[morganc]

Remote running on your iPad will control iTunes, which is then hooked by Pure Music.  Works seamlessly.

You're coming by next week, right?  You'll see it in action.

Yes.  Perfect. See you on saturday

[morganc]

As mentioned above, both Amarra and PM/PV offer free trial/demo versions. It's probably best to try one or both and see if they sound/work for a partiular situation. Both can be controlled via any VNC app (I'm partial to iTeleport) or, with limited control, via the Remote app (which is how I prefer to control either).

Perfect. I use iteleport also.  Sounds like Ill have to give it a go. 

[ttan98]

Hi,

I am afraid the Amarra is too expensive even if I like I would not buy the software. The only alternative is Pure Music, I downloaded a trial copy to try. I must admit it does sound good during initial testing, also for comparison purpose I also downloaded the Decibel, freeware, it has a new version and I have to admit it does come close to Pure Music during initial testing, even though it may not have that many features. I am still testing together with music players like foobar and J. Rivers running on PC laptop using window 7.

If there any further news I will keep this post updated.

[kyyuan]

ttan98,

Definitely keep us apprised of your findings.  I recently purchased a Mac Mini and am looking into all these things.  Just replaced the HD with a 60-gb SSD and upgraded the RAM to 8-gb, and am using a 1-tb external HD for music storage.

Hi,

I am afraid the Amarra is too expensive even if I like I would not buy the software. The only alternative is Pure Music, I downloaded a trial copy to try. I must admit it does sound good during initial testing, also for comparison purpose I also downloaded the Decibel, freeware, it has a new version and I have to admit it does come close to Pure Music during initial testing, even though it may not have that many features. I am still testing together with music players like foobar and J. Rivers running on PC laptop using window 7.

If there any further news I will keep this post updated.

[ttan98]

ttan98,

Definitely keep us apprised of your findings.  I recently purchased a Mac Mini and am looking into all these things.  Just replaced the HD with a 60-gb SSD and upgraded the RAM to 8-gb, and am using a 1-tb external HD for music storage.

I have tested many music players(servers) for various platforms, ie Windows 7, Linux Mint, and Mac OSX 10.6, I got various results(subjective). Since you have a mac, I suggest you try 2 software packages, for free use Audirvana use the latest version, and if you can afford use Pure Music v 1.73. I think PM has an advantage over the Audirvana, for  free the Audirvana comes pretty close to PM. It is better in terms of sonic reproduction over the Decibel.

[dboulet]

I purchased Amarra Junior, but found it bug-ridden and quite unusable. Even with the latest version I experience skipping and crashing.

I've since switched to Decibel. Prefer the sound over Amarra, and haven't had any problems.

[mercman]

Pure Music gets my vote. Here is another program for you to try:

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/

[jdbrian]

Hi

  Amara just seemed too expensive for what you get. I am using Pure Music and find it sounds much better than ITunes. I started with 1.65 and moved up as they provided new versions. I found that 1.73 and up have been stable and better sounding than 1.65. They seem to be rapidly developing the program with updates coming every few weeks. They have added and are improving FLAC support and there are some nice features that can be selected if want them - like the level meter with peak hold and the dynamic range display. You can easily see the music that has been recorded with aggressive use of a limiter and IMO this leads to a sound that is not natural or enjoyable.
  I have a old style 2010 MAC 4Gb ram with 1TB firewire drives for music storage and time machine. I use a Touch and Remote App. DBLabs Tranquility USB DAC

Brian

[Johnny2Bad]

Itunes can't handle 24/96 or the touch can't handle 24/96?


Maybe i don't understand but if itunes is just organizing the files and the touch is actually playing them, what is the advantage of pure music?


thanks

These iTunes plugins are designed to replace the default OSX Core Audio routines (which is what QuickTime uses, iTunes is a front end for QuickTime).


Since iTunes v8x the Apple routines are much improved (eg the volume control in iTunes v8+ is a proper dithering routine rather than a 'throw away bits' routine) but those with high quality playback seem to prefer the 3rd party solutions.


The first thing you should do is go to: /Applications/Utilities/Audio Midi Setup


… and set up 24 bit 96 Khz playback so that Core Audio is upsampling all your lower resolution files (the built-in DA chip can handle 24/96).


Then you could download the demo of Pure Audio and see if you prefer it or not.

[PeteG]

Pure Music gets my vote. Here is another program for you to try:

http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/

I've been enjoying Fidelia (advanced version) for the last week. I also like the Fidelia remote on my ipad, no art work but it works fast..

[mchuckp]

Anyone on here compare Pure Music (or others) to Squeezeserver?  I run a Bolder Modded SB Touch with a Bolder Deluxe power supply.  I was debating going straight from a computer to my W4S DAC-1.  I downloaded the demo for Pure Music and did some non-scientific comparisons between PM and iTunes running through my Macbook's USB to my SB Touch running via Coaxial.

In short, my impression was this:
Pure Music: Vocals sounded very organic and not a hint of fatigue.  The rest of the music seemed to laid back to me and much of the finer detail took a back seat.
iTunes: Everything seemed jacked up.  Things got a bit muddy during busy stuff and overall the sound had an edge to it.
SB Touch (Squeezeserver running from my Macbook; SB hardwired to router, computer WiFi; unit is Bolder modded and Bolder external power supply): Vocals weren't quite as smooth as PM, but not far behind.  Detail was significantly better than PM and separation/staging very good. 

If I could get the sound I get out of my SB but the little better vocal clarity of PM, I'd be pretty happy.  Personally, I didn't like the overly laid back sound of PM.  I'd read someone's impression of PM elsewhere where they felt PM colored the sound too much.  I think I tend to agree with that.  Some will like it, for me it just isn't right.  I know results very on every set up so you may have different results than I.  I also don't know how much of the difference is to my Bolder tweaks on the SB Touch.  Or maybe it is the USB vs Coaxial connection.  At this point, I either need to keep researching music software or stick with the Touch.

[lcrim]

An even higher level of quality playback w/ your SqueezeBox Touch can be achieved by the installation of Soundcheck's SW mods
http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/2011/01/soundchecks-squeezebox-touch-toolbox-20.html and http://soundcheck-audio.blogspot.com/2011/01/soundchecks-tt-beta-blog.html
The tools needed to accomplish this are very familiar to me from a Windows computer but  I've never tried using these tools from a Mac but they actually are loaded onto the SqueezeBox Touch alsa linux OS.  There are instructions for doing this from OSX too. It can always be reverted to stock by pressing the reset button.  You really can't lose.

[gooberdude]

I just downloaded Fidelia...the sound is so much better than Itunes.

Should dither be selected or not??

[Bigfish]

For those that have or plan to evaluate Pure Music I recommend you evaluate it in Hog Mode and compare it to non-Hog Mode.  I have been running Pure Music in Hog Mode for more than a year.  While I cannot say if Pure Music is the best software, it is very, very good!

Ken

[seadogs1]

Fidelia sounds better than itunes but to these old ears it sounds better than Pure Music and Amarra too!

[jacko2x]

I tested both last year and settled with Pure Music. Initially, I used pure music over Amarra due to a couple of things:
1. Faster. PM's cpu usage wasn't as bad as Amarra's on my system. (this is system dependent)
2. Hog Mode. With hog mode, PM reserves the audio device all to itself. So system sounds do not get directed to it.
3. Memory Play. With 24/96 or greater music files loaded into memory, your hard disk won't be spinning all the time which reduces latency.
4. Upsampling. Instead of relying on hardware upsampling, I make use of PM's upsampling feature to upsample to my dac's maximum sample limit.

And then I ventured into open baffle speakers and bi-amping. With pure music crossover feature, I was able to eliminate a lot of equipment in my chain leaving it simpler and with a crossover system that is more configurable than an external analog/digital crossover.

So I guess, it really depends on your needs. Amarra may have optimized their player and a good thing about amarra is their excellent integration with multi channel devices like Metric Halo. I guess the biggest factor here would be price. The cost of entry with Amarra is much higher than with Pure Music even without the hardware.

It all depends on your needs and PM fit's what I required so YMMV. Cheers.

[kbuzz3]

Do any of these "upgrade" players have an ipad app?

[jtwrace]

I have all three.  PM, Amarra and Fidelia.  I prefer PM.

My advice, try them all in demo and pick one and be done.  Don't get involved in the buzz. 

[Crimson]

My advice, try them all in demo and pick one and be done.  Don't get involved in the buzz.

+1.

[JDUBS]

Pure Music.