I've been using Audirvana 1.5.5 since it was released and I concur. I think Damien has finally caught up to Amarra in musicality while presenting detail without fatigue. In previous versions I found all that detail simply irritating and couldn't listen for more than an hour or so. BTW I haven't bothered to download 1.5.6 because I'm so enamored with 1.5.5. Sonic Studio recently revealed a new version of Amarra is coming in September so it will be interesting to hear what they've done. It's all good for us.
Best music player for MAC
I have had a Wyred4sound DAC-2 for a couple years now. I was getting frustrated that the the driver installed in the Mac was not letting me try integer mode in Audirvana as I was hearing lots of great things. I always preferred Amarra thinking Audirvana sounded a little small in non integer mode I guess.
Well my sickness got the best of me and I bought a V-Link 192 a couple weeks ago. I do not use Amarra anymore. Details that were obscured on Amarra now pop out and snare drums have an impact that smack across your face. In my system Audirvana is analytical as all get out but not thin sounding and very musical. Amarra sounds great but in a very different presentation. As some others have said more easy on the ears. I could see some people preferring Amarra. Not me. One thing I notice about Amarra is that it always sounds big. I guess I mean everything sounds big so when there is impact in the music it does not seem near as forceful as in Audirvana. Yes I took the Pepsi challenge. Last week I had my wife switch back and forth between the players and I knew every time which was playing on a few selected tracks with lots going on in them. Very obvious to me. Anyway, anyone with a DAC-2 or one of the other driver install DACs I think it is well worth getting one of the USB to spdif converters to give this a try. Best my system has ever sounded by a long shot.
Also on a side note. I always had to heavily EQ in Amarra to get it to sound flat. I do this with a program on the ipad (audio tools). Do not need eq at all with Audirvana. I am going to run some pink noise over the weekend and look at the results comparing both players with no eq.
Well my sickness got the best of me and I bought a V-Link 192 a couple weeks ago. I do not use Amarra anymore. Details that were obscured on Amarra now pop out and snare drums have an impact that smack across your face. In my system Audirvana is analytical as all get out but not thin sounding and very musical. Amarra sounds great but in a very different presentation. As some others have said more easy on the ears. I could see some people preferring Amarra. Not me. One thing I notice about Amarra is that it always sounds big. I guess I mean everything sounds big so when there is impact in the music it does not seem near as forceful as in Audirvana. Yes I took the Pepsi challenge. Last week I had my wife switch back and forth between the players and I knew every time which was playing on a few selected tracks with lots going on in them. Very obvious to me. Anyway, anyone with a DAC-2 or one of the other driver install DACs I think it is well worth getting one of the USB to spdif converters to give this a try. Best my system has ever sounded by a long shot.
Also on a side note. I always had to heavily EQ in Amarra to get it to sound flat. I do this with a program on the ipad (audio tools). Do not need eq at all with Audirvana. I am going to run some pink noise over the weekend and look at the results comparing both players with no eq.