[rab1234]

Anyone have any information regarding the Channel D May 28th upgrade? Seems every time I change / upgrade something it becomes more of a headache than its worth.

Any input at all?

Thank you

[jtwrace]

Most certainly not doing it!

[jarcher]

Below is what I received in an email today.  The upgrade price is not that much, but I don't really see anything on the list regarding playback quality or overall performance that makes me want to upgrade - and I'd like to be convinced to upgrade. Aside from the "playlist" option theres nothing on the new features which is that important to me.  Sound quality improvements seem to relate to dithering only, and I don't use the PM volume control.  The enhancements & bug fixes seem like things that should just have been an update to the current version, and these alone to me are probably not worth $45. 

If they actually improved the responsiveness (quicker) and made it more stable for normal operation (particularly memory mode), I'd buy the upgrade. 

SO - hopefully someone else out there can shine a light on anything very important about PM2 that I'm missing and merits the upgrade.

I guess if you also wanted Pure Vinyl and already had Pure Music, the $169 for PM 2 + PV 4 deal is pretty good considering Pure Vinyl sells for $299 on it's own.  Sadly I don't really have a need for Pure Vinyl at the moment.


-----------------------------------------------------

Upgrade to Pure Music 2 to enjoy high resolution digital music playback with the world's most fully-featured audiophile quality music playback software.

Brand new features:

New user interface for main controller / meter bar window
Supports “Cocoa” UI for AudioUnit Plug-Ins
LINK button allows disabling Pure Music and iTunes automatic window docking
Meter bar now automatically resizes to full width of iTunes window (with LINK engaged)
Meter bar can be resized independently of iTunes window
New Transparency control to make the meter / controller a see-through window
New FLOAT function keeps Pure Music window on top of all others
Jog-style Volume slider with 0.1 dB precision
Volume balance knob with precision 0.1 dB control
Menu command to save all plug-in settings and window positions at once
Menu command to show or hide all plug-in settings windows at once
Added 48 dB / octave Linkwitz - Riley crossover option to all crossover configurations
New Quick Playlist feature for quickly playing FLAC or DSD files (and other formats) via ad-hoc playlists, independent of iTunes and without needing to create Bookmarks
Can add groups of files or folders to Quick Playlist with OPEN... command
File Converter now provides choice of converting to Apple Lossless or AIFF
File Sample Rate Converter can downsample DXD format (352.8 kHz) files
Supports having more than one music storage volume with the same name

Sound quality enhancements:
Improvement to dither sound quality
Dithering can be used with the Audio File Sample Rate Converter feature
Dithering now active for all volume settings when using Upsampling

Enhancements to Existing features:
Can choose location for storing Bookmarks
Improvement to playthrough device synchronization and latency
Ensures Played Count and Last Played Date are updated in iTunes
Improvements to Gapless playback track analysis mechanism
New "link to next track" keyword in Comments field to force gapless linking
Simplified Dithering choices
Preserves state of Less is More Mode across launches
Incorporates album art for FLAC files if not present in original file but included in the album folder as folder.jpg, cover.jpg, folder.png, cover.png or AlbumName.jpg (or .png), where AlbumName is the name of the enclosing folder

Enhancements to DSD Support:
Configuring Pure Music for a native DSD (DoP) device is now a one-click operation
Mastering-Quality DSD to PCM File Converter with multiple configuration and output options
Eliminated visible setting for DSD Flag. To toggle flag from 05FA to AAAA and vice versa hold down the Option key while pressing the Copy Name... button
Added check box to enable DSD AC3 binary stream format for drivers that support it
Worked around a bug in .dff files written by certain standalone TASCAM DSD recorders (DV-RA1000HD in particular) that prevented such files from playing in Pure Music (an incorrect offset value was written in the file header by the TASCAM recorder)

Bug fixes:
Corrected problem which caused iTunes to be muted if Pure Music enters Playthrough mode directly after launch
Stereo dither check box now works (was ignored and always stereo previously)
Includes internal hint to Energy Saver API to not allow App Nap, which caused playback to pause under Mavericks (10.9.1 or later) when the monitor sleeps
Fixed positioning issue with Pure Music "hidden UI" placard
Eliminates issue with the File Converter (formerly Convert to Apple Lossless), which used the word length specified in the Sample Rate Converter settings instead of the word length of the original file
Eliminated cause of freeze for Add FLAC/DSD... operation when converting a folder if a .txt file was present in the album folder
File Converter no longer skips non-FLAC files having a 44.1 kHz sample rate
Eliminates iTunes 11 "first track" selection issue after launching Pure Music, when using Remote App
Eliminated lock-up that could happen when trying to perform an Add FLAC / DSD... operation after playing Gapless tracks
Eliminated issue that could cause beginning of a track to be skipped after a sample rate change
Plus additional minor performance enhancements and bug fixes

Download the Pure Music 2 Demo / Update now at: http://www.channld.com/download.html

Offer Details
Promotion:   Upgrade from Pure Music to Pure Music 2 for only $44.95*
(Regular Upgrade Price after May 28: $74.95)

Your transaction ID from your initial Pure Vinyl purchase is required.

Also, for a limited time, upgrade from an older version of Pure Music to Pure Vinyl 4 (which includes the complete Pure Music 2 upgrade) for only $169! Pure Vinyl 4 upgrades for the difference in product prices will only be available to Pure Music 2 owners after May 28. So act quickly and save even more!
Expires:   May 28, 2014
*Price does not include any applicable VAT/taxes

[Housteau]

I am using both Pure Music and Amarra.  I have always preferred the interface of Pure Music and near flawless operation, but at the same time Amarra has always sounded better to me, even with the trouble I often go through to use it.  I love my server, but to be honest I find my Bryston BDP-1 tops both players in performance and is very easy to use.

[rab1234]

Thank you for your comments - confirmed to me that it wasn't much at all, and it really should be just an upgrade for operating issues. It really helps to be able to get unbiased comments. Thanks again

[JLM]

Apparently upgrade now allows Pure Music to work with IOS 10.9 as the previous Channel D page for Pure Music had a IOS 10.9 warning that I don't see anymore.

That would be good for me (a complete computer novice who just ripped everything into iTunes on my iMac - 10.9.2, 2.7 GHz, i5, 8 MB, 1600 MHz, DDR3) and am planning on adding Pure Music.

Am I reading this correctly?

[low.pfile]

the cool thing is, like previous versions, the new Pure Music version 2.0 is available for demo at no cost for 15 days.

I run v1.89a on OSX 10.9.2 and didn't seem to have issues. but I don't use the advanced features.

I just installed PM v2.0 trial. I didn't write-over my current version, so it would be possible to compare. though I doubt i'll do that because it's not a straightforward switch over from A to B. you have to quite and restart and reselect tracks, etc.

Initial impression. I'm 12 songs in and no crash. Good sign. The control bar/meter is slightly more refined. but to me, overall, the PM graphics still are reminiscent of a few generations old video graphics, rather than a quality audio interface. I think it would be better if they are trying to free up resources on the computer to make the graphics even simpler. They need some User Interface and design consultants. Especially for a version 2.0 launch, the general aesthetic is barely changed. Not a big deal as I am am not looking at the interface very long, but some likely would. The "Less is more" control bar graphics and layout is unchanged except for new QuickPlaylist "QP"  Sorry, but that font on the 'less is more' panel belongs on a Steakhouse menu.

The Gapless Playback feature is working very well!.... it seems to preload the next song so there is not the delay that there was with v1.89
Sound after 12 songs... though I am not listening on my main system but rather my office desktop, nothing stands out as different, which is fine. Because PM has a few upsampling options i still have to coordinate the output with the RWA DAC which also has optional upsampling on my main system.

iMac 2.8ghz Intel Core i5 (2010), 8GB, OSX10.9.2

[jdbrian]

Did the 2.0 upgrade on the weekend. Initial impression is that it seems to sound a bit better on my system. A bit more top end detail and maybe a tiny gain in dynamics. I've been using PM since 2010 on a Mini with 4gb ram and a fire wire drive for my music library. I am still using the OS that came with the mini, 10.6.something. I have the old style mini with the expernal PS etc. Using a DBlabs Tranquility DAC and cable, A W4S STI500 and Pi 3 speakers with 2 subs.
   It seems to have solved a couple of nagging problems I've had with earlier versions. I can now keep the Itunes/PM window in the background when doing other tasks. Before I could not stop it from coming to the top every time a song started. Second, the Remote App on my Ipod 4 did not work properly with later versions of PM1.XX. It now seems to work fine under 2.0. Some of this is probably due to me using an older OS but it now seems to be fixed.
  I'm looking forward to truely improved Flac and  the DSD support. Flac was a bit clunky in the past and I look forward to improvements with 2.0. We'll see.
  A bargain IMO. 45$ to upgrade after 4 years is good value to me.