Re: Audirvana Plus License File Down
Hennie Bayne
Here is a related thread on the support forum for Audirvana, the app developer estimates about one week of work for him. And here is the same answer in another French thread, as Audirvana originally is a French app like Deezer.
Hello @Alls we are sorry but 24 votes is a very small group of users considering the user overall worldwide. Therefore, it is very unlikely this is getting integrated in the near future because the cost of integration is very high. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Hi. I would like to know why the cost of integration is very high. I assume Deezer have some interface (API?) that is used by their hardware partners so surely all that is required is for this to be made available to audirvana?
Make it happen. Tidal is looking compelling given how well it integrates with Audirvana. Deezer needs every possible account and connection and should leave no reason not to be chosen as this arena becomes very much more competitive, particularly with Prime music now offering decent sound quality. Audirvana has offered to do the work for you and only require Deezer to be cooperative.
That's normally how our integrations work @CraigVanDiemen and so, we really appreciate your comments and feedback. This is something our community teams would love to get it working for you all, so let's see and hope for the best once our Product teams discuss the matter later on
I can guarantee you there's nothing to do with being stubborn or silly @CraigVanDiemen and your feedback is very welcome! You can have a look here to have an idea on what we have our hands on at the moment, to see that's a matter of prioritisation if this is something we wouldn't be open to do, we'd make that very clear
Yes, I can see why you'd think it's easy to implement. But it's only once you sit down and start working with it that you can have a clear idea of how long it can take, especially if we have already planned the stuff you've seen. I particularly would appreciate an Audirvana integration because it seems to be a very cool one and a lot of the loyal users here in the community also recommend it, like yourself.
Because my cable modem is very far from my main system and I wanted gigabit Ethernet going to the 280D, I did not even attempt to run a 70-100 foot CAT 7 Ethernet path cable from the back of my bedroom to the front of my living room. Rather, I got my third Apple AirPort Extreme along with a three-meter AudioQuest Forest Ethernet patch cable and created a new, high-speed, wireless node on my home network, which I plugged into the 280D to at least bootstrap the MiND module into its own Wi-Fi mode. However, my initial listening was done with the MacBook Air via USB and TIDAL via the AirPort Extreme/AQ Forest combination, and that was fine. When I mentioned to a friend that I thought the 280D sounded better than my old Berkeley Alpha Series 2 personal reference DAC, he said that might be more of a task for the 380D, at more than twice the price of the 280D. If you're talking about resolution alone, that could be true. I can't really say because I never heard the 380D although the 280D could, at times, sound a little occluded. However, I was talking about overall musicality and was quite delighted that unlike many less expensive DACs (I mean in the $2,000-$3,000 range), the 280D never sounded overly etched or detailed, felt solidly built, and looked beautiful in mostly black with gold trim sitting on my bamboo and aluminum SVT stand. In other words, the Neo 280D reeked of quality. I did run into one odd problem with it, which I attribute more to incompetence on my part than anything to do with the 280D, which was that I paused my iTunes continuous loop, left the 280D sitting on for several days with no source playing, then attempted to switch it over to TIDAL via the MiND on my iPad Mini. It worked and, for the most part sounded lovely, but the DSD128 light kept flashing and I would get a somewhat frequent breaking up of the sound until I powered down the 280D and powered it back up in USB mode, playing Bach's Saint Matthew's Passion at 24/192 as downloaded from Channel Classics. After that, I didn't appear to have any more problems, and I was still using the AirPort Extreme for my gigabit Wi-Fi connection. So it wasn't what I would call a fair test of the 280D and its MiND module.
By searching for "dbpoweramp UPnP" on the web, I came across the documentation page for the original server I was trying to use, named Asset. Although it does not explicitly state it in the instructions, you need to manually copy and paste Asset from its installation dialog to the OS X Applications folder, at which point OS X will recognize it as an application and let you run it properly, including ejecting the installer. Once I had done all of that, the 280D would play CD-resolution albums via my Airport Extreme from my iMac without any problems at all, and sound excellent in doing so. When I tried to play a 24 bit / 192 kHz album over gigabit Wi-Fi though, at least using the Airport Extreme, the whole thing just stalled and, again, I could not get the music to, "engage". At that point, I decided to order a 100 foot "slim" Cat 7 Ethernet patch cable that I found on Amazon for $37.95, just in case. I hired someone through TaskRabbit to come over and run the cable from the Apple AirPort Extreme in my bedroom to my Magnum Dynalab internet tuner in the stereo stand at the front of the living room. It was a very long run. However, I heard an immediate improvement in the quality of the sound compared to using Wi-Fi and dropouts or momentary periods of silence during buffering almost completely disappeared. I connected the very long Cat 7 patch cable into the MiND module on the Neo 280D and started to experiment listening to files served by dbpoweramp's Asset UPnP software on my iMac as well as TIDAL Hi-Fi, all controlled by Simaudio's own MiND App for the iPad. The setup worked almost flawlessly and sounded very good. I only ran into one problem, which is that I just couldn't seem to play files above 24/96 even though the Neo 280D goes up to at least 24/192 and can play up to DSD256 as well (it depends on whether you're using the MiND module or a USB connection). Also, I should note that the 280D plays native DSD files and does not rely on a DSD over PCM connection.
I called someone in the technical support department at Simaudio and he explained the problem was the filetype. I have pretty much all of my music in either ALAC or AIFF because I built my original library around iTunes even though I now use other software. As it turns out, the MiND module won't play anything but FLAC files above 24/96 for reasons related to where the lossless files get decompressed. That would be a real bummer if I had a large collection of 24/176.4 or 24/192 files in ALAC, but I really only have a few. So I just need to convert them to FLAC in an application like XLD and then the Neo 280D should be able to play files up to 24/192 (or single DSD) over my home network. To get double DSD, I would need to use a USB connection. I should also mention that, although I didn't try it, the Wi-Fi section of the MiND module can only go up to 24/88.2 regardless of how fast your wireless network is. The sound is really very good, perhaps just a tiny bit harsh in the extremes of the treble. Since I plan to put a second AirPort Extreme at the end the 100 foot Cat 7 cable to act as a network extender and to split the feed to both my internet tuner and to the Neo 280D via AudioQuest Forest Ethernet cables, I may get better sound. Plus, there's also the possibility of replacing the 100 foot copper cable with optical fiber, although that requires converter boxes and power supplies at both ends so it may not be worth the hassle. I would say that if you really want play very high resolution files through the 280D, it makes sense to just a computer into via a good USB cable. However, if you plan to listen to mostly TIDAL Hi-Fi or CD rips, you should really have no problem at all. Plus, like I said, the MiND module will let you go up to 24/192 as long as any files above 24/96 are in the FLAC format. I think it's time to change my default hdtracks.com file-type setting!
I thought that I owned the 24/176.4 download of Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet but I couldn't find it anywhere so I purchased it, possibly for the second time, in the FLAC file format and put in one of the directories that Asset scans. I had tried to convert some high-resolution ALAC files to FLAC in an application called Switch, but it didn't carry over the metadata or cover art, so I need to try XLD. There's also Max but that stopped working for me a long time ago. Unfortunately Pure Music only goes the other way (from FLAC to ALAC). In any case, I had Asset rescan the directories with music that I want in them to be sure to pick up Time Out. I have the 24/176.4 version of Time Out playing now and it sounds really great, truly a music and audiophile classic. I think that FLAC sounds better than ALAC or AIFF, which doesn't really make sense because both ALAC and FLAC use lossless compression and AIFF is totally uncompressed, but high-end audio seems to be full of mysteries that defy the laws of physics, so I will say that I have no problem purchasing downloads in FLAC from now on, particularly since I no longer use iTunes as my music storage database even when I am playing files directly from my computer. Then I use Audirvana Plus and its library manager which both sounds better and has more useful features than iTunes even if it is a big less slick.
Another feature I discovered in the MiND App is the ability to access radio stations through vTuner. I really enjoyed this. I have a Magnum Dynalab MG-807T internet runner that sounds very good particularly given its all tube triode output stage, but can't received HD radio broadcasts, which the 280D can, and it really doesn't offer practically remote control. I hate to sound lazy, but I often listen to internet radio late at night, and it really is awfully nice to change stations using the MiND iPad App. I haven't decided yet, but I may let go of the MD-807T and put the 280D in its place because it does so many things so well. I still have the Aurender N100H going into my Ayre DX-5 DSD through a stealth USB cable in my two-channel home theater system. I think that sounds slightly better than the 280D with MiND module but it is difficult to tell because we are talking about two very different system with the home theater system being much more forgiving, and the N100H/Stealth USB/DX-5 DSD combination cost a whole lot more than the 280D with the MiND module. A fairer comparison would be the 380D with the MiND module, but I am already really very happy with the 280D, so much so that I decided to keep it as my current streaming solution for the main system.
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