[6rs]

Out of curiosity, I have been downloading the Amarra Demo verison (based on enthusiastic comments made in a the sister forum run by Empirical Audio). This software exclusively runs on the Mac OSX platform. Th econsensus seems that its decoding algorithm leads to far superior sound compared to iTunes. The claims are true, in my experience. I have ripped CDs both in the Apple lossless format (unsupported till now by Amarra) and .wav files (supported by Amarra) and played them after each other using iTunes. The difference is amazing, and I will order the dongle right away to run Amarra without the intermittent silence that occurs with the demo version. Voices are more real, with plasticity and body, for example ("Live in London" by Leonard Cohen, released 2009). Actually, you it is hard to use iTunes after you have tasted Amarra.
BTW, I am using an Isabella with integrate DAC.
Bruno

[Vinnie R.]

Out of curiosity, I have been downloading the Amarra Demo verison (based on enthusiastic comments made in a the sister forum run by Empirical Audio). This software exclusively runs on the Mac OSX platform. Th econsensus seems that its decoding algorithm leads to far superior sound compared to iTunes. The claims are true, in my experience. I have ripped CDs both in the Apple lossless format (unsupported till now by Amarra) and .wav files (supported by Amarra) and played them after each other using iTunes. The difference is amazing, and I will order the dongle right away to run Amarra without the intermittent silence that occurs with the demo version. Voices are more real, with plasticity and body, for example ("Live in London" by Leonard Cohen, released 2009). Actually, you it is hard to use iTunes after you have tasted Amarra.
BTW, I am using an Isabella with integrate DAC.
Bruno

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for your post!  I need to check this out for myself.  So you find the sound to be clearly better with Amarra, but how do you find the user interface to be compared to iTunes? 

Anyone else tried Amarra with their Isabella / Isabellina?

When I get some free time, I'll give it a try....

Thanks again,

Vinnie

[6rs]

Thanks for your post!  I need to check this out for myself.  So you find the sound to be clearly better with Amarra, but how do you find the user interface to be compared to iTunes? 


Vinnie

The user interface of iTunes remains functional and untouched with Amarra, which integrates and runs together with iTunes. It is only the mere audio data that is taken out of iTunes hands by Amarra.
For now, Amarra cannot read Apple lossless. The files need to be converted to .wav or another uncompressed format to be readable by Amarra. If Amarra cannot read a format, it is played by iTunes, as before installing Amarra.
The software license is 1500USD. Some people seem reluctant to spend money for software as it is invisible. Given the quality improvement, it is a good investment though. You could request to download the demo. The demo adds pauses to the music every minute or so, but allows to assess the sound quality.

[Vinnie R.]

Doh!  So much of my library is in Apple Lossless 

Well, I do have quite a few albums in WAV and still need to give the demo a try! 

Thanks again,

Vinnie

[dspringham]

Vinnie,

I think Amarra will read AIFF files therefor it would be easy to convert ALAC to AIFF in iTunes and maintain all of the album art meta data. The only sacrifice would be dic space (which is cheap these days).

Some claim that on non-optimized Macs or lower end models the AIFF files are less processor intensive and will sound marginally better than same files in ALAC format.

Amarra sounds very interesting. Whether the performance justifies the price remains to be seen.

Dave

[6rs]

Amarra sounds very interesting. Whether the performance justifies the price remains to be seen.

That seems easy: download the demo, listen, compare, and decide whether it is worth spending 1.5K.
Bruno

[pardales]

It makes sense to me that a software product like this could improve sound and so I am very open to trying the product. Will it only work with certain DAC's?

Even if I thought it wonderful, I find myself unlikely to spend 1.5K on this product. I don't care that I can't see it, it is just way too expensive for software. Seems they are trying to recoup their costs a little too quickly. I would probably not spend more than $300 on a product like this.

Just my two cents,

[rpf]

It makes sense to me that a software product like this could improve sound and so I am very open to trying the product. Will it only work with certain DAC's?

Even if I thought it wonderful, I find myself unlikely to spend 1.5K on this product. I don't care that I can't see it, it is just way too expensive for software. Seems they are trying to recoup their costs a little too quickly. I would probably not spend more than $300 on a product like this.

Just my two cents,

I agree. $300. I would spend in a minute. Perhaps I'd even go to $500.; but no more.

[WGH]

I'm surprised that nobody has remarked about running Parallels Desktop with Vista and comparing it to Amarra, I would but I only have PC's and no longer have a Mac to play with. I found Vista with WASAPI on a laptop sounds better than XP on my main machine. The Minimalist Audio Player sounds even better but it is the complete opposite of iTunes with no GUI at all.

$1500 for Amarra is a lot to pay to be on the bleeding edge for a couple of months, but I'm sure it's fun.

Wayne H.