Thread: Amarra HiFi updates to 2.4.1

Did I miss a Gordonfly review somewhere?

Originally Posted by Paul.Raulerson

I'm listening to this through a Wavelength Proton, and my ears are in heaven.

How do you compare your Audioquest Dragonfly 's to the Proton?

Originally Posted by HiFiGuy528

Can you please post your AppleScript on purge memory? I like to do that too.

I am surprised to hear about your issue with support. I contacted them by email about the EQ issue I had and they replied within hours. Each time I wrote them they replied within a timely manner.

HiFiGuy
Can I ask the fix for the EQ issue please?
Looks like I have a similar issues.
Cheers
James

Hello - I downloaded the demo version yesterday and as much I love the richer body and smoothness of this sound I really miss clarity on mainly voices compared to bitperfect. Am I doing something wrong? For me both female and male voices seems to have some transparency lost and it sounds like a slight layer smears some details. Any idea how to get this fixed?? I have a Calyx 24/192 Dac and high resolution Scan Speak speakers with beryllium tweeter.

Originally Posted by pulcino

Hello - I downloaded the demo version yesterday and as much I love the richer body and smoothness of this sound I really miss clarity on mainly voices compared to bitperfect. Am I doing something wrong? For me both female and male voices seems to have some transparency lost and it sounds like a slight layer smears some details. Any idea how to get this fixed?? I have a Calyx 24/192 Dac and high resolution Scan Speak speakers with beryllium tweeter.

I have to admit, I do not hear that. Are you using HiFi or the Full Amarra? Are you pre-loading tracks?

Gapless - not out of the wooods just yet...

To play files in iTunes & Amarra, I have converted FLAC files to AIFF using dbpoweramp. For the most of the time, gapless play is working, but some albums (I will advise which ones when I return home) suffer from the A+ syndrome, where part of the next song is played, stops, thinks woops, shouldn't play that, then starts again.
The sequence is a 'misfire' I suppose, it only happens a few times in hours of playback. I am thinking either dbpoweramp has not caught the end or start that well from the FLAC master, or the Seagate FW disk is slowing down due to 'inactivity' and starts up again causing the glitch.

Polcino : Like Audio doctor, I don't hear the smear you talk of for voice, Amarra with voice as well as all instruments is very accurate in playing back audio. Sampling rate is guided by Amarra, maybe it's detecting the calyx incorrectly? You can check in the I button.
I suppose you could make a mess if the EQ settings were weird.

I have Amarra Hifi and don't see any 'I' button but checked the EQ button and it was off. Strange that I selected preload album but it seems to take only a second for a redbook album ???

Originally Posted by REShaman

You can always upgrade to either Amarra or Amarra Symphony if there is a good reason for doing so.

Today I purchased Amarra Symphony. The first test was to try a set of three gapless tracks, just redbook. Under regualr Amarra 2.4.1, there was still some hesitation in playing tracks in iTunes mode (cache). A very small hesitation, but noticeable.

Amarra Symphony sails through all three tracks perfectly with the whole album preloaded. It is quick to load the tracks, say 1/2 second or less for 10 minutes of gapless redbook (ELP Trilogy MFSL tracks 1-3). For a longer test, 15s to load 96/24 Frampton Comes alive that's 1.25 hours of music.
The proviso is you need to set the gapless flag in iTunes otherwise you end up with 0:00 - 0:02 playing OK, then a gap...starts playing OK 0:04 onwards and it's fine.

There is some hobbling between Amarra and is Symphony worth it, yes. No doubts. The meters are worth every cent.

Originally Posted by One and a half

Today I purchased Amarra Symphony. The first test was to try a set of three gapless tracks, just redbook. Under regualr Amarra 2.4.1, there was still some hesitation in playing tracks in iTunes mode (cache). A very small hesitation, but noticeable.

Amarra Symphony sails through all three tracks perfectly with the whole album preloaded. It is quick to load the tracks, say 1/2 second or less for 10 minutes of gapless redbook (ELP Trilogy MFSL tracks 1-3). For a longer test, 15s to load 96/24 Frampton Comes alive that's 1.25 hours of music.
The proviso is you need to set the gapless flag in iTunes otherwise you end up with 0:00 - 0:02 playing OK, then a gap...starts playing OK 0:04 onwards and it's fine.

There is some hobbling between Amarra and is Symphony worth it, yes. No doubts. The meters are worth every cent.

Not following you One and a half. There is no need to set the gapless flag in iTunes. That is the whole purpose of the gapless play in Amarra mode/Preload/number of tracks. Even in Playlist mode, gapless tracks are automatically played. I have not set any gapless flags in iTunes in order to play gapless albums in there entirety up to 99 tracks. Please see their website to confirm what I am relating.
Best,
Richard

PS Yes, there are short pauses as Amarra loads the tracks into Preload depending on the album resolution. But after that, there are no pauses and no need to mark anything. One can clear the tracks from the Playlist tab in Amarra Menu. One can turn off File Finder in Extras in Amarra File Tab menu and other functions. It should be seamless. It is that way for me with cache and 4GB of memory allocated

Originally Posted by One and a half

Today I purchased Amarra Symphony. The first test was to try a set of three gapless tracks, just redbook. Under regualr Amarra 2.4.1, there was still some hesitation in playing tracks in iTunes mode (cache). A very small hesitation, but noticeable.

Amarra Symphony sails through all three tracks perfectly with the whole album preloaded. It is quick to load the tracks, say 1/2 second or less for 10 minutes of gapless redbook (ELP Trilogy MFSL tracks 1-3). For a longer test, 15s to load 96/24 Frampton Comes alive that's 1.25 hours of music.
The proviso is you need to set the gapless flag in iTunes otherwise you end up with 0:00 - 0:02 playing OK, then a gap...starts playing OK 0:04 onwards and it's fine.

There is some hobbling between Amarra and is Symphony worth it, yes. No doubts. The meters are worth every cent.

Would you care to explain your need to flag tracks in iTunes. What happens that persuades you to do what 2.4.1 enables and provides that is just the opposite for having to do so. Even if the album is not gapless, one can leave the Preload feature engaged.
I am not contesting your experience just attempting to learn from you your reasons for flagging. If you should care to.
Best,
Richard

Originally Posted by REShaman

Would you care to explain your need to flag tracks in iTunes. What happens that persuades you to do what 2.4.1 enables and provides that is just the opposite for having to do so. Even if the album is not gapless, one can leave the Preload feature engaged.
I am not contesting your experience just attempting to learn from you your reasons for flagging. If you should care to.
Best,
Richard

Richard, would be glad to explain a little more about the need to add the flag for gapless. But first I thought, let's do some maintenance and comparisons. Prior to installing Symphony, all previous versions were erased including the plist files.

Itunes natural -> Play AIF created by dbpoweramp from FLAC original from a local FW drive -> Flag untagged as gapless -> plays gapless -> good
Playlist + Cache -> Play FLAC original over a NAS -> plays gapless -> good
Itunes + Amarra + cache - FLag untagged as gapless - There is a 1s Gap at 0.02s after the 2nd track played. - bad.

Here are preferences in this scenario.


I also tried just 6, 4 and 2 files to preload and untagged gapless files in itunes play with a gap.

The preferences files were deleted and Amarra restarted and set preferences as before. Same result, if the files in itunes are not tagged as gapless, Amarra will NOT play them gapless.



Now this is in stark contrast to the Amarra trial versions, there was a small gap, but in Symphony it's larger. Now there's no persuasion on my part to use the tags for gapless, but the other alternative if I don't then there are gaps. I would love to clear this up, but the ideas to make it so have made the bucket empty.

Originally Posted by One and a half

Richard, would be glad to explain a little more about the need to add the flag for gapless. But first I thought, let's do some maintenance and comparisons. Prior to installing Symphony, all previous versions were erased including the plist files.

Itunes natural -> Play AIF created by dbpoweramp from FLAC original from a local FW drive -> Flag untagged as gapless -> plays gapless -> good
Playlist + Cache -> Play FLAC original over a NAS -> plays gapless -> good
Itunes + Amarra + cache - FLag untagged as gapless - There is a 1s Gap at 0.02s after the 2nd track played. - bad.

Here are preferences in this scenario.


I also tried just 6, 4 and 2 files to preload and untagged gapless files in itunes play with a gap.

The preferences files were deleted and Amarra restarted and set preferences as before. Same result, if the files in itunes are not tagged as gapless, Amarra will NOT play them gapless.



Now this is in stark contrast to the Amarra trial versions, there was a small gap, but in Symphony it's larger. Now there's no persuasion on my part to use the tags for gapless, but the other alternative if I don't then there are gaps. I would love to clear this up, but the ideas to make it so have made the bucket empty.

I read you loud and clear. I do not pretend to be anyone but a user of Amarra Symphony. Meaning, I do not flag my albums/tracks in my iTunes Library which is where I keep all my music tracks on an external drive connected to my Mac Mini by a Thunderbolt cable. I employ the same Playback Settings as you, for Dither Settings I have checked Auto Dither (doesn't matter one way or the other); I use Amarra's Shaped in lieu of TPDF; and 24 Bits, Full EQ and Follow Core Audio are both checked as is Check for Updates.

I am at a loss as to what causes those gaps with your operation of Amarra playing gapless tracks. That is not supposed to happen. There are some known bugs they are still working on. Those are published. Sorry you are having this difficulty from the perspective of a fellow user who is not experiencing any of this and who does not need to flag gapless tracks in iTunes to play gapless tracks correctly.

Stating the obvious, it appears Sonic Studio should be supporting you in discovering the cause and help you with gapless play so that you do not have to endure the opposite of what Amarra intends your experience to be with Amarra mode/Preload/"N" tracks. If you discover the impediment, please let "us" know. I wish you well with this. I am sure this can be resolved in your favor and do not regret for a moment my positive recommendation for Amarra's editions based on my experience.

The next release should be welcomed re SQ. But that does not address your problem. Good fortune with this.
Richard

Originally Posted by Ray Fun

Does anyone using Amarra 2.4.1 with FW to play with Mytek 192 DSD, with Mytek, playlist mode no longer recognize the sample freq of the music file, u need to manually switch to the right sample freq. in either Mytek control panel or Audio Midi Setup. Other software players work fine with freq switching of hi-rez files. Amarra support ask me for remote session assistance but so far get no feedback from them.

No experience with FW only USB and obviously do not have the problem you are experiencing. This is the second time I have read that Sonic Studio has asked for a remote session but the poster writes, as you did, the session has not taken place. Huh? I am a fan of Amarra, but not with careless support. If Sonic offers and one is willing to take advantage of personal support, Sonic should deliver. Hope you get to work this through to your satisfaction.
Good fortune,
Richard

Originally Posted by REShaman

The next release should be welcomed re SQ. But that does not address your problem. Good fortune with this.
Richard

Working with Sonic Studio on this one. No amount of the setup and parameters fixed the problem with 2.4.1, however I had the opportunity to try the beta, and the gapless issue is solved with that version. That's quite a relief! Perhaps it's the DAC, I did try another one, the gaps weren't so obvious now, maybe it's a bedding down of hardware and control of what constitutes a true gap or a quiet part of the track, a vast difference between the two and easy for people to detect, but silicon has some other issues.

Anyway, will wait for the next release to come through and it should be all good to go.

Originally Posted by One and a half

Working with Sonic Studio on this one. No amount of the setup and parameters fixed the problem with 2.4.1, however I had the opportunity to try the beta, and the gapless issue is solved with that version. That's quite a relief! Perhaps it's the DAC, I did try another one, the gaps weren't so obvious now, maybe it's a bedding down of hardware and control of what constitutes a true gap or a quiet part of the track, a vast difference between the two and easy for people to detect, but silicon has some other issues.

Anyway, will wait for the next release to come through and it should be all good to go.

That's good news. Actually, another user reported the same benefit. Employed the beta and his problem went away. If you have access to beta's then you're in good hands.
Best,
Richard

Originally Posted by germanotes

I upgraded Amarra from 2.4 to 2.4.1 and the infrared remote control for volume stopped working (using Amarra's remote assistant). I try to change the volume via remote, but it returns to the previous volume after one instant. Anyone having the same problem?

I believe there is an issue with Amarra's remote. Apple's Remote works just fine, if you care to employ it.
Best,
Richard

Originally Posted by germanotes

Richard, I am using the Apple Remote, via IR. It was able to control Amarra's volume until 2.4 and got strange in 2.4.1

tks

Sorry for my confusion. Amarra has a remote of their own (software, I believe) and I have never used it. I'll check my set up and see if I, too, experience the same difficulty although I am not sure what a little strange means but I am sure it is not good.
Best,
Richard

Originally Posted by germanotes

Richard, I am using the Apple Remote, via IR. It was able to control Amarra's volume until 2.4 and got strange in 2.4.1

tks

That's curious. As you state, Amarra 2.4.1, volume control when controlled by Apple's Remote via my iPod Touch or iPad2 (no IR remotes be used for Amarra) is mis-behaving in a jaunty or strange which encompasses several unpleasant characteristics. Yet when I was employing 2.4.0 those same devices regulated Amarra's volume control very well (or may be well).

I'll pass this on to Jon at Sonic if you haven't already. I am sure he already knows about it. Thank you for calling it to my attention. I hardly change volume remotely and lately did not even notice the changes. I do now!

Best,
Richard

Originally Posted by germanotes

Richard, I am using the Apple Remote, via IR. It was able to control Amarra's volume until 2.4 and got strange in 2.4.1

tks

Emailed Jon at Sonic to relate your experience and confirm with mine. While writing, I came to appreciate that I always leave my Amarra gain set to 0.0. I do not use the remote app for volume regulation (or at least so rarely as to not do so at all). How I regulate volume is by using the Wyred 4 Sound Preamp remote that controls my Dac2 and STP-SE preamp. Not a whimper ever with Amarra. iTunes and Amarra work best with volume set to 0.0.

Testing different betas of Amarra, I regulated gain with my mouse and not with the Remote App (just for the record). This was done to test the auto-dither setting.
If I receive an answer, I relate it to you.
Best,
Richard

Anyone happen to know if Sonic Studios has tested/verified Amarra with Mountain Lion as yet?

Originally Posted by germanotes

Richard, I am using the Apple Remote, via IR. It was able to control Amarra's volume until 2.4 and got strange in 2.4.1

tks

Good news! The timing of my email coincided with a new beta release and the problem with the Remote App IR is fixed, which I confirmed or I would not be stating this. Hopefully, the next update will be published in the very near future and you can use the Remote Ap without those strange impediments to volume/gain control.
Best,
Richard