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

[Deckard01]

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".

Thank you I will check that out. Is there any tutorial video or something? Also as you said, it does not work with tidal? I listen on my pc mostly

 

[Aynsley]

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.

There are two versions of Audirvana. "Studio" is the one that requires a subscription and "Origin" is the one that doesn't.

I don't use streaming services so I purchased Audirvana Origin. I don't make much use of it. On my late-2017 Mac it takes forever to scan watched folders and update its database. There's also a limit on the number of playlists you can create.

 

[Keith_W]

Thank you I will check that out. Is there any tutorial video or something? Also as you said, it does not work with tidal? I listen on my pc mostly

I don't think there is a tutorial video. My brief explanation should be enough to get you started. I managed to figure it out by myself so I would say it's quite easy

The reason I specifically mentioned BubbleUPNP and MPlayer is because they both work with Tidal.

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Is there any tutorial video or something? Also, as you said, it does not work with tidal? I listen on my pc mostly

EQ (plugins) can be added to the Foobar2000 signal path. You should also be able to use the MathAudio Headphone DSP component for FB2K (free). There are detailed instructions on their website.

Using Tidal with Foobar2000

 

[ShadowBoxer]

Strawberry music player? Seems to have Tidal function and claims to have EQ. Disclaimer: I have no direct experience with it.

 

[Chazz6]

Others: Minimstreamer on Windows, BubbleUPnP controller on Android tablet.

 

[neRok]

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.

Peace just "includes" a link to peace.txt in the current EqAPO config, and it writes all of its settings to that file. So for Tidal to be "disabling Peace", it must be either modifiying EqAPO settings itself, or it's bypassing EqAPO by outputting directly to the device. If the latter, try change Tidals output settings, or output to a "middleman" like Voicemeeter.

 

[Mike-48]

I picked Roon because it does so much, drives so many devices (and more than one at a time), and does all that with a relatively simple interface and accessible instructions, and it does it well.

Roon, though, is costly. You need a subscription, a capable machine to run the core (server), and a fairly recent and powerful tablet to run the remote. Still, compared to what some spend on power cords, it's a bargain.

 

[Triplefun]

Primarily MusicBee and sometimes PlexAmp for me.

I find the UI for Foobar2000 very clunky, I couldn't get it to look the way I want and gave up with it (I'm not saying it's not possible, it just didn't work for me).

JRiver doesn't seem much better and I already use Plex for all my other media, so I don't want to pay for something else with such an overlap of features.

Roon looks lovely, but I really can't justify the cost of it to myself.

look at the third party foobar jam skins from deviantart.

 

[Berwhale]

look at the third party foobar jam skins from deviantart.

I've been dabbling with customizing my own Theatre Mode skins for MusicBee to fit the little 10.5" auxiliary screen on my PC...

I have 14" 2K screen on the way from AliExpress to replace the 10.5", so i'll have to tweak it again, but it's just an XML file.

 

[Berwhale]

I've been dabbling with customizing my own Theatre Mode skins for MusicBee to fit the little 10.5" auxiliary screen on my PC...

View attachment 409875

I have 14" 2K screen on the way from AliExpress to replace the 10.5", so i'll have to tweak it again, but it's just an XML file.

New 14" 2K screen arrived from China today, my existing Theatre Mode skin for MusicBee looks just fine...

The new screen doesn't have VESA mounting holes, but I ordered one of these sticky VESA plates at the same time...

I bought the smaller, VESA75 version of the pad. It has, what looks like, clear polyester adhesive on it. It seems pretty strong, the manufacture claims the plate will hold a 32" monitor (presumably using the larger VESA100 version). I reckon it would easily hold a small studio monitor if you wanted mount one on a VESA compatible arm.

 

[Berwhale]

It seemed a shame to waste all that space and resolution. I've been playing the Theatre Mode XML file again (based on MusicBee's Cover List theme)...

Added...

Second line with artist and album to 'Up Next' tracks - I tend to play a whole album, but sometimes I don't.
Increased font size for track title and put it on it's own line in 'Now Playing' section
Added file extension, bit depth and sample rate on second line (you have to use a virtual tag to do this in MusicBee as these properties are not exposed directly to the Theatre Mode interface).

Tweaked a few other elements such as Time and Track duration, the buttons for Artist Info, Lyrics and Now Playing Assistant and the Close button.

I've attached a ZIPped copy of the file if anyone is interested in taking a look. The XML file goes in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List, you should then see 'Cover List (2K)' in the list of Theater Mode skins.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I like Foobar. It doesn't have the prettiest UI but it does exactly what I want it to do with a minimum of fuss. I have a little over 80K music files on an NAS organized by folder. Access is easy for me. It has a large number of add on features. It's open source. When I need to tag something it works as well as the dedicated tagging software I've used. It handles playlists without complaint. It also splits single files with a playlist into their component tracks. It does file format conversions. I could go on. Because the UI is a bit geeky it's not an appliance. You have to get used to which menu item to click on. I found the learning curve pleasingly steep, a short time to a high level of mastery. YMMV

 

[amper42]

There are two versions of Audirvana. "Studio" is the one that requires a subscription and "Origin" is the one that doesn't.

I don't use streaming services so I purchased Audirvana Origin. I don't make much use of it. On my late-2017 Mac it takes forever to scan watched folders and update its database. There's also a limit on the number of playlists you can create.

Interesting. I have the old Audirvana 3.5 on a 2012 and 2019 MacBook Pro and it works great for streaming or with my local 80GB ripped CD library. Never have to wait for scanning ever. I would ask Audirvana support about this issue as it's certainly not normal. My 3.5 has the ability to turn on scanning as needed. You might check how your scan preferences are configured.

I tried Fubar2000 but it looks absolutely terrible compared to Audirvana and I found it considerably less intuitive. Audirvana is running a special on 2 years of Studio for the price of one until Monday for existing customers. Seems like a decent deal. They have other deals for new users as well at https://audirvana.com/.

 

[neRok]

It seemed a shame to waste all that space and resolution. I've been playing the Theatre Mode XML file again (based on MusicBee's Cover List theme)...

View attachment 410633

Added...

Second line with artist and album to 'Up Next' tracks - I tend to play a whole album, but sometimes I don't.
Increased font size for track title and put it on it's own line in 'Now Playing' section
Added file extension, bit depth and sample rate on second line (you have to use a virtual tag to do this in MusicBee as these properties are not exposed directly to the Theatre Mode interface).

Tweaked a few other elements such as Time and Track duration, the buttons for Artist Info, Lyrics and Now Playing Assistant and the Close button.

I've attached a ZIPped copy of the file if anyone is interested in taking a look. The XML file goes in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List, you should then see 'Cover List (2K)' in the list of Theater Mode skins.

Nice. I need to customise an interface like this too, for MB on my TV. I tried a bunch of the included/stock ones, but none were quick what I wanted. Does the DIY API/template-engine give access to "online" things like artist pictures and lyrics though?

 

[Berwhale]

Nice. I need to customise an interface like this too, for MB on my TV. I tried a bunch of the included/stock ones, but none were quick what I wanted. Does the DIY API/template-engine give access to "online" things like artist pictures and lyrics though?

There is some basic information about what's possible in Theatre Mode skins in the text file here: "C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins\TheaterMode.List\ReadMe.txt"

The buttons on the bottom right show Artist Info, Lyrics and the Now Playing Assistant (so I can queue tracks without going back to the main MB interface)...

Artist images are definitely possible as there is an 'Artist Pictures' skin. Looking at the XML for this skin (in the same directory as the txt file above), this line is displaying the artist pictures as a background rotating every 60 seconds...

<element type="Gallery" x="1" y="1" widthDock="Panel" width="-2" heightDock="Panel" height="-2" aspectRatio="zoomKeep" interval="60" tags="artist" ></element>

Whilst I remember...

To display file type, bit depth and sample rate, you need to define a virtual tag. You do this in Settings/Tags (1)/Define new Tags... like this...

Formula:

$Upper($RSplit(<URL>,.,1)) - <Bit Depth>bit - <Sample Rate>

The virtual tag is referenced in the XML like this...

<child id="Virtual1"/>