Pure Music or Amarra with iMac


Getting a music server system set up and bought a iMac especially for the purpose. This feeds via USB /I2S into my own DAC for best sound quality.

For playback what do you guys suggest Amarra or PureMusic, and how do you access your library remotely from an iPad or iPhone. I have gotten my toes wet with PS Audio PWD / eLyric and I think that the remote interface works extremely well with PS Audio but have had some trouble with it otherwise.

Also im about to start ripping my substantial CD collection 3 - 4K of them any suggestions on how to do this would be greatly appreciated too.

Thanks in advance

Peter
128x128pbnaudio
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
Hello Steve

Can you offer any advise on making the Tenor TE7022L USB receiver work with a brand new iMac, so far I've had no luck with it. My WAY old PC with windows 98 (don't laugh) and my laptop with Windows XP connects fine but any Mac in the house, all 6 of them, will not connect to the USB, any suggestions ?

Thanks in advance

Peter