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

[Count Arthur]

So for me Roon is simply too expensive for the way i consume music.

I've never really understood why Roon is so expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, Roon does not come with any access to an on-line library, like Spotify, Tidal, etc., but simply organises and catalogues both local and on-line libraries.

I believe it also provides notes and information about artists, etc., but as someone that that rarely read the sleeve notes on CDs and LPs, this is of very little interest. I probably have hundreds of CDs and I couldn't name the members of the bands, nor would I recognize them if I passed them in the street.

I actually sat talking to a member of Morcheeba in a bar a few weeks back. It was only after he'd left that my friend told me who he was. Although, I would have realised if it was Skye Edwards.

 

[Sal1950]

So for me Roon is simply too expensive for the way i consume music.

Same here. Roon doesn't offer me anything I can't do with any number of free players.

 

[Keith_W]

Even if Roon was the same price as JRiver, I wouldn't use it, because it lacks a few important features:

- no WDM driver - can't be used to pipe audio from another app through Roon's convolution engine (e.g. Youtube, other streaming services not supported by Roon, etc).
- no VST support
- no ISO226 volume control
- no ability to browse by folders
- utterly useless if it doesn't like the metadata, so you better get your collection in order, or hope that the streaming services got it right otherwise you will never be able to find your recording
- returns irrelevant results when doing a search, e.g. search for "Bach St John Passion" and your search gets cluttered by "St Matthew's Passion", which doubles the number of albums you have to flick through

 

[dartinbout]

Even if Roon was the same price as JRiver, I wouldn't use it, because it lacks a few important features:

- no WDM driver - can't be used to pipe audio from another app through Roon's convolution engine (e.g. Youtube, other streaming services not supported by Roon, etc).
- no VST support
- no ISO226 volume control
- no ability to browse by folders
- utterly useless if it doesn't like the metadata, so you better get your collection in order, or hope that the streaming services got it right otherwise you will never be able to find your recording
- returns irrelevant results when doing a search, e.g. search for "Bach St John Passion" and your search gets cluttered by "St Matthew's Passion", which doubles the number of albums you have to flick through

I wouldn't use "Ruin" even if it was free. It's terrible at organizing and playing local music files. It's (and many of the other windows\mac playback applications are increasingly focused on primarily streaming contents. With 150k of tracks (I've been ripping CD's to flac more than a decade), the only "streaming" I do, with any regularity, is in the middle of the night, but that is due to old age. Streaming music started 15 years ago (I think). It started out sounding terrible, I've been told it's gotten better but I can't be bothered.

 

[sethr]

Another player to consider - Sound Player uLillith (newer version of Lillith), a very simple playlist player. I think it sounds great, the only issue I've found is that it depends on directshow filters for certain codecs. I couldn't get aac in m4a containers to play until I installed the K Lite Codec Pack (held my breath when doing so - I think I came out unscathed).

 

[plfonjureo]

It's been about three years since I got Elmedia Player on Mac: https://mac.eltima.com/best-music-players.html

Sometimes I don't even know the format itself and it plays it with no issues.

Handy with a wide range of features

 

[sethr]

After going through a variety of players, I've settled on Plex HTPC (with Plex Media Server running in the background). It has a clunky but full featured library browser (really designed for HTPCs and not desktop use) and mpv as it's audio engine. It also supports WASAPI exclusive mode. I added a few eq filters in a config file. I still use jriver for most library management, and foobar2000 for file conversions when needed.

 

[Anderlfs]

XMPlay with xmp-wasapi.dll, without any DSP. Kind of ugly at first, but with WMP11Skin It adopts a very minimalist look that is in tune with its extremely low resource usage.

 

[audio_tony]

Is resource usage even an issue with modern hardware? Unless of course the user is running Windows on an ancient PC...

 

[Anderlfs]

Not an issue, a characteristic. Whether it's important or not for some is something personal.

 

[Boltman92124]

Anybody mention Media Monkey yet. It's my favorite free player. Not sure how old the latest build is though. If you like JRiver, it's a good free one.

 

[Sombreuil]

Even if Roon was the same price as JRiver, I wouldn't use it, because it lacks a few important features:
- no ability to browse by folders

That's exacty why I'm using Foobar. It might not look shiny or modern, but once you've found a skin that you like, it does everything you ask the software to do.
It's simple and free, which is perfect.

 

[Boltman92124]

That's exacty why I'm using Foobar. It might not look shiny or modern, but once you've found a skin that you like, it does everything you ask the software to do.
It's simple and free, which is perfect.
View attachment 395831

Actually that UI doesn't look bad for Foobar. Is that a plug-in? JRiver is cheap after you buy it initially. The upgrade was $19 I think. I went from version 18 to 31.

 

[Sombreuil]

Actually that UI doesn't look bad for Foobar. Is that a plug-in? JRiver is cheap after you buy it initially. The upgrade was $19 I think. I went from version 18 to 31.

It's a skin I found on github. It comes with a white theme, a compact player and you can customize pretty much everything by right clicking on a panel or an element.

GitHub - Ottodix/Eole-foobar-theme: Eole blows gently into your ear his nicest melodies.

Eole blows gently into your ear his nicest melodies. - Ottodix/Eole-foobar-theme

github.com

DeviantArt also has a bunch of skins, icons and what not for foobar.

 

[Deckard01]

Sorry if I ask something that is already answered, but as Roon is too expensive for me, is there any player so as to integrade with Tidal and be able to use Bit-Perfect with the ability to EQ headphones?
Thanks

 

[Sombreuil]

Sorry if I ask something that is already answered, but as Roon is too expensive for me, is there any player so as to integrade with Tidal and be able to use Bit-Perfect with the ability to EQ headphones?
Thanks

Not that I want to promote foobar for the sake of it, but I believe you can do that with it.

 

[Keith_W]

Sorry if I ask something that is already answered, but as Roon is too expensive for me, is there any player so as to integrade with Tidal and be able to use Bit-Perfect with the ability to EQ headphones?
Thanks

The only other player that has Tidal integrated is Audirvana. It is slightly cheaper than Roon but it also requires subscription. This makes both it and Roon non-starters for me.

Otherwise, you could hack together Tidal integration with any player that supports DLNA or some kind of digital input. If all you want to do is add EQ ability to Tidal, the easiest way for you is to use the Tidal app and insert EqualizerAPO into the signal chain.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

You can cast Tidal to WiiM HW with or without PEQ if I'm not mistaken. Which gets you to the same destination via a different path?

 

[Deckard01]

The only other player that has Tidal integrated is Audirvana. It is slightly cheaper than Roon but it also requires subscription. This makes both it and Roon non-starters for me.

Otherwise, you could hack together Tidal integration with any player that supports DLNA or some kind of digital input. If all you want to do is add EQ ability to Tidal, the easiest way for you is to use the Tidal app and insert EqualizerAPO into the signal chain.

I am not sure I understand the DLNA kind of thing, I use APO and Peace but when I run Tidal then Peace is deactivated, so I miss the EQ option.

 

[Keith_W]

I am not sure I understand the DLNA kind of thing, I use APO and Peace but when I run Tidal then Peace is deactivated, so I miss the EQ option.

Think of DLNA as a casting protocol. First, you need an app on your PC that can work as a DLNA Renderer, e.g. JRiver or Foobar. Dive into the settings to turn the functionality on. Then you run an app on your tablet or phone that supports Tidal (e.g. BubbleUPNP, or Mplayer). Sadly, Tidal's own app does not support UPNP. Tell this app to look for DLNA Renderers and choose the app on your PC. Then it's a matter of choosing the music you want and hitting "play".