Thanks for the heads up on a new ver being available.
The ‘jury’ is still out as a full version of VOX and the ROON Labs apps are yet to be auditioned. So far, just on points alone, Audirvana Plus is ahead in this two horse race. I am leaing towards whatever app can be used and configured easily given my circumstances that will yield better performance. I’ve not taken into consideration the costs for each app yet. it is laid out well and easily navigable.īoth apps have a significant learnign curve to get the most from them and that process is ongoing. On SQ alone, its hard to say completely but on those files which both apps do render, as said, it is likely too close to call which is best.Īudirvana Plus had no issues surrounding installaton or playback of any file types or sampling rates.Īudirvana interface is read by Apple’s screen reading facility readily. It wil be necessary for anyone whose vision is so poor they can not navigate a mouse to contact amarra support and they will try to overcome this problem on a case by case basis. its an impossible item to over come with out sight or guidance from a sighted person. it occurs at the activation screen where one must use a mouse to click the appropriate button to continue using the app. There is one very important aspect to the installation and operation of the present Amarra app for those whose vision is restricted or severely impaired. Amarra support did in fact lend a hand with setup but there is still a configuration issue preventing Amarra from acting in a stand alone condition and playing Apple’s non supported file formats, FLAC. I’ve had significant issues with Amarra so far. not sure of their actual version numbers though. Switching over to MAC and needing a more formidable media player than iTuynes, I’ve been using the trial versions of both Amara and audirvana as of March 2019.
The improvement to Roon comes with a hefty price - HQPlayer costs RM1,084.38.Jumping in just to update this thread a tad from another perspective. Indeed with Roon and HQPlayer, I have found the best of both worlds in music streaming - good sound quality and good User Interface plus stability and excellent catalogue.īut…as usual there is always a but. But its User Interface is much, much better than Audirvana Studio and to many that alone would tip the scale for Roon. In terms of sound quality Roon with HQPlayer will win in some departments against Audirvana Studio and lose in others, but it sounds very good and without a direct comparison with Audirvana Studio, you would not be disappointed by what it has to offer.
Roon with HQPlayer sounds slightly mellower and smoother with much deeper and fuller bass than Roon alone. In comparison, Audirvana Studio sounds more dynamic and slightly more detailed with better etching-out of images. The brightness is gone and the tonal balance becomes more neutral.
However, with the HQPlayer as its sound engine, there is a remarkable improvement. I did not like Roon’s sound quality (see ) as it sounded a bit bright. I chose two albums from Tidal: Leonard Cohen’s Ten New Songs (which has become my fave review album these days) and Cowboy Junkies Trinity Revisited. I had to go to Roon’s ‘Settings’, click on ‘Setup’ and look for this command and click ‘Add HQPlayer’:Īnd so it was back to comparing Roon with HQPlayer with Audirvana Studio.
Then I had to find out how to incorporate HQPlayer into Roon.
So I googled for HQPlayer’s website and downloaded the software for a free trial. In several forums, the suggestion was to have HQPlayer replace Roon’s sound engine. Since I was so enamoured of the sound quality of Audirvana Studio (see ) but disappointed with its User Interface, I started googling around to find out if I could somehow improve the sound quality of Roon. HQPlayer is available for Windows, Linux and Mac.