It certainly did the first time I trialled it, and was very annoying - made it feel like hateful Facebook! But by my second trial it didn’t - I assume it was still there somewhere but switched off by default (perhaps they had too many complaints!). Re band member info, I don’t recall if that was active prompting or just very visible on screen, but no matter (and some people clearly enjoy things like that).
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If you don’t mind tinkering a bit, you could install linux on the Mac Mini and use it as an RPI alternative:
Just tried the demo, god its dreadful experience so far. Cant see my nas on the network only sees other windows computers, even though windows can see it in the network section. Jarring UI that seems to drop to windows defaults that are ignoring my appearance settings It seems to have very bad click recognition, all icons and menus have a very limited click radius so it takes a number of times to click on the right place to activate the them, some menus in settings dont always open from the speakers or volume settings bit. UPnP seems to be completely absent. Wouldnt use it if it was free it just feels backwards.
That doesn’t sound good.
I looked earlier and people were querying on the user forum why it wasn’t available.
The website has slick graphics but when I looked for a demo I couldn;t find much or links to creating an account were buried where you’d not expect them in FAQs and the URLs were bad.
I don’t really want to sign up for an account to try a demo either.
Just discovered I cannot download the purchased Audirvana iOS app on my Mac in iTunes 12.6.5.3 on High Sierra, suspect this is Apple abandoning this last version where you could still download apps to transfer to ios devices, but again I may have Audirvana 3.5 running but may not be able to get the paid for app on future devices if they keep the name the same.
Looks like UPNP does work just not for me apparently. No loss as it’s not staying it’s just horrible compared to Roon or even the Naim app.
Just found how to get a demo - via the ? on the right.
A basic fail here, you are asked to click to accept T&Cs but the link is dead!
I shall assume there aren’t any from that!
Oooooh…
Just installed on 2012 MacMini, imported my old library quickly (I hope that is still available for 3.5), a very different sound and possibly much much better, and I’ve tweaked nothing yet. Didn’t even need to configure anything.
There are several positive SQ comments on the Audirvana support forum. Seems to be a lot more detail and musicality/instrument timbre. Sounds weird but I’m hearing different audio layers on familiar recordings.
Overall sounds a bit thinner but it really boogies.
Wasn’t expecting this.
Thinner and boogieing put me off, though detail is good, while I’ve no idea what musicality means. The question is, which is more accurate? And I wonder why a difference? Could you please remind what you are feeding from the Mac mini, and os that on your own stored music?
(My curiosity is academic as personally I’m not going to get into a subscription charge to hear my music, especially not with imminent retirement and its massive reduction in income.)
For me is does not result, I need the convenience of multiuser to my files, my daughter uses their iPhone and computer, my wife their phone and computer, I only use the computer for work and I like the convenience of using the iPad as a controller in my living room for the streamer. And all our files are on the same NAS.
Audirvana license is for one device only, you have to desautorize the registered device before you can use on another, in this regard has no multiuser.
I like the interface, but roon is a better option for me, and the total dependence of a computer and a one machine at the time only, makes roon feel cheap.
It’s like the Padded Cell topic on describing hi-fi not helped by installing late in the evening after a meal and a glass or two.
Thinner, yes not immediately appealing, but a poor attempt to describe more detaill in the music but not necessarily in a bad way. Boogie was simply meant to convey it had my toes tapping more than normal. Musicality is pretty useless I agree.
It was a single album streamed from Qobuz that I know quite well. Have not tried local streaming with it yet.
Ok, thanks!
Listening to this it is very different in presentation to Roon on same laptop. Just testing using a Dragonfly black and my AKGK550 mkiii nothing high end. I agree there is lots of details and separation but it also lacks any depth and feels fatiguing after prelonged listening. It’s got no meat either it’s just all super detail. Rock that I listen to didnt Rock. It lacked any feeling of power that I get from it and from Roons playback. Guitars felt cleaner and less dirty, bass is more rounded though and definitely more cleanly defined in AudiVana but it felt a bit strange. I can see why some would prefer this but it doesn’t feel organic to me it sounds to analytical and processed. I also listened to the same music via my DAP as a cross comparison to get another feel for tracks and this felt more similar to Roons presentation via the DFB. So AudiVana.is definitely up to something.
SQ aside the UI is horrible just not a fan at all and I could not work out how to filter anything so finding music is cumbersome to me and as ever and feel sluggish. It’s really not integrated so your still given multiple choices from search as to what to play not one primary one. This is where Roons full integration is so much better. However having the play Qobuz version on your own music is quite useful but you have no way of knowing what version it actually is.
As I already mentioned click areas on windows at least are all wrong and I am clicking too many times to get it to interact. Worked out why some menus didn’t open up, was down to the silly lock thing that stops any changes and won’t release exclusivity until you click it. Not sure I like that at all.
Qobuz takes forever to show up from startup and why in My music does it only show Qobuz not all my music? Also scanning is taking forever and a lot of Qobuz albums seem to have missing artwork.
To add another useless descriptor, I was thinking it sounds very ‘acoustic’ in the sense you’re almost playing acoustic versions of songs which normally sound fuller. All very unusual so far, the detail and instrument separation is very nice but it lacks warmth.
Agree it seems to take ages to find things and repeated clicks are needed to get things to work, not new fro the product.
I couldn’t figure out easily how to get a 90 day demo, so signed up with a different email.
It seems to have used some 3.5 settings so I hope it doesn’t mess that up when I return to it.
It just crashed when I tried to play something.
Reopening it wanted me to login, luckily I could remember my password, but then had to change it immediately.
Their community forum is down.
There is no controller app available yet either which will annoy those who don;t control via their computer (I do).
Same for me. AS doesn’t seem to recognise my N272 or my Chromecast.
Not an auspicious start.
Edit: AS UPnP now running ok on my Mac Mini.
Earlier problem related to ongoing issue changing my Macbook’s audio output device.
First impression of AS: Some extra detail in the mix, and yes, a leaner sound overall. New app runs faster than Audirvana 3.5.
Edit 2: Some (but not all) Tidal MQA albums are playing as white noise.
I’d advise everyone to avoid at the moment - there are reports that it is analysing metadata and replacing it in local files with metadata from MusicBrainz without warning - if true and it is modifying your local files without permission, that is ludicrous.
The reasons I left Audirvana in the past was because of non almost existent support, and buggy behavior.
I liked how the old versions sounded with a USB Dac.
Maybe they have rushed the new version out and turned their users into beta testers.
It makes me conclude they have not learned from their past mistakes.
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My fear now is that old versions will stop working. This happened only last month when a Windows update broke Audirvana and I had to install the newest build to even get it to launch.
I figure, the days of 3.5 working are limited to the first OS update that brakes it. Which is a shame because I built a system intentionally around a dedicated fanless micro PC and Audirvana.
If it goes belly up, I’ll give Roon a whirl but if I’m not sold, I’ll just get a second hand Auralic G1 or something similar.
Minimum requirement: must work with local streaming with no internet connectivity.
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