Possibly.

Stereophile: Channel D

Pure Vinyl

New here....but this subject is also just starting over at audiocircle. I have noticed a number of Amarra fans here so it would be interesting to get more comparative information.

I have been investigating the whole using a minimac thing as a music/video server and the associated software that can be used....this is another that makes it very hard not to go this route once taxes are paid up.

Pure Music Player

Stonebridge thanks for the link, which has the below actual software URL that strangely I couldn't find off on Channel D's site. $79 for the next week.

PURE-MUSIC-PLAYER.COM

With a 15-day demo, I'm going to have to try this. Thanks for the link, Ric.

I tried Pure Vinyl briefly a few weeks ago, just after my iLok for Amarra arrived. I am liking Amarra (Mini) a little better at the moment, but then its improvement over iTunes is a little more colourful (for want of a better description). The Pure Music special is certainly a hell of a lot better value than Amarra Mini though, and it uses a lot less memory and is a lot less flakey with Apple Lossless files than the current Amarra Mini build.

Going to give this a shot, too. I like Amarra, but agree the current build is annoying as hell with track switchovers etc.

Going to give this a shot, too. I like Amarra, but agree the current build is annoying as hell with track switchovers etc.

Figure out the Amarra playlist feature and you will be happier.

I need more time with it but I think I'm liking Pure Music. Haven't tried Amarra. In the course of playing around with settings I've also discovered I don't like the Mac's native upsampling from 44.1 to 96 kHz (this is with Lavry DA10). I'll be interested to hear if the forthcoming upsampling build of Pure Music is good enough to let me leave the output on 96 all the time instead of switching up only for HD tracks and back to 44.1 the rest of the time.

Does anybody know what Pure Music is doing, anyway? Is it just adding some dither, or is there more to it than that? My laptop has enough other stuff running that I don't really think I'm getting a lot of benefit from the memory-play feature.

Withholding description of what the Pure Music playback sounds like to me until I've listened more.

No one really knows what any of these playback engines are doing.

I tried the channel D software and while it is a step in the right direction I thought it was not as good as amarra and actually clunkier. Nice to see a cheaper solution out there that is good but still needs some work sonically and with the interface. It is warmer sounding than amarra and I think not as detailed but that could also be my bias creeping in?

WHo would have thought an audio player would be so dang difficult to make user friendly, crap the wave editor player still is wonky as well.

I wonder if this software is not only cheaper initially, but doubly so with the lower hardware requirements (if the comparison page is to be believed). Is it true Amarra plays back audio files twice?

Favorite part for me is this doesn't require a f$&@king iKey (and a wasted USB port).

Amarra lite doesn't require the iLok anymore either.

Amarra lite? Mini still does as far as I know.

http://store.sonicstudio.com/amaspt.html

Both amarra versions can be had without the ilok now...

Hmm. I wonder how/if one can go from an iLok version to a machine-locked version? In general, I think moving to software-based authentication is a good thing and hope they'll go that way entirely.

Well, then you can't move it from machine to machine at will. I'd prefer the ilok, honestly.

Does Amarra have a whitepaper describing what their software does?

LOL

Does it have anything to do with Mil-Spec software?

Does Amarra have a whitepaper describing what their software does?

Not that I know of Filburt, but the software has been shown to be bit transparent (when set to max volume) so I guess that pretty much only leaves jitter.

How would the playback software impact jitter, assuming it isn't also a new hardware driver?

How would the playback software impact jitter, assuming it isn't also a new hardware driver?

Exactly.....

Not that I know of Filburt, but the software has been shown to be bit transparent (when set to max volume) so I guess that pretty much only leaves jitter.

So you're saying the output is quantitatively identical to the input? If so, I don't really understand what the purpose of this software is.

So you're saying the output is quantitatively identical to the input? If so, I don't really understand what the purpose of this software is.

Exactly....

This is like a couple of muslims debating whether or not judaism is the one true religion.