Is Audirvana worth the effort?

Audrivana will, in a Mick Jagger type voice, say Hey You Get Off of My Bus 

You can configure it to do that or not to suit ... Yes it is best not to have a U3 and HDD share USB, so Supernova avoids this quite neatly. 

Mac Mini has twno USB buses, but one is shared with Bluetooth and the other with the IR receiver. You can disable these using System Preferences. 

J-River ... I hope it lives up to its promise. Way I see it is if for a relatively small outlay it improves an already excellent setup then that is great. We can't lose.

All the best, Guy

Hi Guy. I'm interested in this 2 USB bus thing with the mac mini. How can you tell which socket is which. Does it show if you plug something in which bus it is on?  This is something useful for me as I use the U3 now and have been up until now using a Firewire HDD. For backup and future HDDs it would be handy to be able to use the USB 3 facility on the mini.

I can't investigate for while because I'm in bed upstairs, my mini is downstairs, we have guests staying over, and I'm leaving for Scotland early in the morning!

BTW I've bought Amarra because I really loved the sound with strings but I also bought Audirvana because I loved it's detailed sound as well. Bit mad I suppose, because I'm not sure I will use them both but I don't feel all that guilty because I reckon my total expenditure to go HDD hasn't been too bad so far. Of the two my personal preference is for Amarra though it's sumptuous.

Guy, could you help to point which one USB is shared by Bluetooth & which one is for IR receiver? If say, I want to use Spdif converter while using USB HDD, which one should I plug it in?

Thanks in advance.

It will depend on your specific model so you need to check in the system profiler. Go to Apple Menu in upper left, then About this Mac, then More info, System Report or System Profiler. Click on USB. You'll see a few "USB Hi-Speed Hub" entries on the list in outline format.

Have everything plugged in when you check. If the HDD and the SPDIF converter are on the same bus, move one. Will also show you other hardware - like bluetooth controller.

It is not that easy to answer the question because as far as I can tell the USB ports are not hardwired to USB buses. There is intelligence (?) in Mac OS X that maps ports dynamically to the most appropriate USB bus. If you plug a hard disk in to Port 1 for example and then shut down, replace the keyboard with a hard disk and reboot then I'm not convinced you always end up on the same USB bus.

However if we have a closer look then we can see a couple of SMSC USB2513B USB 2.0 Hub controller chips (there are blue squares around them below] 

This clever son of a gun has a PortMap function, which does flexible port mapping and disable sequences. The downstream ports of the SMSC device's hubs can be reordered or disabled in any sequence. For any port that is disabled, the SMSC device automatically reorders the remaining ports to match the USB host controller's port numbering scheme.

However, my knowledge in this area is sadly very limited, although I do try to learn how the things work. So I spoke to somebody who knows far more about Apple kit than me and she suggested that plugging a USB sound card into Port 2 (second from the left) and other devices on port 4 and 3 in that order would achieve the desired effect (an explanation of why is beyond the scope of my rather small brain). She assumed that BT and IR were disabled. She also added that she didn't think I'd hear any difference 

FWIW Naim announced that they were using Audirvana on the Macbook they were using for their main dem at the Bristol show. Said something about it making the feed "bit perfect" which didn't make sense to me but I'm not a Mac guy.

Are you sure this statement is coming from Naim? Or the dealer? Naim has so many streaming players and why on earth would they want to demo Mac + Audirvana in the main demo?

I was in the dem and am quoting Naim. They were just using the MB as a renderer for the streamers.

So Naim reckons the capability of the Mac. Anyway, I have enjoyed great sound integrating my Mac with Naim, and have just bought a full license of Audirvana Plus.

Do you have a Halide Bridge or a HiFace as they are two different devices.

The Halide Bridge should work with integer mode.

The M2Tech HiFace won't work with integer mode.  However this is purely down to the design of the HiFace and that it requires its own proprietory drivers rather than because of the age of your Mac.

Eloise

Just thought I should update since I've been banging on about my experiences here.

I eventually returned the Stello U3 I had tried. My reasons were that though there might have been a difference between it and the optical wired connection via Supernova 6 I wasn't, in the end, convinced. I thought I could hear a difference in some music but when I gave it a break for a few days and then tested again, the difference was either not there or not - to my ears- worth worrying about. I reckon any difference was probably down the different cables being used in each option.

On a pretty thorough testing over 2 days, I eventually decided the Supernova was actually more revealing and in other ways no different so I stayed with that.

Anyway just my experience for anyone interested

Willie

Thanks Willie,

I'm definitely sticking with my Supernova 6 then...

Theoretically I can see no reason why USB should be better, given the latest Mac Mini has such a low Jitter optical output.

It is a great service offered by your dealer to return with a refund after trying it for more than a week. I am little surprised the Stello U3 does not make the grade for you eventhough it supports integer mode in Audirvana Plus. However, the advantages of using optical cable are simple, shorter & direct signal path couple with no electrical noise being passed through, may possibly seen as or with little difference between the two types of connection. I have no intention to swap my Supernova 6 after using the Audirvana Plus in direct mode as the sound quality I am getting is seriously good.

good day , i'm using audinirvana to play flacs as my unitiqute 96/24 won't be able.

would it work and soundwise  using it streaming wifi? thanks

Thinking of trying a mac mini for streaming, is there any advantage to getting mac with the OS X server installed. Ive no idea about mac's so will be a big learning curve. Just dont want to get the wrong unit. Been interesting reading this thread regarding SQ of the various apps.

Can i also ask if OS X server is not required is the middle option with 4gb ram adequate. All it will be used for is for itunes or one of the other options and odd bit of surfing.

Regards

I dont think Server gets you anything you need for your purpose.  I decided the cheapest Mini was the best choice.  I maxed the RAM after with after-market RAM from an established Mac specialty online vendor, and added an external USB drive.  

Nick

Thanks Nick

Ill use my NAS drive to store the music so wont need a large HDD on the mac. Did increasing the RAM help, or are you using something that requires a lot.

Regards Graeme

I had nothing but problems with Audirvana . Constantly skipping from one recording or track 

to another. A very open but sonically bright and inconsistent presentation with the Wavelength DAC and Naim DAC V1 . I had brought both home to audition over a 3 week period. Finally gave up trying to get it right.  Very pleasant and helpful gentleman though at Audirvana who was trying to offer tech support. In the end he said it was my external hard drive that was causing the problem , but a few of my friends have suffered the same issues with this site. Decided to hold off purchasing a USB DAC for a while. I understand that computer generated music is fast becoming the chosen format for most , but I think it still has a ways to go . Vinyl and CD's for now.