I’ve been using Audirvana for 12 years now, and have learned to live with its idiosyncrasies. In that time, however, I haven’t found it to have become anymore user friendly and am wondering if I should still be using it.
Really, I just want to sit down and listen to music, but way too often I have to do something to get Audirvana to just work when I press play.
Admittedly, I’ve been relying on the legacy “Music Integrated Mode” to work with Apple’s Music app and my catalog of 50K songs (about half in hi-res). But I am not moving that catalog over to Audirvana. The promise of Music Integrated Mode is really all I want, and that is to play my hi-res files in hi-res using the Music app.
My current problem, which seems to have gotten worse, is that when I click to play a track in Music, a different track plays in Audirvana. This is a basic functionality bug, which should either be fixed or seen as a reason to drop Music Integrated Mode as a feature.
In the meantime, I understand that this is due to some index conflict, but is there some way to fix this? It has really rendered Audirvana unusable for me.
Also, given my goal is to play hi-res files with Apple Music app, do I still need an external app like Audirvana? I know Music plays hi-res tracks from its Apple Music Service, but do hi-res files actually play in hi-res? I question this since I don’t see the Source Format values change in the Audio Midi Setup app when I play hi-res files in Music like I do with Audirvana.
Also, regarding my second point, here’s part of a conversation I had with Apple, which seems to be good news:
(Me)
I need to find out definitively if the Apple Music application (NOT the streaming service) plays local high resolution files in high resolution fidelity to an external DAC.
(Apple)
In this case, the answer is yes: Apple Music is going to reproduce your content with the highest quality possible in between the app and the sound system. quality is not “trade-able” when we talk about local content
(Me)
Does the Audio Midi app need to be manually adjusted with each changed file
(Apple)
Not exactly, by default all audio apps use the file in “raw” then you can change the settings for the app to export the file with the resolution wanted. This is usually done while exporting the finished audio file
(Me)
Yes, all my hi-res files are in apple lossless and imported into the Music app. But once in the Music app, how can I be sure that the hi res files are output to the DAC in full resolution without using the Audio Midi app?
(Apple)
Apple Music will not show the quality as local files are not “downgraded” if in the apple music app you select a file in the list and you go to the top bar › file › get info you should be able to see the file information, the res here is going to be used for the playback
(Me)
So, to be clear, when I play a high-res res file within the Apple Music app, the full data will be output to my external DAC without having to open Audio Midi app.
(Apple)
Exactly, here the only limitation is hardware, apple Music will use the highest resolution possible for the file as long the hardware supports it
I don’t get it. If you have imported all of your music files into Apple Music, why do you use Integrated Mode and not simply point the file path in Audirvana to the folder where all the music files are stored?
Because I prefer Apple Music’s interface over Audirvana’s. If Integrated Mode is broken, and the fix is to work around it completely, then why is it included in Audirvana? This feature was why I bought Audirvana in the first place. Does that make sense?
Additionally, now that Apple has confirmed that Apple Music plays hi-res local files natively, why do I need Audirvana at all any more? And that’s not rhetorical – what does Audirvana give me now that Apple Music doesn’t? One thing I can think of is the ability to play DSF files. Anything else?
Huh, not sure why this is so hard to understand. The Apple Music interface (to me of course), is so much less clunky than Audirvana’s. I’m talking solely about the the library interface ( I do really like all the settings available, but even that UI is a chore to figure out).
In any case, if the answer to my report of Apple Integration being broken is, “then don’t use it”, then I would call this substandard software development, when a such a feature is shipped in a production release. If it’s broken and won’t be fixed, then remove it. Otherwise you’re charging money unfairly.
You asked what the differences/advantages/disadvantages where. I merely added some more differences to the answer of @jmtennapel.
I do not quite understand your reaction at all. It seems quite defensive to all kinds of things I never mentioned or claimed in my post at all. Maybe you are reading far to much in my simple reaction?
I guess this sounded a bit condescending to me, and you agreed with it, sorry.
I did miss one thing though. Can anyone explain how…
“Audirvāna will give you better sound quality than Apple Music?”
Does it send different bits to the DAC?" I’m not trying to be snarky, but if that is the case and is quantifiable, I will continue to use it. I know something is different in the sound, but have not yet done a A/B test yet to be sure if it’s a difference in quality.
But in any case, do you agree that the Integration mode should be removed if it’s broken and won’t be fixed?
If you do everything to insure the integrity of the digital-audio signal code as produced by the Audirvāna audio-engine, as delivered to the output bus controller(s) of the computer platform, the resulting digital-audio signal code data will have the potential to reach your DAC with highest level of integrity… Beyond the bus controller interface, there exists a myriad of potential influences on the encoded signal integrity, Audirvāna has no control of these potentials outside of the host platform… The only “bits” (1’s and 0’s) that exist are those encoded on the storage media before being lifted from this media-state and translated into electrical pulses of varying voltages.
We don’t listen to the digital-audio data… Ultimately, the final audition is an amalgamated product of the pathway the digital-audio signal has taken through the DAC output circuitry, to the analog components of the playback system architecture… The subjective interpretation of that experience, is uniquely defined by one’s hearing acuity, listening skills (active or passive) and one’s cognitive-biases.
Thanks, and I totally get that ultimately “quality” is subjective, and this isn’t exactly truthy (as an absolute):
But I’m guessing that it’s additional error correction, beyond that which is part of the USB spec, that’s Audirvana’s secret sauce, correct? Is this the correction in the signal between the read of the file or the sending of the data through the output interface? If you think I should just do my own research, that’s fine too