Jriver and Devialet

[Antoine]

I am using mc19 for window 7 USB to devialet. But recently I found that foobar2000 just sound better. I do not know the reason and

John Swenson wrote some articles with interesting theories to that.

http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-jo...at-digital
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-jo...-just-bits
http://www.audiostream.com/content/qa-jo...fect-sound

[AlexS]

I am using mc19 for window 7 USB to devialet. But recently I found that foobar2000 just sound better. I do not know the reason and

I'd been using Foobar2000 for about a year, and have recently given JRiver a try. To my ears, the sound quality is identical (using WASAPI event-style in both). What I like more about Jriver is
1) the rich User Interface
2) Jremote ipad app, which beats Foobar's counterparts: MonkeyMote - functionally adequate, but visually poorly designed, and Apple Remote - visually appealing, but functionally flawed.
Unless I encounter unpleasant surprises during the trial period, I'll be switching to JRiver permanently.

BTW, I think I figured out (with the help of JRiver wiki) the reason for my occasional dropouts: Windows Defender kicking in, when it thought the system was idle, installing the latest definitions, and doing a scan. Jriver also recommends excluding a bunch of JRiver related folders and executables from Window Defender's targets. Thus far, I simply disabled automatic scans (as well as auto Windows updates in general).
However, it's interesting that Foobar never suffered from this issue. Perhaps, it's more robust in that sense. You can also configure Foobar to run its internal processes with high CPU prioriry (under Options --> Advanced), which I'd done. I don't see any such options in JRiver. Perhaps, it's already optimized CPU-wise?
I also noticed a very interesting difference between JRiver and Foobar, which I'd like to understand in more detail. When you use WASAPI in Foobar (and start playback), it spawns a new Windows process called WASAPIHost64 (or something to that effect). This process gets a high CPU priority. JRiver does not create a new process. From what I read, with WASAPI-event enabled, it initiates WASAPI playback from the same thread. I'd like to understand the implications of this difference in terms of performance, and the resistance to interferance from 3rd party processes.

---

Oh, Bryan, I did not notice you were using USB (I'm using AIR, which may be more forgiving to latencies, since it uses buffering on the Devialet side). Perhaps, in your case it's worth increasing the output buffer in JRiver from the 100ms default.

[Antoine]

I started a poll to persuade those JRiver guys to change or remove the annoying "JPlay is a hoax" popups that they show when someone uses JPlay on his system. It ended in a fight of course...

These guys are stubborn as hell...they don't believe any bit perfect music player can have an impact on sound quality.

Not that I am really proud of it, but you could get some popcorn and read the resulting discussion here: http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-so...uct-22474/

In the end the JRiver CEO refunded me both the original license purchase and the upgrade to MC20...first in an attempt to 'shut me up' and later because he didn't "want my business"...LOL

[AlexS]

Antoine, not to show any disrespect to your listening preferences, but I'm tempted to take JRiver's (and Foobar's, for that matter) side in this debate. Now that you've refunded the license, you should remove "JRiver MC 20" from your signature, or they may charge you again for it...

[Antoine]

No problem AlexS, you can of course choose any side you'd like.

All I know is that my system sounds quite a bit better with JPlay in the chain. Check out the JPlay reviews as well, a guy summed them up on the last page of the discussion in the topic I linked to. Also I am not exactly alone in this, biggest part of computeraudiophile.com (and there are other sites as well of course) revolve around the 'how to improve computer playback'. Besides the hardware also the software you use and it's configuration is a big part of that. My system's been transformed after all the changes I made to the computer based source. It's better than anything I've ever heard in my home. So I'd encourage you to check it out, it'll also get you rid of the white noise issues you face.

Thanks for reminding me to change my signature here as well (already did on CA). I no longer want to 'advertise' JRiver indirectly, it's not because I'm afraid they'll charge me as I didn't agree to Jim's conditions/terms. They can charge me anything they'd like but I will not pay them a cent, ever again.

[Morten]

Hello Antoine...

Some thread you started on the other forum :-) I don't understand it, why do folks not try it, if they like it and think it is worth 100€ go ahead and procure it, if they can’t hear any difference be happy to have saved the 100€

Have you tried Jplay in Hibernation mode? as you wrote elsewhere you will properly not get the same improvement as I get because your PC is already tweaked, but on my standard windows 8.1 it is an improvement.

Kind regards Morten

[Antoine]

Hi Morten, well the thread mainly discussed if JRiver should remove the HOAX warning message but I surely agree that people should simply try first before giving their opinion if a program like JPlay works or not.

No sorry, still haven't tried hibernation mode. I've still been too busy with other (planned) changes, but when I finally come to it I'll surely report it in the JPlay topic. Thanks again for the tip!

[kenreau]

Hello!
I have JRiver 20 together with Mac Mini and the Dev 400 using USB cable. How is you connection between Mac and Dev?
Bernts

Hello Bernts,

Currently I just have a USB cable from the mac mini to my Devialet 200. I wish to eventually investigage the ethernet and AIR set ups, but struggling understanding their diagram architecture.

Kenreau

[madumm]

Hello!
I have JRiver 20 together with Mac Mini and the Dev 400 using USB cable. How is you connection between Mac and Dev?
Bernts

Hello Bernts,

Currently I just have a USB cable from the mac mini to my Devialet 200. I wish to eventually investigage the ethernet and AIR set ups, but struggling understanding their diagram architecture.

Kenreau

I am using JRiver 20 streaming through AIR to D200. Actually, I am testing.

It is flaky. But here is the result:
16/44khz - Works fine
24/96khz - works fine
24/192khz - works fine
(All FLAC Files)

DSD - DSF files - all not working (expected)

Even turning on DSD over DoP feature in JRiver does not help.

One bad thing I found is this... whenever I play hi res music (24bit/96 or 192khz) and I switch to a normal 16bit 44khz track, the music sounds like it is drowning in a bath tub.
And the worse thing is, I could not set it back. This goes on for a while, and by "I do not know what" means, it just started playing ok again..

I could not figure this out.

In any case, the setup I have is this.

NAS -> MAC running JRiver 20 and AIR.
All full gigabit wired network
Control tracks and playback using JRemote on an iPhone.

Rgds

[Music or sound]

I have recently tested Jriver on my Mac via USB or AIR direct ethernet. Works and slightly better via ethernet.
In the metadata displayed the composer is missing (which is possible to find in iTunes) and find that lack of information not acceptable and makes this software useless for me.
I just downloaded and tested Audirvana Plus 2.0.6 and listening via USB I found it by far the best audio player I tested (including previous versions of Audirvana). Significant better than AIR/iTunes!
Composer data are easy to find and many more fields of metadata are available. One thing I did not figure out how to import missing art work and whether AIR works with that library