But, going back to Qobuz, or even Plex for my local files, really felt like a drawback. Going back and forth wasn’t easy, as exclusive audio access takes a few seconds each time to activate/deactivate.

Bass hit deeper, highs are sharper and voices sound more natural. At the same exact volume settings, switching from Qobuz native player to Audirvana significantly improved the dynamic range. I picked a track that I listened to at least one time a day – More Than Just the Same from Infected Mushrooms – and did some back and forth between Qobuz and Qobuz + Audirvana.Īnd to my surprise, Audirvana came up as the clear winner here. Of course, the difference isn’t as obvious as if you were to replace your DAC for a better one, but head to head, on the same system, the player made a clear difference.įirst, I did a simple comparison with the Sennheiser HD800S + HDVD800. I’ve seen a lot of snake oil over the years, but this time, the hyper is real: Audirvana Studio really made a difference and I could hear it right from the start. So, did Audirvana really improve my system? Short answer, yes. All files were either streamed from Qobuz or my own library.

Out of curiosity, I also tried Audirvana on my PC, connected to my KEF LS50 Wireless. My headphones? The Sennheiser HD-800S and Audeze LCD-X. For this review, I mostly used my MacBook Air paired to the Sennheiser HDVD820 and xDuoo TA-30.

Amarra vs audirvana 2018