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Author Topic: Amarra for Tidal  (Read 787 times)

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x838nwy

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Amarra for Tidal
« on: July 08, 2015, 05:16:56 AM »
Anyone tried it? Seems to sound pretty good (did not eq) vs tidal app on my macbook but the ui seems iffy but may be it's my 12" screen. Do you guys feel it's worth the $40 or so?

Thanks

C
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shaizada

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Re: Amarra for Tidal
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2015, 06:51:00 AM »
I'm giving it a go right now after you posted.  The sound of one track that I managed to play sounded really nice!  But this is such a crap UI.  Clunky and just weird.
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Griffon

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Re: Amarra for Tidal
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2015, 06:59:46 AM »
Have the money for Amarra? Go for Audirvana+!
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CEE TEE

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Re: Amarra for Tidal
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2015, 07:39:47 AM »
My issue is my 11" MacBook Air was choking while trying to do the processing on Tidal with AmarraSQ. 

But I can say that I do like the Amarra engine sound quality better.  The EQ was in beta per their support though and not yet polished when I was messing around with it but that is another + factor (if it only worked on my low-spec machine).

Bottom line? If you have the dosh and the CPU power- go for it.

And let us know if the EQ on SQ is now sorted, please.  (Not all EQ points were fully adjustable for Q and it was driving me nuts when I was trying it.)

My next portable Mac will have more juice, for this and for running PhotoShop...
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x838nwy

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Re: Amarra for Tidal
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2015, 09:08:55 AM »
Quote from: CEE TEE on July 08, 2015, 07:39:47 AM
My issue is my 11" MacBook Air was choking while trying to do the processing on Tidal with AmarraSQ. 

But I can say that I do like the Amarra engine sound quality better.  The EQ was in beta per their support though and not yet polished when I was messing around with it but that is another + factor (if it only worked on my low-spec machine).

Bottom line? If you have the dosh and the CPU power- go for it.

And let us know if the EQ on SQ is now sorted, please.  (Not all EQ points were fully adjustable for Q and it was driving me nuts when I was trying it.)

My next portable Mac will have more juice, for this and for running PhotoShop...

I'm not into eq'ing or rather I think I'd just mess it up if I tried. But from my "evaluation version" there are 4 points I can move about horizontally. Three seem to have a more gentle gradient on either side, the last one is like a really sharp peak. Moving them about makes a difference - that is I can make it sound really nasty really quickly. I guess that means it does something.

My 12" macbook is not having too great a time with it. Have to be quite careful with opening too many applications.

Quote from: shaizada on July 08, 2015, 06:51:00 AM
I'm giving it a go right now after you posted.  The sound of one track that I managed to play sounded really nice!  But this is such a crap UI.  Clunky and just weird.

Yup, the UI is really beta, but since this is Amarra, it's probably going to stay like this.

One really weird problem I have is that out of a GO1000 -> K702 it just does not play very loud. Seeing this is a GO1000, i'm really worried that I might have a big problem here. Weird. May by my macbook is not capable of enough juice? Can't be, bitperfect+iTunes at -14dB is plenty loud enough. Why is Amarra so quiet?
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CEE TEE

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Re: Amarra for Tidal
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2015, 10:22:41 PM »
^I was concerned about Tidal Amarra playing badly on my low-spec MacBook Air but it is doing well, I'm trying the demo.

(After watching Bob and Tyll EQ the HD800 here, I figured I would give it a shot so I could get the EQ.)

Compared to Chrome Browser/FLAC:  Using EQ in Amarra Tidal, my modded HD800 are playing more warmly on my Black Widow. Not as bright, less sibilance with EQ of course. Did some tweaks to the included HD800 EQ preset. Less separation between instruments in the stage so maybe one man's "less delineation" of instrumentation but another's "inner resolution/warmth".
I find Amarra in general to be a little bit more lush, full and to connect the headstage, I have both Audirvana+ and Amarra. 
Hearing some congestion/distortion in Lianne La Havas' track Midnight- might be the recording though.  Playing with the Tidal "Main Gain" (lowered to -6) and increasing my amp volume to see if I can clean it up. Testing some other tracks and not hearing same issue. Fiddling with the Sampling rates, Native(x) processing, and filters of the PWD, rig is sounding good overall.  If the clipping/congestion is just the particular recording I was listening to, I will probably shell out for this to have the additional control of the HD800.   

Negatives?  Do NOT like the UI as much as using a browser- can't resize panes within window. Sometimes, can't scroll down to last track in an album so have to collapse another pane to make more room.  Can't click through an album image to the album when playing individual tracks in the Tracks section.  (Tiny little play buttons in corners of the images to play the tracks and even with the info and other tiny menu button cannot access the albums.)  :-00 Sometimes it says that my Tidal username/password is "not valid" and I just have to keep trying a little to get it to play. That's just after a couple of hours of demo...so some improvements to be had. 
Anybody else trying Amarra Tidal?
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