The_Engineer

Greetings Akim, I just read your post and was wondering a few things. Are you using Audirvana & Amarra in sync mode with iTunes or as stand-alone players with the audio files directly imported to the software? Also, have you recently updated any of the software you use to play your audio or have done a general OS update? Those questions aside i've also had seemingly random audio issues in the past with my MBP. When in doubt, try restarting the computer! After that, the first thing i'd try is to check to see if the sound is also distorted when played through the computer speakers. Does it sound like it does when played through the DAC? With regard to the settings you might want to look at i'd start first off with making sure that your computer is not overly stressed with the software taxing your RAM resources. Should your settings in Audirvana VIA dithering and upsampleing be too aggressive the sound will often appear heavily distorted. Next, check to ensure that your system is optimized for audio playback in the sysoptimizer tab of the settings. Next, check your dithering level and steepness. Try reducing the level and allocating more system memory to the program. Next, check your sample rate frequencies and wordlengths across the board in all software and MIDI settings. Ensure they match the mac ability of your DAC and music files. I use a Musical Fidelity 192khz USB to Coaxial upconverter before connecting to my DAC so I operate at 176.4Khz and I also check the box to limit my wordlength to 24bit instead of 32bit. This is just a launch point for you so if these suggestions do not yield results please feel free to let me know as I can go on with more ideas as to solve your problem. Best of luck! The_Engineer