Audivarna Studio

[sq225917]

Anyone watch the live stream reveal of the new Audivarna? Looks like they've reskinned it and rebuilt a lot of the back end as well as improve the control app.

I'm a long time user on mac as it has long been the most stable playback app that handles most file formats and handles auto sample rate switching.

I don't 5hink it sounds any different to iTunes but its certainly a better featured app and that's why I stick with it.

Any thoughts from anyone?

 

[Dubesaur]

I like the VST/AU plugin option, but now that it is subscription only I will be looking elsewhere when the 3.5 version breaks from OS updates.

 

[mkt]

Not a fan of subscription. I have 3.5 and like its integration with Qobuz.

 

[Matias]

Difficult to understand what changed apart from new interface and subscription payment.

 

[amper42]

Audirvana Studio adds the ability to create playlists that combine ripped CD's as well as Qobuz/Tidal streams. My 3.5 version only allows playlists of steaming media OR a separate playlist for local ripped CD's. It's a nice feature but certainly not worth $70 a year over my 3.5 version.

The product change might kill off most of the existing Audirvana users as it's obvious they don't want to go down the subscription route. The company is taking a big risk with existing customer satisfaction and giving Roon a lot of opportunity. During the webcast announcement for Audirvana studio there was a lot of negative comments from existing users. It seemed to cause the moderator to grimace in pain a few times.

It's pretty evident the guys at Audirvana did not think through the rejection they are receiving or place any real value on existing customers. It may take a while to build back Audirvana customer satisfaction. If that doesn't happen then the company will become a shell of it's former operation.

 

[sq225917]

Yeh, I'm a long time user, running on a ten year old mac, the new software offers me nothing so I'll not be subscribing. When I pension off my old mbp I'll just move to a nuc.

 

[Carnatux]

I bought the lifetime subscription for Audirvana 3.5 a month ago R.I.P.
Any recommendations to replace it? I'm on Mac and not a fan of the subscription model.

 

[sq225917]

No need to swap at all, just keep using it.

 

[Carnatux]

No need to swap at all, just keep using it.

Tried Roon yesterday and while its nice, I don't need any more subscriptions at the moment. if only I waited lol

 

[Manjeshgpai]

Tried Roon yesterday and while its nice, I don't need any more subscriptions at the moment. if only I waited lol

Plex is the closest you could get which works well for local library and Tidal subscription (no MQA though). It is also multi platform and also has option to access your local music from internet. You can also select output device for audio which makes it almost bit perfect. It costs about $120 for a fully lifetime license. However if you want greater control over music - DSP, DAC settings, zones etc, Plex is not for you. You could also look at Jriver, if you can stand the cluttered and unattractive UI. Apart from internet radios, it does not support any other streaming music service. Costs about $60 for single major version.

 

[amper42]

Audirvana was a great product. I will use mine as long as it continues to work. Apple should buy it and release it for Free to Apple Music subscribers.

 

[Zensō]

Audirvana is in the same precarious position as Roon in that they are overly dependent upon Tidal and Qobuz, both of which are under threat by Amazon, Spotify, and Apple moving to lossless. You have to wonder how long Tidal and Qobuz can last, and how it will affect the bottom lines of Audirvana and Roon if they fail.

 

[Manjeshgpai]

I installed Audirvana Studio and it came out as a software which was released in a hurry. Now being a subscription model, they should have done better! Or do they expect customers to subscribe and then wait for problems to get fixed? Here are my observations:
Whats good:
1. Better looking interface than 3.5
2. Audio setting is laid out in a easy to use interface
3. Internet radios!
4. Feature which checks music files (local only) for encoding quality (did I get it right?).

Whats not:
1. App crashes...app crashes. It is a beta release without the beta tag.
2. Still no auto tagging, album cover search etc.
3. Audirvana website mentions a new? mobile app. As of date only app available for download load is the old one which doesn't connect with Studio.
4. Default RadioParadise has no Metadata or album cover support. Maybe manually adding the URL with Metadata will fix it partly but album cover still looks doubtful.
5. Once you get past the sleek UI, it somehow feels like old candy wrapped in new paper.

IMHO, if you already have 3.5 lifetime purchased and are happy with it, subscribing for studio will not provide with any added benefits.

 

[amper42]

I can't imagine wanting internet radio. I'm looking for the highest possible quality source and radio isn't it.

 

[Manjeshgpai]

Audirvana is in the same precarious position as Roon in that they are overly dependent upon Tidal and Qobuz, both of which are under threat by Amazon, Spotify, and Apple moving to lossless. You have to wonder how long Tidal and Qobuz can last, and how it will affect the bottom lines of Audirvana and Roon if they fail.

Agree. Though Audirvana (if their statement during new version launch can be believed) doesnt seem to have closed doors on other HD streaming providers, Roon is still mired in their "we don't support anything other than Tidal or Qobuz" policy.

 

[Grotti]

Calculating the costs over the years, it doesn't make sense to me to upgrade on Audirvana Studio. Since I use Audirvana (Laptop) parallel with Volumio (Volumio Primo) I hope, the step to Volumio 3 (beta testing takes place right now) will make Audirvana dispensable...

 

[Ata]

Audirvana is in the same precarious position as Roon in that they are overly dependent upon Tidal and Qobuz, both of which are under threat by Amazon, Spotify, and Apple moving to lossless. You have to wonder how long Tidal and Qobuz can last, and how it will affect the bottom lines of Audirvana and Roon if they fail.

Precisely. Audirvana has some integration with Apple Music, but I do not know if it includes streaming capability.

After the latest updates, Apple Music is much slicker UI wise than ever, and it still has the AMG metadata that has been part of the Roon value proposition.

Apple Music Lossless is basically the nuclear option as far as their competition is concerned. Tidal and Qobuz are much smaller, Spotify are again behind, and the pricing of Roon and Audirvana Studio looks very expensive. All we need now is bitperfect exclusive audio out of Apple Music on the desktop (it is already there on iOS).

 

[Grotti]

All we need now is bitperfect exclusive audio out of Apple Music on the desktop (it is already there on iOS

Perfect if you are an apple user. Which I am decidedly not.

 

[sq225917]

I'd have been perfectly happy with the iTunes that shipped with Mountain Lion if it did sample rate switching. I loved that album view. ITunes music is no use to me at all. I stream nothing it's all on internal HD.

Audivarna is a marginally better tool but 90% of its features mean nothing to me.

 

[Carnatux]

Plex is the closest you could get which works well for local library and Tidal subscription (no MQA though). It is also multi platform and also has option to access your local music from internet. You can also select output device for audio which makes it almost bit perfect. It costs about $120 for a fully lifetime license. However if you want greater control over music - DSP, DAC settings, zones etc, Plex is not for you. You could also look at Jriver, if you can stand the cluttered and unattractive UI. Apart from internet radios, it does not support any other streaming music service. Costs about $60 for single major version.

Thanks, I'll give plex a try. I tend to listen to my music locally with my ssd to my imac using audirvana to send the signal to my topping E & L30 Stack. Before that I would just drag and drop flacs and play them through foobar for mac. what I liked about audirvana was I could save all of my favorite playlists, albums & songs. It would also load all the album covers and coming from foobar it was a step up. It was nice just having it be plug & play. The only thing I didn't like about audirvana was that when scrolling through hundreds of albums the covers took awhile to load. Also the U.I could get chopy from time to time.