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Thread: Software media players tricks and tips

  1. #41
    Join Date: Aug 2012

    Location: Belfast

    Posts: 139
    I'm Tim.

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    Has anyone compared the sq differences (if there are any) between different software.....e.g. Media monkey, j river, xbmc etc?

  2. #42
    Join Date: Nov 2013

    Location: N London

    Posts: 566
    I'm Steven.

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    I've found that if you want to lose years off your life and don't fancy taking up smoking, get into digital audio.

    The list of things that can go wrong are innumerable and listing them would result in a nervous breakdown. However the first, with my first digital system, was that the network switch was too slow to cope with standard Flac files.

    The only certainty is that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong.

    Thank heavens my NAS/ripper has a built-in processor that handles everything from playback to remote backups, and can be controlled by n-Serve. I am buying a second system for the office and bought a Naim UnitQute2 simply because I know the devices will work together hassle-free.

    So my advice if you want to spend more time listening to music than calling customer services or trawling forums is to get integrated systems, whether same-brand or all-in-one, which have their own tried and tested apps/control software. Unless, of course, you are mad about computers or calling customer services to brush up on your Geordie accent (apologies to Geordies, I love you all).

    That said, I just bought a QNAP as a music server backup, remote backup from my offices, picture library and Time Machine backup store for about 4 machines at home. It's software is an absolute joy, and the music station is also excellent. I have called customer services a couple of times just for hand-holding, they answer immediately and have infinite skill and patience, but I am developing a Goldmember accent.

    Incidentally, my NAS/ripper does bitperfect ripping using same software as the better Naim machines, producing WAV files. I like this approach as there are no settings involved, it just straight copies the CD with no compression at all and then looks up the metadata online.
    Wilson, Devialet, Innuos, Puritan, Claro

  3. #43
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: Larbert, Scotland

    Posts: 7
    I'm peter.

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    I have been trying to retire my CDP for a while now and tried using a macbook pro as a player with various software/dac/connection/file type combinations, just to discover there is a lot to it I don't understand.

    The best solution to date has been to rip with XLD to an SD card and plug that into an Oppo 105 to play the files, out of the oppo's dac it's getting very close to the CDP. So back to trying other dac's now at least.

  4. #44
    Join Date: Oct 2008

    Location: Glasgowshire

    Posts: 9,651
    I'm Gary.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thetiminator View Post
    Has anyone compared the sq differences (if there are any) between different software.....e.g. Media monkey, j river, xbmc etc?
    Yes.
    Try Jriver and be let down whenever you try any other.
    AC POWER
    Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
    AMPS
    Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
    SPEAKERS
    Wharfedale Evo 4.4
    DAC
    PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
    TURNTABLE
    Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
    PHONOSTAGE
    Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
    DIGITAL
    OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
    MUSIC PLAYBACK
    Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
    Ipad Roon Remote.
    Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
    SPEAKER CABLES
    Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On
    "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
    INTERCONNECTS
    All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables

  5. #45
    Join Date: Oct 2012

    Location: Napier, New Zealand

    Posts: 1,519
    I'm Andrei.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Thetiminator View Post
    Has anyone compared the sq differences (if there are any) between different software.....e.g. Media monkey, j river, xbmc etc?
    I've used Media Monkey, Foobar, and J River and have never noticed any difference at all in SQ. Strangely though there was a very slight amount of clarity using Audacity - a soundfile editor. A more marked difference is with a command-line based software called MQN. It can be used within Windows, and is still under development. Neither Audacity nor MQN are user friendly so I don't use either very often.
    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Sources:[/B] [B]1[/B][/COLOR] PC & Wyred4Sound DAC-2 DSDse   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]2[/B][/COLOR] Oppo BDP105   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]3[/B][/COLOR] Technics SL·1210 MK5 (Jelco 750D · Benz Wood).    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Speaker Cable[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR=black]Nordost Frey.[/COLOR]    [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Interconnects [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Oyaide[/COLOR][COLOR=black] & [/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Geisha [/COLOR][COLOR=black]Silver.
    [/COLOR][B][COLOR=#a52a2a]Phono Stage [/COLOR][/B][COLOR=black]Fosgate Signature V2. [/COLOR]   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Preamp [/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]Ayon Eris[/COLOR][COLOR=black]. [/COLOR]   [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Power Amp[/B][/COLOR] [COLOR=Black]ATC P1. [/COLOR]  ​ [COLOR=#a52a2a][B]Speakers[/B][/COLOR] Triangle Magellan Cello.     [COLOR=#A9A9A9]Oh Sting, where is thy death?[/COLOR]

  6. #46
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: Norwich, UK

    Posts: 513
    I'm Ross.

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    Not as tip as such, but Audirvana Plus (2.0.9) is bloody brilliant. I also own JRiver, for what it's worth.

    Edit - to expand on that: sound stage and spacing.
    Speakers: Kii THREE
    Headphones: Lumin A1 > Simaudio Moon 600i > Abyss AB-1266

  7. #47
    Join Date: May 2013

    Location: Southampton

    Posts: 135
    I'm Chris.

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    I trialled Audirvana and just couldn't get on with the interface and then tried JRMC and have used it ever since. Audirvana did sound slightly better but not enough to outweigh the friendlier interface of JRMC.

  8. #48
    Join Date: May 2015

    Location: Dundee, Scotland

    Posts: 107
    I'm Gordon.

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    I'm also using JRMC. Version 19 in my case. I prefer it's sound over all the others. I also like that it takes VST plug-ins. Best of all though is that I can completely avoid iTunes and navigate my music collection via the actual folder structure.

    The last couple of weeks though I've been experiencing a problem with it. For some reason it will not shut down. I always need to Force Quit on it. I haven't changed a thing in it's settings so I'm suspecting it's down to an OS X update. Damned annoying.
    Mac mini > Jriver 19 > ODAC > QED Silver Anniversary IC > Project Ember MkII > Linn Black > Marantz PM6004 > Mogami 3103 > Dali Zensor 1

    Mac mini > JRiver 19 > QED Silver Anniverary IC > Project Ember MkII > Forza Audio Works Colour cable > Sennheiser HD 650

    Sansa Clip+ (r/b) > Sennheiser PX 100-II (w/HD 414 pads)

  9. #49
    Join Date: Feb 2016

    Location: Dorset, UK

    Posts: 375
    I'm Richard.

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    Once I have tried Kodi(formally XBMC) I can not think of any other multimedia solution


  10. #50
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: East Sussex

    Posts: 31
    I'm Rick.

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    Annoyingly, I find a greater change in SQ by using different laptops. I have two, a Lenovo & an Acer. The Acer is much better, same detail, but more rounded at the ends, deeper soundstage and just more musical. I say annoyingly because that means all laptops may sound different and I don't wish to go down that route!

    When this thread was new I had tried Foobar, Windows Media player, Jriver, Media Monkey and a couple of others. I found Foobar detailed, but bland, too clinical & the GUI hard to suss out. Windows media player was dull, Jriver sounded ok but kept crashing so I settled on Media Monkey. Have stayed with it ever since. That doesn't mean I won't try Jriver again though!

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