yasar

IS this program compatible with audirvana plus?

Having made extensive listening tests after downloading the A+ I purchased the licensed version within 2 days. I have to say that Audirvana has become my NO:1 music player of choice. It sounds as good as my Marantz Sa11S2 SACD player and definetely better than the CD's I have ripped. There is no "Digital" sound to the ripped music anymore. I have approx 1200 cd's all ripped to AIFF with Itunes with error correction ticked. Before I would quite often feel the need to listen to the my actual CD's especially to my SACD's rather than my ripped music as it was always more musical. But now with Audirvana I do not feel the need to do that anymore. Well done Damien! Thanks a lot for such a fantastic sounding player. My only critcism is over the UI. Having used Frontrow extensively which integrates so well with Itunes and it's playlists, could you not do something similar with the Audirvana Plus UI rather than the bland and too simple UI the current A+ has? In fact if it were possible to integrate the Frontrow with A+ it would be heaven for us all.

Having made extensive listening tests after downloading the A+ I purchased the licensed version within 2 days. I have to say that Audirvana has become my NO:1 music player of choice. It sounds as good as my Marantz Sa11S2 Sacd player and definetely better than the CD's I have ripped. There is no "Digital" sound to the ripped music anymore. I have approx 1200 cd's all ripped to AIFF with Itunes with error correction ticked. Before I would quite often feel the need to listen to the my actual CD's especially to my SACD's rather than my ripped music as it was always more musical. But now with Audirvana I do not feel the need to do that anymore. Well done Damien! Thanks a lot for such a fantastic sounding player. My only critcism is over the UI. Having used Frontrow extensivley which integrates so well with Itunes and it's playlists, could you not do something similar with the UI rather than the bland and unfriendly UI the current A+ has? In fact if I could integrate my Frontrow with my A+ it would be heaven for me.

Have been doing listening tests last 24 hours. I have to say that there is a marked improvement in sound quality in terms of clarity and depth with more realistic soundstage when I play same tracks through A+ rather than Itunes alone. Itunes integration however is giving a very subtle change in sound. But can not put my finger on what it is. I still have frontrow running on my mac mini with the lion 10.7.2 as I still have Itunes 10.3. When I exit everything (itunes, safari etc) and play the same tracks through front row I must say the sound improvement difference between itunes and frontrow is similar to itunes vs A+. In fact it has more roundedness and sweetness about it. Plus it has a fantastic UI in the form of frontrow. I have a feeling that as frontrow does not use itunes' player but it's own it has a much sweeter sound than itunes. When compared to A+ sound it is not quite as clinical as A+ but just as sweet with plenty of depth and ambience with as good a bass control. Still A+ has the edge though in pure musicality. But is no match with it's UI in terms of playlists etc.

OK. Thanks Jud. With the itunes integration off and the boxes checked as advised it made a difference in sound. So I bought the licensed copy. My only wish is that if only it would have a User Interface like Front Row that works together with my Itunes playlists that I organised.

I am finding it difficult to understand the hype over this software. The idea is somewhat ingenius as it takes music off the hard drive in whole and plays it using itunes. But having downloaded the plus trial version off internet I tried to hear the so called "difference" in sound in my system which I think is quite sensitive. But NO difference to my ears. I have the latest Lion running with Itunes 10.3. So I played various pieces classical and pop with first Itunes direct then with Audirvana with Itunes integration and then through Frontrow. They all sounded the same to me. Very open clear and musical. I played the same CD's through my Marantz SACD player and still could not hear any difference. Only with SACD material was it apparent that there was a slight improvement in dynamics. Am I missing something here??

I find it very convenient to use front row. The sound quality is on a par with my Marantz SA11S2 if not better. Only when I play SACD's is it marginally better. I really have to listen to both the SACD and the ripped (CD layer) in A/B comparison very carefully to hear a marginal difference. I used to be able to watch downloaded movies through the front row. But as I rip all my DVD's to an external HDD in Video TS format I use a VLC player to access those files now as Front row does not see them. I use front row to view all my 1000's of pictures through iphoto. I have also set up my playlists in such away that I can with front row scroll through my ripped CD albums composer by composer or by genres or by performers. That is flexibility for me. It is great to come home and switch on the gear sit down and press menu on apple remote and play whatever album you want. And while that is playing prepare the next one you want played. And when the one you are playing finishes front row automatically will go to the next file you have chosen even if it is ina different playlist.

Thanks for the offer. But I have the file saved as well. You can also get it from: http://www.mac-hatter.com/blog/frontrowenablerforlion

My understanding is that itunes 10.4 will break the front row's music link to Itunes and it's playlists as front row is in 32bit and the new Itunes is in 64 bit. So once downloaded itunes will make it impossible to access your music files through front row. I hope Apple will re-launch it back to circulation. But I doubt it as they are pushing Apple-TV2 at GBP101.00 to replace it. But it is of no use to me as I do not want to stream my music wirelessly to my TV and that is all it's good for in my case. It would in effect be a glorified HDMI cable that would connect my mini to the tv and probably control my mini's music files. A very cheeky and sly move by Apple!!

I have updated to lion few days ago.But lost front row. Then used mac-hatter's front row program to load it back to my 2010 mac mini. But i now know that if I update my itunes 10.3 to the new 10.4 version I will lose my front row again. I spent months perfecting my playlists for my classical music content of over 1100 cd's . One of the main reasons I bought 2 mac mini's for my music was because of the compatibility and ease of use of front row with the apple remote. I do not want to lose it. I tried yesterday the much acclaimed Plex. But it has too much unnecessary stuff on it for my taste and it does not show my playlists and the interface does not breakdown the music in to subfolders like "composers" etc.like front row does. And it will not play hi-res files. Also the sound quality is nowhere near as good as through Front Row!! XBMC is even worse as I could not get it to work with the Lion. I use my mac mini's for music only with high end audiophile quality gear. I have been very happy with them until I downloaded osx lion. I know I can reload osx10.6.8 But that means I would be behind the technological advance!! Is there a way to keep osx lion with itunes 10.4 and front row intact? MacMini2010>glass silflex>belcanto dac3 vb>audioquestemerald>Mcintosh pre>transparent super>KrellFBP600>Transparent Super>MartinLoganCLS2Z + 2xRELStorm3's>40"Bravia with HDMI