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New Audirvàna Studio to be launched


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Audirvàna will be having a Facebook launch of their new Audirvàna Studio version on Sunday May 9th 6pm CET.

From the ad in the June What HiFi it appears internet radio will be introduced as well as visual updates.

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A refresh is long overdue IMO.

Never liked the 'galaxy' theme of Audivana 3.

Will be interesting to see what Damien comes up with in terms of improvements.

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I expect that's just for Mac OSX.  A version for windows would be nice. The windows 10 app is not good at all - very high CPU and RAM usage even on high spec PC's. 

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1 hour ago, Niktech said:

I expect that's just for Mac OSX.  A version for windows would be nice. The windows 10 app is not good at all - very high CPU and RAM usage even on high spec PC's. 

Looks like a Windows logo on bottom right of screen so you might be in luck

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  • 2 weeks later...

Did anyone watch the presentation? Is the Windows version just  another Win10 app or will it be a program?

If it's a program I might give it another trial.

Edited by Niktech
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1 hour ago, Niktech said:

Did anyone watch the presentation? Is the Windows version just  another Win10 app or will it be a program?

If it's a program I might give it another trial.

 

Isn’t an app(lication program) a program?

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The list of new features, from the press release:

 

• Mixed favorites and playlists, combining local music and music from streaming services

• An access to more than 120,000 Internet radio stations and podcasts
• An enhanced metadata editor including an online metadata recovery function
• A unique playlist editor for easier navigation

• Faster and more intuitive smart search in all sources
• A playback console giving an overview and access to all advanced audio settings

• In-app assistance explaining all possible settings
• An HD track profile checker to evaluate files of presumed high-resolution quality

• A new version of the Remote application for mobile devices (iOS and Android)

 

That “HD track profile checker” sounds interesting, given the amount of cheating that’s going on with hi-res tracks.

 

Of course, Audirvana will be subscription-only going forward.

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1 hour ago, Steffen said:

Of course, Audirvana will be subscription-only going forward.

Yes, that's created a ****-storm on the FB Audirvana Studio launch commentary and their forum.

I think they face an uphill battle convincing people to subscribe - especially when there is the far more featured and polished Roon option (admittedly at twice the price).

Very little specific detail has been released, but when I looked at screenshots it was very similar to 3.5 but with a black theme. 

It remains a single endpoint player without Roon's server multi-user/zone functionality. Nor any equivalent of Roon's play on 'Radio' function(?).

A colour change and linking of album data for the local library may not be enough.

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Some interesting new features and some much needed updates, but all overshadowed by the move to subscription. With what is essentially a file player (ie no actual content of its own) I'm not sure subscription will play well with users, particularly with existing users. Roon at least can argue that their metadata is what you're subscribing to.

 

Audirvana Studio will be 1/2 the cost of Roon I guess so its not a lot (about $6 a month) but all these subscriptions are making my head spin...

I think I'll try out the trial and see how it stacks up next to v3.5 and Roon.

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6 minutes ago, John0001 said:

I think I'll try out the trial and see how it stacks up next to v3.5 and Roon.

That's what I'll be doing.

3.5 is a non-starter for me these days, very dated GUI and just doesn't allow the ease of music exploration offered by Roon. Audio quality is very good, but Roon 1.8 is similar.

I use an M1 mac so I'm interested to see what SQ optimizations Damien has been able to achieve (3.5 is already an Apple silicon app, so don't know whether this is just a bit of advertising bluster about Studio sounding better).

 

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7 hours ago, Steffen said:

 

Isn’t an app(lication program) a program?

No. An app has no installer package and lighter on features. It is an API based platform. Under Windows 10 an "app" is something quite different to an "application" or more commonly a program.

 

Thanks for posting the features 👍.

 

I think it might be a no from me.

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Hmm, so far I've found Audirvana Studio pretty disappointing. 

I like the dark theme but nothing else seems functionally much different to 3.5,. For me Studio has the same navigation issues - it just seems miles away from Roon for convenience and music discovery.

Some of the fonts are ridiculously small (is there a setting hidden somewhere to change this?) and insufficient line spacing in blocks of text - I could never be bothered negotiating the wall of text that is presented under artist bio's - has Damien never heard of paragraphs?

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The same bio in the Qobuz native app is far easier to read.

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This is the same bio in Roon 1.8 with the medium text size setting.

I find Roon by far the easiest to read and it also includes clickable hyperlinks.

1067922244_ScreenShot2021-05-17at11_10_14pm.thumb.png.9c86fd24595ff69a93e5446f86d11ba6.png

 

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I'm an existing Audirvana account holder and signed up for the trial of Studio today.

I like it I guess. Well, the GUI is nice and fresh. @Tobes, I also have concerns with the small font size. It's the same in the settings screen and I couldn't find any adjustment for it. I thought it might have been because my application window was minimised somewhat but it didn't change when maximised.

Will reserve further comment for when I've used it more.

I did have a lot of trouble signing up for it. It didn't recognise my existing 3.5 account login details (logging into 3.5 directly I had no issues) and it was all a very clunky process.

 

Sound difference?

Hmmm, maybe more transparent but again, not too sure at this stage.

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20 minutes ago, The Steever said:

Sound difference?

Can't say I noticed any sound difference - and I'm using a M1 Mac Mini which was supposed to be further optimised.

I'm using ethernet from the M1 Mac with DLNA to an ultraRendu endpoint then to my DAC - which works seamlessly, like it did with 3.5 for me. 

 

BTW, you don't realise how bad the text size thing is until you bring up someone with a lengthy bio - check out this Richard Thompson bio. How many people would want to read through this?

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Thank you.  Without ever having heard the sound quality of Audirvana, the wall of text you present is a definitive argument against it as far as I'm concerned.  That's gawdawful!!  I think the Qobuz native app will do nicely.

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16 minutes ago, brumby said:

Thank you.  Without ever having heard the sound quality of Audirvana, the wall of text you present is a definitive argument against it as far as I'm concerned.  That's gawdawful!!  I think the Qobuz native app will do nicely.


It’s something fixable. Don’t judge the app solely on that. I’ve been listening a bit more since my post above this afternoon and the additional sound improvement over V3.5 is actually quite noticeable. And 3.5 was already very nice. 

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12 minutes ago, brumby said:

Thank you.  Without ever having heard the sound quality of Audirvana, the wall of text you present is a definitive argument against it as far as I'm concerned.  That's gawdawful!!  I think the Qobuz native app will do nicely.

Agreed. I don't know what Damien was thinking when deciding on text sizes for this release. 

He would be well aware of how the native Qobuz app looks - yet he releases this mess. The tiny text in the settings menu (mentioned above) is inexplicable.

 

5 minutes ago, The Steever said:

It’s something fixable. Don’t judge the app solely on that. I’ve been listening a bit more since my post above this afternoon and the additional sound improvement over V3.5 is actually quite noticeable. And 3.5 was already very nice. 

Trouble is its a non-starter without being fixed and I'm using a reasonable sized 24" monitor. It must be horrible on a small laptop. The question is how did this get past very initial testing phase?

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2 minutes ago, Tobes said:

Agreed. I don't know what Damien was thinking when deciding on text sizes for this release. 

He would be well aware of how the native Qobuz app looks - yet he releases this mess. The tiny text in the settings menu (mentioned above) is inexplicable.

 

Trouble is its a non-starter without being fixed and I'm using a reasonable sized 24" monitor. It must be horrible on a small laptop. The question is how did this get past very initial testing phase?

Agreed. Audirvana forum comments are chock full of the same question. 
 

if the UI experience can be improved to match what I’m listening to right now, It’ll be a keeper. 

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2 minutes ago, The Steever said:

if the UI experience can be improved to match what I’m listening to right now, It’ll be a keeper. 

Have you tried Roon? 

There is a very large gap is usability - huge in terms of linking between artists, discovery and navigation.

Part of the problem is Audirvana relies on album data directly from Tidal/Qobuz so is limited in how it presents this. Qobuz for

instance is a bit messy with album listings, often including covering artists in the main artist list.

Roon sorts all this out and provides chronological album listing - its so much nicer.

And still no play-on 'radio' function with Audirvana.

There are many other things I wish were included - like the simple ability to display an album cover full screen and check out different album artwork full screen while playing something else. Roon allows all of this. 

With no multi zone server functionality either it's just a completely different product tier to Roon.

 

Personally I think Damien has set the subscription price too high for for what is being provided.  I think many will look at the step in price to Roon and consider it offers better value.

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Agree with the comments above. Studio feels very much like a beta rather than a final release with plenty of, um, quirks, that are puzzling. Luckily I haven't had any of the crashing issues many PC users are reporting.

Overall I prefer the dark theme, text size definitely needs to be adjustable and some of the choices of how it displays and sorts albums are puzzlingly unintuitive. It does sound very good, a little brighter and more detailed than v3.5 so preference/system will determine whether that's a plus or minus. I think Roon is the better app but you pay 2x for it...

Maybe I'll just use Apple Music now as that's going lossless/hi-rez and the software is free... hmm

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As an Audirvana 3.5 license holder (as opposed to Kenworth/forklift driver) I've long requested larger fonts, both on the forum and in emails to the Support team. "Merci for your feedback" but nothing doing...

 

Damien and team have blinders on a lot of the time, I reckon, and are quite good at annoying existing users with unresolved bugs etc. Go to the new homepage, for example, and try and find 3.5 for download. Oops, it's no longer available, the website tells us....???!!!

 

Nice, especially for less savvy users who've forked over $140 AUD for a lifetime license. Emails to support are mostly promptly dealt with, and they'll reply with a download link to 3.5.

 

Still, it's a rather careless way of nudging newbies and 3.5 users towards their new subscriber model, in my opinion.

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My trouble is I read and I’ve been reading a fair few comments about Roon eating Audirvana for UI and that Audirvana V3.5 eats Roon for SQ. And just from my experience today, Studio sounds better than 3.5 and that’s more important for me. 
 

I guess I could try Roon for free for a month. I’ve paid a lifetime fee for 3.5 and I’m lazy and although I’m UI adaptable, my post-stroke adaptable is running low currently because of a recent change in streaming service (Tidal to Qobuz). 

Edited by The Steever
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