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Cherrington

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  1. In the past week I've found that Audirvana Plus 3.2.7 is refusing to accommodate more than one library. For the past year I've been using it at home with the external hard drive that holds all my music and then at work with a portable hard drive that duplicates that collection of music. And the program has always automatically recognized which drive is connected and switched to it, updating the library as necessary. But a few days ago the appearance of the interface changed, the order of albums got rearranged, and while it still recognized which hard drive was connected, it refused to play any music on the work drive, only the home drive. I would get the message "Unable to Load First Track" no matter which album I chose. So tonight I deleted the work drive from the list of libraries, then added it back (a long process with 10,000 albums). And Audirvana played the music on the work drive just fine. But when I unplugged that drive and reconnected the home drive, I started getting the "Unable to Load First Track" message. It's extremely frustrating, all the more so because I didn't change anything in the settings of Audirvana. Anyone know what's going on here?
  2. The first day that I used 1.3.9.4 I had no issues, and I thought nirvana had been achieved, but then the stuttering and kernel panics returned---three of them yesterday. I'm not complaining: I think Damien's ability to solve the integer mode problem is astonishing, and I know that this is still a beta version, so I'm more than willing to be patient. I mention the KPs only to help Damien get a sense of what's happening. Happily, the stuttering always seems to precede a kernel panic, so I do get a bit of warning, though sometimes not enough. . .
  3. I'm loving the sound of direct mode and integer mode, but I'm getting clicking, stuttering, and kernel panics, usually in that order. I know Damien is working on fixing this; I only want to indicate that at least for my system, it's still a problem. I'm running a 2009 MacBook Pro, Lion, into a Burson 160D.
  4. I've got my paid license for Audirvana Plus and loving the sound. In fact, I'm loving it so much that I'd like to be able to listen to it on my office laptop. Is there a way I can use the program on that machine without buying a separate license for it?
  5. Thanks for giving us the link to the Ayre white paper. It makes fascinating reading, and really justifies trying the recommended filter changes. I'm still listening to the new settings, but so far I think I like them.
  6. Damien, I'm really, really loving the polarity inverter. I find that I'm one of those folks who is very sensitive to polarity, and I use the A+ inverter on every recording. But the way A+ is set up now, I need to go to preferences and then audio filters to get to the switch. I wonder if it might be possible (or desirable for anyone but me) to have that switch on the interface itself, to make it more convenient. Thanks for a fantastic product that just keeps getting better and better. Mark
  7. Dan is quite right: phase and polarity, although the terms sound similar, are in fact quite different. I once had a Meitner preamp that had a polarity switch on it, and I used it all the time. There was a subtle but definite difference on almost every recording, mostly a more live, focused aspect to the sound. Note that there is no right or wrong, no on or off setting, for absolute polarity. It can only be right for each recording, which varies from one track to another because of all the electronics inserted in the recording process after the original acoustic sound--any one of which might invert the original signal's polarity. You can only get it "right" on a case-by-case basis, and the only way to judge that is by ear. But for me, that's the good news. It's wonderful in this increasingly technical hobby to still have some element where your ear is the ultimate measuring tool. Here's a nice discussion of the subject from Galen Carol: http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/absolutephase.html And another from Six Moons: http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/polarity/polarity.html
  8. Damien, I'm absolutely loving the sound of A+, by far the best and most engaging sound I've ever gotten from any stereo system, just incredible. And I love the way you've handled the iTunes integration. That resolves the one Achilles' heel in the free version. But I've been running into a problem with it. If I'm listening to a album in iTunes and ripping a CD at the same time, iTunes frequently gets confused about what it's playing. It will jump to some other song in the library, sometimes playing that song, sometimes continuing to play the original track, but showing the name of some other song. And sometimes it just stops playback altogether. I thought it might be related to the CD finishing its ripping, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Any idea what's going on with that? Do I have a setting somewhere set up wrong? It's a problem because I now feel absolutely compelled to rip as many CDs as possible as quickly as possible because I must have more music playing through A+.
  9. I just downloaded the trial of Audirvana Plus, after listening to and enjoying the free version for several months. And I will definitely be paying for the upgrade. The various improvements to the free version of the past few months have all made a difference in the sound, and to my ears in my system, the free Audirvana sounds better than all the other playback programs I've tried (and I've tried everything but Amarra). But this new version is a whole different thing.The difference is quite dramatic, from the first note. There is more verve in the music, more depth, more precision. And here's the weird thing---something I've never encountered in more than 30 years of being an audiophile---if I play a track in the free version and then play the same track in the plus version, the music sounds faster. Not in the sense of more precise transients, though that's there, too, but actually a faster tempo. It isn't, of course (the sense of speed was so convincing that I actually had to check and double-check it to confirm that it is an illusion); it simply seems to be moving faster because it's livelier. That's the primary quality I'm hearing from A+: a liveliness in the music. And for me that translates into more compelling listening---I just don't want to turn off the stereo. It doesn't get better than that.
  10. I'm really liking the sound with BitPerfect; you've done a fantastic job with this. And the integration with iTunes makes it extremely convenient. Bravo! I'm having a problem with it, though. Each track I play is cut off in the final second or two of the track, and then the next track starts instantly, with no break between. Is there a setting change I could use to address this? I'm running it on a MacBook Pro with OS 10.6.8, and the files are in Apple Lossless format (though some are AIFF, and I'm getting the same problem with them). I've got BitPerfect set for 512 buffer, 2 or 4x upsampling, and iTunes Response Speed on its highest setting. I started with the settings on their default positions, and had the problem.
  11. I've been listening to the Burson 160D for the past couple of weeks, and I'm liking it more and more. This, more than any piece of gear I've ever had, really needs to be fully broken in before you evaluate it. When I first turned it on, it was crispy and thin--pretty unpleasant sounding. Lots of detail and information, but quite aggressive. The change in sound really didn't kick in until I hit the 100-hour mark (which I just passed), and I've never heard a more dramatic change in any piece of gear. It's a whole different beast now. It kept the detail it was giving me, but now the sound if fleshed out, fluid, and full-bodied. Amazingly deep and controlled bass that doesn't get in the way of the upper frequencies or the definition or timbre of the instruments and voices. And it sorts out parts and musical lines better than anything I've had. The music flows. I have a feeling it will continue to improve, too, which really makes me happy. One tip that I got from the store owner where I bought it: he pointed out that the volume control components are discrete, and each one (that is, each step on the volume control) needs to be broken in on its own.
  12. You can also add the Blue Circle Thingee to the list of DACs that work with integer mode (confirmed by both debug data and player window icon).
  13. You can add the Burson 160D to the list of integer-mode-compatible DACs (confirmed by both debug data and lit-up integer-mode symbol in the player interface window). Yippee!
  14. Thanks, Damien! That was the problem. I registered the DAC and now I'm very happily listening to Audirvana again.
  15. Thanks, Blu, for the suggestion. I tried your idea of selecting built-in output as the choice in System Preferences, but I'm afraid it is still refusing to come out through the DAC. So I also tried making built-in output the choice in Audio/Midi Setup and then making the DAC the choice in Audirvana under exclusive access, but still no luck. It's quite baffling, especially since it was working just fine the day before. Everything else, including lesser audio programs, are working fine through the DAC.
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