Please provide a discount or special rate

🖥️ Audirvāna Origin
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Hi Audirvana team and community,

I’ve been following Audirvana for a while and genuinely respect what the software does for audio quality — the upsampling, the direct mode, the clean signal path. It’s clearly built by people who care deeply about sound.

But I want to raise something that I think deserves an honest conversation: the pricing.

$149.99 for a perpetual licence sounds reasonable in USD terms. But for someone in India, that converts to roughly ₹12,500 — which is a significant sum by any local standard. For context, that’s close to a month’s grocery budget for a family, or more than many entry-level DACs cost here.

I run a modest audio setup and I’m genuinely passionate about getting the best out of it. I’m exactly the kind of user Audirvana should want to reach — someone who will use it daily, talk about it, and recommend it. But at current pricing, it simply isn’t accessible.

What I’d like to ask:

Has Audirvana considered regional pricing (similar to what Roon, JetBrains, and many other software companies now offer)?

Even a purchasing power parity (PPP) adjusted price for markets like India, Brazil, Southeast Asia would make a real difference.

A student or enthusiast tier could also open up a huge untapped audience.

I’m not asking for a handout — I’m asking for a pricing model that reflects the economic reality of a global user base. Many of us in these markets are equally passionate audiophiles, just working with different income contexts.

Would love to hear if this is something the team has considered, and whether other users here share the same feeling.

Thanks for reading.

— Albin

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Welcome…
I am curious… What is the purchase price for a new Apple M4 Mac mini in your region? What is the purchase price for a DAC like a S.M.S.L D200 in your region?

:musical_notes: :eye: :nose: :eye: :musical_notes:

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I’m not aware of SMSL price or plan to use that. I’m using FiiO K3 DAC which cost me 6999₹ (75 USD). Also M4 Mac Mini costs 49999₹ (525 USD).

I’m not sure why you’re curious of the price of that particular DAC Mac Mini combo anyway. Hope I can answer as helpfully as I can. Are you part of the Audirvana team?

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I am an Audirvāna user… I am curious as to the value proposition…
The support of an ever expanding demographic of users becomes exponentially demanding of time and resources… I don’t know of an audio-engine that has the performance of Audirvāna that has a better value proposition, for any given level of audiophile. If you break the cost down to a daily investment it is relatively affordable in the context of performance, and not out-of-line with such luxury experiences… Obviously, the cost of high-performance electronics is falling and becoming accessible to a growing number of demographics… It is a dilemma of socio-economics… However, we cannot expect the Audirvāna team to compromise ideals for a broader audience.. Yet. … The science of digital-audio playback is always evolving and requires resources to stay competitive in the broader audio marketplace… I am sure you do not want Audirvāna compromised in support a broader strategy, solely focused on acquisition of users.

:musical_notes: :eye: :nose: :eye: :musical_notes:

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As your user I’m sure you are not an authorized person to make a final statement on it. I respect your intentions to support an app. As global income isn’t the same, products and services are usually priced accordingly. YouTube Premium costs 149₹, which is less than 2 USD. Apple Music costs 59₹ to ₹119, which is less than 1.5 USD or 1 USD, and Netflix Premium costs 649₹, which is under 7 USD. I think you get the point; it’s not always about customer acquisition cost by giving discounts; it’s giving good quality for less for those who need it. If you compare any products and software you will see it. Gemini is free for 18 months. Chatgpt is free for an year with 399₹ after a year which is 4.4 USD so I think that’s answer your question and I hope team will understand my request better than you did and do greater decision. 149 USD is really expensive for me. If you really think it isn’t then feel free to pay for my App. I could be grateful to you if..

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To bring this back to the core request — the examples I shared (YouTube Premium, Apple Music, Netflix, ChatGPT) aren’t cherry-picked outliers. They represent a deliberate global pricing strategy adopted by some of the world’s most successful software companies. PPP-adjusted pricing didn’t cheapen their products; it expanded their reach without compromising quality or revenue.

Audirvana Origin is genuinely excellent software. My ask is simple: a regional pricing tier for markets like India that reflects local purchasing power. Even a modest adjustment — say $30–40 USD equivalent — would make it a realistic purchase rather than an aspirational one.

I hope the Audirvana team sees value in growing their user base here. India has a large and growing audiophile community, and many of us are looking for exactly what Audirvana offers.

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What I understand from your references to other very well established and successful software developers, is this would never have been considered in their infancy and in the evolution of their products… You are making a false equivalence in this context… But I am just a user and I don’t make those sorts of business decisions for the Audirvāna team… Success is built on solid, tangible attributes that have elevated Audirvāna to this level of performance for audiophiles around the world… I suppose if you could build a support network of audiophiles in India, so that the burden does not rest on the core Audirvāna team, your wishes may be fulfilled. But I believe there is a problem with the timing of these things, and as a user of Audirvāna Studio I don’t want the performance of the audio-engine to be compromised due to lack of time and resources for product development and support… If you have a solution beyond a pricing structure relative to the size of the Audirvāna team capabilities, this will help your cause.

:musical_notes: :eye: :nose: :eye: :musical_notes:

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@Agoldnear — appreciate the thoughtful reply, but I think a few points deserve some pushback.

The “false equivalence” framing cuts both ways. My references to other software companies weren’t about what they did in their infancy — they were about the precedent that regional pricing is a well-proven, sustainable model that has *helped* companies scale globally, not hindered them. Spotify, JetBrains, and Adobe didn’t adopt purchasing power parity pricing out of charity; they did it because it expands their addressable market without cannibalizing their core user base.

On the support burden argument — Audirvana Origin is a one-time purchase, offline app. There’s no cloud infrastructure scaling with user count. A user in India paying ₹4000 instead of 149 USD doesn’t generate one extra support ticket or eat one extra hour of developer time. The marginal cost to Audirvana of serving an Indian customer is effectively the same as serving a European one.

I’m asking for a price point that reflects what actually means relative to local income levels — nothing more. That’s a one-time configuration in their payment processor, not a product roadmap item.

It just ensures a significant portion of genuinely interested audiophiles in emerging markets stay on free or pirated alternatives instead. That helps no one — least of all Audirvana.

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I could also say that the price of admission to Audirvāna Studio for me is an extravagance… Do I deserve a discount?

:musical_notes: :eye: :nose: :eye: :musical_notes:

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hi @Albin_George ,

To be completely transparent with you, we never put a specific price for India; it’s the price in USD that is used for your country.

What is the price of Roon in your country? Are you paying in ₹ or USD?

We do not have a large base of users in India, but we can discuss the price of the software internally before moving forward on this.

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@Antoine — Thank you for the transparency; that’s genuinely appreciated.

To answer your question: Roon charges in USD as well and faces the same affordability problem for Indian users. It’s not a model I’d hold up as the gold standard for this market.

For context, here’s what the numbers look like on the ground:

  • $149.99 (Audirvana Origin) at today’s exchange rate works out to approximately ₹14,234 for an Indian buyer.
  • That’s roughly 8x the cost of an annual Spotify or 12x the Apple Music annual subscription here—for a one-time purchase targeting a niche audience.
  • A purchasing-power-adjusted price of ₹2,999–₹3,999 (~$32–$42) would be both commercially fair and genuinely accessible to serious Indian audiophiles.

Audirvana pricing itself into that conversation early, before Roon or another competitor does, seems like the smarter long-term move.

Looking forward to hearing where this lands.

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I can see the different points of views that are made here.

From the perspective of @Albin_George I think it’s a valid point that he brings up. If Audirvāna would be costing 7x the price of Qobuz here in the Netherlands I would definitely reconsider as well. But as it stands it is about two third of the price for Qobuz.

It is quite easy for me to justify that extra cost given the extra sound quality and options I get from it. A price that I can afford and that I happily willing to pay.

But would I pay around 1,000 euro a year for it? No way. And yet that’s exactly the perspective that OP raises. Because that’s his reference.

Challenge in this case mainly is how large the Indian audiophile population (or in other countries) is compared to other parts of the world and how big the piece of the cake for Audirvāna could be. For Audirvāna there should be enough safety in numbers here, where it comes to the much needed revenue to keep everything at the level as good as @Agoldnear rightfully wants.

So it would be interesting to know to what conclusion the Audirvāna comes.

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Google “The Big Mac Index”, I’m serious it’s an economic comparison of purchasing power. You will see compared to US, India (and SA) is about a factor of 2

I live in South Africa and our currency is not exactly the best. We benefit from related pricing for Apple< Tidal etc

It’s not something a country with a strong currency ever worries about. Our local radio report the 3 exchange rates hourly, when last did you hear an exchange rate report on Radio 3 ?

There is a Wikipedia article much like this one

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Income Levels vs Salaried Employees GAPMINDER interactive report, relative to Population…

https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$model$markers$bubble$encoding$y$data$concept=ilevels&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&x$data$concept=salaried_workers_percent_of_non_agricultural_employment&source=sg&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v2

Income Levels vs Salaried Employees GAPMINDER interactive report, relative to Average Daily Income…
https://www.gapminder.org/tools/#$model$markers$bubble$encoding$size$data$concept=mincpcap_cppp&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&type:null&zoomed:null;;&y$data$concept=ilevels&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;&x$data$concept=salaried_workers_percent_of_non_agricultural_employment&source=sg&space@=geo&=time;;&scale$domain:null&zoomed:null&type:null;;;;;;&chart-type=bubbles&url=v2

:musical_notes: :eye: :nose: :eye: :musical_notes:

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I didn’t even see the $150 price. When I clicked the upgrade option it went to my account and there was a button saying buy audirvana origin and the price was $200.

Sorry but thats not happening. Given how insanely rough audirvana’s interface and scanning algorithm is its simply not worth $200. Maybe for a lifetime license ok but for another 1-2 years? Forget it. Might as well go back to roon at that point.

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