Best Software Option
Nov 4, 2017 at 9:42 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 22
dale55

dale55

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Just wanted to get some opinions. I have a very nice sounding set up on my windows computer with a Schlitt Lyr headphone amp with upgraded tubes, musical fidelity DAC , AQ jitterbug, and sennheiser 650 headphones. I am very very happy with the sound, however been seeing a lot of options for software i.e. jriver, jplay, fidelizer etc and just wanted to see what people thought worked best?


Thanks, P.S. I dont know really much about software and computer settings if that makes a difference. Also I primarily listen to spotify premium but also cds .

Dale
 
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Nov 4, 2017 at 3:51 PM Post #2 of 22
I've tried most of the things you can list.

As far as music players go, I use foobar2000, which is one of the most basic but also most popular music players among audiophiles. There are many custom skins that enable you to tailor the interface to your liking, and quite a few plugins for various purposes.

I also have Bug Head Emperor / Infinity Blade, JPLAYmini, and Signalyst HQPlayer Desktop. HQPlayer is a DSP player that does processing similar to Chord DACs (oversampling, noise shaping, etc.) albeit not as advanced. It does sound better to me than other players (at least some of the time) but its interface is atrocious and it's not cheap.

What makes the difference in sound for me is audiophile optimization software like AudiophileOptimizer (most expensive and cumbersome, but gives the best results), Fidelizer, and Process Lasso. Many will tell you that when you use the same DAC and bit-perfect output settings, such software should not make a difference, but countless audiophiles have discovered that it does.

If you want to keep things simple, just use foobar2000 (download plugins for bit-perfect output, such as KS, ASIO, or WASAPI) and perhaps try the free versions of Fidelizer and Process Lasso with the most extreme settings.
 
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Nov 4, 2017 at 4:08 PM Post #3 of 22
dale55 said:
Just wanted to get some opinions. I have a very nice sounding set up on my windows computer with a Schlitt Lyr headphone amp with upgraded tubes, musical fidelity DAC , AQ jitterbug, and sennheiser 650 headphones. I am very very happy with the sound, however been seeing a lot of options for software i.e. jriver, jplay, fidelizer etc and just wanted to see what people thought worked best?


Thanks, P.S. I dont know really much about software and computer settings if that makes a difference. Also I primarily listen to spotify premium but also cds .

Dale
Click to expand...
For music audio, I prefer to use Foobar2000, with the WASAPI component installed.
 
Nov 6, 2017 at 12:16 PM Post #5 of 22
dale55 said:
Just wanted to get some opinions. I have a very nice sounding set up on my windows computer with a Schlitt Lyr headphone amp with upgraded tubes, musical fidelity DAC , AQ jitterbug, and sennheiser 650 headphones. I am very very happy with the sound, however been seeing a lot of options for software i.e. jriver, jplay, fidelizer etc and just wanted to see what people thought worked best?


Thanks, P.S. I dont know really much about software and computer settings if that makes a difference. Also I primarily listen to spotify premium but also cds .

Dale
Click to expand...

like the others that have answered, i've tried a few players, mostly foobar2000 and jriver. i'd say you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference in sound (in contrast to the other comments, i tend to think jriver sounds a bit better).

foobar2000 has the tremendous advantage of being free and is easy to use once you understand the add-on modules needed for certain applications and skins. works well for library management too once you've got the hang of it.

jriver has the advantage of being a more complete, refined product (imo). does a great job of library management, too. it does come at a cost, though.

i fully agree with @Music Alchemist with regard to audiophile optimizer and fidelizer. i use both of these and find they take computer audio to another level. if you like fidelizer, i recommend buying fidelizer pro (if for no other reason than supporting the efforts of the developer).
 
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Nov 6, 2017 at 8:13 PM Post #6 of 22
jcn3 said:
i fully agree with @Music Alchemist with regard to audiophile optimizer and fidelizer. i use both of these and find they take computer audio to another level.
Click to expand...

It's cool to see another AO user. I have it installed on Windows Server 2016 Standard Core, with just about everything dedicated solely to audio when I load that OS.

Looks like we're fellow STAX fans too! :beerchug:
 
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Nov 7, 2017 at 9:14 AM Post #7 of 22
Music Alchemist said:
It's cool to see another AO user. I have it installed on Windows Server 2016 Standard Core, with just about everything dedicated solely to audio when I load that OS.

Looks like we're fellow STAX fans too! :beerchug:
Click to expand...

i'm running win10 nuc dedicated to audio -- ao settings are maxed out and using shell replacement with fidelizer pro (which launches roon).

been in the stax camp for about 10 years -- just got the sr-l700s. would love to upgrade the amp, but the next step up costs some bucks!
 
Nov 7, 2017 at 1:59 PM Post #8 of 22
I am just trialling the Sonarworks True-Fi DSP headphone plugin and it is awesome with my HD650s - https://www.sonarworks.com/truefi

On Windows I use Roon which is expensive but has a fantastic interface, FWIW.
 
Nov 7, 2017 at 7:08 PM Post #9 of 22
officerdibble said:
I am just trialling the Sonarworks True-Fi DSP headphone plugin and it is awesome with my HD650s - https://www.sonarworks.com/truefi
Click to expand...

Hmm, so it looks like True-Fi is a cheaper version of their Reference Headphone software. (Which I have experience with. I was even the first person to publish a tutorial on it here.)

I wonder what the differences are. (Don't feel like reading everything on their site.)

As a proponent of parametric equalization, I favor doing the work myself, so I can get equal or better results than Sonarworks for free.
 
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Nov 7, 2017 at 11:30 PM Post #10 of 22
I tried True-Fi but didn't like the sound at all. On the other hand I also tried Sonarworks Reference 4 (including Systemwide) and I couldn't be happier. Fabulous sound.
 
Nov 26, 2017 at 12:11 PM Post #12 of 22
I have used Mediamonkey, but the audio was real choppy when doing some CPU intensive rendering.
Foobar2000 works very smooth, i also use 30000 ms buffer there. I like the simple UI, but downside is the foobar2000 doesn't have search track option.
The free Mediamonkey is slow, running only on 1 threat, foobar2000 is much faster.
foobar2000_skinthing.png
 
Nov 27, 2017 at 10:32 PM Post #15 of 22
I like JRiver been a user for many years.
Why I chose it from the rest:
+ All in one. Audio, Video, TV, Streams etc. You could use your DAC/Amp for audio when using Video, TV, Streams..ex: upsample audio stream to DSD256 while watching a 4k Video (why I chose it).
+ GUI, more user friendly than Foobar or HQPlayer
+ Ability to add VST plugins (like Foobar). I have Izotope Ozone and it's just amazing.
+ Not free but cheap. 30$

If strickly audio I am using UAPP (w/Bitperfect) thru Android.
 
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