Anyone Use JPlay?

Posted by: Hot Rats on 13 June 2013

I wondered if anyone with a computer front end had tried out JPlay:

 

http://jplay.eu/

 

I use a PC laptop with Windows 8 (x64), JRiver Media Center 18, M2Tech HiFace Evo with Paul Hynes SR1 Power Supply into Naim Audio DAC/Naim Audio XPS. I found that JPlay considerable improved the sound although JRiver claim that JPlay is a 'hoax'.

 

I would be interested to know the experiences of Naim owners using JPlay

Posted on: 13 June 2013 by Aleg
Originally Posted by Hot Rats:

I wondered if anyone with a computer front end had tried out JPlay:

 

http://jplay.eu/

 

I use a PC laptop with Windows 8 (x64), JRiver Media Center 18, M2Tech HiFace Evo with Paul Hynes SR1 Power Supply into Naim Audio DAC/Naim Audio XPS. I found that JPlay considerable improved the sound although JRiver claim that JPlay is a 'hoax'.

 

I would be interested to know the experiences of Naim owners using JPlay

 

I use only JPlay, on a dual PC setup. Both PC's are purpose built and dedicated to audio playback as Controler and AudioPC.

My AudioPC runs on a tweaked Windows 2012 Server Core edition. My audioPC on Windows 8.

 

I run it into via a Diverter HR2 into Naim's DAC/XPS-2.

 

Using Jplay with its Mini-player is easily superior to any other software player, be it JRiver, or foobar or whatever. I have tried many on Windows OS.

 

The sound quality of JPlay is the best I ever heared. The use of the tweaked Windows 2012 Server Core edition as operating system on the AudioPC is another HUGE improvement to a consumer Windows 8 or 7 OS, even when using Jplay.


I think the developers work magic with PC audio playback.

 

-

Aleg


Posted on: 13 June 2013 by PureReader
Hi Aleg.
I'd be interested to know in what way the Windows 2012 Server Core is "tweaked" . Any explanation why the Windows 2012 Server Core is beneficial to SQ? 
Is my understanding correct that the "AudioPC" is for storage and serving and JPlay is installed on the Windows 8 Controlling PC? Is a NAS involved in your setup?
Thanks in advance.
Posted on: 13 June 2013 by Aleg

 

PureReader

 

when using JPlay in DualPC setup, JPlay is installed on two PC's.

 

The ControlPC is used for playback and streams the audio signal to the AudioPC. Music is stored on the ControlPC or the ControlPC is attached to a NAS, as I have.

 

JPlay on the ControlPC is implemented as an ASIO-standard driver and is used from an ASIO-capable software audioplayer. I use JPlay's own JPlayMini, but you can use it as a kind of plugin from JRiver or foobar or other ASIO-playback capable software player, just point it to the JPlay ASIO-driver.

 
JPlay on the AudioPC runs as a system service. It's sole responsibility is to output the audio signal to your DAC, via your DAC's drivers, in very timing-controled manner. JPlay offers four types of playback engines for the AudioPC which use different (mixes of) strategies for obtaining this timing control. There are also several program and registry settings you can use to influence this service. The most extreme setting is Hibernate mode which switches of several internal OS processes and dedicates a processor core to the JPlay process And lowers priorities of other processes. All music is played from RAM-memory, but it uses different ways for configuring, accessing and using memory and/or methods for obtaining ultra low latency in the playback service. All engines have a very different sound signature, with different people preferring different engines ( the latest ultra low latency engine UltraStream has the most proponents though). Ask Josef on the forum for more technical details of JPlay.
 
So the playback chain is:
from a software viewpoint:
 
Software player --> JPlay ASIO-driver ------ethernet-----> JPlay Service --> DAC-driver-------S/PDIF OR USB---->DAC
 
Or hardware viewpoint:
ControlPC-----ethernet---->AudioPC----S/PDIF or USB----> DAC
 
 
Windows Server 2012 Core Edition is a server operating system that has less features and services running than a consumer OS like Windows 8. The Core Edition is a non-GUI OS (so only command line) which has been reduced to a bare minimum in functionality. It has been shown that the less services and additional processing is going on besides the actual audio processing the better the Sound Quality becomes. Therefore the Server and more so the Core Edition already sound better than the consumer OS like Windows 8. 
 
The tweaking consists of turning off ever more services of the operating system that are not required for audio playback and changing the internal parameters and configuration of the Windows OS itself to improve its processing and timing aspects for audio playback.
The tweaking is being done by AudioPhil (also known as JohnDoe on another forum), who is very knowledgeable about the internals of the Windows Operating systems. Search for Windows Server 2012 Audiophile Core Edition on the JPlay forum and you'll be ale to see the tweaking scripts and get an idea what he is doing.
It is a very open and open-minded forum and just put your questions on the forum. Just don't expect everything to be scientifically explained because a lot has been found out by experimentation and see what turns out to improve sound quality, without always knowing why it is doing so. The developers are just using there ears to know what sounds better, not measuring equipment.
 
Cheers
 
Aleg
Posted on: 19 June 2013 by Hot Rats

I experienced some issues using JRiver Media Center 18/JPlay/JRemote. I was experiencing interrupted playback and laptop hanging although this was mostly when playing high resolution files, particularly DSD files that JRMC was converting on the fly with its internal engine. I could also not use the ULTRAstream engine in JPlay with any stability. My laptop was an Asus with Intel P4400 2.3GHz processor and 4GB RAM.

 

I have since upgraded my laptop to an Acer with Intel i5 processor and 8GB RAM. This has solved all of the issues. So I guess the caveat with JPlay is that it sounds great with JRMC but to give of its best, it needs a powerful laptop.