Media player for the PC (XBMC -Jriver- foobar - media monkey)
Comments
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Why would you want to upconvert audio? Doesnt that defeat the purpose of trying to achive bit-perfect?
The newest issue (January 2012) of The Absolute Sound magazine has an article (part 2 of a 3 part series) that shows upconverting significantly improving sound in almost all cases. Part 1 of the article in December's issue dealt with the setup and criteria for testing. Part 2 deals with testing various computer based music players at different settings with different input material. The article covers ripping as well. J River comes out on top of nearly all categories dealing with sound quality but there are two players that they just heard about as the article was going to print. They are JPlay and Cplay. These may offer even better playback sound but I haven't used them yet. Anyway the articles are well worth checking out because they cover much of the information discussed here.SDA-1C (full mods)
Carver TFM-55
NAD 1130 Pre-amp
Rega Planar 3 TT/Shelter 501 MkII
The Clamp
Revox A77 Mk IV Dolby reel to reel
Thorens TD160/Mission 774 arm/Stanton 881S Shibata
Nakamichi CR7 Cassette Deck
Rotel RCD-855 with modified tube output stage
Cambridge Audio DACmagic Plus
ADC Soundshaper 3 EQ
Ben's IC's
Nitty Gritty 1.5FI RCM -
Correction to above post. The TAS article is a 4 part not 3 part study in computer music audio quality.SDA-1C (full mods)
Carver TFM-55
NAD 1130 Pre-amp
Rega Planar 3 TT/Shelter 501 MkII
The Clamp
Revox A77 Mk IV Dolby reel to reel
Thorens TD160/Mission 774 arm/Stanton 881S Shibata
Nakamichi CR7 Cassette Deck
Rotel RCD-855 with modified tube output stage
Cambridge Audio DACmagic Plus
ADC Soundshaper 3 EQ
Ben's IC's
Nitty Gritty 1.5FI RCM -
I don't understand what that means. I've made lots of cd's from FLAC files before w/o any issues. Maybe you could provide a link so it's in some sort of context.
H9
hmmm.. this is the guide i used
http://blowfish.be/eac/Setup/setup4.html
i went back and tried to find the reason why I was thinking about the id3 tags and I cannot find them. so i am not sure where i got that from and I might be wrong then -
re-reading that I am wrong cause I think I did add tags when i ripped it with this option
-T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s -
I downloaded J River & Media Monkey, this morning after reading this.
Because I have an iPhone & can control song selection on my computer with my phone or iPod, I've been using iTunes.
For the most part I've been happy with the sound; until I got my Cary pre-amp and started playing my Oppo through it (CD's, SACD's, & High Rez FLAC files). <-- REALLY like that sound!
The Oppo is ok for network playback, but doesn't play nice with my Apple Lossless files and iTunes doesn't play nice with FLAC. So I use foobar 2000 to convert the FLAC files to WAV, for playback in iTunes. It is sort of a pain in the **** making and keeping track of duplicates...
I haven't installed Media Monkey, so I have no comment on that yet.
I did install the J River Media Center. I need to get used to the user interface... It does have more bells & whistles than I would like or need.
With that said, I just started playing with some of the audio output options. Now I'm switching back and forth between J River & iTunes and there really is a BIG difference! It's not as good as the Oppo-Cary combo, but it's damn good!
There is a noticeable difference in volume levels, with the J River being louder and deeper; which I'm not sure why because I'm not using an EQ with either...
I'll try the Media Monkey in a few days. If it's this good, I'll go with it instead of the J River (I'm not ready to fork out $50 just yet).
Anyway, thanks for all the info guys!HT
Onkyo TX-NR1008 | Magnepan 1.7 | Polk LSiC | Polk VM20 | Polk DSW microPro 2000 | Parasound HCA-2205A | Oppo BDP-93
2-Ch
Cary SLP 30 Tube Preamp | Polk LSi7 | Carver M1.5t | Audio-gd Digital Interface | W4S DAC-2 | MAC Mini | Denon DP300f & Pro-Ject Debut III TT's -
FYI.. I am also able to control foobar from my android. Even though I have my PC on when listening to music. I do not have the TV turned on and I can control my music remotely with the android.
