Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Music as represented in 1's and 0's. Discuss anything pertaining to D hardware - CD, DVD, SACD, DAC, etc.

Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby Gino » Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:46 am

Is there a great player for Android? My note sounds like my Macbook Air through the headphone jack. ITunes on the Mac. But when I compare using Amarra the Galaxy Note is left behind.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby paeng » Fri Jul 13, 2012 10:33 pm

Foobar, as stated earlier, is also mentioned here:

http://www.headphone.com/learning-cente ... ations.php

with other suggestions.

Some more details here:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/play-music ... 0-windows/

More suggestions for the hardware here:

http://forums.audioreview.com/how-artic ... -9829.html

and a whole site dedicated to the same:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby alfa » Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:20 am

I'm running boxee Over win vista. It has a coax digital output. Might not sound as good as the others but it has a very nice interface. Paired with a good remote its actually okay. Another option is XBMC which has wasapi drivers for the digital coax output
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby egay » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:00 am

alfa wrote:I'm running boxee Over win vista. It has a coax digital output. Might not sound as good as the others but it has a very nice interface. Paired with a good remote its actually okay. Another option is XBMC which has wasapi drivers for the digital coax output


Hi Alfa,
from your avatar - are you an apple user?
i have to ask because you mentioned in your earlier post that you are using "pro-something" because it reads FLACs, too.
i'm trying to look for that but i can't find it.

you know iTunes cannot play FLACs and of course iPod can't.
the Appstore has several players that can play FLACs (among other formats) - both for the Mac and the iPod - but i still have not tried any.

can you explain a bit more?

i use WAVs & FLACs in my PCs and ALACs in my Mac/iPod (i convert many files in my library to ALAC so i can have a better-sounding collection when mobile). At home, it is WAV & FLAC and it is a toss-up on my part; i am fortunate that the media player i have can read FLACs (and other formats, too). of course all those go into an outboard DAC.

.e.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby [L]es » Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:41 am

you guys might like to try jplay. it is an add-on for either foobar, itunes or j river. if i didn't need j river's parametric eq for removing some of the high frequencies (tinnitus...), i'd be using foobar with jplay.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby alfa » Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:23 pm

egay wrote:
alfa wrote:I'm running boxee Over win vista. It has a coax digital output. Might not sound as good as the others but it has a very nice interface. Paired with a good remote its actually okay. Another option is XBMC which has wasapi drivers for the digital coax output


Hi Alfa,
from your avatar - are you an apple user?
i have to ask because you mentioned in your earlier post that you are using "pro-something" because it reads FLACs, too.
i'm trying to look for that but i can't find it.
.e.


Yes i am an apple user but when i play flac files on the apple i only use VLC player. Like you i've also been on the hunt for a good FLAC player for the Mac.

The player that i referred to in my previous post is the Xtreamer stand-alone media player.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby donunus » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:07 am

Foobar with the latest wasapi 3.0 event mode for me. I've tried JRiver, Mediamonkey, xmplayer, wmp, vlc, and many more yet most of them sound a little bright and not as coherent as foobar. Of course, audio on a mac or linux still beats it :) All I can say when coming back from ubuntu to Window/foobar is aaarrghhh harsh! LOL
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby Arnel » Mon Mar 18, 2013 1:53 am

Just wanted to share something for Mac users out there who are looking for a player specifically with capability to do some minor EQ (primarily to manage room-related issues). The catch is, the solution is not a player per se, but the good thing is, you can use any player of your choice.

Warning: This is only for the adventurous (i.e. willing to tinker with the Mac OS X a little bit).

The solution is not the player per se, but a combination of 2 things:
1. audio device virtualization using Soundflower (freeware)
2. AU (Audio Unit) effects processing using AU Lab (free download from Apple Developer site)

To get those, follow the instructions here: http://best-mac-tips.com/2013/01/31/fre ... lizer-mac/

The idea is to set Soundflower as the audio output device of your favorite audio player app, then set your usual audio output (sound card / DAC) as the output of Soundflower. Pass-through. Then, AU Lab will be the middleman, processing what goes through Soundflower.

AU Lab comes with built-in DSP effects which includes a 31-band graphic EQ. Once installed you can explore it and open the EQ. Some test tones of 1/3 octave steps will be useful, like those found in Focal-JMLab Test Disc #2.

Since this happens in the digital domain, right in the source (your Mac), there are no extraneous A/D and D/A conversions going on.

Enjoy!
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby donunus » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:42 pm

By the way, back to the pc... Just reinstalled JRMC and it definitely does sound better than foobar. I don't know what I was smoking when I mentioned foobar sounding better. It could have been a specific synergy with the equipment being used but now I totally prefer Jriver.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby timber715 » Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:59 am

Is it true that mac supports up to 24/96 only? There is btw a jriver for mac now and is discounted at the moment.

I'm happy there is this tread here....
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby donunus » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:42 am

With the mac there are many options and the limitation of 24/96 is software/hardware based so you can get players that can do all resolutions up to what your dac and player can do. Try audirvana, bitperfect, amarra, fidelio and all the others to see what suits you best.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby alfa » Tue Aug 06, 2013 9:28 pm

As an update, I recently tried HQplayer by sygnalyst. To me it sounds better than the jriver and xbmc. I ran it from the PC then USB out to the DAC. It sounds really good but the interface is really bad and you can't control via iPad or android. I compared it with the CMP PLAYER but the HQPlayer sounds wider.
http://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby Gino » Wed Aug 07, 2013 9:10 am

Latest observations listening out of the headphone jacks:

1. Amarra 2.3 smokes Bitperfect iTunes plugin for Macs.
2. Neutron player on a Galaxy Note smokes the iPhone 5 Music app.

I have yet to hear my HP Mini 210 netbook. To be frank I don't think I should spend the effort.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby casm8 » Wed Aug 07, 2013 7:35 pm

for me its AIMP3..
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby the porcupine » Thu Aug 08, 2013 12:12 am

Still using JRMC18 and it still sounds great.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby deist1 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 10:24 am

For PC: I like the sound of Foobar with Wasapi 3.0 event

For MAC: I use Audirvana+ & Amarra

Amarra is buggy when I'm using the computer for multi-tasking while Audirvana is stable even with RAM hungry apps like Photoshop & Lightroom.
Amarra has a wider soundstage compared to Audirvana+ but can be fatiguing in my system during extended listening. Audirvana's latest update is catching up with Amarra's SQ IMHO.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby Gino » Thu Aug 15, 2013 10:52 am

Do you use an iPhone as iTunes remote? It is buggy on my iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note. I am unable to put whole albums on UP Next or something. Most album songs are greyed out. Occasionally I get an album which I can put to Up Next. For the time being, I put albums through the Mac itseld and just use the iPhone for back/next and pause/play. Same with you?

Amarra is wonderful on my system. I can go on for hours. I hooked my Mac Air 11.6"to my Hyperaudio 2a3 SET directly. I have enough gain. I used an Analysis Plus Oval silver iPod Cable. I have yet to try a DAC. I need to do some research.
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby deist1 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:29 pm

Gino wrote:Do you use an iPhone as iTunes remote? It is buggy on my iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note. I am unable to put whole albums on UP Next or something. Most album songs are greyed out. Occasionally I get an album which I can put to Up Next. For the time being, I put albums through the Mac itseld and just use the iPhone for back/next and pause/play. Same with you?

Amarra is wonderful on my system. I can go on for hours. I hooked my Mac Air 11.6"to my Hyperaudio 2a3 SET directly. I have enough gain. I used an Analysis Plus Oval silver iPod Cable. I have yet to try a DAC. I need to do some research.



Hi sir Gino,

I use Amarra as a stand alone player and not integrated with iTunes, what I do is create different playlists by genre & artist then just load them. I gave up on using the iphone as remote as it is often more troublesome than help. Amarra plays flawlessly when I'm not doing anything else on my mac but when I start opening & using other apps that's when I notice the clicks & skips.

Have you tried Audirvana+ sir? you can download the trial version. The latest release v1.5.5 has very good soundstage.

For DAC, I'm currently using JDS Labs ODAC, it can only support up to 24/96 and only has a single USB input (& self powered by USB), it doesn't have the bells & whistles of more expensive DACs but it does the job well. It is equipped with an ESS sabre chip. I have tried Fiio (D3, D03K, E17), Musiland 02 (for PC), my brother's Schiit Bifrost & V-DAC, a friend's DacMagic+ ; did comparisons with the ODAC & we all agreed that ODAC sounds best ;)
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby Gino » Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:40 pm

I have not tried that. I tried Bitperfect. It was a disappointment. While it allowed you to use the Mac, it wasn't as detailed as AmarraAm area as an improvement over iTunes alone.

It is good that you have tried the dacs I was interested with. Bifrost USB and DacMagic Plus. I wanted one that works with iTunes using Amarra plugin.

How does the Airport Express optical SQ on the DACs you had used? What Mac do you use? Layout back tunog headphone jack vs DAC? Does the DAC have enough rca signaled for a power amp?
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Re: Which PC based digital player sounds best ?

Postby deist1 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 12:59 pm

Haven't tried Airport express sir, I don't have a need for it at the moment. I'm currently using 2011 MBP 15, OSX mountain lion. I also used the headphone jack without external DAC when I first started computer audio with my MBP, then bought the Fiio E17 and the difference in SQ was night & day ;)

The ODAC has RCA out for integrated/power amp, bought it online from a Singapore E-shop then had it delivered to my relatives who live there, then pinadala ko nung may umuwi sa kanila dito sa pinas. Here is the link to the store:

http://www.quartzacoustic.com/shop/dac- ... ca-output/
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