[haloxt]

cMP is supposed to buffer all the music in RAM so that it has less jitter. cPlay is supposed to be a very low jitter ASIO media player and works with cMP (you can use cMP with any other audio player, see Chapter 12 of cMP guide in website linked below). Both are open-source so both are free but when I tried to install cMP, ad-aware identified win32.trojan.autohk in it. I let sourceforge know and they fixed it, but beware of it happening again.

I only fooled around with them for about two hours but it's quite interesting what it tries to do and appears to work decently although I did manage to crash a few times with cMP. I kept pissing off vista when I was toying around with cMP options and stopping explorer.exe. I only recommend trying out these programs if you are serious about new ways of getting the very most out of PC as transport because it might take a few hours to figure out these software and because playback on cPlay appears to be limited to cuesheets or single files. And it seems like if you want to achieve optimal sound you can prevent windows from starting up completely with only about half a dozen processes running, then just open whats essential for playing music, in effect running your computer as an mp3 player

.

And of course I'm not sure if they sound any better than other ASIO implementations, but I THINK the wavelab ASIO works the same way as cMP, which is buffer the music in RAM, and I know (believe) that sounds GOOOOD. But the literature on cPlay's website is extremely interesting, and I'll have to take back all I whined about regarding lack of software development for audio. If you're interested in the topic of jitter, I highly recommend you read everything on their official site, the author is dead serious about jitter: cMP² | Main / HomePage

Btw, I won't be doing any serious testing because my computer is just connected to my audio-gd compass and to the built-in ghetto speakers on my monitor now

(sounds kinda good lol). Hope these programs work out for you guys as good as they promise to be. It has certainly renewed my interest in pc as transport.

 

[cafe zeenuts]

Being using this CMP and cPlay for my PC transport for awile now. It's an fantastic software that is simple and great sounding.

 

[skeptic]

I've also been toying with cplay - having stumbled on the recent thread over at audio asylum regarding the release of the newest version.

The flac playback quality is definitely excellent even on a non-cMP setup (seemingly slightly cleaner than winamp Otachan ASIO), although I'm still on the fence as to whether I can really hear a difference between cplay and foobar, as some people are claiming (audio asylum posters reference the trebles in particular).

What do you guys think?

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by skeptic /img/forum/go_quote.gif What do you guys think?

all these theories are nice and all, but they lack technical proofs/measurements.

foobar in KS/WASAPI/ASIO *is* bit-perfect(well, if your audio drivers don't have a mandatory fixed sample rate like the Asus Xonar)....this is easy to check w/ a DTS-CD or HDCD and a matching amp.

all the rest is just smoke...you can set a half-second latency to the audio renderer in foobar, that's MORE than enough to cancel out any "HDD jitter"

 

[haloxt]

Read more about jitter here: cMP² | CMP / 03Jitter

And I hope you guys don't turn this thread into a "where is the proof?" debate, take that to the sound stupid forum so people interested in using the software in this topic can talk about it in peace.

 

[leeperry]

yes, this wiki is very...laughable. and it was written by the software coder I guess? and why not building a proper GUI that doesn't require CUE files?

anyway, each to his own! if some third party runs real world tests and ends up w/ the same conclusions...we'll see about that

most of his wiki comes from this PDF anyway: http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf

which is 20% highly informative, and 80% major bs. upsampling will only increase harmonic distortion, they seem to believe that it will bring back JC. it will not.

 

[mojave]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry /img/forum/go_quote.gif yes, this wiki is very...laughable. and it was written by the software coder I guess? and why not building a proper GUI that doesn't require CUE files? anyway, each to his own! if some third party runs real world tests and ends up w/ the same conclusions...we'll see about that most of his wiki comes from this PDF anyway: http://photos.imageevent.com/cics/v0...rts%20v0.3.pdf which is 20% highly informative, and 80% major bs. upsampling will only increase harmonic distortion, they seem to believe that it will bring back JC. it will not.

You can add FLAC and WAV files to the playlist. No need for CUE files.

The pdf you are referring to was written by the developer of CMP and cPLAY. People are allowed to post their own work in multiple places.

 

[tosehee]

I had a doubt about the Amarra on the OSX, but after trying it out last night, I am eating my own dirts. I didn't think the software would make a difference, but I stand corrected here.

I like what I see in terms of the music playback on pc side. I hope this gets more attention and accelerates the development.

 

[ROBSCIX]

I have been considering trying out this player. Maybe I will check it out soon and see what it has to offer.

@Tosehee, are you currently using this software?

 

[tosehee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ROBSCIX /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have been considering trying out this player. Maybe I will check it out soon and see what it has to offer. @Tosehee, are you currently using this software?

AFAIK, this is only for a pc. I am thinking of installing a bootcamp on my mac pro and try it out. But to answer your question, not yet. I see this as a Amarra in PC side with $FREE price tag on it.

 

[fzman]

cmp cplay sound very good. i use cplay by itself on my regular computer, and cmp with either winamp or cplay on my audio-only pc.

there are, in my opinion, 3 things that have a direct bearing on the sound:
1. bit perfect
2. low jitter
3. low noise- from few processes running, low power consumption, good power supplies - basically running a stripped down, "built for speed" pc just to play music. that's what cmp is about-- it's a bit of a pita, but life is about trade-offs!

 

[skeptic]

I'd love an explanation (if anyone can provide one) as to how the volume control in cplay works. I thought the whole purpose of using KS/ASIO was to bypass the kmixer, which entailed giving up any sort of software volume control.

With both WinAmp ASIO and Foobar - my dac output is at the same volume. The default volume setting in cplay, by contrast, is much much lower. Do you only pass bit-perfect with cplay if the volume is set to max? If so - why even include a software volume control?

 

[skeptic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mojave /img/forum/go_quote.gif You can add FLAC and WAV files to the playlist. No need for CUE files.

I was only able to open a single track at a time with the version I DL'd. How are you adding multiple files without a CUE editor?

 

[haloxt]

Volume control can be done by the media player, not just kmixer, I used to control volume with foobar+asio. Here's the description of the volume control on cplay: "Offers high quality 64 bit double precision digital volume control (in 0.5db steps). This can be bypassed."

Cplay alone (with cmp it gets even kookier) I also could only use single files or else cuesheet, and it makes me close the program every time before double-clicking on a new file to play, but I could just be doing things wrong

too lazy to figure out this software. Maybe it'll be more friendly in future updates but right now it's much easier to just use cuesheets and they have a cuesheet editor on their site.

 

[dugq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haloxt /img/forum/go_quote.gif Read more about jitter here: cMP² | CMP / 03Jitter And I hope you guys don't turn this thread into a "where is the proof?" debate, take that to the sound stupid forum so people interested in using the software in this topic can talk about it in peace.

To be fair, I think if you link to a website which states "the subjective findings were strikingly verified with a series of measurements" asking "where is the proof" is an appropriate question. A comparison of a cmp configured machine and a vanilla machine running the exact same hardware would be very useful in this respect, unfortunately no such test seems to have been done.

IMO, cmp is an interesting project, and I like how the developer explains the theory upon which the program is based. This is a stark contrast to some of the "it's magic, just trust us" lines one tends to hear from those behind some other audiophile media players. On the other hand, the effectiveness of the software would appear to be extremely system dependent (how much of this is going to be useful for someone running a USB or firewire async interface, or what about those who stream audio from a nas rather than a local disk). I can't help but think that if one has a system which is affected by the kinds of variables that cmp attempts to address one would be better to investigate means of isolating playback from those variable rather than merely reducing their effects. Such an approach addresses audio quality, without losing many of the features associated with computer audio which made us dump our CD players to begin with.