Audirvana Plus: Direct Mode

[damien78]

Direct Mode shortens further the audio signal by bypassing all CoreAudio, even its lowest level HAL layer.

In addition, the Integer Mode that was no more available in Lion is back for all the devices that offered it in Snow Leopard!

As it is now at a good level of maturity, I’ve decided to release Direct Mode as a public beta for you to enjoy it now. I will continue to improve it, taking you feedback into account, and pursuing the optimization ideas I’ve identified.

You can get it from audirvana.com blog

Be sure to enable Direct Mode in the Audio System panel of Audirvana Plus user preferences.

And enjoy!

 

Damien

[freddie40]

[wgscott]

 

Nothing left to do but :)

[Mercman]

This release is truly fabulous. When combined with OSX Lion, the sound is the best I've ever heard.

[freddie40]

It works just fine on Snow Leopard with my Ayre QB9. The only problem (minor) that I saw was that the play position was working in iTunes even though I had deactivated it.

 

Works fine on Lion too.

 

As a side note to those trying it. You must uncheck "Exclusive Access" to get it to work.

 

Dave

[damien78]

As a side note to those trying it. You must uncheck "Exclusive Access" to get it to work.

 

Not really... you need Exclusive Access ("hog mode") on especially if you want to have the Integer Mode with it...

Had you an issue with it on?

 

Damien

[freddie40]

Not really... you need Exclusive Access ("hog mode") on especially if you want to have the Integer Mode with it...

Had you an issue with it on?

 

Weird, It didn't work when I first tried it, but now does, both in Lion and Snow Leopard

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[freddie40]

Damien,

 

I have gone back and tried it many times.

 

It works perfect on Lion, the play position does not move

 

On Snow leopard it does not work fine. When I restart the machine it does not play. If I go to prefs and uncheck "Exclusive Access" and then check it the music then starts to play. This happens every time.

 

Dave

[Musicophile]

Amazing sound. Will replace v1.3.5 in my dock immediately.

 

By the way, how can I find out if my DAC supports integer mode? I simply switched it on, but have no idea if this is helping in any way.

[Melvin]

Thank you Damien .. sounds great!

[jhwalker]

Sounds great on most material. The first DSD > PCM track I tried, though, I just got three loud pops and my Mac Mini locked up solid (had to turn it off to recover). Any special error reporting method we should use or anything you'd like to see to diagnose?

 

2011 MacMini, OS X 10.7.4, 8GB RAM, Schiit Bifrost DAC via USB

[freddie40]

I gave it one more try. I restarted the machine (Snow Leopard) and started up a song. It took 20 seconds to start playing, so it does work, just SLOW.

 

Dave

[juliocat]

No Luck on JKenny Hiface

[juliocat]

Direct Mode is On and Integer Mode is Off, but no Sound

 

 

 

 

 

Audirvana Plus rev. 1.3.9.1 debug information:

running on Mac OS X 10.7.4

 

User preferences:

Remote control: IR: on, Media Keys: on (with volume control: on)

 

Playlists:

Use UTF-8 for all: on

Start playback at launch with audio file: on

Remember playlist: on

Volume knob control in vertical direction

 

Sample rate converter used: iZotope 64bit SRC

Polarity inversion: global=off, per track=on

 

Volume control: DAC only

Max volume limit = 100.0%

 

SysOptimizer enabled:

Spotlight: on

TimeMachine: on

iDevices USB: on

 

iTunes settings:

Completely deactivate iTunes playback: on

iTunes volume control: on

iTunes play position control: on

 

Audio settings:

Use Max I/O buffersize: on

Max Mem for audio buffers: 9984MB

Max Sample rate limit: 96kHz

Sample rate switching latency: None

 

Direct Mode audio path

 

Active Sample Rate: 96.0kHz

Hog Mode is off

Devices found : 7

 

List of devices:

Device #0: ID 0x7e M2Tech HiFace Manufacturer:M2TECH Model UID:com_m2tech_driver_HifaceDevice:Hiface USB-SPDIF UID:HifaceEngine:0

Device #1: ID 0x49 Soundflower (2ch) Manufacturer:ma++ ingalls for Cycling '74 Model UID:com_cycling74_driver_SoundflowerDevice:Soundflower UID:SoundflowerEngine:0

Device #2: ID 0x22 Soundflower (16ch) Manufacturer:ma++ ingalls for Cycling '74 Model UID:com_cycling74_driver_SoundflowerDevice:Soundflower UID:SoundflowerEngine:1

Device #3: ID 0x70 Line-out (Green Rear) Manufacturer:Voodoo Model UID:VoodooHDADevice:Voodoo HDA Device UID:VoodooHDAEngine:pci8086,1c20:0

Device #4: ID 0x6a Headphones (Green Front) Manufacturer:Voodoo Model UID:VoodooHDADevice:Voodoo HDA Device UID:VoodooHDAEngine:pci8086,1c20:1

Device #5: ID 0x67 SPDIF-out (Grey Rear) Manufacturer:Voodoo Model UID:VoodooHDADevice:Voodoo HDA Device UID:VoodooHDAEngine:pci8086,1c20:2

Device #6: ID 0x64 SPDIF-out (ATAPI) Manufacturer:Voodoo Model UID:VoodooHDADevice:Voodoo HDA Device UID:VoodooHDAEngine:pci8086,1c20:3

 

Preferred device: M2Tech HiFace Model UID:com_m2tech_driver_HifaceDevice:Hiface USB-SPDIF UID:HifaceEngine:0

 

Selected device:

ID 0x7e M2Tech HiFace Manufacturer:M2TECH

Model UID:com_m2tech_driver_HifaceDevice:Hiface USB-SPDIF UID:HifaceEngine:0

 

1 available sample rates up to 192000.0Hz

44100.0 to 192000.0

 

Audio buffer frame size : 512 to 8192 frames

Current I/O buffer frame size : 512

Physical (analog) volume control: No

Virtual (digital) volume control: No

Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2

DSD capability: Unhandled

Simple stereo device: yes

Channel mapping: L:Stream 0 channel 0 R:Stream 0 channel 1

 

1 output streams:

Stream ID 0x1 2 channels starting at 1

1 virtual formats:

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Float @44.1 to 192.0kHz

 

1 physical formats

Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits big endian Signed Integer aligned High in 32bit @44.1 to 192.0kHz

[AudioDoctor]

I wasn't too enthralled when I tried Audirvana last time, and let my trial expire without buying. Is another trial possible with the new version?

[dave_kiwi]

Have tried it on two machines:

 

Mac Mini (2009) optical out to Schitt BiForst / Asgard --- sounds very nice, actually used the same music I was listening to last night, and I would say it sounds "clearer" again --- like a layer of material was removed from between the source & listener.

 

Macbook Pro - at work, so no DAC, just the standard audio out -- but it does sound very good. (Actually have hog, direct & max buffers selected -- which is the first time I have been able to use max buyer on Lion without clicks & pops etc).

[kennyb123]

First time I tried it playback was slow with lots of pops. Better luck the second try. Seemed to play flawlessly until I changed tracks. Then I started hearing pops.

 

Loved what I heard during the brief time it played without pops.

 

DAC is Weiss Minerva connected via FireWire, Direct Mode on, Exclusive on, Integer off. All other settings same as when using 1.3.5.

[Musicophile]

I experienced some unexpected skips, but the sound is awesome. More open, much more air, the sound really coming fully free from the speakers, voices able to breathe.

 

Damien, if you fix some of those remaining playback reliability issues, that some of us experience this could become a huge hit.

[Musicophile]

I wasn't too enthralled when I tried Audirvana last time, and let my trial expire without buying. Is another trial possible with the new version?

 

I cannot really comment as I have purchased Audirvana already, but it looks to me like this new build is for the moment a fully independent free beta demo. Just check it out.

[damien78]

I cannot really comment as I have purchased Audirvana already, but it looks to me like this new build is for the moment a fully independent free beta demo. Just check it out.

The beta uses exactly the same license mechanism as the full versions, including the trial period.

@AudioDoctor: I've sent you a mail to renew your trial.

 

No Luck on JKenny Hiface

The HiFace has a custom driver that is not providing integer mode... Now, the no sound is something else I'll look into.

 

I experienced some unexpected skips, but the sound is awesome. More open, much more air, the sound really coming fully free from the speakers, voices able to breathe.

 

Damien, if you fix some of those remaining playback reliability issues, that some of us experience this could become a huge hit.

That's why I've released it as a beta.

And those remaining glitches will be fixed to make the final 1.4 !

 

Damien

[ctle]

Hi Damien,

Does Direct Mode benefit DSD playback?

Is there an indicator showing Direct Mode is being used?

Cheers

[damien78]

Direct Mode benefits to all playbacks, including DSD even in non Integer Mode.

There is currently no indicator as Direct Mode is used as soon as it is selected in the user prefs.

For Integer Mode, as it depends on the device capabilities detected during playback initialization, there is the "INT" indicator at the right of the LCD screen.

And all this information is also detailed in the debug info, though the main purpose of this one is not for nominal status reading

 

Damien

[ctle]

Direct Mode benefits to all playbacks, including DSD even in non Integer Mod

Damien

 

Great player! Direct mode sounds really good

Thanks

[Esprit]

Direct Mode benefits to all playbacks, including DSD even in non Integer Mode.

There is currently no indicator as Direct Mode is used as soon as it is selected in the user prefs.

For Integer Mode, as it depends on the device capabilities detected during playback initialization, there is the "INT" indicator at the right of the LCD screen.

What are the differences between Direct Mode and Integer Mode?

[Zakus]

I gave it one more try. I restarted the machine (Snow Leopard) and started up a song. It took 20 seconds to start playing, so it does work, just SLOW.

 

Dave

 

Am finding the same thing with Snow Leopard. Takes 20-40 secs to initialize the device if track is changed, not just different album but also skipping track, almost unusable except it sounds great.