[mikemalter]

Am looking at music servers.  Using Media Monkey presently and just downloaded the trial version of J River.
 
Anybody have thoughts about media servers for windows and what they like/dislike?
 
Seems like J River is prettier, and at first blush, I think audio quality is better.
 
Thoughts?

 

[khollister]

I'm running a Mac myself, but J River is the SW I see mentioned the most frequently for Windows-based music servers over at Computer Audiophiles, so that would be the way to go I would think.
 
Quote:

Am looking at music servers.  Using Media Monkey presently and just downloaded the trial version of J River.
 
Anybody have thoughts about media servers for windows and what they like/dislike?
 
Seems like J River is prettier, and at first blush, I think audio quality is better.
 
Thoughts?

 

[dminches]

I have been using the Squeezebox/Squeeze server for a number of years now and love it.  You can run both the hardware (Touch) and software (Softsqueeze) versions to play the music.

 

[mikemalter]

Quote:

I'm running a Mac myself, but J River is the SW I see mentioned the most frequently for Windows-based music servers over at Computer Audiophiles, so that would be the way to go I would think.
 
Quote:

Am looking at music servers.  Using Media Monkey presently and just downloaded the trial version of J River.
 
Anybody have thoughts about media servers for windows and what they like/dislike?
 
Seems like J River is prettier, and at first blush, I think audio quality is better.
 
Thoughts?

 

 


Quote:

I have been using the Squeezebox/Squeeze server for a number of years now and love it.  You can run both the hardware (Touch) and software (Softsqueeze) versions to play the music.

Thanks guys. 
 
Just wanted to check in with others as the J River stuff sounds a lit better than Media Monkey and wanted to hear what others thought.

 

 

[WindyCityCy]

Mike -
 
I use Sqeezecenter to serve FLAC files to 4 Squeezeboxes throughout my house.  I really like the way it works and the sound is very good.  Last week I decided to spend some time testing out the USB input on my W4S DAC so I spend quite a bit of time with Foobar and J River.  At first I really liked J River because of the user interface however I found a skin for Foobar that I actually like better than the J River interface (much simpler than J River but a very clean and usable skin).  I spent quite a bit of time switching between the players and trying Kernel Streaming vs. WASAPI.  I honestly couldn't tell a difference in sound between J River and Foobar.  However J River seemed to play louder at the same volume level on my DAC.  I'm still torn between whether to stick with Kernel Streaming or WASAPI but the guys at W4S recommend I use KS so that's what I've been going with.
 
In the end I think I will stick with Foobar since it is free and endlessly configurable and to me sounds identical to J River when level matched.  Here is a screenshot of the skin I'm using (can't remember the name of it right now).
 

 

[Silent One]

To Woozies Worldwide - Happy New Year from North America!

 

[mikemalter]

Quote:

Mike -
 
I use Sqeezecenter to serve FLAC files to 4 Squeezeboxes throughout my house.  I really like the way it works and the sound is very good.  Last week I decided to spend some time testing out the USB input on my W4S DAC so I spend quite a bit of time with Foobar and J River.  At first I really liked J River because of the user interface however I found a skin for Foobar that I actually like better than the J River interface (much simpler than J River but a very clean and usable skin).  I spent quite a bit of time switching between the players and trying Kernel Streaming vs. WASAPI.  I honestly couldn't tell a difference in sound between J River and Foobar.  However J River seemed to play louder at the same volume level on my DAC.  I'm still torn between whether to stick with Kernel Streaming or WASAPI but the guys at W4S recommend I use KS so that's what I've been going with.
 
In the end I think I will stick with Foobar since it is free and endlessly configurable and to me sounds identical to J River when level matched.  Here is a screenshot of the skin I'm using (can't remember the name of it right now).
 

Thanks for sharing the details of your setup. 
 
I'm currently using WASAPI Event, which after trial and error, sounds the best for FLAC. It loads the entire track into memory before it plays which is really nice.
 
M4A or ACC (Apple lossless) will play through a different plugin and I am trying to figure that one out.
 
I really like that I can go through a J River output plugin and source at 96 kHz 24bit.
 
I'm finally hearing real differences between hirez and apple lossless music, and am just chomping at the bit to get a PWD with the bridge. 
 
I know what you mean about being torn over a setting.  I think those guys at W4S know what works best with their equipment.  I can see in the screenshot that you are outputting 96 kHz from Foobar.  What kind of audio settings do they have?  That is a really nice clean UI.

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

 
M4A or ACC (Apple lossless) will play through a different plugin and I am trying to figure that one out.
 
I really like that I can go through a J River output plugin and source at 96 kHz 24bit.
 
I'm finally hearing real differences between hirez and apple lossless music, and am just chomping at the bit to get a PWD with the bridge. 
 
I know what you mean about being torn over a setting.  I think those guys at W4S know what works best with their equipment.  I can see in the screenshot that you are outputting 96 kHz from Foobar.  What kind of audio settings do they have?  That is a really nice clean UI.

Just to clarify, ACC is a lossy codec; Apple Lossless is ALAC.

 

[mikemalter]

Quote:

 
Quote:

 
M4A or ACC (Apple lossless) will play through a different plugin and I am trying to figure that one out.
 
I really like that I can go through a J River output plugin and source at 96 kHz 24bit.
 
I'm finally hearing real differences between hirez and apple lossless music, and am just chomping at the bit to get a PWD with the bridge. 
 
I know what you mean about being torn over a setting.  I think those guys at W4S know what works best with their equipment.  I can see in the screenshot that you are outputting 96 kHz from Foobar.  What kind of audio settings do they have?  That is a really nice clean UI.

Just to clarify, ACC is a lossy codec; Apple Lossless is ALAC.

Like your new Avatar.
 
Yes, I am glad you put that out there.  It's good to be careful about the details.  In J River, they say that M4A is ACC. I might have misread that, but isn't M4A lossless?  I'm going to have to go back and check this now.
 

 

[grokit]

Thanks, it's just my Christmas avatar, due to be put back into storage soon along with the fiber-optic tree

 
On my Mac the ALAC files in iTunes that I've ripped from the CD have the .m4a suffix on the desktop. I'll have to check my Windows laptop and see if it's different. I can boot this one into Windows but it's all AIFF over there

 

[davo50]

Quote:

I've done some thinking about what upgrade path I would take given the opportunity, and what always stops me from considering the WA5-LE are the hidden costs.  Technically it is only $600 more than a WA22 if you take no part upgrades (which is temptation one I might add), but what tube addict is going to leave the stock tubes in the amp long term?  So you have to figure another $600 for a pair of EML 5U4G, and another $700 for a pair of EML 300B to take the amp up to it's potential.  Even without springing for the expensive parts upgrade package the WA5-LE is now twice as expensive as the WA22, which would inherit all my 6SN7 tubes and the EML 274B from my current WA6.  I would only need to spend a couple hundred finding a good pair of 6AS7G and Tung sol 5998 tubes to be satisfied.  I imagine a decked out WA5 sounds considerably better, but the price goes well into "can't even consider it" territory for me sadly.  For those who can, enjoy a song or two for my sake as well! 

I totally hear you, believe me.  But I can assure you, you do not have to have ALL of the high end tubes to enjoy the WA5 / LE.  My 300bs are still Sophia Princess.  Not sure where I will go from there.  I do have TSBGRP 6sn7 and EML 5u4g now, but before I got those I had Sylvania VT 231s and some $20 Tung Sol 5u4gb and used them for a long time and had great sound!  Before the WA5, I spent quite a few years on the Audiogon "merry go-round" with speaker rigs/ amps / preamps / etc. and finally decided to simplify.  I sold my pre and speaker amp to get the WA5 and was blown away by headphone sound with the new flagship phones of the last few years.  Never imagined that headphones could ever sound so good.  Just need to get a great speaker match but hopefully the decwares will work out.

 

[Xcalibur255]

Quote:

Am looking at music servers.  Using Media Monkey presently and just downloaded the trial version of J River.
 
Anybody have thoughts about media servers for windows and what they like/dislike?
 
Seems like J River is prettier, and at first blush, I think audio quality is better.
 
Thoughts?

J River is one of only two media players I have found that allow the user to write the wave output directly to the soundcard driver instead of sending it through DirectSound (the other is Winamp).  To my ears this is the only method which produces the same sound quality as what I hear from my dedicated CD player, all other media players and all other output methods produce something that sounds smeared and soft as though it has been resampled up then back down again.  For the record this shouldn't be happening no matter what since my particular soundcard handles 44.1Khz directly as opposed to the 48Khz that is more common with computers.  It is *incredibly* hard to find information on this subject that is useful, but from what I could gather the windows Kmixer and Directsound do "stuff" to the audio signal which degrades it, and nobody ever seems to know exactly what that is.
 

 

[mikemalter]

 
Quote:

Quote:

Am looking at music servers.  Using Media Monkey presently and just downloaded the trial version of J River.
 
Anybody have thoughts about media servers for windows and what they like/dislike?
 
Seems like J River is prettier, and at first blush, I think audio quality is better.
 
Thoughts?

J River is one of only two media players I have found that allow the user to write the wave output directly to the soundcard driver instead of sending it through DirectSound (the other is Winamp).  To my ears this is the only method which produces the same sound quality as what I hear from my dedicated CD player, all other media players and all other output methods produce something that sounds smeared and soft as though it has been resampled up then back down again.  For the record this shouldn't be happening no matter what since my particular soundcard handles 44.1Khz directly as opposed to the 48Khz that is more common with computers.  It is *incredibly* hard to find information on this subject that is useful, but from what I could gather the windows Kmixer and Directsound do "stuff" to the audio signal which degrades it, and nobody ever seems to know exactly what that is.
 

My very limited understanding is that because J River gives you the option to use WASAPI Event, all the Windows problems are avoided, and it's as direct as software can be with a device.  As I tried all of the other output options, the benefits of using WASAPI Event was clearly audible to me.  And I do get that smeared and soft sound you are talking about.
 
I'm thinking that I'm going to be keeping it.
 

 

[Silent One]

Quote:

Quote:

 
Quote:

 
M4A or ACC (Apple lossless) will play through a different plugin and I am trying to figure that one out.
 
I really like that I can go through a J River output plugin and source at 96 kHz 24bit.
 
I'm finally hearing real differences between hirez and apple lossless music, and am just chomping at the bit to get a PWD with the bridge. 
 
I know what you mean about being torn over a setting.  I think those guys at W4S know what works best with their equipment.  I can see in the screenshot that you are outputting 96 kHz from Foobar.  What kind of audio settings do they have?  That is a really nice clean UI.

Just to clarify, ACC is a lossy codec; Apple Lossless is ALAC.

Like your new Avatar.
 
Yes, I am glad you put that out there.  It's good to be careful about the details.  In J River, they say that M4A is ACC. I might have misread that, but isn't M4A lossless?  I'm going to have to go back and check this now.
 

 
Extensions inside my iTunes database:
 
AAC - m4a
ALAC - alac.m4a
 
Least with my files anyway, PC and Mac alike...
 
 

 

 

[navii]

I was taking bored so I took some pics of my WA6.