Plāys With Audirvāna
Quote from Pedja on 24 June 2024, 7:26 PMSo, we did it.
You will find more formal information soon, but for now you can see this within the Audirvana window or Remote app (Windows will show it with WASAPI and kernel output, ASIO has a different routing).
And, I personally also like very much how Audirvana sounds. As soon as I installed it to my NUC / Windows, it sounded very nice, very smooth, maybe even a bit soft, but everything got even better when I installed it to my Synology NAS and routed it to Raspberry Pi5 / DietPi as an endpoint to connect it to S5 and S5b USB input (unfortunately Synology abandoned audio support for USB devices, so now a direct connection is not possible anyway).
A very nice-sounding software, and currently I use it as my main source.
Thanks for recommending it.
Hi Pedja,
Trying Audirvana and I can’t see the drop down to let it know I have the S5b. It has found my ASIO driver.
Hello Peter,
A drop-down list, now with pictures, should appear if you choose WASAPI or kernel output, and then "Audial USB Audio Device". Normally, WASAPI is preferred to the kernel because it is a more direct path.
ASIO is similar to WSAPI in that it is a direct output to the device. If you use ASIO, and then select Audial ASIO, it will do the rest. In this case, however, Audirvana does not bring the drop-down list with S5b, S5, and AYA 5. I would have to check with Antonie if this can also be done.
If that matters, the benefit of ASIO output is the ability to play up to 384 kHz, and multichannel. WASAPI and kernel, as Windows "embedded" outputs, are limited to 192 kHz.
HTH.
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A few years ago i tried nearly every music player that worked on a Mac, Amarra and Audirvana sounded the best with Roon in third place, but no program could touch Roon in what it is, a fantastic design with unbelievable great way of finding new music, I was lucky to be able to buy a lifetime subscription for a fraction of what it costs now, the sound has gotten better lately I think too.
I would not mind trying Audirvana again as I understand that they have made a much nicer player software vise lately.
I just don’t like the subscription way of going, it’s a bit like Adobe!
Would be nice if Roon would accept audio engines from Amarra or Audirvana, then I would have the best of both worlds.
And, as a follow-up on this topic.
As I liked Synology NAS / Linux connected to the DAC by the RPi / DietPi endpoint, I also tried installing the Audirvana Linux version to the RPi / DietPi itself. However, this sounded inferior, not only to the NAS / RPi combination, but also to the NUC / Windows – it was tonally still well balanced, but somewhat thin, with no real dynamics, in a word not convincing.
Since I concluded that there is definitely something in using the endpoint, and also because I experienced some bugs with the Linux version (I guess Audirvana will solve them soon, though), I then installed Audirvana on my Windows laptop and routed its output to the same RPi endpoint.
The result was the best so far, and that is what I now listen to.
And, to clarify the "system hardware". My Raspberry is Pi5 with 4 GB RAM, Synology NAS has Celeron J4125 and 6 GB RAM, and the laptop is Asus with Ryzen 5 7530U and 16 GB RAM, running Windows 11. NAS and RPi use 1 Gbps cable, and the laptop uses Wi-Fi 6, to connect to TP-Link AX72 LAN. All these devices use factory-provided supplies, although NAS and RPi are connected to the UPS, with very slight mains filtering. So, not the cheapest there is, but still moderately priced gear, and more than acceptable for what it brings, especially taking into account that you can use it not only as an audio source but also for other purposes.
Regarding the software, please note that the DietPi takes GMediaRender "activated" to act as an endpoint, but that should be easy. On the other side, if you are going to install a "third party" Linux software like Audirvana to the DietPi for the first time, as I did, it is good to make yourself a coffee and take a deep breath before you start, as it might not work from the start. But it can be done.
Although it is not directly related to the topic, but because I, like some of you, still want to play some physical CDs sometimes, it is worth noting that Audirvana, like many modern players, does not support a CD drive as a source.
To play CDs, I still use Foobar2000. Applying the above approach, I installed it on the same PC as Audirvana, and added the UPnP Media Renderer output plugin, so I routed its output to the same RPi.
Also, as I probably did not post this before, Mac USB SuperDrive is a very good CD drive for audio purposes, it is better sounding than the other USB drives I tried. There is an Apple software you have to install to make it work under Windows, and if you connect it to the USB port with enough power (it takes more current than usual USB A standard 500 mA), it does work.
Overall, this makes a very neat "CD transport".