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Sonic Studio released Amarra 2.4 today. Truth be told, I really didn’t want to listen to Amarra as previous versions have been disappointing in one way or another. But I’m happy to report that I’m glad I did!I listened to Amarra in Playlist mode with iTunes turned off. All of the files loaded into Playlist are placed into memory if the Cache is activated. This provides the best sound quality from Amarra.
Gapless playback worked most of the time. I did run into an issue of the 4 tracks of a complete title not loading the 4th file. It appears to me that Playlist is sensitive to memory and could use some refinement, but for the most part, it worked well.
To say that I was impressed with the sonic quality of Amarra is an understatement. Amarra does two things better than any other OSX music program I have heard. First, it is the most analog sounding in that the sound is richer, more body to images, and plays with greater ease than any other program I have yet heard. Complex choral works that previously sounded overloaded in other programs, played beautifully with Amarra. Symphonic works also sounded more natural with less hardness to the sound.
The second attribute of Amarra was that it was the most holographic sounding program I have ever listened to. It seems to have the greatest front to back depth in the soundstage and is able to separate multiple voices and instruments into their own acoustic space better than the other OSX programs. Even with studio pop/ rock recordings, focus and delineation of voices is more three dimensional.
I wish Sonic Studio would make an iPhone/iPad program to allow one to control Playlist. The lack of the remote feature is a significant disappointment for an otherwise excellent sounding program.
In the ever changing landscape of OSX music programs, “top dog” is not a guaranteed permanent placement. But Amarra 2.4 is definitely worth an audition.
Steve
Edits: 05/04/12Follow Ups:
I downloaded the demo version of Amarra HiFi and compared it with Audirvana+. I have a Mac Mini, USB DAC and a 2a3PP amp with Mark Audio Alpair 10 speakers. It's a very detailed system with good tone. I compared 2 tracks - Ahmad Jamal trio playing Dolphin Dance and Boulez Ravel Feria.
The Ravel was pretty conclusively better with Audirvana+. More low level detail, better instrumental tone. More overall musical.
The jazz pno. trio was more equivocal. The piano was richer with Audirvana+. The only issue I have with Audirvana+ is percussive sounds. It seems to soften some of them. I haven't really got to the bottom of this yet. I'd be interested to hear if others have noticed anything like this.
Now, I don't know how Amarra HiFi compares with 2.4. I tried to find an option to try HiFi in Playlist as suggested, but it only seems to play in iTunes.
Audirvana+ is similar in price to Amarra HiFi and on this listening I'd certainly get Audirvana+.
Grateful for any suggestions that may contradict this!
I'm already using Pure Music. They missed their opportunity to grab my money last year at RMAF. See my comments below under the heading:
RE: No more dongle! Oh Yay....... yawn
But, if I find the time and motivation I -may- still give it a try.
Pure Music is an excellent program and functions well. One day when you have the time, play with Amarra. But learn the program and take some time with it before you arrive at any conclusions.
And remember, Rob is a talented guy and the final chapter to the story has yet to be written.
Steve,
That's great news that some version of Amarra (playlist) sounds this good!!
I still find it confusing that Jon and Sonic Studios are clearly listed as founding contributors and supporters of the DoP (DSD over PCM) protocol standard committee, yet Amarra 2.4 still doesn't support native DSD playback, via that standard on any other (ASIO, etc). PM and A+ have had it for half a year now. It's really their presence on the committee that baffles me, as Jon said to me at CES that he was against DSD playback and would later tell me why... (paraphrasing, probably badly).
I've been using Pure Music, but own Amarra Mini so I did the upgrade this morning. Now it won't play hi res files in memory. 44.1 will...I can tell because no pre-load and my external drive is running constantly. I've got 8 gigs of RAM and set Amarra to use 4 gigs in its set-up.
PM still works fine. Have not tried using the playlist mode with iTunes off yet...
Remember, if you run Amarra with iTunes and NOT in PlayList mode, iTunes is running simultaneously with the Amarra sound engine and who knows how many times the ghost iTunes is accessing the HD.
Edits: 05/05/12
Select cache for memory operation and restart the program.
The program only sounds special to me in Playlist with iTunes closed.
This is the last comment I'll post on making Amarra work. My original intent was to alert some of the software writers about the excellent sound I was hearing using Amarra the way I described. As I've posted many times before here, the quality of the product pales compared to Pure Music, Decibel, Audirvana Plus,and Fidelia.
Now I have guests and Mrs. Mercman will kill me if she finds me playing on this forum :).
I loaded Amarra this morning adjacent to my long time reference, Pure Music. I am also unable to get any hi-rez music to play.
However, unless I am missing some crucial Amarra settings that must be manipulated, then my Pure Music is sonically far superior. I was truely hoping for another very good, yet different sounding option for playing my digital Library. If anyone has any advice that may elevate my Amarra's initial sonic findings, it would be greatly appreciated.
Lance A.
I hope that you can help with an obvious configuration issue since you used Pure Music, with it's needed configurations, and now Amarra.
I downloaded the trial version of Amarra (went quite smoothly) and it came right up with my music Library just as it was when using PM, a good thing.
However, when I select play, then all that comes out is music through my Mach2/Mac Mini computer, with no volume control.
What reconfigurations need to take place for Amarra to recognize and play music through my audio system? (Possibly a reconfiguration of the "Audio Midi Setup"?)
Thank You.
Lance A.
Go into Preferences of OSX, Sound, and select your DAC. Pure Music used the internal speakers since you were running Hog.
Are you talking about reconfiguring the "input & output" in the AUDIO MIDI SETUP?
Lance A.
No, I said go into System Preferences and then Sound. Select your DAC.
Lance, I'm taking off for the day with the Mrs. I hope this helps.
Going from 44.1 to 176.4; or the reverse ends up with the 2nd file played at the wrong speed.
The sound is excellent in spite of the inconsistencies and crappy interface.
Have you reported this? Want me to report it?
.
It helps to have timely and accurate bug reports. I think Jon is trying hard to get it bug-free, even working on Saturday.
Previously there were a couple of versions of Amarra available (Mini, Junior) with different price points and feature sets. Which version are you discussing or is there now a single version offering in 2.4?
Amarra and Amarra Symphony sound the same. Symphony is a legacy product to try to keep the guys who paid $1000 from going nuts!
I just went on the site and saw that they changed up the nomenclature to be Amarra, Amaraa HiFi and Amarra Symphony.
At this point there are just 2 products:
Amarra HiFi and Amarra.
This link shows the three:http://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/amarra_products.html#AMARRA
EDIT: The same link you posted above.
Edits: 05/05/12
Like I said, Symphony has just a few things left over from the previous full Amarra. Eventually, I suspect Symphony will be removed.
Sorry, I hope my short post didn’t come off as comfrontational or challenging. I was just trying ot figure out what the offering was. $495 for Symphony while a significant reduction is still quite costly. I don’t know if I was to check these out if Amarra or Amarra Hi Fi would be most appropriate for me. Will they let you demo each?
I would just audition Amarra. HiFi can't play gapless. Symphony has nothing to offer over Amarra unless you enjoy a meter display. (Actually a little more that doesn't enter into my listening experience)
Thanks. The gap less is important to me.
I'd never tried Amarra as it used up a USB port with the copy protection scheme. But I just read the info on the site... and no mention of the USB dongle. I had always understood why they did this, but I was loathe to give up one of my precious USB ports.
I'm sure this is old news for others, but I was able to download the demo and it plays with no dongle required. So happy about that.
I'm now spending a pleasant Friday night listening to familiar music on headphones... and evaluating Amarra.
I haven't yet read the instructions or optimized settings, but will do so over the next week or so.
The dongle was the FIRST reason I never tried Amarra. Using a physical key is such an old school and inconvenient way to protect software.
Strike one: No way was I going to buy Amarra with their archaic and inconvenient protection scheme.
Strike two: They were way over priced compared to friendlier competitive offerings.
Strike three: When they had a show special at the last RMAF I visited their room with cash in hand. They were too busy yacking it up with some tire kickers and the one Amarra guy who was available to take my money had no clue how to proceed with the transaction. I left the room. If you're going to have a "show special" at least be prepared to take my money!
Strike three & a half: They're still pricey compared to the competition but it's good to see they came down just a bit on price.
I might give the Amarra download a try but in the mean time I've already purchased from one of their competitors and have been very happy with the results so far. Amarra: a missed market opportunity while their competitor got it right!
If I have to 'make' you take my money then the deal is OFF!!
Apparently not only did you have to make them take your money, they didn't even know how....
Dynobots Audio
Music is the Bridge between Heaven and Earth - 音楽は天国と地球のかけ橋
'Using a physical key is such an old school and inconvenient way to protect software.'
It's also the most secure, and quite prevalent in pro audio applications.
--eNjoY YouRseLf!.....
"It's also the most secure, and quite prevalent in pro audio applications."
That's because of Amarra's "pro" audio heritage. It would appear that many "pro" audio people are scumbags, like much of the music industry. Or at least that's the belief of some companies that sell into this market. I am suspicious of companies that assume that their customers are out to cheat them. It indicates something wrong with the people involved or the marketplace.
I would never under any circumstances purchase software that requires a dongle. The pro-audio software that I have runs perfectly well without one, it requires Internet activation following installation, but that was hardly a burden as I downloaded it in the first place.
Tony Lauck
"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar
Just sayin'.
--eNjoY YouRseLf!.....
So, Up until now you have always been an advocate of Pure Musics' sonic merits versus Amarra, has this changed?
Amarra is waaay more expensive. Are you now suggesting that it's new sonic benefits are beyond those of Pure Music and worth the dramatic increase in price?
Lance A.
Amarra is $189. I don't like Amarra's interface. PM is more fun to use. Direct playback with Lion might turn the tables. You have to determine what is the best sounding program for your system.
Edits: 05/05/12
I am intrigued to hear this version of Amarra. The fact that it offers a trial offer makes it a no brainer for me.
I will perform a direct comparison versus the current Pure Music software and report here.
It would be fabulous if Amarra has developed a real winner at $189.00.
Lance A.
I have a silly question...
Which user interface look-and-feel to you prefer? Amarra or Pure Music?
Which has the more intuitive - easier to decipher, navigate, and set - configuration settings. Amarra or Pure Music?
Thanks!
"Which user interface look-and-feel to you prefer? Amarra or Pure Music?"
Pure Music
"Which has the more intuitive - easier to decipher, navigate, and set - configuration settings. Amarra or Pure Music?"
Probably Amarra since it has very few settings and doesn't begin to offer as many features as Pure Music.
Hmm? Thanks! I may have to download Amarra and give it a try.
I'm not too fond of the Pure Music user interface and their configuration screens are a bit overwhelming, to me anyway. And the various setting descriptions are not clear to me. Of course, I haven't taken the time to RTFM!, as they say. ;-)
This is good news for sure. I need to find time to install it.
Have you found that playlist sounds a lot better than Amarra combined with iTunes?
In 4319, they were about the same, so I usually used iTunes with it. Then Remote works fine.
Steve N.
I did not try Standard Amarra function since I always preferred Playlist alone in previous versions and wanted gapless playback. I will experiment latter and post my results.
I never liked the idea of the "ghost" iTunes running concurrently with standard Amarra.
> > I never liked the idea of the "ghost" iTunes running concurrently with standard Amarra. < <
You realize that ITunes is just a database/Music Manager program and doesn't play anything. For playback it hands off to Quicktime or in this case Amarra. ITunes has no sound because it doesn't make a sound.
When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it. ~ Bernard Bailey
Actually in the standard mode, that is iTunes and Amarra running concurrently, both the Player software and iTunes are playing the track at the same time, and the computer is doing twice as much work.
Thanks, but I am also aware of Quicktime.
.
I mostly use iTunes with Amarra because it is more stable and less buggy, especially with 192 tracks. Have you played some 192s and started and stopped them, jumped around in the playlist?
"Have you played some 192s and started and stopped them, jumped around in the playlist?"
Yes I did. Most of the files I listened to were 176.4 and 192. I did beat on the program today.
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