Pure Music or Amarra with iMac

I have used both, and also the recently released jRiver Media Center Alpha build for Mac. I also recently downloaded Audirvana Plus and started playing with it. They all have strengths, but I think I've about settled on Audivarna Plus. It allows iTunes to handle my entire music library, including formats like Flac, and that means that you can use Apple's excellent Remote application to control the music and playlists. It is also really simple to set up and use.

Just one Person's opinion. YMMV.

Audirvana Plus also gets my vote for ease of use, and all round capability in playing every format (DSD ISO, DSF etc). It falls short of Amarra/PM's plug in/roomEQ capabilities but those I can live without. That said, I heard Audirvana Plus is going to get an upgrade to add those features. The programmer is prolific and highly responsive to bug fixes etc.

If you don't need DSD, I strongly recommend having a look at BitPerfect from the AppStore. So cheap but IMHO it works just as well with PCM files.

For ripping, I use XLD. It's Mac's equivalent of EAC on the PC. And it provides a good log of the ripping process.

And yes, Remote for the iPad/iPhone is free and works incredibly well. My only wishlist for it is to add "cache" for album covers cos it seems to reload the album covers quite frequently.

Audioengr of Empirical Audio frequently recommends Amarra, and also mentions the built-in equalizer capabilities of Amarra as being an outstanding audio tool.

Does any of the of the other aftermarket software have an equalizer function as part of the package?

Specifically I recommend version 4318/19 of Amarra. Of you own full Amarra, you can download this version. Not as stable as the latest, but better sounding IMO.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Well figured that one out - surfing the internet on the subject read that the most left USB port on the iMac was not suited for audio devices ? strange indeed plugged into slot 3 of the 4 available, the drive is plugged into slot 2 and I have a connection - what gives ? Steve N maybe you can shed a little light on this

Thanks

Peter