JRiver for audiophiles - what's new?

2 minutes ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

you must upgrade or lose access to our servers

That’s just for their “radio” feature … I’m on MC26 and it still works flawlessly 

4 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

Yeh I had the same experience (deleted posts by Jim H) IIRC somewhere around MC 15. I continued to upgrade yearly until MC27 even though I  stopped posting in the forum. I gave up because it became a bit of a hassle and I saw no real benefit. I considered updating last year but the more recent "you must upgrade or lose access to our servers" didn't sit well with me. I may take a look at Volumio. I really must try HQP but I am frightened by the learning curve judging by the large number of posts here on its forum ( i am correlating complexity with number of forum posts but realize it may not be the case)

you definitely should give it a try.  there really aren't that many basic options that can be selected, but the list of potential values under the option is long.  if you add convolution to the equation, then it does get more complicated.  the biggest thing with hqplayer is that to achieve upsampling to dsd512 (or more), convolution, and dac correction (a new feature only applicable to some dacs) takes a lot of computing power.  most of the discussion is about what settings to use for an individual to get the most out of their computer.

2 hours ago, jcn3 said:

 

you definitely should give it a try.  there really aren't that many basic options that can be selected, but the list of potential values under the option is long.  if you add convolution to the equation, then it does get more complicated.  the biggest thing with hqplayer is that to achieve upsampling to dsd512 (or more), convolution, and dac correction (a new feature only applicable to some dacs) takes a lot of computing power.  most of the discussion is about what settings to use for an individual to get the most out of their computer.

Agreed the latest dac correction feature is quite heavy on resources.

however, dac correction is only available for a handful number of dacs anyway. For most dacs anyway, the sweet spot would be dsd256 which is not very heavy to be honest. My lowly 6th gen i7 6700 pc can run dsd256x48 7ECsuper modulator with audiolense convolution with most filters other than the very long ones like sinc L, sinc Mga, sinc Long, which I don’t really use anyway.

My 13600k with a 3080ti pc can run dsd512x48 with dac correction and audiolense convolution effortlessly. But I have not really been using dsd512 most of the time.

if you don’t need dsd upsampling, my raspberry pi 5 can run pcm 1536 or dsd256 UL modulator with convolution…

7 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

 

Yeh I had the same experience (deleted posts by Jim H) IIRC somewhere around MC 15. I continued to upgrade yearly until MC27 even though I  stopped posting in the forum. I gave up because it became a bit of a hassle and I saw no real benefit. I considered updating last year but the more recent "you must upgrade or lose access to our servers" didn't sit well with me. I may take a look at Volumio. I really must try HQP but I am frightened by the learning curve judging by the large number of posts here on its forum ( i am correlating complexity with number of forum posts but realize it may not be the case)

HQPlayer can be used by nearly everyone and, I think, can be mastered by almost no one who doesn't have advanced degrees in computer science.  Jussi is a great, responsive resource for troubleshooting and has a truly remarkable command of English as an additional language but I often have a hard time understanding his very technical explanations. As a result, I just scratch HQPlayer's surface.

I tend to adjust by choosing between just a few parameters and leave most of the ancillary capabilities unexplored. The pain in the ass factor also is determined to a degree by your server hardware, because many adjustments prove to be too demanding for 90% of the computers out there.  The sound quality is remarkable, though, and reason enough to try the free trial to see if HQPlayer works well with your gear. 

Volumio is a good alternative to JRiver if your collection is far smaller than mine. The free edition probably meets most people's needs if they use a dedicated server and the interface is attractive and intuitive. 

For me, JRiver has many virtues that make its modest cost very reasonable.  There still is no better vehicle for metadata editing that I ever have encountered, which for those with large collections is enough reason to invest.  I use it as a front end for HQPlayer and get the best combo, in my opinion, of accessible functionality, user experience, and sound quality. 

Over many experiments, Jriver has a poor implementation of streaming, it sounds rough compared with Audirvana or HQPLAYER in NAA mode. When Lumin is used as an endpoint, it can clearly pick up flaws, gave up on Jriver long time ago for this aspect.

Version 32 works and sounds great for local usb playback and for large library management. 

I operate HQPLAYER as an NAA to an ifi neo stream 24/7 as a radio, that plays a loop of 4000 tracks of chillout as a background for when I'm not actively listening.  NAA is setup as a default upsample redbook to 358 PCM . Gave up on just playing redbook straight, was too much a pain the arse to try, and left it as is.

For SQ and stability, Audirvana works best for the Lumin.

Ever since hqplayer 4. I have only used jriver for movies, and jriver is amazing for that

14 hours ago, dericchan1 said:

dac correction is only available for a handful number of dacs

Is there a list of DACS or does it go by type?

I ripped a large (4500) CD collection for a friend who was unable to physically load CDs into his player due to a shoulder injury

Of the 4500 CDs, 105 came out as "unassigned".  I assumed then that there was some deficiency in the way the meta-data was saved on the disc.  A further 303 CDs did not find any artwork

I re-ran the ripping job using dbPower amp and it found 55 of the unassigned discs and 210 where the artwork was missing

Its quite a bit of work re-Tagging the unassigned discs as most are jumbled up

If albums have the same name, Jriver merges the two into one album format the preview pages when importing.

It takes a day or so, then the newer album appears properly in the recently added albums like its supposed to, the older same name album is shuffled where it belongs.

Seems always just the two albums, never more than the two.

56 minutes ago, chrisc said:

I ripped a large (4500) CD collection for a friend who was unable to physically load CDs into his player due to a shoulder injury

 

Of the 4500 CDs, 105 came out as "unassigned".  I assumed then that there was some deficiency in the way the meta-data was saved on the disc.  A further 303 CDs did not find any artwork

 

I re-ran the ripping job using dbPower amp and it found 55 of the unassigned discs and 210 where the artwork was missing

 

Its quite a bit of work re-Tagging the unassigned discs as most are jumbled up

 

 

Its been quite a while since I did any CD ripping. For Unassigned I seem to remember trying Tools > Library tools > fill properties from file name

I also seem to remember doing in small batches and where necessary tag manually

Early builds of MC33 are now on the MC33 board on the JRiver forum.