It has been brought to our attention certain statements regarding Amarra and its function.
These comments can be found on the Pure Vinyl website and list a comparison with another popular player "Player A" as well as comments that can be found in the release notes. As Player "A" is meant to describe Amarra we feel it necessary to respond.
First I would like to address the marketing term "Ghost Play". The phrase "Ghost Play" is misleading in describing the functions of Amarra and does little to provide useful information to users.
It is correct that both applications are playing audio. However, with the low data rates disk access is not a large consideration as our software as is optimized for up to 48 tracks of real time audio. Disk Activity is only one small part of the overall system design. It should also be noted that in Amarra 1.2 we introduced Playlist mode. In this mode, a user can quit iTunes™ and run completely independent of iTunes so this objection would not apply in any case.
The same term is also applied in a misleading manner in the document titled "Release Notes for PV 3 Preview 4n4 Notes". The release notes state that the minimum iTunes volume is -30 dB. This is wrong and can easily be tested by manually turning iTunes' playback volume control all the way to zero or -?, as Amarra does, and turning your amplifier gain up by 30 dB while playing back in iTunes.
The Release Notes then go on to describe that certain players use this incorrect -30 db as a fault in our design. This linking of an incorrect assertion and design choices seems to be unnecessary as well. Amarra does force the iTunes' volume control to -?, so iTunes' volume is truly off.
We would ask these incorrect statements be removed from the PV website and literature immediately.
The next concern to be addressed is the actual comparison between Pure Vinyl and Player "A". Listed below is a partial lost of the items from the comparison with the correct information for our products.
Internal Signal Chain Resolution All 64 bit
Dither iZotope mBit Dither with output wordlength adjustment
High Quality Upsampling Amarra provides the iZotope Sample Rate Conversion as
background process as this provides superior results
NetSend Feature Distributed Audio Yes using AirFoil
Use with iTunes Remote Features Yes
Audio Hardware Support Any Core Audio Device
Copy Protection Dongle or License File (machine locked)
License Dongle or License File (2 systems)
Relies on iTunes "Ghost Play"?** No - and the term is misleading as well
Introduced to Market 2008, based on SSE (1986)
Price $295 (license file), $395 (with iLok),
or $995 for Full Version
Bloatware?? Please explain what the effect is on sound quality?
We would expect the following corrections be made to provide accurate information to customers. To suggest that these assertions are valid because Sonic Studio did not respond is disingenuous as well. Sonic Studio will soon post on our website a more complete comparison of playback engines that will provide a fair picture on playback and sound quality.
Lastly we feel that there is little need for confusion or misleading terms that are designed to confuse users. Users should be able to read correct information and then listen to what is best for them and decide on sound, features and ease of use. It is best for users to decide which applications suits their needs.
Best
Jonathan Reichbach, Sonic Studio
