Audirvana Plus awarded 2012 Product of the Year Readers Choice by Computer Audiophile
With more than 75% of the votes, Audirvana Plus has been awarded ”2012 Product of the Year Readers Choice” by the reference site for all that concerns attaining audiophile quality with the convenience of a computer.
Thanks to all the members of this terrific audiophile site, and special thanks its founder, Chris Connaker
New review: IT Enquirer
Another great review from IT Enquirer, giving a 10/10 to Audirvana Plus.
“The resulting sound was nothing short of breathtaking”
“the best sound characteristics I have heard in years, and certainly the best of what digital music players can offer”
The value of Direct Mode and further enhancements
Direct Mode has arrived with release 1.4, and this is marking a strong step forward in the quest for the ultimate sound quality, always with very strong stability (so much that I’ve got reports Audirvana Plus is now used in large live performances with thousands of spectators!)
This is now a long way since 1.0 was released, with the iTunes integration, the SACD ISO playbacks with cataloguing in iTunes (along with all numerous playable file formats), and now Direct Mode. 1.5 (still free upgrade) will bring AU/VST plugins support for applying filters including room correction, and multichannel.
This is why its price for all new customers (the 1.x upcoming upgrades will remain free for current customers) is adjusted to be on par with the new standard set by Audirvana Plus in sound quality on the Mac platform. It is still at a very competitive position compared to competition, set at 59€ or 74$
And as we are entering the Holiday Season, there is a strong discount until January 5th, that makes Audirvana Plus price stay at 39€ or 49$ for any new orders.
Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
New Reviews
Audirvana Plus has been reviewed in the September editions of The Absolute Sound (USA) and Hi-fi+ (UK)
A great review on The Audiophile World on the Direct Mode beta that ”provides a true Reference Audio Standard level of listening pleasure”
And on AudioStream on the 1.3.9.9 that “sets the bar for OSX music playback software”
Great 6moons review!
Audirvana got a good review in 6moons by Frederic Beudot.
It comes first in a comparative review of the audiophile players for OS X:
“(…) Audirvana deliver excellent musical performance with great ease and flow and minimal digital glare.”
“For now then my nod for playback software goes to Audirvana”
“Where the software truly separates itself in my mind is its stability and complete absence of glitches. I still have to see the computer or iTunes freeze up when Audirvana runs.”
“Considering that the difference in price is more or less equal to a single high-resolution download, I won’t hesitate for a second to recommend that you skip over D. and B. and head straight for Audirvana.”
The full review is available here.
Update: A follow-up review has been posted on 6Moons, with a review of the new Direct Mode by the publisher (Srajan Ebaen):
“Based on my own experiments, I’ll loudly join Frederic in naming Audirvana the as yet best-sounding Mac-centric music player I’ve tried. Except that in direct mode it’s even better than he’s already called it!”
The Sound Quality redefined: Direct Mode BETA available
Direct Mode shortens further the audio signal by bypassing all CoreAudio, even its lowest level HAL layer.
In addition, the Integer Mode that was no more available in Lion is back for all the devices that offered it in Snow Leopard!
As it is now at a good level of maturity, I’ve decided to release Direct Mode as a public beta for you to enjoy it now. I will continue to improve it, taking you feedback into account, and pursuing the optimization ideas I’ve identified.
The beta is no longer available for download. Directly download the official version that now includes Direct Mode.
Be sure to enable Direct Mode in the Audio System panel of Audirvana Plus user preferences.
And enjoy!
Note that as this is a BETA, the automated updates are disabled. You’ll get notification of updates in this post, in #audirvana tweets, or on Facebook (Audirvana Plus). And use the link above to download the latest version.
1.3.9.2 update (June 3rd, 2012)
- Metric Halo, RME devices support (including Direct Mode for Metric Halo)
- Strengthened recovery from clicks
- Safety net to prevent most kernel panics
- Long playback sessions stability improvement
1.3.9.3 update (June 9th, 2012)
- Improved audio signal stability
- DSD to PCM audio stream playing correctly after a 16bit track on DACs with both 16 & 24bit streams
1.3.9.4 update (July 7th, 2012)
- Audiophilleo2 compatiblity, fixing both bitrate & sample rate change when changing track
- Update play count and last played date in iTunes, even when play position in iTunes is deactivated
- Fix for potential crash when hot-unplugging the playing audio device
- Fix issue when loading a proxy file with broken link to the original file
1.3.9.5 update (July 16th, 2012)
- Stability improvement
1.3.9.6 update (July 26th, 2012)
- Stability improvement
- Code Signing for Mountain Lion GateKeeper
1.3.9.7 update (August 1st, 2012)
- Direct Mode playback startup (initial and after sample rate change) stability improvement
- Bugfix for bit depth change at track transition
1.3.9.8 update (August 19th, 2012)
- Direct Mode stability improvement
- Minor bug fixes
1.3.9.9 update (September 11th, 2012)
- Direct Mode stability improvement
1.3.9.10 update (October 25th, 2012)
- Direct Mode stability improvement
- Allow screen saver during playback (but not computer sleep)
- Workaround for Mountain Lion Airplay channels swap bug
- Other bug fixes
- And Sound Quality improvement
1.3.9.11 update (November 26th, 2012)
- Dropouts fixes, especially for FW DACs
December 9th: Official 1.4 release!
Catalog all your audio files (incl. DSD, FLAC, Cue, …) in iTunes: 1.2 release
I’ve now released the official 1.2 that brings the ability to catalog all the files Audirvana Plus can read (including DSD, FLAC, APE, CueSheets, …).
The Add Files to iTunes function can be found under the Audirvana Plus menu when in iTunes integrated mode.
The options are pretty straightforward.
If you have all the files on your main harddrive, you’ll most likely use the “Proxy only No sound” type of proxy files as they’ll take around 50-100kB only each (depending mostly on the album art size).
The other are useful in scenarios like:
1) Using a macbook for playback, and not always having connection to the NAS/external HD where the files are stored, and willing to have at least a “preview quality”
2) Having the ability to upload the music to an iPod
3) Willing to have full quality conversion of tracks like DSD ones.
All type of files recognized by Audirvana Plus can be cataloged in iTunes. Of course the iTunes files (.m4a, aiff, wav) should be entered in iTunes directly, though it’ll work with proxy files.
Note that in iTunes user prefs, “Advanced” tab, both “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library” should be NOT selected. Otherwise the proxy files will go to locations you don’t control. That won’t affect playback, but is doubling the footprint in your harddrive.
Enjoying native DSD
I’ve received from exD their latest native DSD capable DAC, and I must say I rediscovered my DSD files, the transparency is so impressive that I can easily tell where each instrument is located, even in a large orchestra setup…
Many thanks to the exD team for making this possible!
Official iTunes integration version released
The 1.1.0 is now released, bringing the iTunes integration.
Giving, in addition to the classic playlist mode, the ability to use iTunes library features and (remote) control abilities.
Audirvana Plus demoed on Esoteric at Malmö Hifi Show
Audirvana Plus has been used as the source of choice for demoing the ultra high end Esoteric electronics and the Amphion loudspeakers at the Malmö Hifi Show last 5-6 November, in Sweden.
There were two setups: one with a Macbook Pro connected to an integrated RZ-1 system,
and the other one with a headless Mac Mini connected to a K-03 DAC/SACD player, C-03 pre, A-03 poweramp feeding Amphion Argon 7L speakers.
Many thanks to Patrik Klangerstedt from KAVENA Multimedia for the pictures.
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