Don,
I have download and installed the Amarra Mini demo on my Mac Mini. It goes into a Benchmark DAC-1 USB. I have tried to drive the power amp directly from DAC-1 and even listen to a HD-650 headphone plugged into the DAC-1 in order to eliminate any inference from the preamp, speaker, and room. Here is what I find:
Playback of 24/96 tracks is virtually identical to iTunes. Amarra might be a little bit cleaner at the high but the difference is so small that it could be purely psychological. It definitely will not pass my blind test. So I consider them to be identical in sound quality.
Playback of 16/44 tracks is a different story. Amarra sounds decisively cleaner. In the High Life track of Jazz at the Pawnshop, cymbals and tambourines sound more delicate, drums are tighter with more "skins", instruments are in general better focused and have more presence.
In terms of female vocal, iTunes does sounds a little bloated in the mid bass and gives singers a little bit more chest and throat sound. That might be the phrasing you referred to in your post. I can hear that difference very clearly in the Danny Boy track sang by Jacintha.
Which is better is hard to say. I think it depends on what you like and your system. In my system, that little bloated mid bass often being exaggerated a bit by the BAT preamp. So I much prefer the Amarra presentation.
I have download and installed the Amarra Mini demo on my Mac Mini. It goes into a Benchmark DAC-1 USB. I have tried to drive the power amp directly from DAC-1 and even listen to a HD-650 headphone plugged into the DAC-1 in order to eliminate any inference from the preamp, speaker, and room. Here is what I find:
Playback of 24/96 tracks is virtually identical to iTunes. Amarra might be a little bit cleaner at the high but the difference is so small that it could be purely psychological. It definitely will not pass my blind test. So I consider them to be identical in sound quality.
Playback of 16/44 tracks is a different story. Amarra sounds decisively cleaner. In the High Life track of Jazz at the Pawnshop, cymbals and tambourines sound more delicate, drums are tighter with more "skins", instruments are in general better focused and have more presence.
In terms of female vocal, iTunes does sounds a little bloated in the mid bass and gives singers a little bit more chest and throat sound. That might be the phrasing you referred to in your post. I can hear that difference very clearly in the Danny Boy track sang by Jacintha.
Which is better is hard to say. I think it depends on what you like and your system. In my system, that little bloated mid bass often being exaggerated a bit by the BAT preamp. So I much prefer the Amarra presentation.