![]() Sure, the subwoofer helped, but it would be unfair to undermine Audirvana’s effect on my setup. And if it was harder, the improvements remain clearly audible, especially in the lower section. ![]() ![]() Everything seemed sharper, better as if someone magnified every aspect of the track.įinally, I did some tests with my KEF LS50 Wireless, my desktop speakers, to check if I could spot the same enhancements, without my headphones. I chose R8Brain for oversampling, but didn’t use replay gain at any moment, and again, the dynamic range was vastly superior with Audirvana. This time, I put my own tracks to the test and I chose a few albums in Hi-Res, that I personally found well-arranged: Justice – Audio Video Disco, Eagles – Hotel California, and Daft Punk – Random Access Memories.Īgain, 10 out of 10, I could spot which was which, and this time the sound difference became much more obvious. Next, I did the same test with the xDuoo TA-30 and my mighty Audeze LCD-X. But, going back to Qobuz, or even Plex for my local files, really felt like a drawback. ![]() Going back and forth wasn’t easy, as exclusive audio access takes a few seconds each time to activate/deactivate. Bass hit deeper, highs are sharper and voices sound more natural. At the same exact volume settings, switching from Qobuz native player to Audirvana significantly improved the dynamic range. I picked a track that I listened to at least one time a day – More Than Just the Same from Infected Mushrooms – and did some back and forth between Qobuz and Qobuz + Audirvana.Īnd to my surprise, Audirvana came up as the clear winner here. Of course, the difference isn’t as obvious as if you were to replace your DAC for a better one, but head to head, on the same system, the player made a clear difference.įirst, I did a simple comparison with the Sennheiser HD800S + HDVD800. I’ve seen a lot of snake oil over the years, but this time, the hyper is real: Audirvana Studio really made a difference and I could hear it right from the start. So, did Audirvana really improve my system? Short answer, yes. All files were either streamed from Qobuz or my own library. Out of curiosity, I also tried Audirvana on my PC, connected to my KEF LS50 Wireless. My headphones? The Sennheiser HD-800S and Audeze LCD-X. It would be nice if Audirvana offered an alternative where redemption is possible.For this review, I mostly used my MacBook Air paired to the Sennheiser HDVD820 and xDuoo TA-30. However are not fans of subscriptions with software. We understand that companies need to survive and that subscriptions provide a form of security. The Studio version does allow Tidal and Qobuz integration, but costs either 6.99 per month or 69.99 per year. The “local” Origin version – no Tidal and Qobuz integration – costs 120 Euros (a one-time fee). The reason is multiple: primarily the playback quality, but also the ease of use, the mature app and the fine search function. You will have noticed that we are particularly enamored with Audirvana. But Audirvana does have a kind of ‘silver lining’ (if that’s the right term for it). Crap in stays crap out… you can’t do anything about that. We really played all kinds of things and practically nothing was unpleasant. And that calmness makes for very pleasant listening. Partly because the calmness is maintained. Especially if we also add the wonderful layering.īy the way, it is not that Audirvana is acting like a surgeon: yes … there is more detail audible, but it feels very normal. This is something that in fact only the best streamers manage to do. And that doesn’t make any sense, of course, but we can’t find any other words to describe the feeling for a moment.Īlso, the imagery is just much bigger. To come up with a cliché: it feels more analog. What is immediately noticeable when we switch from Roon to Audirvana is the smoothness of the playback. Then the system is unprecedentedly slow, which can be inconvenient. However, the system does remain responsive, unlike Fidelizer in “audiophile mode. So the software does have to disable things in the background – like Fidelizer, for example. Now Audirvana explained in our interview that it does a lot to optimize the number of “processes” running in the background within an operating system. And part of that is to eliminate as much as possible of what is not needed. So the trick is to make a system as quiet as possible. All generate noise when they need to get to work. Whether it’s a “big ass Core i7 or Ryzen 9” or a relatively simple FPGA running a program. ![]() Every processor generates high-frequency noise. A PC, of course, is not a “clean” environment. ![]()
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