Amarra a worthy investment?

Steve, thanks for the Amarra tips...

Mountainsong, I've used Amarra for years, I can hear it's benefits even on modest setups. First this is to make sure it's set up and being used right...do you have the Amarra and Cache buttons turned on? They change colors if so...

I don't know...I've been going back and forth comparing Amarra (previous version and the current one)with Pure Music, Audirvana, Decibel and something else I can't remember.

Amarra definitely adds it's own flavor and alters the sound significantly.

I use itunes with Amarra 4318/19 with Caching turned on. It sounds slightly better in playlist mode, but not worth the hassles.

There are only two Amarra releases that I like, and the 4318/190 is the best by far.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I have been using Amarra since '09 and have been mostly happy with it. I am using the current version, I may have to look into Steve's recommended older version that I surely had at one time. Steve, I assume that you are using the Amarra Symphony? I have the non-Symphony version that used to be called Amarra Mini. I probably need to explore the EQ settings further (I understand from Steve's link in one of his posts above that I would need to buy a spectrum analyzer program & possibly a microphone), I currently use one of the preset EQ settings, and use the cache & playlist modes.
I have not compared Amarra with any other players, but in my system it sounds pretty good. I have been wondering if upgrading from Amarra to Amarra Symphony for the additional eq functions would be worthwhile.

Mikey - I use full Amarra EQ on all systems, even at shows, even on TAD reference speakers. Makes a big difference with ALL speakers. This is actually more important that EQ of the room resonances. Its like replacing your speakers with $50K speakers.

Here are some tips on how to do it with an iPad:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/recommended-systems

Steve N.
Empirical Audio