Following a thread on GS I started to experiment with Audirvana and I'm puzzled. I do hear a difference on my BFP FS with 650s and 1990s on a Mac (Ventura).

To my ears AN sounds louder than iTunes or the Finder. But Digicheck/Totalmix/AudioMidi Setup indicate it's not.

I'm very sceptical about the whole idea of an audiophile player. Moreover the hoops Audirvana makes one jump through - clicking lock icons etc - make it feel like deliberately confusing the user. A direct comparison is difficult but still my ears tell me there is a difference and AN sounds "better".

My feeling is, it's more than half a db louder, some kind of M/S processing and maybe some minimal phase filters employed.

But any of these should be measurable and documented already somewhere.

Placebo? Am I hearing things? I got the trial version, so no money spend here.

Anybody some hints what - if anything at all - they are doing or how to explain these effects?