Audiophile music player for Windows/Mac and your opinion...

[Sal1950]

I would tell you about 1$ or so, since I already have the results before my eyes...

Yep, your losing by a 2-1 margin at best. LOL

Even though ALSA is a low-level audio API it needs to properly configure and that's very much complicated as ALSA means a "Jungle" to me...

I'm not an expert on this but Jack has always appeared as a configuration nightmare to me.
During the time I was active on the PCLinuxOS dev team we simply let the guys trying to build HTPCs and such
deal with it. Most of what I was aware scared the hell out of me. LOL
With simply a couple of clicks I can get Strawberry and Cantata serving bit perfect music and Kodi serving Atmos mkv files
over my HDMI to my AVR.
Easy-peasy, That's the way I like it.

 

[PaperBoat]

Easy-peasy, That's the way I like it.

Linux is for those who loves the hard way...

 

[sarumbear]

Is it me or I share nothing with people on this thread? I only stream, hence I only use the player each service supplies.

May I ask you to enter my poll?

 

[Triplefun]

I've only just found this thread and haven't had time to view the full content. However, those using foobar I strongly recommend the Jam UI - see https://www.deviantart.com/ranggakat/art/JAM3-for-foobar2000-v3-4-894450237

Early on I reached the conclusion the source is key to good music and the future is digital. Jitter is a pain offset by linear power supplies, quality cables, and clean processing. Convenience and simplicity is also key.

For a long time I was a strong advocate of daphile on a dedicated music server. I respected the multi core operation and dsd upsampling. Then I discovered the stereo imaging is flawed - play a mono encoded track and the centre image almost disappears. A simple a/b comparison with an alternative player through the same equipment highlighted the issue!

I dabbled with hqplayer but didn't like the interface and felt I was listening to the technology and not the music.

I'm now using Roon Rock with qobuz. Key strengths are the UI, meta data, ability to support a whole house system, ARC, Muse, and Roon Radio. I've tried a number of servers including the nucleus+ but I'm now using amd CPUs. In particular the ryzen 5600g and more recently the 7600x. The single core high frequency processing (5ghz) surpasses Intel and the tight coupling of the USB makes a noticeable difference.

 

[Sal1950]

The single core high frequency processing (5ghz) surpasses Intel and the tight coupling of the USB makes a noticeable difference.

In sound quality? I think your folding in a lot of expectation bias.

 

[MAB]

I've only just found this thread and haven't had time to view the full content. However, those using foobar I strongly recommend the Jam UI - see https://www.deviantart.com/ranggakat/art/JAM3-for-foobar2000-v3-4-894450237

Early on I reached the conclusion the source is key to good music and the future is digital. Jitter is a pain offset by linear power supplies, quality cables, and clean processing. Convenience and simplicity is also key.

For a long time I was a strong advocate of daphile on a dedicated music server. I respected the multi core operation and dsd upsampling. Then I discovered the stereo imaging is flawed - play a mono encoded track and the centre image almost disappears. A simple a/b comparison with an alternative player through the same equipment highlighted the issue!

I dabbled with hqplayer but didn't like the interface and felt I was listening to the technology and not the music.

I'm now using Roon Rock with qobuz. Key strengths are the UI, meta data, ability to support a whole house system, ARC, Muse, and Roon Radio. I've tried a number of servers including the nucleus+ but I'm now using amd CPUs. In particular the ryzen 5600g and more recently the 7600x. The single core high frequency processing (5ghz) surpasses Intel and the tight coupling of the USB makes a noticeable difference.

Oh my.
You are attributing sonic differences to CPU manufacturer; they don't exist unless you can provide some very surprising measurements. What next, cryo-cooled CPU sound better? How about memory vendor differences? Maybe SSD vs. traditional platter hard-drives (perhaps closer to the sound of other spinning media). Does a green pen help?

Also, your comments about jitter don't make sense, perhaps they got mistranslated.

And, "the source is key to good music" is the oldest mentalist trick in the book, used by audio sales the world over to get you to buy expensive things that make zero difference. Your speakers matter orders of magnitude more, unless your source is broken.

 

[Sal1950]

Oh my.
You are attributing sonic differences to CPU manufacturer; they don't exist unless you can provide some very surprising measurements. What next, cryo-cooled CPU sound better? How about memory vendor differences? Maybe SSD vs. traditional platter hard-drives (perhaps closer to the sound of other spinning media). Does a green pen help?

Oh that's nothing. I've seen posters over at Computer Audiophile/Style attribute sound differences to SATA cables.

 

[TonyJZX]

a few weeks back a person here who wrote player software said there would be a difference with Intel vs. AMD cores AND if hyperthreading was enabled or too many cores were exposed to the software... as if it was chernobyl reactor 4

i'm running 14 cores 28 threads on foobar...

 

[JLGF1]

The single core high frequency processing (5ghz) surpasses Intel and the tight coupling of the USB makes a noticeable difference.

Seriously?

 

[kemmler3D]

Oh that's nothing. I've seen posters over at Computer Audiophile/Style attribute sound differences to SATA cables.

Oof. Tell me you don't know how computers work without telling me you don't know how computers work, amirite?