Looking for Tips on How to Get the Best Sound Quality Out of Your Audirvana Setup

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been using Audirvana for a few months now, and I’m impressed with the sound quality it delivers. However, I feel like there’s still room to fine-tune my setup for even better performance. I was hoping to get some advice from this knowledgeable community.

Here’s my current setup:

  • Hardware:
    • DAC: [Insert DAC model]
    • Amp: [Insert amplifier model]
    • Speakers/Headphones: [Insert model]
    • PC/Mac: [Insert specs, e.g., MacBook Pro 2021, Windows PC with i7, 16GB RAM, etc.]
  • Software Configuration:
    • Audirvana version: [Insert version]
    • Streaming Services: [e.g., Tidal, Qobuz]
    • File Types: [e.g., FLAC, DSD]
    • Output Settings: [e.g., WASAPI, ASIO]

A few specific questions I have:

  1. Upsampling: Is enabling upsampling beneficial, and if so, what settings do you recommend for my setup?
  2. Audio Filters: Are there specific filters or EQ adjustments that improve clarity or bass response without compromising the natural sound?
  3. Latency and Buffer Size: What’s an optimal balance for minimizing dropouts while maintaining high fidelity?
  4. Connection Type: Does switching from USB to a network connection (via DLNA/UPnP) noticeably improve sound quality?
  5. Other Tweaks: Are there any hidden features or lesser-known settings in Audirvana that could elevate the listening experience?

I also checked this: https://community.audirvana.com/t/does-audirvana-support-multi-output-device-on-a-mac/tableau

I’m open to any tips or suggestions, even if they involve adjustments to my hardware or streaming preferences. I’d love to hear about what has worked for you and how I might apply similar techniques to my system.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Welcome…
Please paste your debug information report here so folks can see your Audirvāna configuration in relationship to your DAC… It is found here:
Settings–> My Account–> Help–> Debug info

The Knowledge base is a good resource and the debug info will provide more detail specific to your playback system configuration.

Also, In the settings windows there are online ‘Help’ pop-up windows in the top right corner (i)

:notes: :eye: :headphones: :eye: :notes:

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If you are using speakers you might look into measuring your room response with something like REW and a usb mic like a UMIK-1 or UMIK-2… Then some appropriate acoustic absorbers and diffusers given your measured room response… Next I would look at some sort of Digital Room Correction to finer tune the room response beyond what may be possible with physical absorbers/diffusers… Then finally add, to your taste, some EQ flavor with a VST or AU plugin, there are hundreds, depending on your OS…

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Beyond the subjectiveness of playback system design and configuration and the influences of the electro-mechanical and acoustical environment in which your amalgamation of components and speakers exist and propagate wavefronts into that environment, which is where you make the ultimate subjective assessment of the quality of sound you are perceiving… This assessment is purely yours to define and control… You are asking for us to step into your playback environment and interpret your cognitive-biases surrounding these elements… there is no easy way around having to do some sound-engineering study and digital-audio fundamentals study, and experimenting on your own… However, there is a lot of deeply experienced insights to be found from some Audirvāna users here on the Community forum… :wink:

Regarding Audirvāna performance…

You will find this primary design dogma to be true (from “About”)

Our mission

We make great sound accessible by turning one’s computer into a high performance digital source. Our only purpose is to preserve the integrity of digital music and maintain absolute transparency during playback from a computer, server or NAS. We get rid of the ‘invisible’ noise of the hardware electronics, avoiding all unnecessary conversions and processing – source of jitter and interferences – which result in audible noise and distortion as they are amplified through each component of the audio chain.

Your playback system configuration plays into the ultimate quality of sound you will be auditioning… we don’t listen to the ‘digital bit-signal’ we listen to the ‘analog’ waveform interpretation of the digital-audio signal presented to the output circuitry of the DAC… The path those electrical signals that represent the bit-signal that was lifted from the storage medium, where this is the only state of the digital-audio signal that physically exist as encoded bits (ones and zeros) is subject to a myriad of influential potentials that will affect the quality of the digital-audio signal that eventually gets presented to the output circuitry of the DAC… The goal is to mitigate or eliminate those influential potentials, both in the digital domain and the analog domain.

:notes: :eye: :headphones: :eye: :notes:

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Hi, lots of good advice so far. I wanted to reply to your specific questions.

1 - Upsampling: Just about all DACs upsample internally, so the question isn’t whether to upsample, it’s where - in the computer with Audirvana, or in the DAC. The measured response will nearly always be better if using Audirvana to upsample, but the final answer is up to your ears. Use whichever sounds better to you. Regarding which settings, you haven’t told us yet which DAC you have, or specifically which CPUs are in your MacBook Pro and Windows PC, and these will have a bearing on setting recommendations. So I’ll wait for your answers before going further.

2 - Audio filters: Regarding EQ adjustments, room equalization software is generally considered to be a good thing. I’ve seen lots of good reports, though I haven’t used it myself. There’s a spectrum from free do-it-yourself software that takes some effort on your part to software available for purchase that costs money but takes a good part of the load off you. So again, up to you whether you choose to do this and which road you take.

There are also choices and adjustments available to the filters and modulators that Audirvana uses for upsampling, and I’ll wait until I’m able to give you upsampling recommendations to talk about those.

3 - Latency and buffer size: Opinions vary. :slightly_smiling_face: I tend to like larger buffers that use more RAM, other people like smaller ones. You can play with this and see what you prefer.

4 - Connection Type: I personally prefer DLNA/UPnP, but I do have to say a straight USB connection seems to involve fewer hassles and bugs for most people. A remote connection will also require more money, since you will either have to buy a streamer, or like me buy a mini-computer and install Linux and DLNA/UPnP renderer software. Most folks are not going to want to go to that amount of effort and expense. One thing you can do with straight USB is use an isolator (those from Intona come highly recommended; I haven’t used them).

5 - Other tweaks: Subjectively I prefer the sound from Audirvana Core running on a minimal (no GUI) Linux installation, but (a) it’s subjective, I can’t promise you’ll hear better sound, and (b) once again, it presents the choice between time and effort (installing a minimal Linux server OS) and convenience (installing the Audirvana application on Windows and/or Mac and just being able to go ahead and run it like any other application).

Hope this helps. Looking forward to learning more about your DAC and CPUs so I can try to provide some help with upsampling settings.

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So as folks jump in here, we need some common points of reference…

Let’s start with the question you posed below, and expand on why one may want to upsample PCM files or modulate PCM files to 1-bt PDM (DSD) files… This entails an understanding of the Nyquist-Shannon Sampling Theorem and familiarity with different filter attributes when applied… and the parameters available in the upsampling algorithms provided within Audirvāna (SoX and r8Brain)… Depending on the architecture of your DAC, there may be reason to upsample and in some cases upsampling will not gain anything as in users of PCM-centric DAC platforms that use proprietary upsampling integral to their platform design… Whatever the case, no more contextual musical information is added in the process of up-sampling of a PCM file or modulating multi-bit PCM to 1-bit DSD files.

So if you are not familiar with the fundamental relationship to the digital-audio signal that is encoded in the source file as it is lifted from the storage medium and presented to the upsampling/modulation DSP… start here:

Corollary to this is the dynamic range of a digital-audio file:

Intergal to the discussion of digital-audio upsampling:

Direct Stream Digital (DSD) over PCM protocol (DoP)
https://www.dsd-guide.com/dop-open-standard

Jittery Theory by Julian Dunn, Audio Precision
http://www.audiophilleo.com/zh_hk/docs/Dunn-AP-tn23.pdf

A compendium of computer music specific elements…
https://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/Intro/SoundQuality.htm

:notes: :eye: :headphones: :eye: :notes:

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