Did anybody use JPLAY? Did you hear any difference?

[dan.gheorghe]

Hello guys,
 
A few months ago I tested JPLAY with burson ha-160ds and lcd2. It seemed like it made a big difference. The sound was clearer, more detailed, the bass went deeper. 
In the meantime I got the Burson Conductor and did not use it anymore as I thought it might not make a big difference, since the Conductor has a very good usb receiver.
 
Well, I decided to try it again. It made a considerable difference on Conductor too.  
I also read that Jplay got a blue moon from 6 moons.
 
I, however, don't know if my mind is playing games on me. I truly seem to enjoy listening to, but I am curios of your opinions, so I made this poll.
 
After voting, please write your setup.
 
Mine:
-Burson Conductor (used from USB with Wireworld Starlight Cable)
-Audeze LCD2
-Windows 7 64 bit 
-Foobar2000
 
 
P.S.
 
It would be really helpful for everybody to write the system they tested with, even though they did not hear any difference. Thanks.

 

[RubenV]

With hibernation setting enabled I hear the most improvemend.
 
Setup:
foobar2000
Antelope Audio Zodac + (with Teddy Pardo PSU)
Arcam AV9 pre amplifier
Emotiva XPA-5 amplifier
Van Den Hull cables and interconnects (hybrid mkII)
Tannoy Dimension serie TD8 speakers (I don't have a headphone yet)
 
Friends without knowledge of and interest in audioequipment could tell me they heared a difference too.
 
I would also like to add, JPlay has a trial that is free to try! So go and look if it makes a difference in your setup and post your findings here and enter them in the poll.
 

 

[dan.gheorghe]

It would be really helpful for everybody to write the system they tested with, even though they did not hear any difference. Thanks.

 

[MegaBass18]

I voted for "Heard a noticeable positive difference", but the first thing I thought when I heard it was that it seemed like it was simply digitally increasing the volume.  I'm almost positive though that the quality was the exact same. 
 
Setup:
Windows 7 64-bit
foobar2000
Schiit Audio Magni Amp
Brainwavz HM-5 Headphones

 

[xnor]

Voted 2 because the difference is negative.
 
I've measured what jplay is outputting (with both mini and fb2k plugin) and it did not match the 48 kHz, 24 bit test file. It seems to be doing some kind of processing. Free players don't and sound better, if you can hear a difference at all.
 
edit: looks like unnecessary dithering with noise shaping to me

 

[RustA]

Quote:

Voted 2 because the difference is negative.
 
I've measured what jplay is outputting (with both mini and fb2k plugin) and it did not match the 48 kHz, 24 bit test file. It seems to be doing some kind of processing. Free players don't and sound better, if you can hear a difference at all.
 
edit: looks like unnecessary dithering with noise shaping to me

 
I did noticed that the music sounded sharper which gave me an impression of "better defined and accurate" playback... But to be honest, it wasn't a huge change and I am not sure if it is to the better side.
 
I would suggest to try Fidelizer instead... It's free and it makes a subtle but definitely positive improvement to my ears (Audiophile mode).
 
System: Windows 7 64bit, Jriver MC 18

 

[K3cT]

I have been using JPLAY for a while. The improvements are akin to changing your USB transport from a poor to a good one so overall it's a subtle change but once you live with it for a while, you definitely don't want to go back to the old ways. 

 

[RubenV]

JPlay 5 was released a few days ago. Unfortunately I have not THE time at THE moment to test it. It now also works with spotify, something I do use a lot to look up music that I don't know yet.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

I re installed windows 8 recently. I find windows 8 to have a better sound quality than w7. The differences between jplay and normal ks or asio are more subtle on windows 8, but still are.
 
I also installed Jplay 5. It is nice that they reduced the pauses duration for trial version. It has some bugs. From time to time it gives time out in foobar. Ah ..... the progress bar works with foobar in jplay 5 also.

 

[kindval]

Jplay 5  combined with jriver 18 has made a big positive impact on my system....the sound has changed from very good to astoundingly good. The sound of my computer now destroys my high end cd transport ....
 
My setup:
 
windows 7, 64
 
Antelope Zodiac Gold with Voltikus PS
 
Violectric V200 headphone amp
 
Audeze LCD2-2
 
Lessloss power cords for computer and dac
 
Cardas golden cross ic
 
Furutech pure copper electrical outlet...makes a big difference

 

[AManAnd88Keys]

I can hear almost no difference when using JPlay. At least with the music I like to listen to (Jazz)...
 
EDIT: I have spent some more time with JPlay (trial version). Using KS there's an improvement in clarity and detail. It's not a huge difference, but audible to me, and makes listening a bit more enjoyable. But I am not sure if this is worth 99€...
 
My system:
 
foobar2000 + Wasapi
->
Oyaide Neo-S Class S
->
Tranquility SE
->
Mundorf Zendo
->
RSA Raptor
->
Toxic Cables Arsenic
->
LCD 2.2

 

[derbigpr]

IMHO Jplay is POS, and typical example of audiophoolery. I don't know what you people had for breakfast when testing it, but to me it makes ABSOLUTELY no difference in sound, and thats with T1's plugged into Nuforce HDP, and that setup is so detailed and bright it lets every slightest nuance trough. Tried every single setting, no difference whatsoever. In fact, changing between ASIO: Jplay Driver and  just the Primary Sound Driver in Foobar2000 makes absolutely no difference. And thats with the music playing, so you hear the same song, with a 1-2 second delay. No difference whatsoever.

When I first heard I thought it sounded better, so I did this A-B test and found it doesn't, it actually sounds exactly the same. It's just that I was excited to hear how good it will sound so I focused more on music and heard details I usually don't pay attention to. But when testing it against any other mode of playback, it made no difference.
 
The only thing that happens is it makes the foobar2000 interface very laggy and each command takes a few seconds to react.
 
When you tell a naive person he should hear a difference, he WILL hear it.

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

 But I am not sure if this is worth 99€...

 
 
I would gladly pay 10 times as much to anyone who tells Jplay from standard playback while blindfolded.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

I have just tested Jplay with an ultra high end speaker system, and it was significantly worse than the x64 asio drivers (from msb diamond dac). Lost dynamics, depth, details, etc

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

I have just tested Jplay with an ultra high end speaker system, and it was significantly worse than the x64 asio drivers (from msb diamond dac). Lost dynamics, depth, details, etc

 
 
IMHO when it comes to bit-perfect modes of playback, every  single one of them should in theory work exactly the same...that is, not to interfere with the music AT ALL. So why some claim theirs is better than others is beyond me, even when measurements show they're exactly the same. The saddest part about Jplay is that they bribed (as do most hi-fi companies) so many journalists from well known papers or websites, and now people read those reviews and think that their music is suddenly going to sound much better, even though they're already running it bit perfect. People believe that.
 
The only difference any playback mode can have over regular ASIO / Wasapi / whatever else bit perfect, is worse sound, by interfering with the signal or adding stuff to the existing data, which is no longer bit perfect.  I mean, when I switch between Jplay and regular playback, not even ASIO,  WHILE the music is playing in Foobar, I hear no difference. And that is while music is playing, with a 1 sec delay when switching between those modes, and I hear absolutely no difference, even with 24/192 files, SACD files, any sort of files. None whatsoever. Why people would pay 100 euros for this is beyond me, but hey, people buy little finger sized piece of wood for that much money, to put under the feet of their components, and claim they hear a significant improvement in sound.
 
As someone once said:  "this is for the people whose income greatly surpasses their intelligence".