Anyone tried JPlay?

[jkeny]

Thanks Ken - I have used the cable option but wanted a more user (read wife) friendly configuration that didn't involve wires while at the same time avoiding Windows accessing the internet & doing any auto updates or popping up reminders etc. I think I can turn off internet access of a particular PC on the network by getting at the router main menu & changing the access of a particular PC's IP address. Now to find the router's login codes?
Has anyone gone down this route? It might be overkill & not needed?

Doh, I should have realised that was what the JPLay program was - I knew about the service running but .....

Anybody tried Total commander? Any cut-down versions of windows that are advantageous? Seeing as this is a spare PC/laptop that I will be running on & will be by & large unattended, I figured why not strip it down as lean as possible.

TW, I see my laptop that I resurrected for this duty has a Win 7 evaluation copy on it.
I just popped over to Jplay forum & see discussion of a Win 8 stripped down "audiophile" version that boots from USB stick - very interesting & said to sound better than win 8 on SSD . It links to a thread on CA http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-s ... ndex7.html

Anybody done this or have the torrent link for file download? I'll post here if I find it

Edit: it looks like a PM to someone on CA is needed to get the torrent file link - anybody on CA that can PM to get it - I can't :)

[tony]

I have Total commander on the slave(laptop) I sometimes switch the streamer to it also. No reason not to have TC on the slave as it is used for nothing else anyway.

That usb link seems worth following up on at some stage.Can I take it that is a basic cheapo option of bypassing the ssd requirement?

Kind of fed up tweaking at the moment and just want to listen to what I have set up but will go back to these suggestions at a later stage.

[jkeny]

Sure, Tony, I agree - tweaking can be all-consuming & we got to make time for the music. I've only started to look at the Jplay streamer option - mainly because I was down in Fran's yesterday & at his prompting, we decided to try Jplay streamer. What a difference it made to the sound - just so much more dynamic.

Yes, I was next going to look at putting TC on the USB win 8 "audiophile" version if I can get it together. I'm looking to do this for tomorrow as I'm visiting the Listening suite guys in the afternoon.

[Fran]

After a good bit of sorting out I have a second PC running now. I think I might be able to set it up as a headless system but not 100% sure yet.

Success of a sort, but things like stability etc all need to be sorted out. Very trying at some stages, but it seems OK now. I'm using an old P4 desktop machine as the audio PC, but I need to root around and get more RAM for it - it won't run xtream!


Fran

[nige2000]

After a good bit of sorting out I have a second PC running now. I think I might be able to set it up as a headless system but not 100% sure yet.

Success of a sort, but things like stability etc all need to be sorted out. Very trying at some stages, but it seems OK now. I'm using an old P4 desktop machine as the audio PC, but I need to root around and get more RAM for it - it won't run xtream!


Fran

youll struggle doing anything with a p4 especially if youre running vista 7 or eight, would suggest looking for something else as it will almost certain to give you a banging headache, certainly wouldnt spend money on kit for it

xtream mode seems to like a bit of ram

was trying out another build last night had to put 6 gb in there before it worked flawlessly (thats with out hibernate on)

[nige2000]

Sure, Tony, I agree - tweaking can be all-consuming & we got to make time for the music. I've only started to look at the Jplay streamer option - mainly because I was down in Fran's yesterday & at his prompting, we decided to try Jplay streamer. What a difference it made to the sound - just so much more dynamic.

Yes, I was next going to look at putting TC on the USB win 8 "audiophile" version if I can get it together. I'm looking to do this for tomorrow as I'm visiting the Listening suite guys in the afternoon.

sent torrent file to your email (but your probably sorted by now)

cheers nige

[Fran]

Thanks Nige2000 - this is really just a low (zero) cost experiment so far just to see if its feasible.

Amazingly, its running pretty well. I've only experienced a failure on a 24/96 track so far. And xtream is working OK now. Maybe that was a network issue....

So:

P4 3.0ghz
1.5g ram
640gB 2.5" sta drive with W7 ultimate on it - no bloatware etc
totalcommander
only motherboard graphics, no mouse/keyboard.

Working fairly reliably so far....... with the emphasis on "so far"


What I'd like though is a nice little laptop that I can connect easily..... I'll go working on that.


For the experts here: is W8 only of benefit on the slave/audio PC? I take it the control PC has no influence on sonics? I suppose what I'm really wondering is if the audioPC should be a laptop!


Fran

[nige2000]

Thanks Nige2000 - this is really just a low (zero) cost experiment so far just to see if its feasible.

Amazingly, its running pretty well. I've only experienced a failure on a 24/96 track so far. And xtream is working OK now. Maybe that was a network issue....

So:

P4 3.0ghz
1.5g ram
640gB 2.5" sta drive with W7 ultimate on it - no bloatware etc
totalcommander
only motherboard graphics, no mouse/keyboard.

Working fairly reliably so far....... with the emphasis on "so far"


What I'd like though is a nice little laptop that I can connect easily..... I'll go working on that.


For the experts here: is W8 only of benefit on the slave/audio PC? I take it the control PC has no influence on sonics? I suppose what I'm really wondering is if the audioPC should be a laptop!


Fran

hey if it works it works thats great
really thought it it would struggle though

i know nothing about this two pc jplay system
is this the layout?
your p4 has the music files and is streaming to a better pc feeding into the dac?
if thats the case it shouldnt be under any pressure and i had assumed it was doing more

i have two pcs activity in use in the house i must try this out some night
damn sold a laptop two months ago would have been handier for testing. typical eh

[Fran]

Yes:

Audio PC is connected to the DAC and does nothing only play. This is the one that can be run headless, many use laptops, best to use plenty of RAM, maybe an SSD etc etc etc. Many report better sound with W8 - and cut out as many services/processes as possible. Total commander also recommended.

Control PC is any yoke that you have to hand. You open up jplay mini or whatever in this, select and play your tracks. In my case the actual music is on my "main" PC upstairs in the office, I pick the tracks up across the network.

I was skeptical (I know Tony and Ken had been singing its praises though) but when John was down yesterday and had a netbook with him, I though it worth trying. The difference was not small!! John can chime in here with the specs on his netbook, but IIRC, lots of RAM, not much processor speed. Hearing the large difference spurred me on to putting up with the pain of setting it all up.

I am getting the odd playback bug - out of maybe 30 tracks played, I got 2 cases where a track stopped part way through and then restarted playback - 1 of these being a large 24/96 file, the other an ordinary one. One 1 occasion it played a few seconds of the track after it had finished playing (maybe 10s segment repeated). I heard this in Tonys too - Tony did you ever figure out what that was?

So it bodes well, but I'd like to iron out those few bugs before going any further. A mate has some extra suitable RAM sticks that I can borrow so I'll see does an extra bit of ram help.

Next up is to compare sound from laptop/desktop setup to just the laptop.

Fran

[Sligolad]

Been playing with the JPlay 2 PC setup for a while now and from what I have learned so far everything matters as regards the quality of both PCs, its just a matter of where to stop!!!
My previous 2 PC system had a powerful laptop with SSD, 8Gb ram, Win 8 as the Audio PC and a home built fanless powerhouse PC again with SSD 6Gb ram, Win 8 as the control PC, sounded great but...

Went and bought the Zuma fanless server and set it up as the Audio PC and moved the laptop as the control PC and I was amazed at the difference.

Added direct ethernet connection between both and the whole system became as stable as a rock with every bitrate I could throw at it handled with ease, even DSD.

Just for the hell of it I went back to Total Commander on the control PC and I heard an improvement which I was not expecting!

Just orderd the Meicord Opal ethernet cable so lets see if this makes a diffference.

Finally I have been using JRiver Media server to manage my music with JRemote which allows both PCs to run headless.
One of these days I must try JPlay Mini.

Hopefully the final project this summer is to do loads of EMI, RFI shielding inside both PCs with some 3M "hoodoo" absorbing sheets I bought last year after lots of positive reviews, do not ask me what they were called again but I remember they were not cheap.

Its this madness that keeps me sane.....I think!!
Pearse.