What computer software audio player?
 

What software player is good for windows PC?
I'm feeding my Mc8900 with flacs stored on my PC.
Groove is easy, but it doesn't sound as good as Jriver.
I'm wondering what AAers use.

What computer software audio player?
 

JRiver :thumbsup:

Roon.

Roon here also

Roon is expensive but it's by far the best streaming/local library consolidation and player solution. It's fantastic!

Roon has its fans, I know, but others of us will make the case for JRiver. I use both because I find Roon seductively appealing but often annoying while I can control JRiver and bend it to my will. It is a personal thing.

JRiver with JRemote and media server. Win10 pro running on i7 SurfacePro 3 with 8 GB of ram. Files stored on another Win10 machine elsewhere in the house.

For the fans of Roon, does the player sound better than Jriver? Or does it just have better features?
I'm not into multi room playing.
I'm no fan of Jriver and was going to uninstall it after my free trial. On the last day I A/B'd the Jriver against groove and Jriver sounds better, more natural. Groove sounds good too, the highs just seem agitating.

JRiver Media Center 25 on all three of my Windows 10-based systems (one desktop, two laptops). The music files are stored on an external hard drive connected to each computer.

Roon.

Hands down.

And the recent software update version 1.6, Build 416 just made it better; just some of the improved functionality and features:

1. Artists photos rotate if track has more than one performer
2. Liner notes, additional images and PDF link added
3. Better images in some cases
4. Navigation and Zone tabs close when opening Now Playing screen
5. Un-identified non-library composition’s name/part names are displayed
6. Fixed bug displaying internet radio images, and disabled L/R keys
7. Better handling of unavailable content

I don't have any experience with JRiver but I have been using Roon for about 2 years now and there's no way I'd switch to anything else.

It's pricey, but worth it.

By all accounts Roon sounds awesome. I want to check that one out, even if it's expensive. From the rest of the lot, I suffered through various Mac players for a couple years. I heartily DO NOT recommend Amarra and Audirvana. The Amarra UI is particularly awful and buggy, even after the 4 release (before 4 it was a joke). The Audirvana UI is better, but I convinced myself it didn't sound as good. Total waste of money for both of those. I ended up using the free Vox player just so I had something usable that sounded OK.

On my new Windows laptop I'm using jRiver and like it so far. It's really quite usable, and will do the trick until I get to check out Roon.

Roon’s music service integration is the thing that will drive the switch for me.
JRiver has stated on their blog they won’t do tidal or qboz integrations.

That may drive them closer to obscurity. Like it or no, streaming is on the rise, and particularly those services for audiophiles (there may not be enough of us to care about).

JRiver with JRemote. Windows 10 pro on a headless Intel NUC with i3 going directly to DAC via USB. NUC is silent with a small adjustment to fan threshold in BIOS. The pro version lets you remote connection in if needed.

I'm a bit shocked that I only see Jriver and Roon suggested. I guess they might be the only easy to install and use options for Windows? Back when I used Windows for music playback I used uLilith and Xmplay mostly. Before that there was Foobar, Musicbee, Xion, QMP, Winamp, Passion Audio Player and others I've long forgotten. Those were the days before streaming and fancy music library browsers though. When music playback was just: drag and drop a folder of music into the player's playlist area and listen.

What I'm using now is Daphile on a USB thumb drive. A computer can be used as usual with Windows installed. When it's time to relax and listen to music, reboot the computer with the Daphile USB thumb drive plugged in and the computer becomes a headless music server dedicated completely to playback. When it's time to get back to work in Windows just reboot with the Daphile USB drive unplugged.

If anyone is interested in trying out Daphile and you're having some problems getting it working, I'll try to be around to help. I got it working on my own with the install guide and a bit of internet searching. I did get stuck a few times though; but I'm familiar enough with the process now that I could save you some time and frustration if you get stuck.

Pretty tough to beat this interface, integration and user experience.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_ca...30.03%20PM.jpg

And Radio mode, now that I think about it. I've discovered so much great music with the Radio mode. And Roon's Tidal interface is better than Tidal's.

Also known as cutting your nose off to spite your face. :scratch2:

I agree but searching is continually frustrating.

Search is only a issue with Classical. I do understand that Classical is your primary (only?) gene so that makes sense.

I have seen many suggestions on the Roon Forum how others have eased that pain.

Yes. The abiding issue is that classical listeners are a small minority of the market and businesses apply their efforts accordingly. I have been aware of that for most of my life. Because a preference for classical music is in my genes, it will always be an issue but some products, even if they are made so inadvertently, do much better than others.

I downloaded a trial of Roon. I think it sounds a hair better than jriver.
I don't enjoy roon's interface/catalog style.
But I love the signal path information and recommendations.
When listening to an old itunes purchased song I have a yellow light indicating its a low quality signal. And when I play the flacs I get a purple light. It's cheesy, but I like it.
I was playing a huge DSD expecting a purple light but got a green light instead. There was a setting to not convert a hi-res DSD to PCM, I kept the DSD as a DSD and the purple light comes back.
The license is steep, and only allows for one "core". This will be on my work PC in my office. I'll need one for my home now.

Hmmm, I find the searching experience to be excellent. I also really like the metadata being readily available as well as the metadata database being improved (e.g. with latest build 416).

For anyone moving to Roon that has some level of technical ability, I suggest setting up a dedicated Roon ROCK (Custom Roon OS). that way you are not dealing with any Windows or Mac quirks, updates, reboots, etc. I did this over a year ago and have not looked back. It's the best digital experience I could have asked for. It just "works". No messing around with it endlessly....

No, you won't. :D

I have the core on two players in my apartment and one in my house. All that is necessary is to deactivate the ones not in use and activate the one you want to use.

OK. Try "Dialogues of the Carmelites." It is an opera by Poulenc. Let me know what you get, please.

I gave JRiver a try but ended up with Roon. Someone posted reasons why Roon is better than Jriver on another site. I will summarize below:

- Better mobile solution. Using phone and tablets with Roon is a breeze.

- Whole house audio.

- Streaming integration. Roon integrates with both Tidal and Qobuz seamlessly.

- Family acceptance. JRiver is too techie. Too complicated. No such problems with Roon.

- GUI is elegant and simple.

- Roon metadata can improve interaction with music library. Having immediate access to reviews, artist info and album history is nice.

- Roon's database capabilities are unmatched.

- Customer support and continuous upgrades. Roon keeps evolving and new features added. Roon now does MQA, DSP, Radio capabilities, and more. And Roon's website has a growing and very active Community.

Setting up a Roon ROCK server is not that difficult. I went into this direction and have had no regrets. I purchased a slim fanless NUC case (Akasa Plato X7D) and NUC parts (board, processor, memory, SSD), then downloaded free server software from the Roon Web site and installed it using their guide. A temporary monitor is needed during the installation process, otherwise it operates headless similar to any other appliance. It is very quick to boot, can stay on for days or months and even updates itself. Once installed, Roon NUC server requires very little attention or maintenance.

Roon ROCK is automatically discovered by any Roon client software, which can sit on any network PC, phone or tablet. My Roon ROCK NUC is connected to the home network via a network cable and to the dac via a USB cable, but I plan to add a dedicated network player to this setup. I am not a big fan of USB audio, so I will probably experiment with I2S connection between the player and the dac.

I was using both JRiver and Roon from my PC directly to the dac earlier (USB cable). I could not hear the difference between JRiver and Roon when installed on the PC, but a dedicated Roon server has made a small but audible difference; it completely removed the PC from my audio chain and added some nice user-friendly features.

I don't own this recording so it would not show up in a search.

Roon is very responsive to customer input, this is clear from the frequency and nature of updates. If you wrote to them and provided them with your recommendations for addtional features and functionality, I'm confident they would act on it. Its clear that they want to make the experience for customers to be as good as possible.

Yes, unlike JRiver, Roon has worked very hard to make the entire Roon ROCK installation and "getting up and running process" very easy. I recently had to send my Mac Mini in for a new logic board (its now a 7 year old computer), and did a complete new install of Roon on my old, backup Macbook Pro. Installation was a snap, and my file library was updated and ready to roll within a couple hours.

This is my Roon ROCK server, if I succeed in attaching a photo :).

What computer software audio player?
 

I don’t own a recording of this one, but a search for “Dialogues of the Carmelites” gave me 3 Tidal and Qobuz results under”albums”:

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-2MPGsDH-L.png

Further down, under “Compositions,” I got the French title, “Dialogues des Carmélites,” which lead to 10 recordings on Tidal and Qobuz.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-R7n8PK5-L.png

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-gGBnNQZ-L.png

Re classical searching, I find the bigger problem is the lack of standard titles for compositions, and that definitely throws Roon off. For instance I have 3 digital versions of Bach’s orchestral suites. If I search for “orchestral suites” only two of them show up, because someone decided to title the Neville Mariner recording “Suites for Orchestra.” Oddly enough, if I search for “suites for orchestra” they all show up. Another good example is Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” which half the time is in the German “Das Wohltemperierte Klavier,” even though it may be an American recording.

Totally agree about classical music metadata being a mess. That's one reason why metadata software is a must-have for anyone with a classical music library. In a multidisc album, I seen discs in different languages!

Very good post, Tony.

Yes, I think the problem is that the classical music recording companies do not use a standard method, terminology or lexicon for labeling their recordings of a given piece of music. I have a really nice DG recording of Rodrigo's Concerto de Andaluz and Concerto de Aranjuez, but the album name is Rodrigo "Panorama".

I do not either but it should also search Qobuz and I know they have it. So, if I run the search, it runs for several minutes until I abort it. If I run the search for only "Carmelites," I get a relatively quick response but it includes more extraneous answers than the relevant ones.

I am in touch with them personally and frequently. There are fundamental differences that are not likely to be bridged.

Wow. I could not get any such results until I searched for "Carmelites" and then the results included lots of extraneous options.

How long did that take, btw?

I just ran the search again and, this time, I got the same results as you did and within seconds. I wonder if it has to do with the database learning from all of the searches that I did last week and that I might have encouraged others to do.

Took a few seconds.