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Audible difference in players? (Audirvana, JRiver, Roon, MusicBee, etc.)

Daverich4

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I think JRiver stated it pretty well: Jplay is a Hoax

Oh, by the way, I got a lifetime ban on Computer Audiophile for pointing out that one of those (with "inner rendering loop optimized by ear" was claiming to be open source, but refused to release the source code (that was based on another open source software player) for public scrutiny.

“Julf - When your CA membership was reinstated you agreed not to engage in unprofessional behavior. Based on a review of your posts since that time I believe you've violated that agreement. A warning simply doesn't go far enough. I've decided to ban you from the CA forums for good”
 

Blumlein 88

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“Julf - When your CA membership was reinstated you agreed not to engage in unprofessional behavior. Based on a review of your posts since that time I believe you've violated that agreement. A warning simply doesn't go far enough. I've decided to ban you from the CA forums for good”
Maybe you could also find the reasons why Amir was banned there. I sure as heck couldn't.

I also saw nothing in Julf's posts that warranted a ban. I did believe an earlier temporary ban was somewhat justified.
 

digicidal

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Julf

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“Julf - When your CA membership was reinstated you agreed not to engage in unprofessional behavior. Based on a review of your posts since that time I believe you've violated that agreement. A warning simply doesn't go far enough. I've decided to ban you from the CA forums for good”

What he doesn't tell you is that the banning decision was actually based on reading the (supposedly) private messages between me and another user unhappy with the admin position. Chris actually confirmed that he occasionally peeked at the PMs of "certain users".
 

Daverich4

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What he doesn't tell you is that the banning decision was actually based on reading the (supposedly) private messages between me and another user unhappy with the admin position. Chris actually confirmed that he occasionally peeked at the PMs of "certain users".

Chris has never kept it a secret that he polices the PM’s the same as the public sections of his site, that the private message system is not some backdoor way for members to be jerks to other members without fear of consequences. In fact, Michael Lavorgna was banned for the same behavior, something he said in a PM to another member.
 

Julf

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Chris has never kept it a secret that he polices the PM’s the same as the public sections of his site, that the private message system is not some backdoor way for members to be jerks to other members without fear of consequences. In fact, Michael Lavorgna was banned for the same behavior, something he said in a PM to another member.

There is quite a difference between someone reporting harassing PMs and Chris actually monitoring private communications. No, he has never kept it secret, but as far as I know, until my case, he hadn't made it public either. As some of you might know, I used to (long ago) run a very popular service allowing private communications. I would have viewed it as a huge violation of trust if I had eavesdropped on private conversations, and I have fired systems administrators who have been caught doing that.
 

fl5214

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I see on various forums that different music players have different SQ. A hardware manufacturer told me the same thing just last week. And personally, I think I hear a benefit to Audirvana. And yet, bits are bits, right?

So, @amirm , please save us from this mystery: Do these players deliver different bits or clock speeds or jitter or "musical ether" to a DAC via USB? Does it matter if you have "good" DAC?
I tested Audirvana vs Roon and the last version of Audirvana 3.5.2 is AMAZING as per sound quality, musicality etc.. The difference is SO BIG that I got it in the first 2 switches between Roon and Audirvana (on the same track). I wasnt even aware of these differences (I was just testing the two to decide which one to buy) but it struck me right away (like changing a good dac like Hugo TT with an stellar dac like Dave).
So for sound quality alone (on the same gear) Audirvana is far superior to Roon or direct streaming from Tidal (masters or hifi via Audirvana still sound better than directly from Tidal). Much more dynamic and musical. Roon sounds flat by comparison
 

Veri

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I tested Audirvana vs Roon and the last version of Audirvana 3.5.2 is AMAZING as per sound quality, musicality etc.. The difference is SO BIG that I got it in the first 2 switches between Roon and Audirvana (on the same track). I wasnt even aware of these differences (I was just testing the two to decide which one to buy) but it struck me right away (like changing a good dac like Hugo TT with an stellar dac like Dave).
So for sound quality alone (on the same gear) Audirvana is far superior to Roon or direct streaming from Tidal (masters or hifi via Audirvana still sound better than directly from Tidal). Much more dynamic and musical. Roon sounds flat by comparison
Sigh. Daily this-is-not head-fi reminder.
 

VintageFlanker

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I tested Audirvana vs Roon and the last version of Audirvana 3.5.2 is AMAZING as per sound quality, musicality etc.. The difference is SO BIG that I got it in the first 2 switches between Roon and Audirvana (on the same track). I wasnt even aware of these differences (I was just testing the two to decide which one to buy) but it struck me right away (like changing a good dac like Hugo TT with an stellar dac like Dave).
So for sound quality alone (on the same gear) Audirvana is far superior to Roon or direct streaming from Tidal (masters or hifi via Audirvana still sound better than directly from Tidal). Much more dynamic and musical. Roon sounds flat by comparison
First, welcome to ASR.:)

I widely advise you to check this.

Cheers.

Now, Uh-Uh time...
 

g29

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I tested Audirvana vs Roon and the last version of Audirvana 3.5.2 is AMAZING as per sound quality, musicality etc.. The difference is SO BIG that I got it in the first 2 switches between Roon and Audirvana (on the same track). I wasnt even aware of these differences (I was just testing the two to decide which one to buy) but it struck me right away (like changing a good dac like Hugo TT with an stellar dac like Dave).
So for sound quality alone (on the same gear) Audirvana is far superior to Roon or direct streaming from Tidal (masters or hifi via Audirvana still sound better than directly from Tidal). Much more dynamic and musical. Roon sounds flat by comparison

Being your first post, is this a sales pitch for Audirvana ?
 

Hugo9000

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I love MusicBee, and it has the cutest little icon in my taskbar!

MusicBee.jpg

<3

It's free and it works, and the delight from that results in extra endorphins which combine with the pleasure from my beautiful music to give the best listening experience of all hahaha!
 

Shadrach

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We tried a blind test on this at my house one evening. I had been telling my friends that I prefered the sound of the player and audio stack in my Linux system. The test wasn't DBT (it's quite hard to do with two or more operating systems on a dual boot pc)
We did 20 trials. I got 12 out of 20. We tired again at one my friends houses at out next meeting. I got 9 out of 20 that time.
So, now I know I can't reliably tell one from the other with the music played and the hardware used.
The strange thing is given a choice between a Windows player and my current Linux player (Deadbeef on top of Puppy Linux) I choose Deadbeef every time.
I wonder of my dislike of Microsoft has anything to do with it.:p:D
 

MRC01

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Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. It's possible you are hearing differences that weren't highlighted by the source material used during testing. Or the test environment wasn't calm and quiet enough. It could be worth more trials with a wider variety of source material, in a more calm quiet environment. If you're ABX testing for subtle differences, a result can be statistically significant (better than random guessing) even if doesn't reach typically used 95% confidence.
 

Shadrach

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Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. It's possible you are hearing differences that weren't highlighted by the source material used during testing. Or the test environment wasn't calm and quiet enough. It could be worth more trials with a wider variety of source material, in a more calm quiet environment. If you're ABX testing for subtle differences, a result can be statistically significant (better than random guessing) even if doesn't reach typically used 95% confidence.
I think I covered all that above.
 

hapnermw

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One of the best and simplest MacOS options is Apple Music + BitPerfect. BitPerfect replaces the backend of Apple Music with an engine that simply plays the exact bits of every file. Without it, Apple Music will convert files to its configured output resolution.

BitPerfect also supports SoX and upsampling; but, with current DACs there is no need to use this.

If you have a DAC that has poor upsampling - buy a new one. Using a music player that digitally filters music files prior to sending them to a DAC is useless. Bit perfect music players have no 'sound'.

http://bitperfectsound.blogspot.com
 

MRC01

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Linux (Ubuntu 18) got a similar feature. Pulseaudio can now avoid resampling everything, but instead pass it through at its native sampling rate. In /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, add a line saying "avoid-resampling = yes".
 

BaaM

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No differences between Roon/Audirvana/Clementine/Swinsian to me.
I remember asking Audirvana if there were things that could change the sound, it looks like they're chosing to maintain an aura of mystery.
WddJauS.png


In english:
Sox, iZotope and everything else I see on https://audirvana.com/fr/technology/ have equivalent on Foobar which is totally free. So is there something else?
Hello,
Yes, there are other "things" concerning signal processing than the oversampling algorithms in Audirvana's software that improve sound quality.
Feel free to try yourself with the trial period.
 
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