[AvFan]

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. 

[metritensor]

Ok, this is my first post here. I registered because of this poll   
this is only my first day of the Audirvana trial, but WOW!     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!!

[brh]

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.

[Atlplasma]

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.

[srb]

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

[jMelvin]

I own them all including JRMC and I just love that gorgeous Amarra sound (very analogue and non-fatiguing).

[cnoble]

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.

[kmmd]

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.

[cnoble]

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.

[eatapeach]

Pure Music. Easy to use and sounds real fine...

[greguva]

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.

[Churlish]

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.

[jazzyguytheone]

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.

[jazzyguytheone]

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.

[DARTH AUDIO]

JRiver

[ccklone]

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

[harri009]

Jriver

[jazzyguytheone]

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.

[mav52]

Actually I use both JRiver for MAC and Audirvana+

[jazzyguytheone]

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.