Amarra/Audirvana Settings

Posted by: bluesbreaker on 26 February 2015

I use both Amarra and  Audirvana on my Mac Mini for playback. For some pieces I enjoy one and for some, the other.

 

I have recently started using a USB connection to my amplifier DAC and when I play Audirvana it is now in integer mode. I believe I notice more detail in this mode and I am now pondering if I can extract any more from this player and this leads me to wonder what settings people use for these players. Until now, I have left the more advanced settings alone, but now I considering playing around with these, particularly the EQ. I'm not sure why EQ seems to be frowned upon by many. Surely not all recordings/room acoustics are best catered for by a preset?

 

Also, does anyone use upsampling or not? If so how? What are the advantages/disadvantages to this setting?

 

Thanks for helping

Posted on: 26 February 2015 by The Hawk

Since I own a DAC-V1, I follow Naim's recommendations for Amarra/Audirvana. To begin with, as a very sage Naim representative once told me (Phil Harris), make sure you begin with both players at their default settings. Then:

 

Amarra: https://www.naimaudio.com/site...%20Configuration.pdf

 

Audirvana: https://www.naimaudio.com/site...%20Configuration.pdf

 

I use Amarra most of the time, in "Playlist" mode.

 

I rely on my room treatment (GIK Acoustics) in regards to acoustics. If I were to use any type of EQ, I would upgrade my Amarra and use their iRC(b) Room Correction. otherwise, I avoid EQ.

 

I don't know anything about upsampling. Again, I follow Naim's recommendation for settings - begin with the default, and change whatever settings Naim recommends.

 

Good luck!

Posted on: 28 February 2015 by bluesbreaker

Thanks, Hawk. The settings mentioned above are more or less what I use. I doubt if I will mess about with them too much, but the EQ thing interests me. I will have a mess around with it and see how it goes. I have found that I can produce a really nasty distorted sound id I yank the controls too much ,ind you!

 

I'm also hoping both these players will produce a remote app soon so I can stop having to go through iTunes fort hat purpose