not hear any indication of how long.  Has anyone heard how long will Damien continue to provide support for 3.5 once Audirvana Studio is available?

 

Can we run Audirvana Studio with High Sierra?

 

Also, just thought of this, as I run High Sierra and 3.5 on a 32GB SD card (they make 19.03GB in total), it would be relevant to me to know how many GB Audirvana Studio has.

 

Not that I need to know all this now, as I will wait for comments from users of Audirvana Studio before making a decision on whether to buy it.

 

Best,

Gilles

[The Computer Audiophile]

I know this might rub people the wrong way, but I believe most software should’ve been via subscription long ago. Subscriptions strike a balance between the consumer and developer. 
 

A one time cost places risk on both parties. If consumers don’t like it after they’ve paid or want to switch to a new app, they’ve already paid a large one time cost. If consumers keep using the software for many years, it becomes a liability for the developer. To keep updating and supporting an app that no longer brings in income, is a tough one. 
 

Software requires constant work from developers. Even when one thinks an app is all good, he can’t control hardware and software changes by third parties. 
 

The cost of anything can be looked at as a monthly cost for comparison sake. It would be interesting to see what people have paid for Audirvana over the years with upgrade cost etc… and divide that by how many months it was used. It could be higher or lower than the current offering. I don’t know. Either way, it’s a model that the developer has decided doesn’t work for him. 

[fheller]

$50 fee for actual Audirvana 3.5 users is only for the first year of your subscription.

From year 2 on your costs will be $70.