John Darko
Into the wild this week goes the long awaited, long rumoured, won’t-be-much-longer-till-it’s-ready, absolutely-definitely-coming-soon, okay-here-it-is version 2.0 of Audirvana Plus.
Say it with me: orrrdearrrrvarrrrna.
Along for the ride comes a new logo and freshly decorated website home page that details developer Damien Plission’s ongoing commitment to memory play, bit-perfect playback, integer mode, SysOptimizer, and full DSD compatibility.
Audirvana Plus has long been championed as a more affordable competitor to Amarra and PureMusic, mainly because its users aren’t always shackled to an iTunes database that necessitates the transcoding of FLAC to Apple Lossless. It’s also less expensive than its rivals.
Although iTunes integration remains an option, Version 2.0 sees Audirvana Plus breaking ties with iTunes via its own library management system. Specify a ‘watch’ folder and anything added to that folder is automatically added to Audirvana’s very own database, which is apparently scalable to 100,000 songs. Rejoice, for your FLACs may now roam free!
Once inside the Audirvana Plus library files can be retagged and their artwork added. Support for the advanced tagging requirements of classical and jazz are also supported.
One neat feature is v2.0’s ability to list the DSD songs contained within a single SACD .iso file. No need to drop down to the command line and into the SACD Extract wilderness.
The downside of A+’s new self-contained library system = no remote control.
New customers are being asked to pony up US$74 for a version 2 license whilst those who bought into v1.x can expect to pay an upgrade fee of US$39. (Users who dropped their cash after 1st August get the 2.0 update for nothing).
I cheekily attempted to load my existing 1.x license file at startup – a move resolutely rejected by the start-up interface. I’m currently making use of a fresh 15-day trial before committing 100% to the new version.
Further information: Audirvana Plus | Audirvana Plus 2.0 User Manual
