Audirvana Studio Grand Premiere

Sounds intriguing, ‘event’ this Sunday apparently.

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Oh well, totally forgot about it!

There is a Facebook page which has the presentation that was used yesterday. Looks like a new Audirvana product; not just an upgrade on the existing. Available from next Sunday.

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Oh dear. I think they are going to shoot themselves in the foot.

They are going to a subscription model 69.99 €/$ (and presumably pounds) per annum or 6.99/month.

No standalone version once released - apparently customers have been asking for this??? I doubt that.

Current 3.5 will no longer be available nor presumably updated.

Yes, was just vieiwng the video stream. Available from 16th.

Awkward video… :grimacing:

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Yes, and a slide saying ‘unsampling’ rather than upsampling.

The Facebook comments that I can see are pretty scathing.

I don’t think this looks good for the product overall, however, developers can’t necessarily work for peanuts. Lifetime licenses only work while there’s a regular swathe of new users to support fixes/enhancements and new versions older users can opt to upgrade to.

Maybe Damien has chosen a good point to sell his product to a controlling group.

Let’s wait and see, they are offering a free trial and 1st year cheaper subscription for existing purchasers until July.

The only real thing of interest to me in that video was a new analysis tool to identify if hi-res files are simply upsampled or tweaked CD quality masters vs studio quality hi-res - that sounds interesting but only of use if it will work on streamed audio before you buy/download I guess.

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If that‘s true, it will be the end of my 7 year usage of Audirvana :cry:

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It is true unfortunately.

Purchased software should continue to work but will they still offer bug fixes/maintenance releases if needed as macOS/Windows versions change? Presumably not I’d say.

If anyone fancies a standalone 3.5 version they probably need to demo right now and buy before 16th May.

My big concern is the 3.5 licensing - you are allowed 2 installations that cannot be used at the same time. If the licensing ‘engine’ is ditched it may no longer be possible to migrate your app to a different computer - I suspect they’d manually do the right thing, but who knows.

I blame Adobe to be honest!!!

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One of my complaints about Roon was that it offered nothing of added value for me, at a high cost. Audirvana now appears questionable - especially as they never resolved the limiting factor of no sort/browse by file structure (maybe different if they did).

As I ceased updating the Mac Mini’s OS at El Capitan to keep the full Audirvana functionality, stopping with v3.5 isn’t an issue in itself. However I do have a niggling worry that since they introduced a required periodic online system check in, they could easily cease that and make 3.5 fail - if so then I still have a copy of A+ which was completely stand-alone.

Overall this suggests that I may need to ramp up my consideration of a replacement.

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End of Audirvana for me

I barely used it anyway

With tidal connect it’s pretty much the end of roon and Audirvana anyway for me

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Right , they started that horrible model.

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Yeah. Buy a competitor with vastly superior products. Slowly ruin them or kill them off (Fireworks, Freehand etc.) . Then move to subscription only. Then gaslight the community by repeating “subscription services save users a lot of money over time”, despite the fact there is no instance where this is true from a TCO perspective. And besides, if it was true, and more money was made selling licenses and that’s what customers want anyway, why would anyone offer a subscription? I mean c’mon, how stupid do they think people are?

My use of Audirvana has been a mixed bag. The platform is solid mostly (though interpretation of tags and sorting is way behind Asset) but I’m not a subscription kind of guy. And the app is riddled with horrible bugs that make using the Naim app on my Muso Qbs a joy in comparison. If it goes subscription only, then I’ll use 3.5 for as long as I can and then just look elsewhere. I’d honestly rather use a slightly worse product that was serviceable than a subscription if I can avoid it - which sometimes I cannot (Adobe you plonkers!),

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The worst launch video o have ever seen and the responses were scathing. Felt sorry for the guy trying to to run it. No demo of the software and no real detail on what makes it worth the subscription and what happens to those who have purchased the current version. I have a real soft spot for audirvana having used it for a long time and interacted with Damien when required but I suspect they will lose a lot of their current customers

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Yep, the move to a subscription model will kill it for me, especially at the prices quoted. As others have mentioned above, I will stay on 3.5 and hope that the license model remains intact: I see no benefit for me personally in subscribing. Adobe frustratingly did this with Lightroom so I just stayed with the last licensed version.
I can understand why they might be doing this but this is a substantial gamble for Audirvana in my opinion; I don’t see it as a must have product in such a market. Maybe they will try this model and possibly realise too late that they have shot themselves in the foot.

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Audirvana support is poor and not very good resolving app bugs. They never made 3.5 perfect and opted to launch a new product.

The advantage is a lower price than roon for some users in subscription price. I do not believe at the moment they can offer a more complete experience and integration with all our devices than roon.

Also I do not want a computer next to my system in the living roon or in my home cinema room.

A streamer is a computer! So is whatever anyone uses to run Roon. A Mac Mini, running headless and with no keyboard attached (which is how I and I believe many others use theirs with Audirvana) is a silver box about 20cm by 20cm by less than 4cm including feet, with a very discreet white indicator light (<1mm diameter and not bright): not a typical image of a computer. And it is effectively silent (it has a low-speed fan which I find in a quiet room is inaudible more than 30cm away).

But whilst cheaper than Roon, the subscription model rules future Audirvana out for people like me who want something self-contained and free of ongoing cost. (I do not subscribe to any online streaming service partly for the same reason.)

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At least we have options. And that’s a good thing.

It depends what you mean by options. I’m not sure that many of us currently using Audirvana do have options when it goes to subscription, certainly for those that use it for online streaming and so sticking with a frozen older version would be unviable. Alternatives to Audirvana (non-subscription or otherwise) could be a substantial cost if they don’t run on the same platform, and with any alternatives, same platform or not, there comes the time-consuming and unenjoyable process of trialling/auditioning, hoping to find something at least as good in the system it is in.

Hopefully I will have the option of keeping the present version of Audirvana, frozen. Not ideal because it means an outstanding limitation won’t get resolved, but then I’ve more or less given up expecting it to be. Otherwise I have the even older version mothballed. But I’m lucky compared to others who rely on online streaming.

I used to recommend Audirvana on a Mac Mini based on its exemplary sound quality as a renderer, but I think this change will end that.

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In my case, I have brought Roon Lifetime some years ago, so I am deep in to it.

Also have a Audirvana 3.5 license, and had Audirvana since the first appeared. I have some other software like bitperfect and amarra, I do not want to be rude, but I think any of them have their Benedict’s and drawbacks.

Apart from tidal that I subscribe sometimes I do not like the subscription model in any product.

But if we look at most software payed upgrades are on an yearly base, not much different from subscription, the most negative is that if you stop paying you loose the possibility of using your software totally. And with a normal license we at least can continue using the app if we do not choose to upgrade.

My experience with Audirvana 3.5 was not good, but I used all other versions for years, and they sounded incredible.

And more options is a good thing, and there aren’t many to choose for.