JRiver Media Center 18 Or Foobar2000?

Posted by: Hot Rats on 08 April 2013

I have both and while I appreciate that it may be a placebo effect, I believe that I can hear a difference (Running both pieces of software using WASAPI Event into M2tech HiFace Evo powered by Paul Hynes Power Supply into Naim DAC) between the two but it is difficult to be specific. The rest of my system is NAC52/Supercap/SBLs. I play FLAC files from 16/44 to 24/192.

 

There can be no doubt that the GUI of JRiver is vastly superior. I also use JRemote to remote control JRiver from an iPad although there is no app developed for Foobar. It can be done I know but it looks fiddly. and I used to think that JRiver sounded slightly better than Foobar2000 but now I am not so sure. I think that both produce a good sound.

 

Anyone else care to share their experience and views on these two pieces of software?

 

Thanks

Posted on: 10 April 2013 by AndyPat

But likesmusic you don't appear to want to learn. you keep repeating that the file is bit perfect. But a player, or a DAC, doesn't read  a file the way a file-check program does. A buffer can't sort out all jitter and interference of various kinds. The DAC isn't broken it just can't overcome all the added extras, or out of synch bits in the short time it has available. And no a buffer doesn't help out, it just helps with drop-outs.

  If you don't follow that this could be so pop across to the hi-fi corner forum and read the chord sarum thread. Folk with admittedly very high-end systems talking about how Naim cables can be vastly improved on.Cables affecting the SQ, but you can't get how electrical processing of a computer based file can be relevant. Extraordinary, really extraordinary.

 

Andy

Posted on: 10 April 2013 by AndyPat

And yes Aleg evidently does know a lot more about it.

 

Andy

Posted on: 10 April 2013 by likesmusic

 Nowhere in my post did I "keep repeating that the file is bit perfect". I suggested that HotRats used the test built into the DAC V1to determine whether JRiver and Play are bit perfect or not. Seems like a sensible thing to do to me. If there are "out of synch bits" that test will tell you. If one or other or both of the players isn't bit perfect, thats good information to have. Maybe you have a set up issue, which you can fix. If they both are bit perfect and yet still sound different that's also worth knowing,  because then you can ask sensible questions about why. I am sure naim would be interested. Information and knowledge are better than speculation.

 

btw, what do you mean about "out of synch bits"? 

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by Aleg
Originally Posted by likesmusic:
Originally Posted by Aleg:

Ooh watch it, the bits-are-bits brigade is out.

Still so much to learn ....

 

having bit-perfect playback is the easiest thing there is, shove all bit coming in out through the backdoor.

Teach me then Aleg, you evidently know so much more about it than I do. Teach me first how, if you have a decent DAC with a decent asynchronous USB input, that two bit identical sources can sound different. If they do, then I would say the DAC in question would be crap rather than one player being better than the other. Or are you saying that JPlay changes the bits for the better?

Quod erat demonstrandum

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by likesmusic

Really? Wow! 

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by Aleg
Originally Posted by likesmusic:

Really? Wow! 

Yes, that you are one of those closed-minded bits-are-bits adepts I'm not going to spend any time and effort on. Hydrogenaudio is the place for you if you look for like-minded people.

 

subject closed from my side

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by likesmusic

Really? Wow!! 

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by pcstockton
Originally Posted by Aleg:

 

subject closed from my side

Great.  Now back to OP's question...

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by Eargasm

JRiver all the way, combined with a iPad and a good DAC it is the best possible choice for computer based music, by far..

Loving it!

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by Mward2205

Get JRiver MC 18.

Download Jplay.

Download Aqvox USB ASIO driver.

Try them both out for free.

Compare them to the WASAPI event style driver built into JRiver (don't bother with the ASIO4ALL free driver).

Decide.

 

It's easy.

 

Posted on: 11 April 2013 by likesmusic

I agree - and if you are lucky enough to have a naim V1 you can make sure they all pass the bitperfect test built into it, so that you know you are starting from the right place.

Posted on: 12 April 2013 by Hot Rats

I decided to purchase JPlay as I thought that it offered an improvement over the basic JRiver package. The recommended engine is Ultrastream and requires Windows 8. I have been running Windows 7 on my laptop for the past two years but undeterred, I wiped my hard drive and installed Windows 8 (x64). I installed JPlay and everything was running really sweetly. I had been working on this all day so I figured I should devote some time to the family. I switched off and tidied away the cables behind the equipment rack. Later in the evening I thought that I would have another listen. Nothing worked! I checked my installation and all the required drivers to no avail. My laptop was giving output but the DAC was not receiving anything. I then realised that while crawling around to tidy cables, I had pressed one of the buttons on the front of the DAC. Normal service has now been resumed.

 

I ripped a couple of CDs using Exact Audio Copy to ensure integrity and then listened to both, comparing JRiver Media Center/JPlay/HiFace Evo with Paul Hynes PS/Naim DAC with Naim XPS PS with the original CD played on my Naim CDS2/XPS.

 

I thought the computer based system sounded better. That's not to say that the CDS2/XPS is a weak component ... It produces a very good sound. I just thought the DAC was giving a better sound.

 

Having said that, both are inferior to my LP12/ARO/Troika/Armageddon ... But that's another story!