Are there any users of Audirvana (Windows 10 version) here? It is possible that Mac users of the software might also be able to help. Basically, does anyone know what Audirvana actually does, in order to get higher quality sound out of a computer. At what stage of the process does it intervene? I have an HP 15-AY106NA Core i7-7500U and have never been happy with either its audio output or the audio quality captured by Total Recorder. My older Acer i3 laptops offered much better sound in both situations. I am wondering whether Audirvana intervenes early enough to significantly improve what Total Recorder saves. Any help on this matter gratefully received.
-
-
I can’t really answer your question. I had researched Audirvana several months back but the technical issues didn’t stick wth me. Perhaps Steve or Jayne might be able to help. I am assuming that you had the Audio output settings equalized for both computers that you mentioned. Macs tend to require constant attention to this, as they will decrease the bit rate on their own, sometimes from one file to another. In fact, now that I recall that is one feature of Audirvana....it takes over the output of the Mac to guarantee that output is at the native rate of the recording, so that you don’t have to what I described above. The other major improvement with Audirvana that I recall is that it does some reclocking to minimize jitter....but I don’t remember howOriginally posted by Bryn View Post -
Excerpts from the Audirvana+ 3.1 Manual.....
Streaming Service complete integration: Qobuz, TIDAL, HighResAudio VirtualVault • Access the huge available catalog of the streaming service
• Play with the same Sound Quality as for local files
Automatic sample rate switching
Shortest audio realtime stream, bypassing the CoreAudio high-level processing of the audio signal
o Exclusive access, and Integer Mode enabling to push the optimization at the audio device driver level by feeding it with signal already in the device native format
o Direct Mode for bypassing the CoreAudio low-level processing of the audio signal, and enabling Integer Mode** in Lion and later
Playback to UPnP/DLNA network player that benefit from the Audirvana Plus sound quality improvements, enabling to get the audiophile sound quality even when your Mac is not directly connected to the DAC
Full memory play with complete loading, decoding, sample rate and format conversion (as needed) of the tracks before playing
64-bit internal processing of the audio signal (when processing is needed) Multichannel playback on multichannel devices
Configurable up/over sampling
iZotope 64-bit SRC best in class sample rate conversion algorithm
Dithered volume control with iZotope MBIT+ dithering highly advanced algorithm with auto bypass
Audio Units plugins support for deep sound tuning
SysOptimizer disabling the OS X background services potentially interfering with sound quality***
Automatic volume leveling, with ReplayGain and Loudness Dynamic Range analysis
(** Very usefully offers an appealingly warmer sound on mode 2, 1 being more neutral, transparent etc.)
(***you can choose the level of disabling - I always use "extreme")
Very fast library navigation, even with huge libraries (e.g. 250,000+ tracks) Automated synchronization of your music folders
All the file formats Audirvana Plus can play are directly cataloged (no need for any proxy file)
Advanced metadata editing, including the extended fields for classical music, multiple artists
Album view with grouping by user selectable criteria (e.g. genre, composer, album artist)
Structured filter browser to quickly narrow the search for the music you want to listen to
Smart playlists, Full text search
Hyperlink navigation on albums, artists
And ability to be remote controlled from A+ Remote for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Device hot-plugging support, along with automatic features detection making optimal configuration a breeze
Media Keys, Apple IR Remote for ease of control
AIFF, WAVE, AAC, MP3
FLAC, Monkey Audio APE, WavPack, Apple Lossless
DSD (DSDIFF including DST compressed, DSF, and SACD ISO images) with native streaming to supported DACs, or through high quality realtime conversion to PCM
MQA with first unfolding (playing the 88.2kHz or 96kHz content of 2x or more MQA audio files).Comment
-
Many thanks for that, jlw. I will go ahead with a trial. I was particularly happy to read, on their site, that a licence covers 2 instalations, so longas they are not used simultaneously. I can thus also put it on my Lenovo little Lenovo i7 ideapad, thogh that already sound pretty good.Comment
-
I am still not sure that it answers the OP original question...but honestly, how much difference in playback sound can there be from one PC to another...Originally posted by Bryn View PostComment
-
Simple answer, a great deal, and it's not just down to the sound chip employed. It is also down to how such chips are implemented. The HP I mentioned is just about the worst sounding I have come across. I have tweaked and tweaked but to hardly any avail, to date. During the Radio 3 FLAC experiments I tried both Total Recorder and Audacity to record the stream. Neither was any use on the HP, the sound was horribly constricted, whereas I got excellent results on the old Acer i3 machine (the one with the Blu-ray compatibility).Originally posted by richardfinegold View PostComment
-
I read somewhere that Audirvana for Windows is a work in progress, and is not yet as good as on a Mac, but soon will be.
I once bought a new laptop PC (a Touchscreen Ideapad) as an upgrade to an old Lenovo Thinkpad T410, as it had a solid state disc, no fan, and a more modern processor, so the audio should have sounded better. It actually sounded quite obviously worse than the older machine, so I quickly sold it. No idea why it was so bad - maybe the quality of the capacitors or suchlike. I know modern HP laptops are (in?)famous for their build quality, including the soundcards. Have you tried a USB soundcard on your laptop?
I am experimenting with the latest Foobar/JPLAY combination on a PC, and I am very impressed with the sound. The USB DAC (actually it's driver) needs to allow Kernel Streaming (equivalent to bypassing Core Audio) to get the best out of it.Comment
-
THIS further excerpt from the Audirvana+ 3.1 Manual was crucial for me....
"Plug the DAC on a dedicated USB busThe USB plugs on your Mac are not equivalent. One may be already shared with an internal peripheral like the built-in iSight webcam.
To check your DAC is connected to the right plug:
- Use the “System Information” application you can launch from the Apple menu,
popping the “About this Mac” dialog. Then click on “More info...” - Scroll the left column down to the Hardware section
- SelectUSB
- Check on the top right pane that your DAC is listed alone under a “High speed
USB bus” section"
When I first set up Audirvana on a new MacPro in 2014, even from USB2 (!) the sound was - spatially flat and dynamically constricted...disappointing!...
But noticing & following the above advice and changing to another USB output restored the HiFi qualities I had come to expect from CD, files on earlier drives/Macs etc etc....
Jus choose the USB output with the least functions working off of it. Of course other outputs (toslink, coax etc) can have marked sonic differences too at either send or receive ends....
Comment
- Use the “System Information” application you can launch from the Apple menu,
-
Oh dear! A case of caveat emptor I think. Persuaded against my better judgement by some enthusiastic encomiums from these parts to purchase a lifetime licence for Audirvana, I now find myself saddled with a product which is virtually unusable.
The problem? Playback stops after every track when listening on the Qobuz feed. Originally purchased this software as I was irritated by the Qobuz desktop's app occasional playback stuttering, but that is as nothing compared to this. Customer service is non existent and therefore am saddled with what increasingly seems like a white elephant.Comment
-
I couldn’t get Audivarna to work on my MacBook Air streaming Qubuz even though extensive forum correspondence revealed I was using the same OS as others who could. On a wider point both Spotify and Amazon Prime seem able to stream on older Mac OS’s without banding breaks on continuous music (e.g. post Weber Opera ) but Qubuz can’t ...why?Originally posted by Sir Velo View PostComment
Comment