Will wait for the next Audirvana version – MAIN PROBLEMS SOLVED

Software User Interface Feedback
#1

Was testing Audirvana Mac version 3.5.35 on a Macbook Pro from 2015 running macOS 10.14.6 Mojave with my library on a Qnap NAS.

What I hated:

  • lots of drop outs during play (milliseconds but very very annoying);
  • sometimes Audirvana stops completely in the midth of a song of an album;
  • most last songs of an album won’t play until the end;
  • I once had to delete my library and let it built up again because every song was shown twice. No maintenance function did clean this;
  • albums within the artist section are sorted by title not by year, thus the album section is useless for me;
  • quite often Audirvana is confused and jammed when it plays a playlist or an album and you start a different song by clicking on it,

What I miss:

  • repeat function for a single song;
  • play button for playing all albums of an artist in the album section as well as in the artist section;
  • playlist: “play all songs” (for playing your complete library);
  • a play-button next to a playlist, so it starts playing without the need of clicking a specific title;
  • If a song/album has finished playing it could be somehow highlighted, so I know what played last;
  • When I play a playlist or albums of an artist and, while listening, go through my music collection I only come back to the playlist/album/artist I am playing at the moment with the “back” arrow. It would be great to have a direct way to re-open that playlist/album/artist section by just one click, propably somewhere next to the play section on the bottom of the screen;
  • typing in a letter should bring one to the first artist of the artist and album section. It’s annoying that you always have to scroll and scroll and scroll through your library

Would be great to have:
I have a pair of active speakers, but if they are in sleep mode they only wake up by a sound of a certain volume (I guess) which some songs don’t have at the beginning. So I have to wait for the first loud signal, select a loud passage, or increase the volume for them to wake up. It would be great to have a feature that.

1 Like
#2

I wait for this basic feature many years now. Mentioned several times. This feature belongs to every list in a database. My hope dies slowly …

#3

Alternatively, a display of alphabet vertically, next to the slider would allow a “jump to” access to a section of the album/song/ library.
To compound the matter, I have been quite frustrated when I discovered that to get rid of “double entries” tracks and delete them, one cannot do it as a result of a search or a smart playlist, and that the only way to do it is through the full album/song display screens. Grrrrr…

#4

There is always some features that you’ll be missing and you might consider crucial. If it makes sense to wait depends where you’re coming from. If you now have a working solution it makes sense to wait. If you’re coming to Audirvana from a solution that does not satisfy you, then pull the trigger and work on sorting the issues you have.

Some of the issues you have are solvable:

  • dropouts -> most likely depends on the pre-load memory allocated, if you upsample how much memory you have, networking issues
  • songs not playing to the end -> disable upsampling
    …
#5

I don’t do upsampling.

#6

With respect, BitRacer, and notwithstanding my ignorance, does disabling upsampling affect or not what makes Audirvana sound great?
i.e. Are we expected to afford a software praised for its superb sound rendition, only to be explained that “as a workaround” for it to simply play a track in full, one has to accept not to access the full rendition potential of the software?
In other words, would you be happy to be told by a car manufacturer that your magnificent fast car would have to see its maximum speed limited to 90kph in order to prevent it to stutter when restarting at a traffic light?

1 Like
#7

Audirvana is at it’s core a bit-perfect playback software. That’s the main selling feature. Most audiophiles prefer it like this. Upsampling is by its nature not bit perfect playback. I prefer bit-perfect playback and to let the DAC do it’s thing.

Upsampling can change the flavour of the sound, not the quality. Some might prefer it, others might not. Some just want to see the DAC show that it plays at insane bitrate. It has nothing to do with the quality of the reporduction.

This is an issue that is not that easy to fix, as it’s most likely related to the internal buffering of the DAC (and possibly the interaction with the driver), something over which Audirvana has no control. The issue is DAC dependent, so at the moment the only solution is to disable the upsampling.

2 Likes
#8

It’s more like you buy a car and you like it very much, but you don’t like the sound the exhaust makes. So what do you do? You buy an aftermarket exhaust. It doesn’t change the quality of the car, just changes how it sounds.

#9

Dear BitRacer,

We will have to agree on our disagreement on this point.
Audirvana is not lauded solely for its “BitPerfect” rendition. Alternative “Bit Perfect” solutions exist, many are cheaper or even free.
Audirvana is praised for offering varied and adaptable renditions of sound. Quality of sound is indeed subjective, as the many and varied types of HiFi products tell us.
It is my point that upsampling is fundamental to the value of Audirvana, and that being deprived of that possibility demeans the value of its purchase.

I would welcome Damien’s opinion on this fact. I would also welcome from him a roadmap explaining us where he intends to take Audirvana in the future, as we have to contend with many rough edges. Will Audirvana ever get the the adult phase when we can use it without the fear of having to spend time erasing and reconstructing the database in order to get over some rough edge or other.

Also, it has been years now that I and others have had to put up with erratic playing at the end of tracks just because we dared modify the current playlist by deleting some track or adding others.

I would welcome a new version of Audirvana, and would be happy to pay for it, if it brought an end to that blatant lack of robustness.

As it is, I only trust Audirvana to play a straight album, or a carefully considered playlist, avoiding at all cost altering it while the playing goes on. I find this frustratingly limiting.
Do you find it acceptable, because I do not; certainly not from a software sold for a price at which one can acquire Photoshop Elements, a grown up software if any.

1 Like
#10

I didn’t want to start a discussion here, especially not about sound quality, as I can’t complain about that with Audirvana.

After many many years of discussions about audio players for computers with manufacuturers of high end audio equipment, player program developers and others from the user side I just wanted to express what kept me from buying an Audirvana license at that stadium 3.5.35.
As Audirvana tahnkfully is providing users with a test version, the least one can do is giving some feedback about why she/he wasn’t satisfied.

No bad feelings from my side, 'll just wait until a new version of Audirvana comes out and see if it plays the way I feel comfortable with. And I know that I have to die one or more deaths. As long as I can choose which ones those are, that’s ok with me.

#11

A better implémentation from Tridal where be nice when possible :see_no_evil:

#12

I stopped using Audirvana for a while because of all the bugs. But I’m back using it, purely because it somehow has the best sound quality. I have tried Roon, HQ Player, Lumin, JRiver, but there’s nothing that sounds as good as Audirvana!

So now I just live with the bugs!

3 Likes
#13

With upsampling or without upsampling my set works flawless - even with DXD files; may be Allerwertester should work a little bit on his hardware and installation – computer is not an axe… :wink:

#14

I am glad your experience of Audirvana satisfies you to the point of smugness. As for the rest of us, who do not particularly enjoy the tinkering you suggest, we will modestly retract to the place we should never have left: admiring your mastery.

1 Like
#15

Really happy for you.
So why :wink: don’t you :wink: just tell us :wink: what computer and :wink: software set-up :wink: you’re using :wink:, so others :wink: can maybe :wink: copy it? :wink:

#16

:crazy_face:post deleted, wrong thread

#17

I today updated my Mac to a brand new MacBook Air with the latest M1 processor. Audirvana runs with the Rosetta 2 interpreter, as it is Intel code and it behaves nearly like I experienced Audirvana with my old 2015 Macbook Pro. It now reacts faster (which is nice) and maybe some of the querks I mentioned in my opening thread have gone, but at least a new one was added: some albums, not every, won’t start playing. They do start playing, but stop after two or three seconds. I couldn’t see a pattern, so can’t figure out what causes this behaviour. What helps is to restart Audirvana - until the next error.

The important things for me are, that there are still hiccups every few minutes and Audirvana won’t play last album songs until the end and this really is frustrating me.

1 Like
#18

Hello @Allerwertester,

Can you send me a copy of the “Debug Info”? You can get it in Audirvana Settings>General>Debug Info

Note: By clicking on the Debug Info button, Audirvana automatically copies all its content, all you have to do is paste it in response to this message

#19

Hi Damien,

I am moving to a new computer, what is the recommended way to transfer the license?

Thanks
Zane

#20

Hi Damien,

sorry, my test license expired a while ago. I did a trick with the date and time settings of the new Macbook Air and used an old Time Machine backup to see how Audirvana works with Rosetta 2 and the new M1 processor. But I only had time for that for less than an hour before I had to get my things going and do a clean install to set up the new machine for my work.

Originally I also wanted to see, if Audirvana had less to zero dropouts when using an external hard drive, directly connected to the DAC, but the one I wanted to buy online is out of stock at the moment and I am a bit picky when it comes to SSD drives with a large capacity.

But if you are interested in some more tests with the new M1 processor, I could buy a license, if it is assured that those problems will be addressed and solved within that version or within the next version and a free upgrade.