AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => The Apple Core => Topic started by: Crimson on 17 Dec 2012, 11:25 pm
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With the exception of one or two on the list, I've used them all. I've always had an affinity for Amarra, more so than PM, but now find myself using Audirvana+ more and more. The interface is simple, yet elegant; no issues (now) with iTunes integration; and, more importantly, the sound is very balanced in my system. I like it.
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I've only heard Pure Music. It's better than ITunes obviously and I like the sound. It had the reputation of being the only really reliable one when I bought it.
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I voted for Amarra because I like the way it sounds. In my opinion it bested Audirvana and Bit Perfect. The EQ feature is nice too. Down side is that it doesn't have hog mode and it is spendy.
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I use itunes for playback and XLD for ripping cds. Tried PM a while ago but thought it was a pain to use.
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I use Bitperfect and I like it. It just sounds better through Itunes. But I have not used the others.
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Just released Audirvana 1.4 has official support for integer mode. It sounds terrific. If you liked Amarra more, you might want to try Audirvana again.
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iTunes because I've known no other. I'm not really sure what I would gain by investing in a different interface. With my set up I can't do hirez and if I want to do some serious listening I play the CD. What is the real advantage to switching? :scratch:
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I use iTunes currently. Mainly since I didn't have to pay anything for it. :D
Not sure I could notice much of a difference with my current system. I am working at upgrading parts of the system first, so I would then be able to actually notice a difference. I was thinking of going with PM when the time comes, since I think Pure Vinyl is pretty cool and it comes with it.
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I'm close to pulling the trigger on a 21 inch iMac for my everyday desktop and music server, need simplicity and EQ.
The rest of my system is a Jaton RC2000S pre, Channel Island Audio D-100 monoblocks, and Bob Brines transmission lines using Fostex F200A single driver designs (27-20,000 Hz, $3,100/pair) in dedicated listening room/man cave.
What would you guys recommend for a player?
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The major players all come with a free trial period of some sort. Try them out and see which one you like.
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Any chance of allowing multiple choices in the poll?
Different players have different feature sets. And not everyone has just one computer/system ;)
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True, but the poll asks which one you prefer. :P
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I have used Play and iTunes. I prefer iTunes.
Once I get the balance of the system settled, I will explore a higher rez player, but for now the freebie is the way to go!
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I own and have used PM but find it buggy, but it may be a me issue. My Mac Mini is older (intel) and only has 2gigs of ram, and it upgraded fully. I get more out of the cheap little digital equalizer program in iTunes. I've even given some though to buying a stand alone equalizer.
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iTunes because I've known no other. I'm not really sure what I would gain by investing in a different interface. With my set up I can't do hirez and if I want to do some serious listening I play the CD. What is the real advantage to switching? :scratch:
You really should try an alternative player. Pure Music offers a free trial and works with your existing iTunes library, so you don't have to redo anything. I think you will be surprised by how much your playback improves.
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Yep. Couldn't agree more.
You owe yourself a free trial. AudirvanaPlus is available as a free trial so nothing lost if you try it.
In my system, its more detailed and involving than amarra, don't ask me why, I really dont know!
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Audirvana+ here, integrated with iTunes. This means one can basically use the iTunes interface with A+ running the show behind the scenes. It gets even better in a 'headless' setup, I use Apple's 'Remote' app on an iPod touch to control iTunes (and therefore A+).
I have also used Decibel (and before it's release, AyreWave), BitPerfect, Amarra (Trial), iTunes. They all sound good but I am convinced A+ has the edge sonically,especially in the midrange, and it is the most integrated solution for sure.
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I've just purchased Audirvarna Plus and dumped Pure Music re: have been struggling with Pure Music every since the iTunes 11 upgrade. Along with not working properly when selecting music on the first load, i've ben getting static between certain cuts. I like Aud Plus becaude I can bypass iTunes altogether...
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I got Pure Music because it works on top of itunes, sounds better than itunes, and allows you to load / use on unlimited # of machines with one license (although supposedly not simultaneously). Other nice features include ability to play / add FLAC + DSD files (essentially creates a "bookmark" in itunes) and conversion of formats such as FLAC to ALAC (which are subsequently put automatically in itunes library).
I tried listening to trial versions of Audiovarna and Pure Music and didn't here any substantial difference between each other (though they did sound better than itunes) ESPECIALLY in Memory Play. IMHO there is no point to using these programs if you are not using them in Memory Play. If you can't hear a difference between stock itunes vs one of these players in Memory Play mode, then don't buy it. The main purpose for me of these players should be improved sound quality vs stock itunes, otherwise there's not much point.
My only complaint with Pure Music is that it does crash on occasion, particularly if you are frequently hopping around songs. This seems to happen more with itunes 11 than 10.7, but that's a general & not scientific / measured impression.
I'm using it w/ a 2007 i-mac + itunes 10.7 & mid 2010 mac mini with 11.1.2 controlling all with the free remote app for iphone.
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I've been using JRiver now that it's getting close to stable on the Mac. I really love it and JRemote. Just so glad they are finally bringing it to the Mac world.
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Interesting poll. I use Audirvana for 24/96 music I've purchased or recorded and I'm going to listen to the entire album. I like the simple interface and that it plays the songs from memory. I need to work on using Playlists better but overall I'm very happy with Audirvana. I use iTunes for casual listening and when I want to easily build playlists for unique occasions.
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Ok, this is my first post here. I registered because of this poll :thumb: :thumb:
this is only my first day of the Audirvana trial, but WOW! :o :o Yesterday I paid for a copy of Amara Hifi outright because of a 15% discount to buy. While it may be quite good, I don't notice it. I haven't looked for any "Hog Mode" pref, and maybe it hasn't got that.
So an hour or so ago I DL'd Audirvana and have only run it standalone, with the exclusive access and direct mode. For the first time, I feel like I am getting just the music. This includes some WAVs, Mitsuko Uchida's Beethoven sonatas, Edo DeWaart's Mozart Gran Partita, Miles Davis' Time after Time and Human Nature, and also a cut or two form Marc Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia. The Knopfler is a pure DL form iTunes store and is no Wav or FLAC type file. But then, Knopfler never seems to have poor sound.
I just have to thank the OP for this. I will be digging up the $$ for Audirvana, even at that cost it is worth it. There is no sound between the notes. The clairity is wonderful.
Just in case, if anyone is aware that i may have missed it as far as Amarra, please, let me know if there is something I just must not have set. I will take another look.
but consider this a +1 for Audirvana, for sure!!
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I use iTunes, simply because the other packages I've tried are just miserable in terms of UI/UX. Sound quality won't matter much if I've thrown my computer out the window. Now, I haven't tried PM, and I haven't tried Audirvana. But I demoed JRiver, and it was clearly designed to torture users, likewise Amarra. I own a license for Decibel, but its lack of a library structure makes it a rare use.
I can rock lossless in iTunes, I don't have to worry about managing two libraries* for desktop and mobile, and overall browsing is a pleasurable experience. There are snags, of course - limited metadata means prioritizing one name to sort under for classical performances, composer view behaves unlike other views in quite a few ways, and album view is glitchy. Song view with the browse panels tends to work out alright, drilling down by composer, artist, album, grouping, track. Different views have different purposes, and all in all I find navigating mostly pleasing.
*to an extent, redundancies do need to exist inside of the library, in that the iPhone can't handle above 44.1/24. Which again, I use the native app because the UIs/UXes of others have simply proven to be unpleasant. With artist/composer/album/genre buttons at the bottom, navigating the condensed version of my library is serviceable, though making use of grouping on iOS would be lovely.
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I use iTunes, simply because the other packages I've tried are just miserable in terms of UI/UX. Sound quality won't matter much if I've thrown my computer out the window. Now, I haven't tried PM, and I haven't tried Audirvana. But I demoed JRiver, and it was clearly designed to torture users, likewise Amarra. I own a license for Decibel, but its lack of a library structure makes it a rare use.
I can rock lossless in iTunes, I don't have to worry about managing two libraries* for desktop and mobile, and overall browsing is a pleasurable experience. There are snags, of course - limited metadata means prioritizing one name to sort under for classical performances, composer view behaves unlike other views in quite a few ways, and album view is glitchy. Song view with the browse panels tends to work out alright, drilling down by composer, artist, album, grouping, track. Different views have different purposes, and all in all I find navigating mostly pleasing.
*to an extent, redundancies do need to exist inside of the library, in that the iPhone can't handle above 44.1/24. Which again, I use the native app because the UIs/UXes of others have simply proven to be unpleasant. With artist/composer/album/genre buttons at the bottom, navigating the condensed version of my library is serviceable, though making use of grouping on iOS would be lovely.
Pure Music is a big step up if you enjoy high resolution music. Likewise JRiver. Both are great with DSD. FWIW, the most recent version of JRiver is stable and easy to use.
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But I demoed JRiver, and it was clearly designed to torture users .....
J.River takes a while to get the hang of, but it is extremely customizable and when you configure it to your liking, it can be a model of simplicity.
I like being able to customize the scalable Mini View player window with filetype, word length, sampling rate and other info and really like the Bit Perfect indicator which turns blue when the output is bit perfect, otherwise if it is off, indicates that some sort of manipulation is engaged. Resting the cursor over the indicator reveals what is being done - upsampling, equalization, DSP, etc.
I also use iTunes by itself for casual listening in remote AirPlay locations, as AirPlay is well integrated and doesn't require the separate Airfoil application (which doesn't work with ASIO, WASAPI or Kernel Streaming drivers anyway).
Steve
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I own them all including JRMC and I just love that gorgeous Amarra sound (very analogue and non-fatiguing).
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Have purchased Amarra, Audirvana+, Pure Music and Decibel. I was quite happy with Audirvana for about a year before trying Amarra, which, to my ears, has a certain rightness about it. I'm considering an upgrade to Amarra Symphony with IRC, but am awaiting the arrival of a calibrated microphone so I can try out the IRC before making a decision.
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I have tried Audirvana, Pure Music and Amarra. I haven't tried JR. I ended up purchasing Pure Music and then Amarra which both sound correct in my system. I tend to use Amarra more however. Last week, I upgraded to Symphony with iRC to take advantage of their offer prior to September 30th. I just received my XTZ microphone kit which is also Dirac Live approved, so I'll spend some time calibrating later this week.
Interestingly, Theta Digital will be releasing their PR3/Dirac upgrade later this year or early next for their Casablanca HT pre-pro. They are debuting the newly named CB IV with these features at CEDIA. I'll be upgrading my Blanca IIIHD early next year. It should be interesting having room correction for both 2-channel audio and HT.
Now, if I could just have Mr. Hynes ship my SR7EHD power supply soon.
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I own most of the players for Mac, and have tended to use both Audirvana + and Amarra, finding a slight sonic advantage to Amarra in my system.
I then bought a calibrated USB microphone to check out the trial version of "Amarra Symphony with iRC." The room correction feature has turned a slight advantage into a large gulf. I'm now getting far better sound and more enjoyment than with any source, analogue or digital, that I have used so far.
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Pure Music. Easy to use and sounds real fine...
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I have been using Amarra HiFi on my Mini system - I have a couple hundred Hi-Res tracks along with several thousand (i.e., ~30,000) ALAC tracks. In general, I love the sound, but truth be told, I'm pretty easy to please. One thing I don't like is that it occasionally chops off the first second or two of a song - quite jarring. I don't know if this is s problem specific to Amarra, or to my system, or if this is a more generalized problem with such music software players.
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Amarra for the Mac.
JRiver fan on my Windows Box, but after using Audirvana and Bit Perfect on the Mac I drifted back to Amarra.
Great support staff, excellent product all around and the price is very competitive in the market, especially considering the performance and specification of the software.
I do note though that the drain on system resources can be troublesome...even noticeable on a Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz with 4 GB RAM.
Requires tuning the Mac for playback.
(http://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=94195)
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I use Clementine,Ecoute (which are Free as in Beer) and which do a great job with FLAC and mp3 and anything you throw at them.I use Cog as well. I also use Decibel because it plays anything.Max also is good and will also convert.
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I use iTunes but I use iTunes 5 on my SnowLeopard iMacs as I don't like what Apple has done with iTunes. I have to have the latest version of iTunes because I have an iPhoneS on my MacbookAir.
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JRiver
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Hey Now,
Fidelia, sounds good, nice support and ease of use. I like that I can maintain two separate libraries, Fidelia's and iTunes. I keep may hi-res FLAC files in the Fidelia separate from iTunes. I also have the original Audivarna and Bit Perfect. The original Audivarna UI is a bit cumbersome, but sounds good. Bit Perfect is a bit too buggy in my system to use all the time.
Finest kind,
Chris
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Jriver
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Jriver
Thank you for the tip!I downloaded and installed JRiver for Mac and it is great.I can't thank you enough.I hope it will install on my SnowLeopard iMacs. I putt on my MacBookAir with OS9.
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Actually I use both JRiver for MAC and Audirvana+
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This is a copy of what I posted on Media 19 which is the latest version of JRiver's App.It has not been answered.I feel we as Mac users should be given the same features as Windows users have.They charge the same $49 as Windows users.Here is my posting:There are plenty of audio apps.Decibel,Cog,Max,Clementine to name a few.I agree with the view that we are paying as Mac users a lot of cash for this app but we are not getting the full benefits of this app as are the Windows users. I would certainly pay more for a full working application that the Windows users have. It is nice to have "half a loaf" but my appetite is not sated by "half a loaf".I want the full meal.BTW I have Foo Bar in my iMac Snow Leopard iMacs(courtesy of WINE and WINE BOTTLER) which I did not enunciate.That as well as Clementine and Cog as well as Max is free (as in Beer) but also only plays Audio files not Video Files. I refuse to put Boot Camp or Parallels on my Macs just to get the same benefits as Windows users. We are First Class citizens not inferior to Windows users. There must be a way to get us the full benefits of this great app.
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Tried JRiver and it's too complicated for my feeble brain. Any small improvement over iTunes isn't worth the hassle to me. Plus, it crashed waaaay too often on my Macbook Pro running 10.6.8
I then tried Pure Music and couldn't get it to playback through Airport Express. There were a few people having similar problems on various forums and solutions were sparse and over-technical.
I rip via MAX on to a NAS and playback with iTunes via AP Express optical into my upsampling DAC and it sounds great with minimal hassle. Also, just got an iPhone yesterday and lovin' the 'Remote' APP for controlling the whole shebang from the fat 'n lazy chair.
Whoopeedo
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I have JRiver's Media 19 on my iMacs with Snow leopard and they don't crash but in the beginning before I paid for them they froze at times.I couldn't play any thing and I had to force quit the app. But after I paid it is running smoothly.I like the way it plays my music. I just object to the way they do not allow the same privileges that Windows users have. (Images and Movies)
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When I played with JR they'd just released a new Mac version and other folks were reporting it was buggy and unstable. That issue may well have been fixed by now.
I really didn't notice any significant difference with iTunes, JR and PM. I'm sure the differences are there if one tries hard enough to find them, and has a resolving enough rig. I was pleased not to have that problem to contend with and pleased to have the simplicity and reliability of iTunes without sacrificing SQ.
The biggest differences I heard were when playing via the Macbook connected direct to the processor via optical, versus wireless streaming through Airport Express. To my surprise, AE sounded better than the direct connection. Going direct resulted in a more harsh and 'digital' sound whereas the restricted 16/48 from AE seemed to remove that digital glare. So it's win-win for me. :)
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<Edited poll to include JRiver>
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When I played with JR they'd just released a new Mac version and other folks were reporting it was buggy and unstable. That issue may well have been fixed by now.
I really didn't notice any significant difference with iTunes, JR and PM. I'm sure the differences are there if one tries hard enough to find them, and has a resolving enough rig. I was pleased not to have that problem to contend with and pleased to have the simplicity and reliability of iTunes without sacrificing SQ.
The biggest differences I heard were when playing via the Macbook connected direct to the processor via optical, versus wireless streaming through Airport Express. To my surprise, AE sounded better than the direct connection. Going direct resulted in a more harsh and 'digital' sound whereas the restricted 16/48 from AE seemed to remove that digital glare. So it's win-win for me. :)
Pardon my ignorance.What is AE,SQ,PM??
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What is AE,SQ,PM??
AE = Airport Express (Apple Router/iTunes streamer hardware)
SQ = Sound Quality
PM = Pure Music (add-on playback engine software for iTunes)
DYKT? (Don't you know that?) ;)
Steve
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Hi Steve, What can I say??? I don't know everything. I'm lucky I get up in the morning! :duh:
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hi
i've tested pure music, audirvana, amarra and aimp (pc) both have a clean an precise sound
but amarra has something more analogic like, the sound got more width and depth also
the multiple tasks the software can do are great, cache memory playback, eq, and digital room correction
i've recently tried and loved Dirac digital room corection and was delighted to see
that it's incuded in amarra symphony ! ... (but only in stereo version it seems)
personnaly i prefer playing flac converted in aiff than flac direcly in amarra
mostly of my music collection is in flac but aiff sounds better to my ears
i believe with a few setting and optimisations in the software
(this site explains a lot about this http://www.thewelltemperedcomputer.com/)
and a few hardware upgrades
(USB3/SATA SDD + a 500 $ DAC)
and a mac could become a true audiophile device ...
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Funny how a dead last player gets my vote. Yup, Decibel. Was using A+ v 1.5.x but Decibel was a little more natural on acoustic instruments. Less soundstage width but better hall ambience, detail retrieval without being steely or edgy (I'm looking at you J River, :lol:)
Over the years had Pure Music, itunes, of course, bit perfect, and Audirvana. All had some sort of sonic signature that seemed more overt than decibel.
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Another Decibel user here. Natural sounding is indeed a good way to describe it. I'll go further, and say accurate. Haven't noticed the narrow soundstage, yes to the ambience and lack of metalic/jag.
May sound silly, but, one of my tests is how well the tape hiss is reproduced. Decibel tape hiss sounds right.
Latest version has an EQ included.
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Decibel gets my vote.I am a loyalist and Decibel has been good to me.
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+4 for Decibel. :thumb:
I selected Decibel over Audirvana when first auditioned back in the Snow Leopard days, but may try out Audirvana Plus. I’m running latest version of Decibel v1.3.2 with OS-X Yosemite. I like the equalizer in this latest iteration, but miss integer mode no longer being available.
Also … since recently switching to Yosemite & downloading latest drivers for J Kenny M2 Tech Hiface USB/SPDIF convertor coupled with latest Decibel version, I can’t get hog mode to work (“obtain exclusive rights” box is checked in preferences, & it did work before with Snow Leopard). Anyone else having this problem? Still sounds really good tho' ...
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Jeez, I'm going to have to try Decibel again after reading all these posts. I'd been a regular Audirvana plus 1.5 for quite some time. I recently upgraded to Audirvana plus 2.0.9 and there is a significant improvement. It's slightly leaner in the bass, but the sound is more organic and balanced and I can ease into the music better. I also tried J River MC20 on my Mac and was startled by the difference. It was even leaner in the bass, the imaging was more spot on, I could pick out instrument position much easier, it was more 3 dimensional, there was more air around each of the instruments and I heard more decay, it was an airier presentation. My first impression was that it was indeed better than Audirvana. But after listening for a while I started to get the feeling that maybe all these differences were due to a slight exaggeration in the high end, a little like the unsharpen filter in photoshop. There was something not quite right. I ended up going back to Audirvana 2 and am very happy. However, I am now seriously looking at a high end streamer instead, I'm hearing some very good things about several products.
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Hey All -
This was exactly the discussion I was looking for. I'm an iTunes and AppleMusic user, but I want to dabble in higher-resolution files. I've ripper a few CDs using the Apple Lossless Codec. I don't hear a real difference between that and a standard AAC file.
I have so many questions. Need to research some more, but my primary question is:
Is there a Mac music interface that will send higher than AAC resolution files via AirPlay?
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Jeez, I'm going to have to try Decibel again after reading all these posts. I'd been a regular Audirvana plus 1.5 for quite some time. I recently upgraded to Audirvana plus 2.0.9 and there is a significant improvement. It's slightly leaner in the bass, but the sound is more organic and balanced and I can ease into the music better. I also tried J River MC20 on my Mac and was startled by the difference. It was even leaner in the bass, the imaging was more spot on, I could pick out instrument position much easier, it was more 3 dimensional, there was more air around each of the instruments and I heard more decay, it was an airier presentation. My first impression was that it was indeed better than Audirvana. But after listening for a while I started to get the feeling that maybe all these differences were due to a slight exaggeration in the high end, a little like the unsharpen filter in photoshop. There was something not quite right. I ended up going back to Audirvana 2 and am very happy. However, I am now seriously looking at a high end streamer instead, I'm hearing some very good things about several products.
I get that metallic kind of edge with Jriver as well. But I did try A+ 2.?? and man is that good. Beats Decibel for transparency and detail without being too harsh. I liked it best with the X-Sabre in Integer Mode with Mode 2. Mode 1 was a bit too stark. And the neat thing is the audio units plugin feature works great. Ran Tokyo Dawn Labs EQ beautifully.
May have to buy it if I decide to stick with the Mac platform. I will be trying Daphile OS on a PC soon to see how easy it might be and if it sounds a bit better as everyone claims.
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Hey Now,
Just an update. Went from using Fidelia, to Audivarna v2.? to JRMC v19 . . . now using Roon + HQPlayer with Tidal integration and it is the best computer audio I have heard in my system. Recently I went to a poor man's music renderer using a Raspberry Pi2 and Volumio, then upgraded that to less of a poor man's music renderer using an Intel NUC with an AudioLinux OS and HQPlayers NAA, boy this thing sounds amazing, upsampling all my files to DSD256.
Relegated the RPi2 to the bedroom with an HQPlayer NAA image and am streaming up to DSD128 via Powerline Ethernet. Works and sounds real good with an iPad control point. Roon + HQPlayer is just terrific, quite happy right now.
--
Finest kind,
Chris
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Tried Amarra at a friend's suggestion when it went on sale (April 15th). Not much improvement over iTunes IME, but the newest iTunes/El Capitan has messed it up completely.
Regardless, no software is good if it doesn't run.
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I've been using Audivarna + and have been really happy with it. I haven't tried the others so can't compare except to iTunes and there is a big difference in that regard.
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Hey guys,
I recently updated my Mac, and as a long term Fidelia user, tried to port it over with no luck, so I tried HQ player from Signalyst, and man, I can tell you it is the best, most engaging sound off of my music library EVER. It is set to output 96/24 through optical interface to a 96/24 converter, and the difference with the other players is simply amazing. The user interface is pretty crude, but you can integrate Roon for the best of everything. I highly recommend you try HQ player's 30 day evaluation. You will not regret it!
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It's been a while. I have tested and used all of the players listed and just for good measure I went back and downloaded Signalyst's HQPlayer and its interface along with most if not all of the others served to reinforce my observations and concerns with the Mac Music player software.
Apart for Audirvana + 1.5x all other software reminds you that you are indeed using a computer as a music server/repository. The user experience and interface for all apart from Audrivana + 1.5x is just ghastly. Moreover, for those of us with music libraries counted in TBs and not GBs the library feature becomes more and more cumbersome, especially when new music is added and the library needs to be re-indexed.
Software like Signalyst's HQPlayer sounds decent and affords users the opportunity to do some really fancy upsampling, but after a while you just want to listen, search, select and enjoy your music following the path of least resistance.
As for my favorite Audrivana +, I maintained a long series of communications with Daniel about 2.x and his move away from the look and feel of 1.5x and I totally understand why he went down that route and applaud him for all the work and features he put into the new version. I just feel more comfortable with 1.5x and what it has to offer and more importantly for me....NOT offer.
PS, for those of you who look to slay the Metadata dragon as I do, i can heartily recommend Metadatics: http://www.markvapps.com/metadatics (http://www.markvapps.com/metadatics)
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+1 on Metadatics, really helps chop through the metadata weeds.
I voted for Fidelia in the poll but it hasn't had a significant (or even minor AFAIK) update in ages.
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I use PV/PM because it was the first one I found that made it easy to digitize my vinyl AND sounded good. Others may be equal today, although I'd be surprised if any were better. Unfortunately, PV has the ability to create bookmarks in iTunes which point to locations in the album file and saves a lot of disk space over creating an album file and then creating music tracks from that, but it locks you in. Consequently, unless I want to create music tracks, which would take a very long time, I will be sticking with it.
I just discovered it has a bug that may be important to some. It cannot downsample and play bookmarked tracks. Downsampling can only be done from tracks that are on the disk. This is only an issue if you create high-res files, bookmark them and later decide you need lower resolution for some reason.
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I then bought a calibrated USB microphone to check out the trial version of "Amarra Symphony with iRC." The room correction feature has turned a slight advantage into a large gulf. I'm now getting far better sound and more enjoyment than with any source, analogue or digital, that I have used so far.
I did room frequency correction in Pure Vinyl/Music several years ago with similar results. Now I am trying to get a Legacy Wavelet working to include time correction. The Wavelet is independent of whatever software you are using but there is a problem on Macs. It can handle up to 352.8kHz via its USB connection but it tells the Mac it can only handle 96kHz. Therefore, you need software that can ignore what the Mac thinks. Unfortunately, Pure Vinyl/Music can't.
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Jriver here. Running on MacBook Pro and has been running great. Now I just need to learn how to use all the functions. lol
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I am really enjoying the new version of Audirvana. I think it is up to 3.5.2 now. It is a audible improvement to 3.4. It isn't free, but sounds FAR superior to iTunes, plays DSD and supports HiRez streaming.
I like the Fidelia interface but it has been forever since an improvement and it doesn't support Tidal and Qobuz from within the app.
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Thanks for the interesting (if old) replies. I thought that I had tried everything, but Fidelia and Metadatics are new to me.
I settled on iTunes and BitPerfect a while ago. I do not stream and no longer use wireless connections. I have never had issues with iTunes (at least in the last decade) and BitPerfect is excellent—especially on a machine dedicated to audio only.
I still think about getting a Mac Mini, but my old Core 2 Duo iMac accepts a 3.5" HD. It has a 3Tb HD right now, plenty of storage for uncompressed files.
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I've tried Pure Music, Audirvana, RoonLabs's and find myself using JRiver Media Center the most
Pure Music was problematic for me; I didn't like the way it creates a bookmark file for each source file and it would often lock up on me.
I found that the recurring cost for RoonLabs was more than I was willing to pay, although I think their interface is fantastic
AudirVana is what I use when I want to handle MQA encoded files or when I am streaming from Tidal
I use this software on a Mid-2012 MacBook Pro 15 with the optical drive swapped out for a 2GB spindle drive and a 2012 MacMini setup with two drives as well. Both are running Mojave