Who we are
Audirvāna is a fully independent software company founded in Paris in 2011, dedicated to computer-based high end audio playback. Audirvāna has become over the years a reference in its field. Our team has developed in-house and improved a unique technology making the most each operating system – MacOS, Windows and Linux – to turn one’s computer into a high performance digital audio source. Our application also includes all the features expected by the most demanding music professionals and enthusiasts around the world.
‘When I was growing up, I was fortunate enough to have music-loving parents and they brought me to concerts, listened to quality music, with a high quality HiFi system. All these emotions have forged indelible memories, idealized over time. It has become a real quest to live again these feelings and emotions, it feeds your obsession.’
Damien Plisson
CEO & Creator of Audirvāna
Our mission
We make great sound accessible by turning one’s computer into a high performance digital source. Our only purpose is to preserve the integrity of digital music and maintain absolute transparency during playback from a computer, server or NAS. We get rid of the ‘invisible’ noise of the hardware electronics, avoiding all unnecessary conversions and processing – source of jitter and interferences – which result in audible noise and distortion as they are amplified through each component of the audio chain.
Our mission
We make great sound accessible by turning one’s computer into a high performance digital source. Our only purpose is to preserve the integrity of digital music and maintain absolute transparency during playback from a computer, server or NAS. We get rid of the ‘invisible’ noise of the hardware electronics, avoiding all unnecessary conversions and processing – source of jitter and interferences – which result in audible noise and distortion as they are amplified through each component of the audio chain.
Our history
Audirvāna was created by the highly talented French developer Damien Plisson, trained at Ecole Centrale and UCLA. The first version was released in 2011 for MacOS, becoming the first dedicated playback software bypassing Macs default audio parameters to adopt a straight-to-DAC access.
Sound performance has been improved at each step along with the addition of key new features. In 2014, the app was enriched with a library management solution – separate from iTunes – with its own interface. In 2015, Qobuz streaming service was integrated, soon followed by Tidal and HRA in 2016.
The version 3 was released in 2017 adding MQA support, oversampling algorithms and UPnP/DLNA capability. The first Windows version was released in 2018 along with a Android version of its Remote app.
The current platform – available in Studio and Origin – was released in 2021 and updated in 2022 with radios and podcasts, chromecast audio, audio scan, tablet mode remote app, universal gapless playback and more. Our certification and partnership program ‘Plāys with Audirvāna’ was launched in 2023, and the Linux version in 2024, allowing integration of Audirvāna on NAS and Linux based audio servers.
‘This is undoubtedly the invisible force that guides me in my daily work. But the Audirvāna adventure started with a boxed set of 56 CDs by Aldo Cicciolini, a pianist I love. After ripping them to a digital format , I wanted to listen to them from my computer.
I was disappointed when I tried the various “audiophile” playback solutions available at the time. I found these solutions to be technically questionable and the listening quality extremely poor. One would have thought a computer should sound as good as a CD player! I finally convinced myself that I could do better. I plucked up the courage to go for it, with the sole aim of creating the ultimate audio software.’
Damien Plisson
