Using the Remote app
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After installation, the next step is to open the app, select the computer found through Bonjour and log in to Audirvāna. The name you see in the app is the computer name as set in your Linux configuration and used by Bonjour for identification.
If the computer is not listed, then the Avahi daemon on the Linux computer is probably not working. Experience shows that a reboot often fixes the problems after an initial installation. If you update Audirvāna on Apt, discovery on Bonjour continues to work without problems. Reboots are not necessary.
Using more than 1 computer
If you want to use more than 1 computer, for example a laptop with the Windows version and a NAS with the NAS version, you can only be logged in to 1 of the two at a single time. You will automatically be notified that you are logged in to another computer, and that login will automatically be undone if you continue.
If you go back to Audirvāna Core Player, logging on in the main screen doesn’t work. Or you get a login screen right away, enter username and password and then nothing happens. You always have to choose ‘select a computer’ again first, then select the computer and then log in.
It is best to teach yourself to always log out (disconnect) in the Remote App before switching to another computer. This works flawlessly because once disconnected the Remote App doesn’t try to keep the session open, which occasionally confuses the App when switching.
Most users will only use one computer. You will not experience this issue with switching between computers. Once logged in, one is automatically logged in again when starting the Remote app.
Sometimes this process does stall. The remedy is to first select the computer again in the app under the ‘select a computer’ link. You are then either automatically logged in again, or you get the login screen in front of you.
Using music files on a NAS from a Linux computer
It is possible to use files stored on a NAS in Linux. If you mount the NAS as a network drive over SMB (also known as ‘Samba’) or in Linux terms CIFS, the local link to that network drive is what the Remote App sees as a folder.
Synology can make the NAS known as a network drive over SMB in the network. For proper configuration, refer to the Synology Knowledge Base.
Audirvāna will synchronise this network drive every time the app is started and update the database used for searching music and browse the library in the app.
Users installing Audirvāna Core on a Synology or QNAP NAS can browse and select the appropriate folder on the NAS in the app, no additional steps are required.
Connecting to a streamer or DAC
In the settings menu, in the ‘audio’ tab, you will find all settings that you also find in Audirvana for Windows or Mac in the settings menu. As opposed to the Windows or Mac desktop versions of Audirvāna, this is also the location where you select the streamer using the app. All UPnP, Chromecast and connected DACs via USB are shown under ‘Output Device’.
Select and play music
The menu on the left-hand side on a tablet, or the menu items at the bottom of the screen on a phone, give access to the usual options: the streaming services you are logged into, your own music files, internet radio stations and podcasts. There is little special to report, it all works as expected and is a smooth experience if the computer running Audirvāna Core Player is powerful enough.
A bar is displayed at the bottom of the screen showing what is currently playing. Clicking on the bar results in a slide up of the ‘now playing’ screen, where the queue can be accessed.
All apps take some getting used to, but you can hardly go wrong in the Remote App: it is logically arranged and the number of click-through paths is limited. A tablet works nicer than a phone, but that is really true of all music apps: you want to have an overview when scrolling through a list of 4500 albums.
One omission is that you cannot save predefined filters, which you can easily turn on or off to constrain that list of 4500. You can create smart playlists in the Windows and Mac versions, which offer an alternative for this purpose, but in Core that functionality is not available yet. When asked, Audirvāna told us that they are working on this.
Interesting question. From my own experience, I cannot add a very good power supply to my DAC which has a streamer built-in and connected to the DAC via I2S. So I bought a very good power supply for my Roon Nucleus, which is sort of a NAS or computer. That helps but not to a great extent. It is physically connected to a switch and from that switch to my streamer/DAC. What did help to a great extent, was the addition of a passive ethernet filter. I think, even without the Nucleus, I would still have to connect my streamer/DAC to the internet so filtering would still be beneficial. Adding a really good streamer with good outboard power supply like you mention would be the best solution IMO.
My own experience is that you can achieve an even lower digital domain noise floor if there is no computer/NAS physically connected in the signal path, even if it is connected earlier on the network, behind a switch.
Would you agree that for ultimate sound quality, which many are probably looking for, you are better off by concentrating on a really really low digital noise floor using a good Streamer (only) with very good power supply and fed with an VERY clean ethernet signal?
I have a feeling that as long as you have a computer or NAS physically connected to a switch/router/DAC you will (in general) have a lot more noise to fight than if removing the computer/NAS completely.
It very much depends on the implementation of the USB input on DAC side and the quality of the powersupplies on the motherboard of the streamer or PC. Most streamers are based on (industrial) Small Board Computer components, like Raspberry Pi.
It ain’t that black and white, but in general the Audio manufacturers are more aware of these issues and design their streamers accordingly.