Audirvana Studio

[Mercman]

2 hours ago, feelingears said:

Hi, @Mercman, you might try Audirvana's own support forum at: https://community.audirvana.com/

 

Studio will be in its own category, as you'll see. I found at least one staffer (I presume) named bitracer who was very helpful with my Auralic/Audirvana issue. And at 10:30 p.m. PST he or she was responding to my posts as if we were having a conversation! YMMV. 

 

Oh and FWIW on my M1 Mac, to get a debug dump to sent to Audirvana, I had to wait for about two minutes through a SPOD (Mac's rainbow spinning pizza of death usually meaning app death) after clicking debug dump–total surprise, but in worked. And FWIW I see the SPOD for a brief moment when adding a song track to playlists in Audirvana Studio. So it goes...

I appreciate your help-thanks! My problem is that I have a love-hate relationship with Studio. Something I will have to learn to accept 😜

[feelingears]

6 hours ago, Mercman said:

I appreciate your help-thanks! My problem is that I have a love-hate relationship with Studio. Something I will have to learn to accept 😜

 

You and I both.

 

It took several tries, some coaching here, and now I can finally hear: yes, the sound is excellent. I'll just leave it at that. 

 

As a random aside, I have some pro experience touching the world of IT and networking. Some things in the computing world are...a bit more temperamental than you might think they should be. Audirvana is not in that category, so I suppose I've adjusted my expectations accordingly. Did I say the sound is excellent? 😃

 

(I think I've also found that Studio is slightly more stable when controlled from the iOS remote app rather than using the laptop interface. That "Stop" button on individual tracks seems to reset things, or something. Possibly suggests more of a networking issue than the software itself, which would comport with my comment above.)

[Mike Rubin]

Is the sound quality the same on Studio and Origin? 

 

I love Studio's sound quality, but find that, when processing to DSD256, Audirvana taxes CPU even more than does HQPlayer. Who knew that even was possible? 

[Jud]

3 hours ago, Mike Rubin said:

Is the sound quality the same on Studio and Origin? 

 

I love Studio's sound quality, but find that, when processing to DSD256, Audirvana taxes CPU even more than does HQPlayer. Who knew that even was possible? 

 

I suppose it must depend very much on settings, because my i7-8900K and M1 Max have no problem doing DSD512 with Audirvana, while DSD256 seems to be the sweet spot with HQP.

[Mike Rubin]

3 hours ago, Jud said:

 

I suppose it must depend very much on settings, because my i7-8900K and M1 Max have no problem doing DSD512 with Audirvana, while DSD256 seems to be the sweet spot with HQP.

Kinda surprised, Jud.  CPU in my i7 NUC and my i7 Dell XPS 8930 both regularly peg 100c with Audirvāna with upsampling turned on.  With HQP, ASDM7ECV2 with gauss filters gets toasty, too, but typically in the high 70’s.  On the other hand, I haven’t tried running Audirvāna with DSP for awhile, but I don’t recall it stuttering, which HQP sometimes does with these settings.

[Jud]

23 hours ago, Mike Rubin said:

Kinda surprised, Jud.  CPU in my i7 NUC and my i7 Dell XPS 8930 both regularly peg 100c with Audirvāna with upsampling turned on.  With HQP, ASDM7ECV2 with gauss filters gets toasty, too, but typically in the high 70’s.  On the other hand, I haven’t tried running Audirvāna with DSP for awhile, but I don’t recall it stuttering, which HQP sometimes does with these settings.

 

Just checked with the i7-8900K. Max temp with Audirvana Studio upsampling 24/44.1 Qobuz to DSD512 was 56C.  Max temp with HQP upsampling 16/44.1 local track to DSD256 was 72C.

[Jud]

17 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Just checked with the i7-8900K. Max temp with Audirvana Studio upsampling 24/44.1 Qobuz to DSD512 was 56C.  Max temp with HQP upsampling 16/44.1 local track to DSD256 was 72C.

 

Figured it would be best to keep everything the same between the two players, so I tried a local 24/44.1 track at DSD512 with both, and got a max CPU core temp of 85C with Audirvana Studio, 84C with HQP.  Essentially no difference in core temps.  Like you, I haven't experienced stuttering in Audirvana Studio, but have at DSD512 with some settings in HQP.  I'm supposing this is either down to the particular HQP settings being relatively compute-heavy (but then why not higher CPU core temps?), or Audirvana loading the upsampled track into RAM before playback, this acting as a buffer and preventing stuttering.

[Mike Rubin]

22 minutes ago, Jud said:

 

Figured it would be best to keep everything the same between the two players, so I tried a local 24/44.1 track at DSD512 with both, and got a max CPU core temp of 85C with Audirvana Studio, 84C with HQP.  Essentially no difference in core temps.  Like you, I haven't experienced stuttering in Audirvana Studio, but have at DSD512 with some settings in HQP.  I'm supposing this is either down to the particular HQP settings being relatively compute-heavy (but then why not higher CPU core temps?), or Audirvana loading the upsampled track into RAM before playback, this acting as a buffer and preventing stuttering.

Thanks, Jud, for the empirical data.  I am going to look at this again. I have Audirvāna and HQPlayer Desktop on the same machine. I will try DSD256 settings on both applications and compare the temps.

[bobfa]

 

2.0 is out.

 

 

Release 2.0.0

• Chromecast Support added: You can play to any Chromecast device, or group of devices located in different parts of your home (multi-room)
• Universal Gapless playback added: you can enable the option and force gapless playback even if your UPnP device is not gapless
• Audio Scan updated: evolution of the HD Analyzer, you can now get more information on your tracks even about non Hi Res recordings
• Device-specific settings: upsampling and output settings are now automatically saved and linked to the output device
• UI update: Alphabetical shortcuts are now available
• UI update: Start view can now be changed (in settings, appearance page)
• UI update: Source list order can be edited (in settings, appearance page)
• UI update: Audio settings, 'technical player', edition tools & shortcuts have been revamped
• Login window: account login now uses the system browser to allow use of password manager for one click login
• Added Artist, Album, Playlist extended actions accessible from the "..." button (e.g. add to play queue, to playlist)
• Compatibility with new Remote App Tablet mode update (coming soon)
• Fix Ogg FLAC files loading
• Save History tracks list columns position
• Fix Local artist Playlists request to avoid displaying duplicate results
• Shuffle playback: clicked track is correctly the first one to play
• Other minor fixes

[bobfa]

Did Damien make the Audirvana work with Aggregate devices?

[RunHomeSlow]

7 hours ago, bobfa said:

Did Damien make the Audirvana work with Aggregate devices?

 

Not sure because i don't use, but i think it was already working as i remembered reading somewhere before 2.0 release...

ain't you @Jud asked for it ? or it was on Audirvana forum, can't remember :)  Free to try @bobfa

[Jud]

2 minutes ago, RunHomeSlow said:

 

Not sure because i don't use, but i think it was already working as i remembered reading somewhere before 2.0 release...

ain't you @Jud asked for it ? or it was on Audirvana forum, can't remember :)  Free to try @bobfa

Don’t know that it was me, since I’m not even sure what an aggregate device is. 🙂

[The Computer Audiophile]

I wanted aggregate device support. Damien sent me a version that worked, several months ago. I just installed 2.0 and it works with aggregate devices. I can't get exclusive mode to work, but it could be just my system.

[bobfa]

I will test "soon". Makes me happy<?>

 

[Cebolla]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:59 PM, bobfa said:

 

2.0 is out.

• Chromecast Support added: You can play to any Chromecast device, or group of devices located in different parts of your home (multi-room)
• Universal Gapless playback added: you can enable the option and force gapless playback even if your UPnP device is not gapless

 

Good to see that Audirvana now has Chromecast device support as well as (presumably) a continuous stream workaround option for those non-gapless/faulty gapless UPnP streamers that are still around - hopefully the continuous stream can also be used for the inherently non-gapless Chromecast devices.

[bobbmd]

@damien78@The Computer Audiophile and anyone else:

Is there any reason NOT to upgrade to iOS Ventura immediately in terms of using Audirvana Studio 2.0 or for that matter ROON(newest version) or TIDAL/Qobuz from their respective apps? ie SQ etc

Am currently running Monterey on M1 Mac Mini 16GB RAM.

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, bobbmd said:

@damien78@The Computer Audiophile and anyone else:

Is there any reason NOT to upgrade to iOS Ventura immediately in terms of using Audirvana Studio 2.0 or for that matter ROON(newest version) or TIDAL/Qobuz from their respective apps? ie SQ etc

Am currently running Monterey on M1 Mac Mini 16GB RAM.

I’m running into issues with Ventura, but only when using my Ravenna audio driver. Other than that, everything is working great. 

[Jud]

37 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I’m running into issues with Ventura, but only when using my Ravenna audio driver. Other than that, everything is working great. 

I’m getting Studio stopping just a second or two short of the end of tracks when playing over UPnP/DLNA. No problem with direct connection.

 

Note: From what I understand (which isn’t much), this may be caused by a bug in the Ventura video driver.

[audiojerry]

Since installing 2.0 I am having a couple of annoying playback issues, which were not present with the previous release.

 

While listiening to a track, I will hear a very brief split second interruption, almost like a click or pop, similar to when listening to an lp.

 

When one track ends, the next track begins 1-3 seconds into the track instead of at the beginning with no pause between tracks.

 

Is anyone else getting this, is there a way to fix it, or is there a way to back or of the current release and re-install an earlier release?   

[Slainte]

I have the same problem, but had it already with previous versions. More people mention this in the Audirvana forum.

The problem only occurs with kernel streaming afain.

 

[routlaw]

FWIW I just downloaded the trial AO 2.0 yesterday and about an hour later also installed Ventura on my M1 Mac Mini. Played a couple of albums last night no issues what so ever… so far. Setup is direct with USB cable to DAC so nothing in between.

 

Its been quite a while since listening to my computer based music server (vinyl or CD instead) but there does seem to be quite a bit of difference in sound quality compared to 3.5 based upon feeble memory. UI is certainly different, some welcome others a bit of getting used to and like so many have commented on in the past I really wish Audirvana would loose those circles in Artist view. Not sure why they think this looks cool, it doesn't IMHO.

[Jud]

35 minutes ago, routlaw said:

Not sure why they think this looks cool, it doesn't IMHO

I doubt that's why they're used. Seems more likely it's because they're an instant visual cue what view you're in.

[the_bat]

I suspect you're right.  Roon does the same thing.

[matthias]

Very interesting comparison:

 

 

The conclusion:

The winner is Audirvana on Mac 😃

 

Matt

[routlaw]

Good grief 3 hours long program to decided which software is preferred. Thanks for the conclusion and answer, appreciated.