Amarra "Mini" -- $395

[Augsburger]

We must discuss this further at CanJam.

[Voltron]

We must discuss this further at CanJam.

If you update iTunes on your Mini connected to the Amarra box, you have to go the the Sonic site and download some new version/plugin or something.

[digger945]

Somebody else try Minimalist Audio Player
and tell me what ya think. I never tried the minimalist one, just the Stealthplayer. I think it's the latest one. I been listening for couple of days now going back and forth between stealth and foobar.

[rogue]

Somebody else try Minimalist Audio Player
and tell me what ya think. I never tried the minimalist one, just the Stealthplayer. I think it's the latest one. I been listening for couple of days now going back and forth between stealth and foobar.

No GUI and you have to install FLAC/APE/etc. support yourself? I was curious, but not that much.

I don't know what to think of this 'minimalist player' craze. As a software engineer, I'm highly dubious as to any change that could actually be audible. However, the audiofool in me won't dismiss it outright. I think to really do it right, you need to create a custom micro-kernel linux distro optimized for audio. Still, way too much work - I'll stick with foobar for the foreseeable future.

[mypasswordis]

Somebody else try Minimalist Audio Player
and tell me what ya think. I never tried the minimalist one, just the Stealthplayer. I think it's the latest one. I been listening for couple of days now going back and forth between stealth and foobar.

Cool, I think I'll try it for a week and see how it goes.

Reason I checked this thread out is I randomly remembered that I heard JP's AD2K rig at CJ and was confused as to what I was hearing, especially since there was another AD2K rig right next to it (ironbut's?) that didn't sound that funky. Thought it might have been Amarra but was too stupid to figure out how to disable the EQ thing so I set it to flat which is what I think it was on before anyway and it was still funky sounding. Might not even have been Amarra, all I know is what I was hearing was bizarre.

[Augsburger]

Well John has eclectic musical leanings so perhaps...........................

[Smeggy]

I tried the mini on trial, didn't hear any difference so either my gear is crap, my ears are crap or they're full of crap... the jury is still out.

[grawk]

Did you get the dropouts? I thought it was working the first time I did it, but didn't hear a difference. Turns out I was doing something wrong, and so amarra was never engaging.

[Smeggy]

yep, got the dropouts and made sure it was working.. no diff to me.

However, my ears aren't tuned to these microscopic differences. My ears are more 'big picture' ears and don't concentrate on many of the little things.

[Dusty Chalk]

And you don't post much.

So let me get this straight: you really do enjoy the beautiful beautiful music?

[Smeggy]

Trees? sorry, all I can see is a lovely forest

[Ridleyguy]

I have owned Amarra Mini for a week now. The price incidentally is now $295- plus $50 for the USB dongle - for use with multiple computers. Version 2.0 also just came out, and it supports MP3s and has FLAC conversion capabilities although I am still using Max..

I found it very difficult to audition Amarra Mini with the silences every 40 seconds or so, but with the reduced price, plus the fact that I am more or less committed to my Macbook Pro and iTunes, any enhancement is probably worth that investment. To Smeggy's points though, it is not necessarily an immediately noticeable improvement. So far, it seems to me that it tightens up the bass somewhat and overall is now more neutral sounding to me compared with Apple's Core Audio/ iTunes. Of course hearing an improvement with Amarra Mini may just be my imagination, as obviously I would like to hear an improvement after buying it.

[deepak]

Does the Mini increase volume by 1.3 dB when engaged?

[jp11801]

I wonder if when I can record the difference digitally? In the metric halo console I can pull the signal from the firewire send and route it to the digital recording console?

[Smeggy]

it's be interesting to see if the original and amarra output would cancel each other out.

[Grahame]

it's be interesting to see if the original and amarra output would cancel each other out.

*cough* Audio DiffMaker *cough*

And a digital volt meter on the outputs fed, say A 1Khz tone should tell if there is any level difference in the output.

[Smeggy]

Well if it does sound different as ppl say, it should definitely measure differently and not cancel. If it does alter the sound I'd be interested where and if not.. well.

[mypasswordis]

Somebody else try Minimalist Audio Player
and tell me what ya think. I never tried the minimalist one, just the Stealthplayer. I think it's the latest one. I been listening for couple of days now going back and forth between stealth and foobar.

Wow so it converts all files to wav and then stores the whole damn thing in memory. And although the dude claims it has no GUI which helps the sound and whatnot, he's pretty much using the OS as the GUI... only way it would not be GUI based is if everything was actually command line. It's close though. It's been hard comparing since there is no tracking so I can't compare anything except the beginnings of each song one after the other. There is a difference, foobar is slightly more mid-centric and muddy so far imo. Sometimes the muddiness is actually nice since it smooths out and warms the sound a bit. Actually just got around to comparing the two. Using laptop integrated audio -> Head-Direct RE-Zero, my new main rig.

[mypasswordis]

Correction, it dumps the converted wav files one file at a time into memory.

[gurubhai]

Somebody else try Minimalist Audio Player
and tell me what ya think. I never tried the minimalist one, just the Stealthplayer. I think it's the latest one. I been listening for couple of days now going back and forth between stealth and foobar.

I have tried the minimalist player & compared it to foobar.
Initially I thought that the minimalist player sounded better, but later I realized that I was using replaygain on foobar & at the same volume foobar was outputting about 6dB lower output.
On disabling replaygain I was not able to discern any difference.