amarra or pure music..?

I have both Amarra(Not the mini) and PM on my macbook pro, PM 1.4 is much much stable and sounds better than any early versions, especially with Hog mode and Less Is More enabled, and play from memory. PM compare to Amarra? I can't even stand the sound from Amarra, PM sounds more refined, more detailed with a nicer texture. I only paid $79 for PM, and One grand for Amarra! I really hope the Amarra 2.0 will sound better than PM, and not just a little!

So what happens if you are using iTunes and decide to go with Amarra or Pure Music? Does it wipe out your iTunes artwork? Change the way iTunes manages your library? or does it just "go around" iTunes to produce the music?"

Several in this thread are obviously well-versed in how this works.

My music is stored on an External HD, not in the iMac.

Pure music and Amarra do not make changes to iTunes or your library files. Pure music is presently my favorite program; I do have Amarra.

The location of your library on an external drive makes no difference.

Splashkin: So this is a music download system independent of iTunes?

In my set up Pure music sounded slightly wider, but on wide recordings it started to sound a little odd. For me Amarra in the playlist mode works best over most material.

Both bits of software sound good though.

I prefer the look of Amarra as Pure music looks a little cheap to me.