As I keep going around the internet, I always run into this issue: music player software programs like iTunes, Roon, JRiver, Audirvana each have their own signature sound vs. it makes no difference which one you use since bits are bits. Now I'm not talking about MP3 vs FLAC (lossy vs. lossless) as the difference seem clear both on paper and to the ear (well, if you listen well with some fairly decent equipment in a dedicated environment). So, what do you think? The naysayers state there can be no difference between music players; it all comes down to personal bias, perhaps volume differences and so forth. Others swear by Roon or Audirvana or something else. Not talking about differences in features, as here there are clearly discernible differences (GUI, tagging etc.) or differences in cost, just the sound itself. Thanks.
There are many threads about this already and no, the naysayers aren't stating that there can be no difference. They're saying that there is no obvious reason why there would be consistent audible differences if you bother setting things in a similar way on most players. That's a very different proposition! So let's not put the burden of proof on the wrong side here. How could anyone prove that no player under no circumstances on any computer will ever sound different? That's not only non testable, but it's silly easy to disprove. I just turn down the volume on one player and voila! I can demonstrate a significant audible difference between them. So if you think about it, that "there can be no difference between music players" is just a strawman argument leading nowhere. it was never an actual proposition and those debating it are wasting everybody's time.
The group of people who need to provide evidence because they can, are those claiming that player XXXX sounds this and that way under this and that set of conditions. Several possibilities could lead to them believing in that difference, so we first have to check which of them is involved with a given claim:
- The player could sound audibly different in a consistent way no matter the settings.
- The player could sound differently because of some setting or the interaction between those settings and a specific DAC. But sound perfectly normal with other settings or other DAC and drivers.
- Or the player could sound just fine at all time, and the listener is making stuff up thanks to using very poor testing conditions with no proper controls.
Without any information, the 3 possibilities have equal chances. But once we use what we already know about player XXXX and player YYYY, and have seen measurements showing the ability for high fidelity and very close measurements down to the last few bits(usually because of a different way to handle volume control), for both players, the first option seems a lot less likely. The higher the fidelity, the smaller the difference and the less we'll have a chance to notice something by ear.
Then we learn that the person claiming to know all about the clearly audible difference, has been relying on sighted impressions all this time. And now most people will start to suspect that the last option is more likely. No partisan battle, no us VS them, just very simple very rational diagnostic.
If someone came to me with actual evidence of a big impact, and I was able to replicate that difference on my computer and confirm its audibility, then I would naturally conclude that one player is messing with the sound and I would be grateful for that guy who showed us the evidence of a failed program. if those are the facts, then that's how it is. But you usually won't get any sort of evidence, just "I know what I heard" from mister self proclaimed human spectrometer on that famously trustworthy internet...
In the last months I've seen Foobar2000 being said to mess stuff up twice. The first person claiming so, failed to even make me understand what his objective proof was about. The second mentioned the volume control facilitating clipping just one or 2 days ago. the reasons I found suspicious, but as I'm a noob in programming and all that, I assumed that I had it wrong about what 32bit float meant, and I tried to clip my signal as suggested(took me 5mn, so why not try?). But I got a non clipped signal at the output showing a clear case of Foobar not doing what it was said to do.
So, let's just say that with 2 busts out of 2 objective claims, I keep using Foobar because I'm used to it. If it does have issues, I hope that someone will be able to properly explain them to me someday. The sooner the better.
Beyond that, I think you're asking for a universal and final answers that nobody has. Even if I showed you measurements of the differences between 2 players on my computer, how conclusive would that be about those 2 players on your computer? Do you know if we have the same OS version, the same audio codecs installed? The exact same settings in both players and in the OS? The same DAC using the same driver? That's fairly unlikely and so my results might not apply to your system under your conditions.
If you want to check which has the best fidelity, measure a bunch of stuff on your system with your settings and you'll know.
If you want to know if there is an audible difference, have people at your house help you setup some modicum of blind test.
If you wonder which audio player app feels like it sounds the best to you, just try them sighted and pick the one you feel best about. Just forget about the actual reason why you felt that way, because it could be sound, or the look of the app, or how it has some sweet fader at the start or end of each tracks, or how it plays gapless, or just that you paid money for one so it better be good, dammit! ^_^. Sighted subjective impressions will not settle those matters and people who think they do are mostly wrong.
