Upgraded to Audirvana Studio - Audio-fooled NOT

NHL99

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What a difference! Have a license for the Audirvana, doesn't sound anything special. Downloaded the free 30-day trial of Audirvana Studio. So much better audio wise. Using Campfire Audio to MacBook Pro. Anyone else hear the difference?
 

Tinman1952

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What a difference! Have a license for the Audirvana, doesn't sound anything special. Downloaded the free 30-day trial of Audirvana Studio. So much better audio wise. Using Campfire Audio to MacBook Pro. Anyone else hear the difference?
Interesting…. I bought a life time license some time ago and was not going to pay on a monthly subscription model too. I wonder what the improvement actually relates to…?
 

Tinman1952

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Does Audirvana give you bit-perfect playback? If it does, then it is doing the same as Foobar2000 with ASIO or WASAPI drivers enabled.
Well actually Audirvana does a lot more than just bit perfect playback.
It optimises the entire operating system for audio playback and disables non essential services. Plays from RAM too. 🙂
 

NHL99

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Have to add that the listening experience is with in-ears connected to the laptop directly. Also tried the Audirvana Studio with USB to a somewhat outdated DAC, where the benefits disappear. It's all in the details of the particular setup. The chain isn't stronger than the weakest link.
 

NHL99

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From their website
'Audirvāna loads, decodes and processes the entire audio data of a track prior to playback in a buffer memory.

This limits processor activity during playback and protects the music from playback jitter and possible signal interference by stabilizing the computer power supply and limiting processor activity to the bare minimum: minus 0.5% CPU load less than 0:5% of CPU load.

In addition, Audirvāna delivers a ‘ready-to-play’ digital audio stream that allows your converter to operate under optimal conditions, i.e. a PCM (or DSD) stream already decoded, which takes into account the characteristics of your DAC – for the order of reception of data beyond 16bits for example – and reduces the tasks to be performed at its level. With quality as sole priority, Audirvāna does not have to seek a compromise between processing speed and accuracy and can thus mobilize the computer’s computing power using the best algorithms.

Today, most DACs operate at very high internal frequencies and low resolution. This conversion involves oversampling. Benefiting from the processing power of your computer, much higher than the internal capacity of the DAC, Audirvāna can run more sophisticated and demanding oversampling algorithms, and feed your DAC with a signal containing more accurate data that facilitates the interpolation work.'
 
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Friesiansam

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Audirvāna loads, decodes and processes the entire audio data of a track prior to playback in a buffer memory.

This limits processor activity during playback and protects the music from playback jitter and possible signal interference by stabilizing the computer power supply and limiting processor activity to the bare minimum: minus 0.5% CPU load less than 0:5% of CPU load.
Well with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 core 16 thread CPU, processor load is a non issue, as is jitter as it's taken care of by my DAC/headphone amp. Variations in CPU load during playback will be beyond Audirvana's control as they will be caused by the operating system and other software. Stability of pawer supply is ensured by buying a good quality PSU for your PC, which I did when I built my PC.

The rest of the quote has a feel of the same kind of, blind the customer with pseudoscience waffle, that high-end cable manufacturers use. I did however try running the free trial, except Audirvana refused to allow me to add my music to it's library. The instructions online state that one should click the "add a folder" button under "local", there was no such button and I am really not bothered enough to do anything about it. Foobar2000 just works and works well.
 

NHL99

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Well with an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 core 16 thread CPU, processor load is a non issue, as is jitter as it's taken care of by my DAC/headphone amp. Variations in CPU load during playback will be beyond Audirvana's control as they will be caused by the operating system and other software. Stability of pawer supply is ensured by buying a good quality PSU for your PC, which I did when I built my PC.

The rest of the quote has a feel of the same kind of, blind the customer with pseudoscience waffle, that high-end cable manufacturers use. I did however try running the free trial, except Audirvana refused to allow me to add my music to it's library. The instructions online state that one should click the "add a folder" button under "local", there was no such button and I am really not bothered enough to do anything about it. Foobar2000 just works and works well.
What definitely could affect the sound is the filtering done with oversampling
'You can oversample your audio files directly in Audirvāna before playback on your system, using one of the two built-in high-performance algorithms: SOX (SoundExchange) and R8 Brain. This can improve sound quality, sometimes quite noticeably, depending on your system’s converter and the settings you choose.
Indeed, almost all DACs today on the market operate on a very-high-frequency switching-principle with a resolution of only a few bits. They therefore systematically oversample the signal just before the actual conversion, but work with limited computing power and more or less powerful algorithms, particularly for chip-cost and latency reasons.
You can use Audirvāna to carry out this operation upstream: it will benefit from the computer’s much greater computing power, and with a high-performance algorithm. This will facilitate the DAC’s work by giving it a stream that contains more precise points at the base.
The settings associated with each algorithm are slightly different, but both will allow you to define the multiple of the sampling rate to be applied (x2, x4 etc.) as well as to fine-tune various filters, essentially to neutralize the artifacts that result from these operations.'
 
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Tinman1952

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Why is it not?
Because it isn’t.
I’ve had this discussion before with members of the ‘digital is just ones and zeros’ or ‘measurements are everything‘ brigade.
If you don‘t accept that a computer is the worst place for digital audio because of contaminated power supplies and electro magnetic interference….and believe ‘bits are just bits’ then nothing I say can persuade you differently.
You can take the Audirvana challenge and try it yourself for free…..
I did and decided it was worth paying for as it improved sound quality.
Even getting it to convert FLAC files to WAV before sending to my streamer brought about an improvement.
 

Friesiansam

Well-known member
If you don‘t accept that a computer is the worst place for digital audio because of contaminated power supplies and electro magnetic interference….and believe ‘bits are just bits’ then nothing I say can persuade you differently.
One thing a computer is designed to do above all else, because otherwise it simply would not work, is work with ones and zeros without them becoming corrupted.
 

Friesiansam

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What you mean is…”I didn’t actually try the software because I couldn‘t see how to add my music library…and gave up.”
I really don't care what you think but, I followed the instructions provided on the website. I do not pay £64.99 per year for software when it doesn't work properly and, when free software works and, works well.

Don't expect any further responses, I'm done with this and, done with this website. Too many idiots who stoop to insults when they don't get agreement.
 

Tinman1952

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I really don't care what you think but, I followed the instructions provided on the website. I do not pay £64.99 per year for software when it doesn't work properly and, when free software works and, works well.

Don't expect any further responses, I'm done with this and, done with this website. Too many idiots who stoop to insults when they don't get agreement.
Shame you (rather immaturely) feel ‘insulted’ when someone expresses a different opinion. I had no trouble with the Audirvana software…but you were ‘not bothered enough’ to implement it.
This forum is about the exchange of information, experiences and knowledge. If you find that uncomfortable then that’s unfortunate.
 

Office Dog

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Shame you (rather immaturely) feel ‘insulted’ when someone expresses a different opinion. I had no trouble with the Audirvana software…but you were ‘not bothered enough’ to implement it.
This forum is about the exchange of information, experiences and knowledge. If you find that uncomfortable then that’s unfortunate.
Reading this thread back, Tinman1952, I suspect that it's not the fact that you are expressing a different opinion. It's your tone when you do it.
'Say what you mean, but don't say it mean.'
 

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