J River Media Center

I don't use too many of the more advanced features yet. This was a solid purchase decision. J River Media Center significantly improved the sound quality of my FLAC and MP3 music libraries and it is pretty simple to learn how to use in order to configure it correctly thanks to the guide. It's really beautiful in terms of the user interface. I'm sticking with this software product for the foreseeable future. It makes collecting digital audio files so easy and quick. Building a music and video library is clean and simple. I should have gotten this software product years ago.

 

Can you use JRiver over Airport Express?

 

Yes, though I think it is easier since this thread. I believe AE supports dlna now?
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/ind...8j3fk0g6nf3p2&topic=66536.msg446673#msg446673

 

I'm happy with JRiver 19. I don't feel the need to upgrade to 20 at this point.

 

tried it in the past, didn't like it. would rather just stick to foobar2000.

 

I guess I'm sticking with iTunes. That sounds way too complicated.

 

Foobar2000 is equally as complicated as J River Media Center. It's so modular and customizable that anyone can bend it to his will. That's also part of the problem. You'll spend your time researching to figure out what to use for plug-ins and how to install and configure them. Now, I know that some FB2K users will write that it's pretty simple if you stick with the defaults and they're good enough for most users. Sure, but that's not the point of FB2K. The other thing is that it only supports Microsoft Windows in its official build versions. J River is working on a beta GNU/Linux client. I mention this because I used to have a System76 Lemur Ultra Thin (lemu4) with Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit GNU/Linux and it was a big pain in the butt to find commercial software products and services that support it. This is why I bought my Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P and I use Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro Pack Update 1 64 bit.

I think that the J River wiki is sufficient to learn about its advanced features set and configuration options. It only takes 30 minutes to read and experiment on your own. When I have a choice, I will prefer commercial software although I've learned that free and or open source software is competitive. I'm permanently disabled and retired now and my free time is valuable to me. The default J River configuration settings are sufficient for my needs. I don't use the advanced features that often. This is strictly for building up my FLAC and MP3 music libraries, getting up to date cover art, and playing back music. That's it for me.

 

I recently purchased JRiver 19. I have the OPPO BDP 105 with the USB DAC, so I figured why not. Really enjoying it. I tried Foobar first and setting it up was over my head. I have found JRiver very easy to set up and use. Oddly, I am finding that I enjoy the sound of my CD's ripped to FLAC more than playing straight from the CD. Both are using the same DAC in the OPPO, so I suppose it's an aural illusion.

 

With CD mechanisms, you have to spend four to five figures to minimize the sound of the disc that is spinning so that it does not affect the sound quality. This is why I prefer digital audio files because I don't have to worry about the effect that the CD mechanism will impart on the sound. Some audiophiles claim that they can hear a difference between hard drives and solid state disks when playing high resolution loss less audio files from their PCs or media centers. I disagree. To me, this is nonsense. Other audiophiles claim they can hear the difference between uncompressed and compressed digital audio files when comparing loss less audio codecs. Again, I disagree. Finally, some audiophiles claim that they can hear the differences between the original disc and an identical copy onto some form of writeable disc copy. Please!

 

I don't have an issue with anyone claiming to hear those differences.

 

When is J River Media Center 20 going to be released and how can I pre-order it? How do I know if my recent purchase of version 19 is going to work with version 20 ahead of time? Should I contact J River directly? What do I need to know?

 

I just visited their Interact forum and it looks like I missed the deadline to upgrade to MC20 for a discounted upgrade price. I still can easily afford the normal upgrade price. It looks like it will be released later in August 2014. I plan to pay for my upgrade, save the registration key, and follow the instructions to upgrade and register my copy.

This software is excellent and the level of sound quality performance even with MP3s is astounding. I'm not getting bit-perfect audio, but I am not complaining either. This is one of the least expensive and more significant purchases that instantly solved a lot of problems with my large MP3 music library. I'm hooked in.

 

I just enabled the headphone option with standard cross-feed feature in J River Media Center 19 and it's working. I'm getting a normal and continuous stereo image right between my ears. It's more natural sounding and the sound stage is more tightly integrated without the blobs in my head effect. Excellent software!

 

From one of the threads in their forum about the upgrade to version 20

 

So, I just wait until J River Media Center 20 is released in its stable version and install it, right? I have to check to ensure that I have the latest version of Media Center 19 prior to the upgrade, right? What else am I missing?

I set the headphone cross feed feature to subtle. It sounds more natural. The other settings shrunk the headstage considerably which is not optimal with my Sennheiser HD-800 headphones. Too much processing with the cross-feed at the higher settings is too much.

 

Some the the wonderful sound quality you are reporting is due to a sound card that meets your highest expectations. JRiver can only do so much, then it's up to your hardware to deliver what JRiver feeds it.

 

I only use JRiver for audio so will wait until JRMC 20 is stable. I jumped on the JMRC 19 early and had a small problem initially. I am hoping that someday they will offer a media server for Synology NAS'

 

Why aren't you getting bit perfect? You should be if you are using Windows WASAPI.

EDIT: I see that you have the "Headphone" option enabled - you should consider dropping that and go bit perfect.

VP

 

The way things work at JRiver, MC 19 will be declared "stable" when the initial release of MC 20 is made available. They make changes and do bug fixes at least once a week, so when they stop doing that it will be "stable". MC 19 technically hasn't been released yet. Your upgrade fee funds the development of MC 20--you'll get the finished product in about a year. Your license, however, entitles you to download and use all the work-in-progress versions in the meantime.

 

Because he might not have a DAC outside of computer, and needs to be fed wav out. No?

 

The build of version 19 that you have will upgrade to version 20. You don't need the absolute latest build of version 19 to do an upgrade.

Watch the JRiver forum for version 20 builds. Give version 20 a little bit of time and watch to see if people are having problems. When things look settled well enough grab a build and install it. I don't know if version 20 will automatically recognize your version 19 registration or not. If version 20 shows up as unregistered and in trial mode you'll need to do a license restore.

I'll probably jump in on an early build of version 20. But that can lead to problems as you uncover bugs or features that aren't fully done. So usually best to wait a little bit for those early problems to be fixed.

 

There are stable builds of version 19. The build that is available on the download page is considered stable. It's a safe build to update to. The builds that you see on the forum are considered the latest build. The latest build is generally safe and ready, but may have incomplete features or bugs. One of the latest builds will eventually be declared stable and offered on the download page. And that's how the development progresses. If you stick on stable you'll only see a new build every couple of weeks or so.

 

MC "is" the source and if the little "mixer" icon in the upper right is not colored blue when a track is playing - this indicates a non bit perfect source output.

This is usually a result of having additional plugins enabled within the DSP Studio area. The OP indicated he has the "headphone" plugin enabled - which will kill bit perfect output.

To ensure bit perfect - you can only have Output Format and Volume Leveling checked on.

What DAC is connected further downstream has no bearing on this.

Cheers,

VP

 

Version 20 released today if anyone is interested.

 

Would probably tread lightly in the early going...

Over the last 7 versions I have used (12-19) - I usually jump into the "test" pool when a given release hits the .50 (20.0.50) I test that on a single machine until around build .100. and then finally make the jump to replace all older instances on the network.

VP