[.Sup]

cry me a J river

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Thanks, folks!  I'll give foobar a try.

Keep in mind that out of the box, Foobar does little to nothing for you automatically, and boy does it look ugly. You'll want to grab the WASAPI output plug-in from the components section, and from there I would suggest starting with an easy to apply skin that includes all of the required components in the package. Some skins require tons and tons of plug-ins that you have to hunt down individually, and they are definitely not for those unfamiliar with Foobar.
 
Silent Night may be a good choice if you're looking for a full blown media manager, though I prefer the much simpler Fooplacebo.
 

 

 

[Denys]

I tried... does not read ALAC...unless I need to do something I did not see...
 
Sorry, I'll stick to Foobar 
 
Denys

 

[tuoppi]

That's actually the great thing about Foobar. No fancy pansy stuff, just pure musical bliss.
 
Quote:

 
Keep in mind that out of the box, Foobar does little to nothing for you automatically, and boy does it look ugly.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

That's actually the great thing about Foobar. No fancy pansy stuff, just pure musical bliss.
 

Yeah I like that it just does what you want it to do. I have a plug-in for my APE files and the WASAPI output, and I use Fooplacebo's mini mode. I don't need cover flow or anything like that. Of course if you want fancy pansy, Foobar does that too. The only thing I don't think it has is a 10 foot, Windows Media Center style interface. I may be wrong there though.

 

[estreeter]

Another vote for foobar, although I use a variety of players across 3 platforms.
 
I asked in another thread whether anyone could discern any improvements in the 'HD Audio' Intel have onboard with the current generation of Core processors - this is one area where the manufacturers havent made any attempt to move forward. Aftermarket soundcards etc are great, but you should be able to plug a pair of IEMs into a laptop and get a decent result, IMO.

 

[m1abrams]

Quote:

The problem with JRiver is not only that its just too bloated, but mainly until recently their efforts have been all over the map trying to make a Swiss Army Knife software.  You don't need web browsing, photo editing, music store, etc. etc. music quality has been a second or third priority.  I managed to get them to put Wasapi support in the program a couple of years ago, and actually did a lot of testing to help them work the bugs out.  However I was not a regular poster on their forum and others wanted movie cover support, etc. etc. Jim ended up shooting my ideas down after one long time supporter purposely turned his attention away from me.  After that I quit their forums and try to get Wasapi and Asio in Songbird.

 
Well if you were a regular poster you would have learned that Jim is extremely "careful" with his forums.  Yes they are his to do with as he pleases but he likes to perform phantom edits on other posters posts without any notification to the post or the poster.  When I asked him in private email to at the very least make note in my post that he edited so that others would know that my words had been changed (not even asking to point out what change, just that it was not my final writing), he threatened to ban me.  Needless to say I stopped using J. River many years ago partly because of how the owner treated me, and I discovered that they no longer wanted to support music and just wanted a flashy do-it all app that does nothing well.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Another vote for foobar, although I use a variety of players across 3 platforms.
 
I asked in another thread whether anyone could discern any improvements in the 'HD Audio' Intel have onboard with the current generation of Core processors - this is one area where the manufacturers havent made any attempt to move forward. Aftermarket soundcards etc are great, but you should be able to plug a pair of IEMs into a laptop and get a decent result, IMO.

I'd be happy with a digital output. I guess Macbooks have Toslink, but that's pretty much unheard of on a Dell, Lenovo, etc. Sure an Off-ramp or Wavelink solves that problem, but if you just want to get say Dolby Digital out of your laptop and into an A/V receiver, you basically can't do that. The headphone output on a laptop is never going to be good. That's bottom of the barrel in terms of design priorities. Even the cheapiest of portable MP3 players will sound better.

 

[flaming_june]

I just dl'ed it few days ago when I read this and gave it a try now.  WOW.  SO GOOD.

 

[Dynobot]

Quote:

 Needless to say I stopped using J. River many years ago partly because of how the owner treated me, and I discovered that they no longer wanted to support music and just wanted a flashy do-it all app that does nothing well.

Same here, I stopped using JRiver because of their support team, not just Jim but the team as a whole. 
 
They work feverishly to make a tool that is the Jack of all trades, but the Master of none.  A little of everything but not enough of anything.

 

[listen2themusic]

Another (great) alternate piece of software for organizing and playback of your ripped audio (especially FLAC) is AlbumPlayer, I have been using it for quite some time at home and at work, I love it!
 
Check it out: http://www.albumplayer.com/

 

[ttan98]

I have tried both Foobar and J.River, they sound more alike than any major differences.
 
You will find that J. River has network server feature and many others which Foobar does not have. For $50 it is not really that expensive.
 
I will be using J. River as a music server.

 

[fredhammersmith]

foobar is perfect for people who have time/patience to customize it.
i've tried many times, it drives me nuts! i always ended up with an ugly interface.
i was willing to try again, with this nice skin mentioned above: SilentNight.
i can't seem to get this thing working (again...)
is it possible that it won't work in XP?
 
this is my last attempt before buying a JRiver licence...

 

[ROBSCIX]

J River is a great player.  Is it better then Foobar or Winamp?  No, it is just different.
Foobar can be difficult to customize for some.

 

[Armaegis]

I've been using J.River for years now and have been very happy with it. It gives me all the functionality I want without having to dig and search and set it up myself like in foobar. Their library management is top notch. I predominantly only use their music section, although the video section has been useful on occasion for organizing some home videos.
 
They also have a free version available (J.River Media Jukebox) which is a pared down version which only handles music, which is more than enough for most people.