DAC Tour

[jkeny]

This is like waiting at a bus stop ...... they all come at once
First thing - Ali, Scott is no longer interested, I've sent you the next address.

Thanks for the impressions, guys!

Yes, you have identified sonic differences between the two DACs. One thing I would suggest to all potential auditioners (running on PCs) is to download & try the demo version of the playback software, Jplay (Jplay.eu/download) - this is a revealtion & equivalent to changing to a new, revealing system.

One other difference between the DACs - the Sabre based JKDAC will drive most headphones straight out of the RCA outs, the DAC32 will not.

Also, the JKDAC is €400 while the DAC32 is €500.

[Ali Tait]

Yep, it was Jriver we were using.

[Clive]

Yep, it was Jriver we were using.

Jriver with JPLAY is ok.

Jriver on it's own is nowhere near as good.

IME JPLAYmini on its own is best (easily).

[jkeny]

Yep, it was Jriver we were using.

If you have the time (only takes a minute to set-up) try Jplay - download, install it & reboot. Start Jplaymini & copy (CTRL-C in explorer) a file(s) into the Jplay program - press space bar to play it.

Yes, Clive says it all but were you using JRiver+Jplay or JRiver on it's own?

[brian2957]

JRiver on its own I believe . Sounded pretty good to me.

[jkeny]

JRiver on its own I believe . Sounded pretty good to me.

Yea but you haven't compared it to Jplay
It's one of the recommendations for best sound in my user guide!

[brian2957]

I'm not the expert here John , my guess is I'll be hearing about how it sounds in the very near future. Thanks for the tip.

[Gazjam]

Hi John, Clive.

I tried Jplay myself with Jriver 17 and to be honest I didn't really like what it did to the sound.
I understand (kinda!) what it tried to do, but I find Fidelizer ran with Jriver does a better job of the same thing.

Just my opinion of course, could be a system dependant thing.

Also I wasn't sure about being unable to use the computer for anything else whilst listening to music?
I'm maybe different from the typical Jplay user in that I like exploring the net finding out about the artists etc whilst the music is playing.

Haven't tried that other one you mentioned Clive, always prefer to hear these things for myself, so can you download the software...or?

[jkeny]

Gary,
JplayMini is the standalone program that comes with Jplay. So no front-end JRiver or Foobar (or iTunes) needed. It is the best sounding of the Jplay options. Just follow my quick instructions in post 124 to get it working. Use a buffer of 1 sample (DirectLink) if you can!
Surfing while playing/listening to music is allowed Nothing stopping in you doing this unless you use Hibernate mode in Jplay which isn't strictly needed.

[Gazjam]

Cheers John,I'll give it a whirl.