Amarra 2.2 released

[RBFC]

Sonic Studio, LLC has released Amarra 2.2. The new version is compatible with up to 384 kHz sampling rate material, and no longer uses the "I-Lok' dongle key. Activation is accomplished via a simple web-based authorization process. Amarra will be "license-able" to 2 of your computers using the activation codes.

http://www.sonicstudio.com/amarra/index.html

Lee

[amirm]

Did it fix the CPU starvation problem you were having Lee?

[RBFC]

I'll be installing it during the week. Just got the email yesterday. Will let you know. Supposedly, it reduces CPU usage by 30% from previous version.

Lee

[RBFC]

Update:

I installed Amarra 2.2 without incident. Amarra no longer uses the iLok USB key. They've now moved to a web-based software authorization process. You may authorize two computers to use your Amarra software at one time, and you may "de-authorize" a computer to move the software to another if you wish.

The CPU usage, playing 24/192 and 24/176.4 files, was reduced by 40-50% on my Mac Mini using screen sharing. Minimizing the player windows still dropped the CPU load significantly, but the improvement is such that I can play hi-res files without the ticking from CPU overload.

Lee

[Steve Williams]

great news Lee

[RBFC]

I should add that I feel Amarra sounds better to me than the other players I tried. If not, I wouldn't have gone to the lengths I did to diagnose and rectify the problems.

Lee

[Steve Williams]

Lee

I am interested in why these players sound different. Do they each use different filters

[RBFC]

Lee

I am interested in why these players sound different. Do they each use different filters

I wish I knew. Some have said that Amarra sounds more "tube-like". Not being privy to the inner workings of their software, I honestly don't know what is different. All I can say is that I perceive a distinct difference in the sound.

Lee

[Steve Williams]

Gosh I am far from the objectivist as you well know but perhaps Amir or Don or whomever could put up some measurements of differences (if any) between players

[amirm]

Assuming one is running Amarra in bit perfect mode, meaning volume set to max, no resampling, no dithering, then the only explanation of improved fidelity is an esoteric one.

The idea is that by limiting or controlling activity in the PC, the timing and quality of the signals over ground connections to your DAC can be improved. When one looks at the spectrum of jitter, you quickly see a 60 Hz component coming from the power supply (in some devices). Likewise, you see other components from say, other clocks in your device. With the PC having incredible amount of activity, it will likely pollute its clock with lots of jitter components. Likewise, if your audio equipment is not electrically isolated from the PC, as soon as you connect the two together, you pollute your DAC jut the same.

The above is a theory. As far as I know, they have never furnished measurements to prove the same. That is a shame since we can easily measure the above effects. While folks argue over validity of measurements in this case, that does not apply because the hardware is the same in either case. We should be able to see the effect of switching media players and seeing a difference. If there is no difference, there is no way that audibly there will be some. At least I can't think of how in this configuration.

I plan to one of these days run a test like this. I like to see how bad the PC is as is, and the with such changes.

My experience on the PC has shown that placebo effect is far stronger than real difference. For example, I tested Foobar2000 against WMP. At first, I thought Foobar sounded so much better. But upon more careful testing, I found the difference to vanish.

The situation with Lee is even more puzzling. He is using an asynchronous USB DAC. The whole reason to use one is to eliminate the clock from the PC and have it come from fresh new one on the other side of the bus. To hear a difference means that either the electronic isolation is not there or else, their implementation is still subject to jitter from the PC.