emovac
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Saeed al-Sahhaf
Posts: 2,456
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Post by emovac on Jan 21, 2015 2:26:22 GMT -5
Looking for a good Mac OS music management system. Has anyone had experience with Audirvana?
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Post by Porscheguy on Jan 21, 2015 7:54:13 GMT -5
iTunes is great. Burn in ALAC (same as FLAC). Great management tool as evidenced by the 800 million people that have iTunes accounts..
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Post by Priapulus on Jan 21, 2015 8:28:27 GMT -5
iTunes (on Windows) caused me nothing but grief. I use jRiver on Windows; I understand it is also available for the Mac.
/b
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Post by aud on Jan 21, 2015 10:17:54 GMT -5
I've been using Audirvana for a few years now. Automatically keeps the music Bit Perfect, correct Sampling Rate, Upsampling if you want it, plays from Memory and bypasses iTunes processing allowing the audio signal to flow directly through the processor's core audio. I love the sound. The latest version which is a big upgrade has its own music library management. I haven't tried it yet because I'm happy with the previous version which integrates iTune's music management. I've also heard the author is still working out some bugs with this upgrade.
I have never had any glitches with this player program.
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Post by routlaw on Jan 21, 2015 12:25:16 GMT -5
Likewise I have also used Audirvana for years and can't recommend it enough for digital playback on a Mac. Sound quality is noticeably better than using just iTunes alone and as aud points out it will automatically switch bit and sample rates.
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Post by sharky on Jan 21, 2015 18:28:37 GMT -5
Used to use Audirvana and was quite happy.
Changed to J. River as I was used to it from the windows version and so I get the same interface in both OS's.
I have my music in a NAS and I want to be able to access it/hear it in any device, so ALAC is not an option for me.
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Post by vneal on Jan 21, 2015 18:34:39 GMT -5
J RIVER here
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Post by Loop 7 on Jan 21, 2015 20:14:13 GMT -5
I prefer iTunes but just started playing with JRiver and I see myself eventually migrating toward it. Not sure I want to give up the Amarra iTunes add-on though.
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emovac
Emo VIPs
Saeed al-Sahhaf
Posts: 2,456
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Post by emovac on Jan 22, 2015 2:55:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the various responses everyone.
I currently have JRiverMC19 on the PC, and heard Audirvana was far simpler to operate. Figure I'll give it a whirl on the 15 day trial. Amarra might be a choice too.
Will be used for a 10,000 song flac collection, some hi-res, some CD quality.
Any forthcoming additional insights are greatly appreciated.
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Post by sharky on Jan 22, 2015 17:18:23 GMT -5
Give a try to Audirvana and J.River. They both have trial periods so you can test it and make an informed decision.
It's very important to read Audirvana's user manual (it's small) as several features are quite "hidden", mainly in terms of collection organization/visualization.
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Post by routlaw on Jan 22, 2015 20:34:15 GMT -5
Thanks for the various responses everyone. I currently have JRiverMC19 on the PC, and heard Audirvana was far simpler to operate. Figure I'll give it a whirl on the 15 day trial. Amarra might be a choice too. Will be used for a 10,000 song flac collection, some hi-res, some CD quality. Any forthcoming additional insights are greatly appreciated. Audirvana is indeed much easier and more intuitive to operate. Some time ago I downloaded j. river but never bothered to listen to it due its over complicated and obtuse user interface. Made me feel like I turned my Mac into a windows computer. Just not my cup of tea, but others seem to like it. I do agree with the previous post, there are some hidden gems of settings to get the most out of Audirvana, nothing complex at all but something you will want to spend some time with in your preferences settings. Hope this helps. |
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Post by creimes on Jan 22, 2015 21:05:57 GMT -5
My experience is positive using Audirvana with iTunes in integrated mode, I do prefer the sound compared to just straight iTunes.
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emovac
Emo VIPs
Saeed al-Sahhaf
Posts: 2,456
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Post by emovac on Jan 24, 2015 3:04:26 GMT -5
Give a try to Audirvana and J.River. They both have trial periods so you can test it and make an informed decision. It's very important to read Audirvana's user manual (it's small) as several features are quite "hidden", mainly in terms of collection organization/visualization. I just got an email that JRiver is doing a universal license for their PC, MAC, and Linux software. $45ish through middle of next week for all three software program formats (believe 01/28/15 was the discount deadline which is about $30 off). It's less if you already have JRMC 20. I'm going to trial the MAC software for a couple of days and see if it will work out. Downloaded JRemote on the ipad and it seems to integrate pretty well with my PC version of JRiver 18. The DLNA stuff is working at the moment. With the pricing promo out there, Audirvana will be on standby until I check this JRMC 20 for MAC out. JRMC works good once you figure it out, which can be a challange at times! |
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Post by jeffnyc on Feb 2, 2015 19:08:31 GMT -5
Anyone use with a DC-1? What integer mode works best, 1 or 2?
Any tips on how to easily do A-B comparisons to iTunes? When I load Audirvana then exit...I cannot play in iTunes. I need to be able to flip back and forth easily to judge the difference.
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Post by GreenKiwi on Feb 3, 2015 2:42:07 GMT -5
If you're on the Mac, I'll also throw BitPerfect out there. bitperfectsound.blogspot.com/For $10, you get most if not all the playback features that are important. |
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Post by jeffnyc on Feb 3, 2015 15:34:41 GMT -5
How would you compare the SQ of BitPerfect vs. Audirvana vs. iTunes?
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Post by audiosyndrome on Feb 3, 2015 17:02:37 GMT -5
BIT Perfect states they "do not do home sharing" if that is important to you. It is a big deal with me. Pure Music states the same. Don't know about Audirvana or JRiver in that regard but I believe both have or are working on an iPad app.
Russ
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Post by GreenKiwi on Feb 3, 2015 17:44:17 GMT -5
My guess is that Pure Music and Audirvana also have this limitation, they generally integrate w/ itunes by seeing the file itunes is playing and then reading that file directly. HomeSharing gets all it's content over the network, so these programs are unable to read the files and play them with their own playback engines.
JRiver is its own entire animal, it can be a bit complicated to get started, but once you go in, it is very impresive. They have a server/client model that is awesome. And JRemote is the best remote app I've ever used. It connects super quickly and even lets you stream the music from your server out to your phone or ipad, even if you aren't home.
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Post by GreenKiwi on Feb 3, 2015 17:49:03 GMT -5
How would you compare the SQ of BitPerfect vs. Audirvana vs. iTunes? I have not heard a difference myself. I'm in the bit-perfect is bit-perfect camp. I look at null tests of two bit perfect playbacks and as an engineer can't really see how it could sound different. I use BitPerfect because it has the smallest usability footprint when working with iTunes and it will change the bit rate automatically to match the source. |
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djreef
Sensei
Thoroughly enjoying my Schiit
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Post by djreef on Feb 14, 2015 14:12:24 GMT -5
Pure Music was crap. I couldn't wait to wipe that off my MacBook. Constantly hanging up, and dropping songs loaded in Flac. I just went full iTunes and just do my hi-rez in AIFF. So much easier, and reliable now.
DJ
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