Amarra affordable

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Amarra used to be Rs35k. Its recent price was $189.

Now there is an offer going on for people who have tried and not taken, which is until November, for only $99.

Amarra has also an equalizer which can do digital correction for room acoustics, just like DSPeaker does.

I am using Audio Nirvana, and am quite satisfied with it, but if Amarra had been available at this price earlier, I would have gone for it eyes closed.

 

[Tanoj]

what is Amarra ?, is it a DAC

If yes, could you please help me with the weblink where the discounted price is listed

Thank you

Tanoj

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Hi Tanoj

This is a software for playing hi res files, for Macs. There are alternatives like Puremusic, Audionirvana, and now I believe J River also.

Sonic Studio Amarra High Resolution Music Players and Professional Audio Mastering Systems

The above link will tell you everything. The basic version is $189 still, but for those who have tried it and not taken earlier, the price is $99 till November.

Amarra can let you use iTunes as a front end, while keeping itself and its clunky user interface out of sight, but while disabling iTunes' engine. Most softwares do this, but Amarra is reputed to have the best converter to AIFF format, if all your hi res files are in flac etc. AIFF is important since if you wish to use the slick interface of iTunes, flac files cannot be played.

Amarra can also play flac files, but for that you have to use its native version, i.e. without iTunes as the interface, which means the clunky interface.

I use the similarly lousy looking interface of Audio Nirvana, but am thinking of using Amarra to convert everything to AIFF, and changing permanently to iTunes.

 

[musicbee]

what is Amarra ?, is it a DAC

If yes, could you please help me with the weblink where the discounted price is listed

Thank you

Tanoj

Its a media player the same as Foobar. Supposedly high end and hence the hefty price tag. I've heard it and cannot justify the price myself (it did sound very good). However, one can get pretty much the same SFX using the equalizer with many players like Foobar, XMPlay, MediaMonkey, etc.

If you really have the money then I'd highly recommend the Spatial Computer. It works extremely well and will raise the bar for any speaker setup and make it sound 3-4 times the actual value.

 

[arj]

Hi Tanoj

This is a software for playing hi res files, for Macs. There are alternatives like Puremusic, Audionirvana, and now I believe J River also.

Sonic Studio Amarra High Resolution Music Players and Professional Audio Mastering Systems

The above link will tell you everything. The basic version is $189 still, but for those who have tried it and not taken earlier, the price is $99 till November.

Amarra can let you use iTunes as a front end, while keeping itself and its clunky user interface out of sight, but while disabling iTunes' engine. Most softwares do this, but Amarra is reputed to have the best converter to AIFF format, if all your hi res files are in flac etc. AIFF is important since if you wish to use the slick interface of iTunes, flac files cannot be played.

Amarra can also play flac files, but for that you have to use its native version, i.e. without iTunes as the interface, which means the clunky interface.

I use the similarly lousy looking interface of Audio Nirvana, but am thinking of using Amarra to convert everything to AIFF, and changing permanently to iTunes.

I had tried out the 2 on trial and found Amarra (both without using itunes) to be better in terms of sound quality ..although Audirvana is so much more easier to use (without itunes) ! as it supports cue files with one flac . as you mention amarra needs flacs as individual files and does not support cue. Audirvana also supports downsampling into 20/44.1 and can intelligently detect the dacs specs on it. Amarra works blind to the dac.
Rest of the system being a M-Audio solo firewire converter with a reimyo dac

 

[Gerry_the_Merry]

Hi Arj

So you are using mac? laptop or mac mini? I use the latter.

What do you recommend? $99 is a no brainer, but it will be a blind buy for me. Blind because I have changed my speakers from Thiel to Focal Electra 1028, moved to a new house where even without broadband wifi is not working (needed for mac mini set up which is headless), sold off my linn TT, screwed up my Garrard 301 while moving to a sandstone motor board from hardwood (tonearm movement is not smooth, and I will have to take it apart), am going on a vacation shortly and have no way of reliably testing whether Amarra is better before November end when this offer expires.

What were the major aspects where you found Amarra the better of the two?

 

[arj]

Hi Arj

So you are using mac? laptop or mac mini? I use the latter.

What do you recommend? $99 is a no brainer, but it will be a blind buy for me. Blind because I have changed my speakers from Thiel to Focal Electra 1028, moved to a new house where even without broadband wifi is not working (needed for mac mini set up which is headless), sold off my linn TT, screwed up my Garrard 301 while moving to a sandstone motor board from hardwood (tonearm movement is not smooth, and I will have to take it apart), am going on a vacation shortly and have no way of reliably testing whether Amarra is better before November end when this offer expires.

What were the major aspects where you found Amarra the better of the two?

first of all I use a suboptimal setup so needs to be looked at with that context
imac -> M-audio Firewire Solo - REimyo
from what i could make out Amarra has a much better presence..with audirvana the weight that music presents reduces. could very well be due to settings within audirvana, although i did play around with them
but coming to convenience audirvana is really good