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Mac Music Software Frustration

Hi Folks,
I use a MacBook Pro laptop to play hi-res and other music files through my rig, via a Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 and a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC. My software situation is something of a mess right now and I am eager for your advice.
I have Decibel, which was the first player I got but I haven't used it in awhile.
Most of the time I've been using Audirvana 1.x, which works great in iTunes integrated mode. I'd had Audirvana generate proxy files in iTunes for my hi-res files, which worked just fine. I especially liked being able to control the iTunes/Audirvana combo via the Apple iOS "Remote" app on my iPhone.
I recently "upgraded" to Audirvana 2.x, which has been a big disappointment to me. I don't detect any improvement in audio output quality, and the Audirvana iOS app is a mess; very slow to load playlists and frequently becoming unresponsive to input.
I finally broke down and bought Amarra during a recent sale. I hate the kludgy, non-Mac compliant interface. That would be fine, but waiting several minutes for large playlists to load is maddening for software that's this expensive. 
Finally, I just downloaded the demo of Pure Music. It sounds quite good, but of course doesn't know what to do with the Audirvana proxy files in iTunes.
So... I’m wondering what my fellow Mac users are doing for a Mac-based hi-res server solution. I'd like to find something that works smoothly and sounds great and be done with it.
Thanks in advance!!

rebbi

Showing 2 responses by sbank

sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Hi Rebbi,
I was also using A+ 1.x iTunes integrated mode with proxy files for flac, hirez etc.
Yes, it is some work, but I find that A+ 2.x (especially 2.4) sound MUCH better in non-iTunes integrated mode. That means no proxy files. Everything will play straight thru, flac, dsd, etc. Therefore after adding the flac/dsd/wav folders to your settings for A+ library folders to sync, the result will be duplicates where you previously created proxy files pointing to iTunes. Those proxies will need to be deleted from A+ to get rid of the dups.
An awkward transition for sure, but sonically worth it. The new interface is being upgraded regularly and Damien monitors the threads on computeraudiophile for issues and suggestions. Cheers,
spencer
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Rebbi,
I think I opened iTunes and scrolled albums looking for any with .flac etc. and deleted them there, answering "yes" when asked if I want to delete the files as well as removing them from the iTunes library.
Some were missed and whenever I get a playback error or see dups in A+, I check metadata for the song. If the file location is in my main iTunes folder, then I know it's a proxy file that is safe to delete.
Hope that helps,
Spencer
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