Audirvana Studio

[kerisabe]

Anyone had any experience running the Audirvana Studio on a non M1 mac mini with High Sierra (which is the least requirenment)? How does it sound compared to the old Audirvana 3.5? 

 

Im currently running my Audirvana 3.5 on El Capitan. 
 

Ordering another SD card to do a High Sierra install so I could try Audirvana Studio on my tweaked 2014 mini. 

[kerisabe]

2 minutes ago, SFRalph said:

I would appreciate some advice.  I use a dedicated late 2012 Mac Mini; I have not upgraded the OS since El Capitan to maintain the ability to easily use Direct Mode.  Is the sound quality for the new Audirvana Studio significantly better than Audirvana 3.5? If not, I'm probably content to stick with the status quo for the time being.  Thanks for your thoughts...

Im on the same position and this is what im tryin to find out. Will be havin another SD card coming later today so I could install High Sierra to be able to get the AS working. Will be A/B ing the two, will get back to you. 

[kerisabe]

Two those who are interested, finally had a chance to sit down and properly compared audirvana 3.5 + optimized el capitan on sd card and AS + “almost” optimized Catalina on sd card, both using upnp out, no upsampling with sys optimizer, wow the new AS sounds denser, thicker, more analog and more musical wasnt expecting that at all, but I feel the music runs a tad faster on the AS? 

[kerisabe]

48 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

Jud,

 

did you compare Studio vs. 3.5 without upsampling?

Thanks

 

Matt

 

Matt @matthias, 

 

I did compared the two without any upsampling, and Studio sounds so much more musical/less analytical sounding due to the bloom in the mid and bass area. The timbre playing through Studio is just so much more analog sounding. 

 

For some reason i wasnt a fan of the Audirvana 3.5 upsampling, but with Studio using r8brain it sounds wonderful upsampling to my dac's maximum freg (dac is empirical audio odsx/interchange network renderer), wow just wow, im very happy with the trial version. Great job Damian and the whole Audirvana team. 

[kerisabe]

2 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

 

They mostly not complaining about the sound  :)

 

haha! Since I also use Studio strictly for streaming online in the mean time without trying to integrate my offline collection yet. I'm very surprised people kept talking about the bad things and NONE regarding the upgrade in SQ. 

[kerisabe]

@RunHomeSlowbtw this is abit of off topic but I saw you are running 10.15.7 OS, and was wondering if you have any success deleting the OS "built-in" apps? I was using a leaned out El Capitan to run Audirvana 3.5 and just recently got another SD Card to be able to compare and separately install another OS to be able to run Studio which is the 10.15.7 (couldnt get High Sierra)

 

[kerisabe]

2 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

Some do and find Studio less musical sounding.

 

Matt

@matthiasin contrary to their finding, I find it so much more musical than 3.5, it is way less analytical, timbre is just so much better, the music just blooms. Even upsampling now sounds so so good. Why don't u have a try and listen rather than hearing people's reactions? 

[kerisabe]

@Boleary3theoretically yes, I had my doubts, but it does sound better on my older 2014 mac mini (non M1 - which Studio is actually optimized to run on)

[kerisabe]

5 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

 

I don't really play anymore with system... forgot Direct Mode, since i couldn't install it past 10.15.5 i think... Apple released after major security updates to 10.15.7, 2 times i think... so now, i don't care, might try installing later a Big Sur on late 2012, but have other problems more important than that... bit perfect playing, no hack, Studio for only local files, no bugs. Backup up database everyday just in case :)

 i have requests but all play good and sound better for me... was already hearing nice music when beta testing... i was surprise 3 or 4 times that Cd plays more beautiful if i recall :)

 @RunHomeSlowyes it sounds more ANALOG now.. more than ever.. the timbre and density of the sound is just beautiful. When tweaking my digital system, I always reference the sound to vynil, and now it sounds the same or even better. Damien just brought the "soul" back into digital.

[kerisabe]

Aside from the negative comments here, I have really enjoyed the latest AS without any bugs/crashes. Everything works smoothly and I am running AS via an optimized 2014 i7 3.0ghz mac mini with 16GB booting from a lexar sdhc 2000x 32GB Sd card. AS runs from ramdisk, and the mini is always operating undervoltaged.
 

Even when playing files upsampled to 192/24 using both sox and r8brain it is actually sounding and running alot smoother than A+ 3.5xx. I strictly use AS only to send through music (UPNP connection/ethernet) to my Empirical Audio Interchange Network Renderer (endpoint). Music never sound better. Thank you @damien78 

[kerisabe]

17 minutes ago, bobbmd said:

@kerisabe couldn’t agree more with you also ie sounds and running etc BUT it’s getting there that’s a pain I have a late 2012 Mac mini i7 16GB RAM with new Samsung SSD sort of like yours and the SQ is marvelous just other STUFF that bothers me hopefully @damien78 and support @audirvana.com will make things ‘smoother’

Noted @bobbmd , i took off the internal plastic skeleton that holds the hdd drives (no internal drives/storage) other than the sd card. By taking off the plastic skeleton, it means no more ir sensor and no more led light (the white led light when powering on/off). You should give it a try, i hear a big sq improvement when taking it off. 

lots of oyaide mwa-010 tape inside the mini plus a shunmook mpingo disc between the motherboard and top cover that really made the sound bloomed.

 

apology for being OT 🙏

 

 

[kerisabe]

Just suscribed to the yearly plan with AS! Whoelse here did as well and supported @damien78? 
 

just wondering when will we get an update on the Audirvana Remote, Damien? @damien78 

 

Lookin’ fwd to a year filled with musical bliss ⚡️

 

 

[kerisabe]

@erikd

 

what kind of pinknoise when playing upnp? Ive been using 3.5 and now AS sending upnp to me renderer without any issues at 16 and 24.

[kerisabe]

@erikdi think it is got nothing to do with AS software, but on the renderer hardware/programming and the compatibility of it with AS. When Goldnote DS-10 was released i also had that problem streaming upnp from 3.5, and now with the empirical audio interchange network renderer, no problem at all. 

[kerisabe]

3 hours ago, ilkeresmer said:

 

The sound is really amazing, i am getting really good analog sound with the Studio, i have Emm Labs XDS1 V3 DA2 Dac, just missing Remote and waiting it with passion :) , i get my subscription nothing need to wait :)

Ditto!

 

Also getting a really good analog sound out of my Empirical Audio ODSX & Interchange Network Renderer. It's quite amazing. Happily subscribed a couple days ago ;)