VPI Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 I too hate the dongle but have gotten used to it, it would be a deal breaker on a laptop for me even with the extension they provide. JP, what does the dongle look like. I am most likely going to run it on a desktop but I would like to be able to use it on my MacBook Pro as well for meets, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fitz Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 I guess linux makes you arrogant and naive It's times like these that make me rather embarassed to be a linux user... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphsci Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 It's times like these that make me rather embarassed to be a linux user... The dark side can be resisted.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 It's zealotry that's the problem, not one's choice of religion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 We seem to be generating more heat than light here. Has anybody answered the question I posed back in post 46 in this thread? (and elsewhere) (http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/6804-amarra-mini-395-a-3.html#post259604) Are they just correcting a Mac specific issue, or can it be applied generally to any system? I'd be interested in knowing the answer. Until then, we seem to be engaging in violent speculation, or spiraling down the Hello, I'm an an absolute Objectivist, and I'm a relative Subjectivist, hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Monkey Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 It's SO much harder to get banned over there than here. Did you even bother reading your welcome pm? Ah, but over here, we don't put up with the guy who insists on shitting on the sofa. Jeff, time to take control of the head. Probably some room in Coventry? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp11801 Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 JP, what does the dongle look like. I am most likely going to run it on a desktop but I would like to be able to use it on my MacBook Pro as well for meets, etc. It looks like a USB thumb drive, laptop users use an extension if you fear breaking it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepak Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 This program and their other software packages are in many major studios, if it was BS it wouldn't be in use in so many studios. Not sure I can agree with this. In many ways the pro audio world is worse than the audiophile world in that they feed into the latest and greatest maybe even more than audiophiles. Also from the pro audio magazines I've looked through there is a dearth of quality measurements, I don't recall seeing any measurements for A/D and D/A converters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 To my knowledge you are the only stating they are using DSP, if you have proof then state it if not I'm not sure why you get to continue repeating you theory. Why is it a problem? DSP just means that they're doing something with the signal -- which I don't think they deny. I mean, they kind of have to, otherwise it's the software equivalent of a shakti stone. Does that make sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp11801 Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Not at all , the "this program is doing something, I don't understand it, therefore it is DSP" is flawed. This program Amarra uses a preexisting program soundblade for playback, this program is primarily used to record and edit music. It just so happens it sounds great, it was not developed for sound play back for audio nuts. The arguement that it must use DSP to sound the way it does is (IMHO) used to dissmiss the software. I would not care if it did use DSP but other than volume control, which every playback engine I've seen uses, oh and the mini player does not use there is none per the designer. We can all randomly speculate if we like though, I guess, but can we not state speculation as fact? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 On the contrary, Amarro "Mini" is focused on pure playback, and is specifically targeted at audio nuts. link And the reasoning goes, "this program is doing something, therefore it is DSP". That middle part is in your mind. Do you know what DSP is? Digital Signal Processing. Digital -- meaning in the computer, not on a turntable -- Signal -- works with audio signals -- Processing -- "doing something". I think you're attributing connotations to DSP that aren't part of its proper denotation (definition). DSP does not necessarily mean that it does FFT's or dithers or anything else, it just means that it does something to the signal. The end. Attenuation? DSP. Pretty much has to be. I mean, it's quite possible it does nothing, but if it doesn't do anything, why not just listen to iTunes? That's the part I'm having a hard time with. I wouldn't want to pay $400 for something that does nothing. (That's what I was trying to say earlier with my shakti stones comment.) What am I misunderstanding? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadhead Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 i'm not sure, in that instance, that placebo effect is the correct causal agent. the psychological literature is filled with crowd effects. i saw Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones on opening night with a bunch of good friends. the crowd was electric. when Yoda fought Count Dooku, the place erupted. when we were leaving, we all excitedly agreed that it was the best movie, like, ever. the next day, i realized that the movie was a steaming pile of shit. i had expected the movie to be terrible, because Episode I had been terrible, but the crowd excitement had changed my emotional response. did i truly believe that Attack of the Clones was great? that night, i certainly did. i haven't experienced anything like that since, but it was a euphoric and powerful experience. You are right... I used placebo entirely incorrectly here. If Hirsch was around he'd smack me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadhead Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Well it looks like I was wrong that there was constant DSP. I checked over at CA and their Amarra thread had some interesting information from Daniel Weiss (and many others): Both iTunes and Amarra seem to be bit transparent (to be tested though), so where is the benefit of having Amarra? One is that Amarra switches the sampling rate in AudioMidi depending on the sampling rate of the file played. iTunes stays at the sampling rate set in AudioMidi and thus files may get sampling raate converted if one does not take the hassle to switch the sampling rate in AudioMidi. Another one is the fact that Amarra does apply dithering when the fader in Amarra is used. iTunes truncates w/o dithering. Daniel The bit transparency test where they check the HDCD light on the Alpha seems entirely reasonable to me. Therefore Amarra gives you EQ but can be disabled and dithered volume control but can be overridden it appears by setting the volume to max. Daniel Weiss also posted this: This just doesn't add up... Agreed - provided it has been taken care that all those switches in iTunes (sound enhancer, normalizing, EQ) are switched off. And the volume is set to the exactly same value in iTunes and Amarra (preferably maximum volume). And Amarra's EQ is switched off. And if then there still are sonic differences heard then time may have come to introduce the high-end community to the concept of double blind testing. ) Placebo effects can be strong. Read the posts in this thread. As soon as the bad iTunes graphs were published quite a few found iTunes to sound bad. Daniel So my guess is that I was hearing was the volume mismatch I didn't think of that when I pressed the on/off button in Amarra that there would be any volume difference. I dunno otherwise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp11801 Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 (edited) Dusty as a home albiet crappy musician I've done home recording and understand what DSP is, thanks for explaining it though for context for all that are in the thread. I'm at a loss as to my inabilty to articulate that Amarra is not a playback engine it is a program that links iTunes with soundblade. Soundblade as any recording program does contains DSP tools that can be implemented by the user but for recording and mixing but in this playback mode are not used. Edited October 15, 2009 by jp11801 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voltron Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 JP, what does the dongle look like. I am most likely going to run it on a desktop but I would like to be able to use it on my MacBook Pro as well for meets, etc. That is it, and the pic is a little bulkier than life-size. There is a short cable extension, so you can have a flaccid dongle hanging rather than the stiff dongle extending. Also, in answer to the questions earlier about Apple Lossless support, the upcoming version 1.1 will support ALAC and some people have early versions of it already. Within the month is my understanding of the formal release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPI Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Yep, I spent the afternoon at Ciamara in the city playing with gear and buying the Dongle. Really enjoyable afternoon. Sanjay sells Amarra and all the Sonic Studio, Weiss, Berkley Audio and Lavry DACs. He actually sells from his house which is only a few blocks from Dinny's house. He also makes custom speakers with custom amps/cabling. The set he had in his house used a 18" and two 15" NAD drivers and some sort of Beryllium horn loaded tweeters. Huge speakers but we couldn't really drive them hard as his kids were home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voltron Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Cool. He posts on CA and seems like a decent dude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphsci Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 ...Also, in answer to the questions earlier about Apple Lossless support, the upcoming version 1.1 will support ALAC and some people have early versions of it already. Within the month is my understanding of the formal release. Ah, very good. I will soon be joining the collective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherwood Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 I prefer the dreadhead we had before. This new one is a douche. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPI Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 I must have missed something. Al, he was a good guy and seemed very knowledgeable and not the least bit like the normal NYC audio salesman. He actually talked me into buying the cheaper software as he thought it was all I needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atothex Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 This thread got feisty... So yeah would anyone like to claim that Amarra sounds worse than no Amarra? If not, then what's the beef? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahame Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 This thread got feisty... So yeah would anyone like to claim that Amarra sounds worse than no Amarra? If not, then what's the beef? Additional echo due to the $395 void in your wallet? Additional background noise from all the haters on the forums? Still waiting to see what what measured differences there are in the output, if any, or conversely what what configuration / profile / property settings you'd have to make, so there were none Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 What it sounded like to me was a slight volume increase when Amarra was engaged. I'd still consider it just for the auto sample rate and needle drop features. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Monkey Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) Yep, I spent the afternoon at Ciamara in the city playing with gear and buying the Dongle. Really enjoyable afternoon. Sanjay sells Amarra and all the Sonic Studio, Weiss, Berkley Audio and Lavry DACs. He actually sells from his house which is only a few blocks from Dinny's house. Wait...what? Field trip! I must have missed something. Al, he was a good guy and seemed very knowledgeable and not the least bit like the normal NYC audio salesman. He actually talked me into buying the cheaper software as he thought it was all I needed. Very good to hear that. The normal NYC "audiophile" guys are such wankers. Edited October 16, 2009 by The Monkey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreadhead Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) I prefer the dreadhead we had before. This new one is a douche. I've always been a douche if that's what you call being a douche Edited October 16, 2009 by Dreadhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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