amarra or pure music..?

'I have found nearly all software sounds slightly different. Don't ask me why! "

There are endless reasons why this might occur. You are pretty much at the mercy of the software.

But, if it were me designing these tools, I would envision a good design would merely stream the existing data in real time as needed by default and not do anything to the bit stream unless the user specifies. Similar to being able to bypass processing on an analog equalizer or other signal processor as desired.

Of course, bugs are always possible as well, meaning even if designed to work properly, the program still does not.

One reason I stick with Windows Media Player for example is I have found it to be very robust and reliable which is what I would expect in that it has been around through multiple revisions already, has a large user base and is designed by a major software vendor who knows as well as any company how to do these things right.

I am not very trusting off one off software vendors when it comes to this kind of thing. Doing it right is hard and takes both time and money (like most things).

I use both Pure Music and Amarra Mini; most of the time Pure Music. I've tried Fidelia. If there was a difference, it was not worth the lack of convenience.

I've also briefly tried Audionirvana--from just a brief listen, I thought this sounded very good, maybe better than PM. Again, however, I missed the ease of use and convenience that PM allows me.

Lots of folks like some of these players because they sound "smoother". If your system needs "smoothing", then they are the right choice for you.

IMO, once you have achieved really low sibilance, jitter and noise in your system, you abandon "smoothness" for liveness. This is a long road and a spendy road for some.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I'm pretty sure Windows MEdia player just passes the bit stream and does not change it by default, at least when used just as a music server and not player.

Newer versions do have a loudness leveling option that helps keep different loudness level tracks more equal level, but that is it and you have to select to turn that on.

Hi mapman,

I have media player on one of my studio computers and it does sound a little different from the mastering and production software on the same machine. Not by much. There is something in the treble which is more relaxed and it is not quite as separated compared to Nuendo 5 or Wavelab 6. I do like it though.

I find it odd that they can sound different as they are using all the same hardware.

Having been listening to Fidelia in my hifi system for a couple of days now I think it is very close to Amarra 2.1.1. It has something very slightly sweeter in the highs and I find imaging is more compact, smaller or pinpoint on some recording. It is only on really good recordings that these differences show themselves. Orchestral recordings seem the best way to tell.

As I said I feel both these 2 bits of software sound better than Pure Music 1.74 in my system. Remember all this software is on the same machine and playing through the same DAC/Amp/cables/speakers/same room and same ears!

If I were blind folded I could tell the difference between PM and Amarra or PM and Fidelia, but I would find it hard to tell between Amarra and Fidelia.

Unfortunately regardless of the sonics it is the interface that makes or breaks it for me. When you have spent so much effort getting the system to sound good, it is a real let down when your main interaction with it is clunky, slow or unstable due to the playback software.

Maybe Apple will just get itunes to sound good and all these little software companies will go away or at least sell their code to Apple to integrate properly.