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what is better than Jriver


bebop86

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Guys i have a Music vault M7 which runs on Jriver- Have not used in awhile as life got in the way- So now that I am back and want to use my system again is J river the best system to run or have others come out which are much better sound quality wise- thanks for the advice-

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JRiver sounds great to me. I use that or Daphile.

Current:  Daphile on an AMD A10-9500 with 16 GB RAM

DAC - TEAC UD-501 DAC 

Pre-amp - Rotel RC-1590

Amplification - Benchmark AHB2 amplifier

Speakers - Revel M126Be with 2 REL 7/ti subwoofers

Cables - Tara Labs RSC Reference and Blue Jean Cable Balanced Interconnects

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I think ROON is better than JRiver. For a few reasons really.

 

1. JRiver is only partially stable. No telling what days that will be

2. Roon runs with full functionality on Linux for years on end..not even a burp

3. Linux wipes the floor with Windows in terms of SQ...Period

 

JRiver has its purpose but it's not a piece of software I enjoy using very much...YMMV

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4 hours ago, hytechrednek said:

I own a copy of JRiver v20 but never use it.  I've always stayed with Audirvana+ .  Having nothing better to do last night, I downloaded a trial version of JRiver Media Center v24 after they sent me a promotional email.  Expecting nothing different sound wise, I downloaded it to my everyday work computer (i5 Mac Mini).  I really just wanted to see if they changed the interface of JRiver.  After looking through some of the menus and seeing nothing new or unique, I finally decided to connect my computer to the DAC via in the most easy and convenient manner using a cheapo 20 foot plastic toslink cable.  WOW!!!  Am I imaging things or does this version of JRiver sound WAY better than anything else?  Going back to any other playback software reminds me of third generation bootleg 8 track tapes from back in the day. There was no hype that I saw about this new version having better sound quality.  What have they done? 

 

Typically I use a Quad Core i7 Mac Mini and a Micro Rendu with LPS-1 feeding a Metrum Hex DAC.

 

Hmmm, thanks for the report.  I've stuck with Audirvana+ and use JRiver as a catalogue and search function.  I did notice that v. 23 was an improvement.  I'll give 24 a listen!

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Gosh havn't heard the latest Jriver but in the day when comparing to XXhighend, XXhighend easily beat it in sound quality. Jriver is trying to satisfy a broad band market of needs whereas Xxhighend is all about the quality of sound. At the end of the day you need to compare and try different software setups. And I guess it needs to suit your setup and convenience factor. Often convenience over rules sound quality for some.

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There's nothing really wrong with JRiver, it sounds good (especially current version), has lots of features inc effective library management and doesn't cost a lot.

 

From my own listening though, I'd rank playback software I commonly use/have licences for in the following order of descending SQ:

 

1.XXHE, by some margin, followed by:

2. Wtfplay

3.HQPlayer

4. JRiver

5.TEAC HR player 

 

noting though that none of the others offer anything like the convenience of JRiver.

There is also BugHead Emperor, which is free and on a good day close to XXHE but takes user-unfriendliness to the limit (and well beyond in my judgement..).  As a simple free bit-perfect player Wtfplay easily bests JRiver for SQ.

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Audirvana Plus is simplier for library management, will be on PC too (soon?).

If you love to Upsample your files, HQPlayer is the best for me, multi platform too, but too simple managing files...

If You Got Ears, You Gotta ListenCaptain Beefheart

 

MacMini 2018, 4xi3 3.6GHz, SSD, 20Gb, macOS Sonoma > Audirvana Origin >

Wyred DAC2 DSD Special Edition > Proceed AMP2 > Focal Cobalt 826 Signature Series >

Audirvana Remote > iPhone 13

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Hi fellow JRiver users.   I am currently using Ver 18.  

 

I have never bothered to upgrade as my theory is..... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".    Having said that, has there been any improvement in basic SQ over the years, b/t 18 and 23, that warrants an upgrade?

 

I use my JRiver purely for Audio and have no fancy DSP setting enabled.   Straight in, straight out with ASIO.

 

Regards Cazzesman

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Not about sound quality but linking tracks together is a handy tool that was added.  So lets say track 3 and 4 are always paired together or one is an intro to the other.  Now you can link those tracks together so there always played back to back.  There was a list of examples on the there support page that members started.

 

Computer setup - Roon/Qobuz - PS Audio P5 Regenerator - HIFI Rose 250A Streamer - Emotiva XPA-2 Harbeth P3ESR XD - Rel  R-528 Sub

Comfy Chair - Schitt Jotunheim - Meze Audio Empyrean w/Mitch Barnett's Accurate Sound FilterSet

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18 hours ago, Cazzesman said:

Having said that, has there been any improvement in basic SQ over the years, b/t 18 and 23, that warrants an upgrade?

I started at version 20 and did not try another upgrade until version 24 came out.  I feel 24 sounds better to my ears.  It's easy enough to download their 30 day trial and see (hear) for yourself.

Hytek

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/20/2018 at 5:47 PM, cjf said:

I think ROON is better than JRiver. For a few reasons really.

 

1. JRiver is only partially stable. No telling what days that will be

2. Roon runs with full functionality on Linux for years on end..not even a burp

3. Linux wipes the floor with Windows in terms of SQ...Period

 

JRiver has its purpose but it's not a piece of software I enjoy using very much...YMMV

I recently switched from JRMC22 to Roon. The GUIs are similarly good but Roon is amazingly more powerful for exploring your collection including album credits (with hot links), lyrics, upcoming concerts and much more. The SQ is higher but I also am now using a NUC, so changed two variables at the same time. Highly recommended!

Roon ROCK (Roon 1.7; NUC7i3) > Ayre QB-9 Twenty > Ayre AX-5 Twenty > Thiel CS2.4SE (crossovers rebuilt with Clarity CSA and Multicap RTX caps, Mills MRA-12 resistors; ERSE and Jantzen coils; Cardas binding posts and hookup wire); Cardas and OEM power cables, interconnects, and speaker cables

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17 hours ago, Musicophile said:

Interesting. I left Jriver at version 22 as I just stuck to A+ as my default but just testing v24 and at first sight they really improved the audio engine. Need to do a side by side comparison with A+ at some point. 

I've had a chance to make SQ comparisons with most of the major players on the market and I find JRMC v24 much better for some reason.  That said, I still don't care for the interface. Since all of these players are supposed to be "Bit Perfect" it really makes no sense, but the difference is quite obvious. For lack of a better description, there is a "digital quality" to the others that sounds unnatural and fatiguing.  Would love to know what JRiver did differently in this version.

Hytek

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On 5/8/2018 at 6:53 AM, Screwdriver said:

If a bit-perfect player sounds different than another bit-perfect player, then one of them is not bit-perfect. If you send the 1's and 0's to the DAC exactly as the file was written, then there will be zero sound difference.

 

In your opinion and experience, perhaps. But that is contrary to the experience of many others, who have even found that different versions of JRiver do not sound the same.

"Relax, it's only hi-fi. There's never been a hi-fi emergency." - Roy Hall

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - William Bruce Cameron

 

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11 hours ago, Allan F said:

 

In your opinion and experience, perhaps. But that is contrary to the experience of many others, who have even found that different versions of JRiver do not sound the same.

 

If JRiver is sending bit-perfect to the DAC, it should sound identical no matter the version. That is the whole idea of bit-perfect.

 

Maybe JRiver is incapable of running bit-perfect?

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I think they all send bit perfect to the DAC, then after they add their own sauce to it...

It's like all CD players do not sound the same playing the same CD...

If You Got Ears, You Gotta ListenCaptain Beefheart

 

MacMini 2018, 4xi3 3.6GHz, SSD, 20Gb, macOS Sonoma > Audirvana Origin >

Wyred DAC2 DSD Special Edition > Proceed AMP2 > Focal Cobalt 826 Signature Series >

Audirvana Remote > iPhone 13

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6 hours ago, Screwdriver said:

If JRiver is sending bit-perfect to the DAC, it should sound identical no matter the version. That is the whole idea of bit-perfect.

 

"Should" in theory, but not in the real world. JRiver, Foobar, Audirvana+, etc. are all bit perfect, but they don't necessarily sound exactly the same. It may take a high resolution system to hear them, but many can and do hear differences.

"Relax, it's only hi-fi. There's never been a hi-fi emergency." - Roy Hall

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - William Bruce Cameron

 

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