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Updated on March 24, 2014 22:44

 

Audirvana Plus is a high‐end audiophile player for the Mac platform. It supports most popular audio formats, including FLAC, DSF, SACD ISO, Monkey Audio APE, AIFF, WAVE, WAVPACK, Cue Sheets and Apple Lossless. Audirvana can be used for two-channel and multichannel applications.


Follow this step-by step guide to configure Audirvana Plus for use with exaSound DACs.

1. Download and install Audirvana Plus 1.5X from the official developer’s website.



2. If you haven't done so, download and install the exaSound Mac driver from our customer service website - support.exaSound.com. You will find the step by step instructions in the Owner's Manual for your exaSound DAC.

3. Start the Audio MIDI Setup application to verify the exaSound driver installation. By default the driver is in stereo mode.



4. If you are using the e28 DAC, select 8-channel mode,



5. Launch Audirvana Plus. To simplify the configuration please disable the iTunes Integrated Mode. You can try the iTunes integration when you finish the DAC configuration.



6. Open the Audirvana Preferences window. You will see the General tab. The only critical setting here is Prevent screen from going to sleep. Make sure that it is checked. The screen saver lowers down the CPU performance and this can interfere with the the sound.

7. The Apple remote can control the DAC and Audirvana at the same time. You can find out what remote control option works best for you. We recommend unchecking Use Apple IR Remote.



8. The Audio System Tab is the most important one. Work on it from the top to the bottom .

  • First you need to select the Preferred Audio Device. Select the exaSound driver.
  • Set Native DSD Capability to DSD Over PCM Standard 1.0
  • Make sure that Direct Mode is unchecked.
  • You can use Exclusive Mode and Integer Mode.
  • You can experiment with Use Max I/O Buffer Size once everything else is set up.
  • Start with the default value for Maximum memory allocated for tracks pre-load. You can experiment with it later.
  • It is important to set Spl rate switching latency to 0.5 or 1 sec. This option helps with clicks and pops between tracks with different sampling rates.
  • Set the other options on this screen as shown.



9. The settings on the remaining tabs are optional. The following screenshots illustrate the settings that we normally use.









10. Close the preferences window and play some music. The Audirvana volume knob mark will turn red. This is fine - turning the knob will change the volume display on the DAC front panel. This confirms that Audirvana controls the DAC built-in hardware volume control.


 

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