Audirvana Studio

[Dandaman]

Well, that's a big help!  Now gives us the same way as the tracks page to go directly to two thirds of the way through the alphabet in one tap.

 

[One and a half]

There's a new version of 1.8.1 to try? Previous installs over the last two years of Audirvana in various forms (Studio and the 'old' version) have, so far failed to live up to even basic playback, reliability, stability issues, let's see if on a new* computer, and OS (Win11) Audirvana can actually work (for a change).

 

This is what happened this afternoon.

 

1. Account password is max 16 digits, my standard is 20. Hmm. Patience.

2. The install went OK, leave everything as default.

3. Adding the Sample Library of 100 tracks on a network share of various redbook, 96 and DSD64 files. Took 2.5 minutes to catalog them. So for 18,000+ tracks on the regular network shared library, indexing would take 7.5 hours. That's a job for overnight.

4. Setting up the DAC (Accuphase DAC-50) cannot utilise the DSD256 ASIO, Audirvana limits to DSD128 via Dop. Oh, this is a tragic. Jriver plays direct as DSD256, check out Eden Atwood 'The Bossa Nova Sessions' from NativeDSD.com.  Patience. The Lumin U1 is on, but cannot be seen, so forget network play for the moment.

5. Start playing a 96, sounds good, and in the middle of that track, change to a different track on a different album. Wow, instantaneous, no delays in charging memory??? Things are looking up.

6. Switch to playing DSD64, there's a click between tracks. Haven't heard that for years, kidding me?

7. After playing the 2nd DSD track in sequence, there's no sound, some message about do you want to display a mini dump in Explorer? Say yes, didn't see Explorer mini dump open. Cannot close with Task Manager. Reboot.

8. Restart Audirvana, can only see playlists, no album entries. Oh, the window doesn't move, Audirvana is frozen, and the same mini dump message, say no this time, and I can close with Task Manager.

9. Now lost interest, scheiss dreck, can't set anything now in a frozen window, and set to what, less prone to bugs, wonder where that button is.

 

Seriously, this software is garbage. If it is to be a competitor to Roon, it has a long way to go. It cannot be encouraged to be that competitive when it falls over like a lit candle in the wind. Goodbye.

 

* Dell Precision C3450

Xeon W-1270 8 core, 16 Processors

32GB ECC RAM

NVIDIA Quadro P1000 Graphics

Win 11 Pro for Workstations 10.0.22000

[Mercman]

After an hour of play I experienced a disconnect from the opticalRendu. I reset the Rendu, and have not had a disconnect in over 15 hours of continuous play. 

 

1.81 is the best version yet-at least for me.

 

 

[MemoryPlayer]

 Is Audirvana Studio going to have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale this year?

 

Only one license can be used with Windows and Mac OS, not at the same time, of course? I use a MBP with dual boot...

[Jud]

5 hours ago, MemoryPlayer said:

 Is Audirvana Studio going to have a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale this year?

 

Only one license can be used with Windows and Mac OS, not at the same time, of course? I use a MBP with dual boot...

That’s correct, one license works for both. You need to go to a web page and sign out of Audirvana Studio on one OS before you can use it on the other OS. So for example you can listen to Studio on MacOS; close the app when you’re done; go to the web page and sign out of Studio on MacOS; then open Windows and listen to Studio on Windows. Or vice versa.

[RunHomeSlow]

You can just disconnect from the application itself in the My Account tab in the prefs

and reconnect from the other computer in the same place, no need to go to web...

[Jud]

2 hours ago, RunHomeSlow said:

You can just disconnect from the application itself in the My Account tab in the prefs

and reconnect from the other computer in the same place, no need to go to web...

Ah, thanks. I thought I remembered clicking in the app took me to the web page, but I was probably clicking in the wrong place.

[Jud]

21 hours ago, RunHomeSlow said:

You can just disconnect from the application itself in the My Account tab in the prefs

and reconnect from the other computer in the same place, no need to go to web...

 

18 hours ago, Jud said:

Ah, thanks. I thought I remembered clicking in the app took me to the web page, but I was probably clicking in the wrong place.

I actually need to go to the Web anyway - I’ve got a long secure password for Studio that I open my password manager to copy and paste. 🙂

[Mercman]

The iOS Remote update 3.1.1 now allows you to add titles to play queue while playing music. A big improvement!

[jos]

The new Audirvana Studio 1.8.5 shows album covers in track lists and that is quite nice to have, but stuttering is back home too, unfortunately. 😢 I hope they can fix this soon.

[skatbelt]

Out of curiosity I am comparing Audirvana studio 1.8.5 to Roon and dCS Mosaic. I really like the sound quality but what I don't get is why Audirvana doesn't play gapless via Upnp. I am outputting to a dCS Network Bridge. I also get pops and ticks when switching between tracks. I tried different settings (additional latency etc.). Anyone with advice?

[MemoryPlayer]

What is happening here?

 

"SysOptimizer Error

 

There was an error executing SysOptimizer.

Not all optimizations may be done.

Error = The operation couldn’t be completed.

(CFErrorDomainLaunchd error 9.)"

[Boleary3]

15 hours ago, skatbelt said:

Out of curiosity I am comparing Audirvana studio 1.8.5 to Roon and dCS Mosaic. I really like the sound quality but what I don't get is why Audirvana doesn't play gapless via Upnp. I am outputting to a dCS Network Bridge. I also get pops and ticks when switching between tracks. I tried different settings (additional latency etc.). Anyone with advice?

By gapless via Upnp do you mean you get drop outs while a track is playing? My server outputs to an older Sonore Signature Series  Rendu  via Upnp and I have neither dropouts or clicks and pops. I wonder if there is a setting in the dCS that might be the issue?

[skatbelt]

6 hours ago, Boleary3 said:

By gapless via Upnp do you mean you get drop outs while a track is playing? My server outputs to an older Sonore Signature Series  Rendu  via Upnp and I have neither dropouts or clicks and pops. I wonder if there is a setting in the dCS that might be the issue?

 

By (not) gapless via Upnp I mean that there is short break between tracks on gapless albums. A lot of classical and live albums are gapless. It takes place with local content as well as streaming via Qobuz or Tidal.

 

When using Roon or dCS's own software (Mosaic) these issues do not occur. 

[Boleary3]

Thanks for the clarification and yes I have that same problem too, especially with classical with a series of short tracks.

[bodiebill]

Just received an email that my previous Audirvana Studio trial (some months old) is reactivated until Dec 28th so that I can try all the improvements that have been implemented in the mean time. No luxury, given that at that time the SW weas totally unreliable and unusable, which made me decide not to subscribe.

 

So now I reinstalled it and gave it another try.

 

Streaming to Moode on a Pi2AES, the music starts but after 10 to 15 seconds is buried in ear deafening noise. Due to previous experience my stamina with this SW is reduced to nil, but maybe someone knows a remedy?

[ilkeresmer]

From the starting to end, as i big fun of Audirvana, Audirvana studio improved it self in every way, Best sounding player over all other big brands, i like to thank Damien and all the stuff, they listened our problems and solved them do not hesitating anything!

Btw, ofcourse i like to thank all my friends on that form helps them to improve their self!

Thank you Audiophilestyle!

[audiojerry]

I am using Studio only because of its great, and I mean GREAT sound. 

 

But its user interface leaves much, and I mean MUCH room for improvement. So many inconsistencies, poor font size, poor library organizing and search options, almost no customization options. Updates with improvements are too slow to come. I do hope the developer(s) continues to address the many issues that continue to plague the user experience. 

 

The user interface from JRiver is miles better, but does not compete for SQ. Also, Studio provides the advantage of access to Qobuz via DLNA, and that's huge.

 

I hope Audirvana remains a viable enterprise and sticks around. 

[Jud]

3 hours ago, audiojerry said:

I am using Studio only because of its great, and I mean GREAT sound. 

 

But its user interface leaves much, and I mean MUCH room for improvement. So many inconsistencies, poor font size, poor library organizing and search options, almost no customization options. Updates with improvements are too slow to come. I do hope the developer(s) continues to address the many issues that continue to plague the user experience. 

 

The user interface from JRiver is miles better, but does not compete for SQ. Also, Studio provides the advantage of access to Qobuz via DLNA, and that's huge.

 

I hope Audirvana remains a viable enterprise and sticks around. 

 

You can make the font bigger - don't know if you knew about that.

 

I guess the UI stuff is down to user preference. I could never quite get the hang of the JRiver UI, though I've had very pleasant interactions with the developer. For me Audirvana and Studio have always been much easier. So if you like the JRiver interface, I can understand that Studio's wouldn't be to your taste.

[feelingears]

On 12/11/2021 at 7:38 AM, audiojerry said:

I am using Studio only because of its great, and I mean GREAT sound. 

 

But its user interface leaves much, and I mean MUCH room for improvement... Also, Studio provides the advantage of access to Qobuz via DLNA, and that's huge.

 

I hope Audirvana remains a viable enterprise and sticks around. 

 

I hope the Audirvana faithful here will tolerate a rather basic question regarding the software's "great" sound:

 

Is the Audirvana sound quality at its highest only if one uses USB from their computer, or if rendered by a device like the Sonore gear because it's using whatever protocol to decode/render Audirvana's stream? (That is kind of a two part question.) I'm guessing one loses all the quality if using Audirvana with say, Apple AirPlay.

 

I'm asking because in my setup, even if I wanted to use Audirvana, I'm using Wi-Fi and thus constrained by my choice of hardware/renderer, an Auralic Aries ("femto manta ray"). Per the question above, I would not have the benefit of Audirvana's sound quality because I could only stream via AirPlay and that is limited to 16/44 Apple bit perfect (purportedly AirPlay is bit perfect at 16/44).

 

Does this make sense? I'm trying to understand if the only way to get Audirvana's sound quality is to connect USB direct, or via Ethernet/WiFi to a renderer that supports Audirvana's specific protocol (I note JRiver is often mentioned in the same sentence as Audirvana though I don't know why, is it they use the same streaming protocol?). I think Audirvana can output to AirPlay but that defeats the purpose of the sound quality enhancement, right? (Which leaves one paying for just the UI? What's the point of that? ha ha)

 

This question probably reveals where I've got some misunderstanding, and I hope the answer is straightforward.

[Jud]

4 hours ago, feelingears said:

 

I hope the Audirvana faithful here will tolerate a rather basic question regarding the software's "great" sound:

 

Is the Audirvana sound quality at its highest only if one uses USB from their computer, or if rendered by a device like the Sonore gear because it's using whatever protocol to decode/render Audirvana's stream? (That is kind of a two part question.) I'm guessing one loses all the quality if using Audirvana with say, Apple AirPlay.

 

I'm asking because in my setup, even if I wanted to use Audirvana, I'm using Wi-Fi and thus constrained by my choice of hardware/renderer, an Auralic Aries ("femto manta ray"). Per the question above, I would not have the benefit of Audirvana's sound quality because I could only stream via AirPlay and that is limited to 16/44 Apple bit perfect (purportedly AirPlay is bit perfect at 16/44).

 

Does this make sense? I'm trying to understand if the only way to get Audirvana's sound quality is to connect USB direct, or via Ethernet/WiFi to a renderer that supports Audirvana's specific protocol (I note JRiver is often mentioned in the same sentence as Audirvana though I don't know why, is it they use the same streaming protocol?). I think Audirvana can output to AirPlay but that defeats the purpose of the sound quality enhancement, right? (Which leaves one paying for just the UI? What's the point of that? ha ha)

 

This question probably reveals where I've got some misunderstanding, and I hope the answer is straightforward.

 

Simple answer to a long question: AirPlay isn't good sound quality.

[Jud]

4 hours ago, feelingears said:

 

I hope the Audirvana faithful here will tolerate a rather basic question regarding the software's "great" sound:

 

Is the Audirvana sound quality at its highest only if one uses USB from their computer, or if rendered by a device like the Sonore gear because it's using whatever protocol to decode/render Audirvana's stream? (That is kind of a two part question.) I'm guessing one loses all the quality if using Audirvana with say, Apple AirPlay.

 

I'm asking because in my setup, even if I wanted to use Audirvana, I'm using Wi-Fi and thus constrained by my choice of hardware/renderer, an Auralic Aries ("femto manta ray"). Per the question above, I would not have the benefit of Audirvana's sound quality because I could only stream via AirPlay and that is limited to 16/44 Apple bit perfect (purportedly AirPlay is bit perfect at 16/44).

 

Does this make sense? I'm trying to understand if the only way to get Audirvana's sound quality is to connect USB direct, or via Ethernet/WiFi to a renderer that supports Audirvana's specific protocol (I note JRiver is often mentioned in the same sentence as Audirvana though I don't know why, is it they use the same streaming protocol?). I think Audirvana can output to AirPlay but that defeats the purpose of the sound quality enhancement, right? (Which leaves one paying for just the UI? What's the point of that? ha ha)

 

This question probably reveals where I've got some misunderstanding, and I hope the answer is straightforward.

 

Just a quick look and I could be wrong, but can the Aries be a UPnP/DLNA endpoint? Because Audirvana can transmit high resolution and upsampled files up to or even above the Aries' DSD256 resolution limit to a UPnP/DLNA endpoint.

[feelingears]

Thanks @Jud - this is what I am not really clear on and haven't really tried to experiment/test for myself: UPnP/DLNA has been cited as being inferior to other streams, and typically a reviewer of some hardware waves away the software issue by saying, "well I use Roon" so the rest of the review is based on that.

 

BTW, I won't argue if AirPlay is or is not good. I will say that I have, as far as I know, maximized my Airplay and compared it to both Lumin and Auralic Lightning streams, and at least in my system over Wi-fi then optical or Ethernet to the renderer before the DAC, Airplay is competitive with Lumin and Auralic's streams for sound quality. Would love to step things up, but frankly, it's so damn good as is, and certainly better than some dealers' rooms/systems.

 

Still, I'm an audiophile. I'm here because I'm interested in that the next level might be...

[JoeWhip]

Being a Mac user I have been a big fan of Audirvāna. Been using it since I first got into computer based playback in 2014 with a MacBook Air. The software kept getting better over the years as the SQ kept improving. Studio took the SQ to another level. I received my new MacBook Pro with the M1 chip early yesterday. Thanks Apple. Deactivated the software from my Air after I migrated everything over, activated AS and hooked up a new 4TB external drive which was a clone of the 2TB I was using. Within minutes all of the files were there and all the album Art to. The sound with the new laptop is another level of improvement, sounds wonderful. Many thanks Damien.

[routlaw]

Would someone care to speculate why Studio sounds better than Audirvāna 3.5.x and other previous versions. Have yet to demo/try it but am also skeptical. Thanks