Build a dedicated Audio PC

[nige2000]

trying it now w8 jplay trial
its going to be a long day
m4a crashes jplay most of my music is lossless m4a i do have other formats stored away on hard drives ill have to dig them up.
jplay trial is going to torture me into buying their software (its very annoying)
there might be some improvement over audivarna as i don't think it sounds any lesser, wouldn't different volume levels between software influence my perception. any tips to remove this variable.

edit: definite improvement over audivarna especially with 2 pc streaming

win 8 makes me understand what people mean by "better and worse at the same time"

[Ken Moreland]

Download Exact Audio Copy EAC http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/ and rip a couple of your favourite CD's to WAV format (uncompressed) and use these for testing. WAV is the best format.

For best Jplay use DirectLink,Xtreme,Throttle and Hibernate ON.
In Windows 8, go to the start screen and type regedit to get System Registry and for HKEY Current User Software Jplay you can set Packet Size to 1 and Xtream Size to 1500.
See how that compares.

KM

[nige2000]

sometimes it feels like im splitting hairs but theres a definite advantage with jplay as far as sound goes, i was hoping there'd be less in the difference, audivarnas far more user friendly and plays all sorts of formats.
what format is preferable to feed jplay with

I've got an obsession with pc building so i recon I've got enough suitable spare parts and a bit of a swap around to build a dedicated windows 8 machine for jplay, so i might go down that route if i think its worth it

just seen your post thanks

duty calls here ill get back to ya later

[nige2000]

listened to ripped wav files today, couldn't believe this quality was on a cd ended up paying for the jplay its a good margin ahead of audivarna unfortunately as it gives me a reason to need a dedicated windows machine
ill do some further listening with headphones and arcam rpac tomorrow

[Sligolad]

The dreaded JPlay bug....another CD Player consigned to collect cobwebs!!

By the way Nige you will end up having to listen to all your CDs again on JPlay as it will be like you never really heard them before :-)

[tony]

Just rushing off to work but surely you will need at least 48g ram for that pc! Welcome aboard Nigel you will have to give a few tips on pc builds. Hopefully cheaper ways of building zuma servers.

Pearse is probably right at this time it looks like the age of the dac for the moment and jplay but they probably still have to work on a totallly seamless experience for all.

[markof]

listened to ripped wav files today, couldn't believe this quality was on a cd ended up paying for the jplay its a good margin ahead of audivarna unfortunately as it gives me a reason to need a dedicated windows machine
ill do some further listening with headphones and arcam rpac tomorrow

Fascinating. I'm always looking to improve the sound quality on my setup.
Can you elaborate a bit on the SQ differences between jplay and audirvana and are you comparing the players on the same computer or is there a hardware difference as well?

Mark.

[Diapason]

I really need to buy a preamp so I can get involved in all of this...

[nige2000]

listened to ripped wav files today, couldn't believe this quality was on a cd ended up paying for the jplay its a good margin ahead of audivarna unfortunately as it gives me a reason to need a dedicated windows machine
ill do some further listening with headphones and arcam rpac tomorrow

Fascinating. I'm always looking to improve the sound quality on my setup.
Can you elaborate a bit on the SQ differences between jplay and audirvana and are you comparing the players on the same computer or is there a hardware difference as well?

Mark.

hi mark

im relativity new to hi fi so im not that familiar with the jargon but i had noticed previous that you were working with a mac mini and the jkdac32 in conjunction with audivarna plus and that was the route i was hoping to take with my pc running osx. it was only when KM said to try jplay with win 8, i had all the parts here so i gave it a go. i was horrendously distraught to find betterment in jplay as my operating system of choice is osx.
in layman's terms i hope you can make some sense out of this:
there is almost as much difference to switch to jplay from audivarna as from itunes to audivarna and its only when i switch back i notice the loss
i tested with wav rips and flac files of music i wont want to hear for a good while
i didn't change the hardware for first session of testing using the build in onboard dac
i was hearing aspects of the music that wasn't there before or a bit mushed up, i was more aware that there was two speakers in the room, and more surrounding, sharper cleaner, crisper i think i was listening to it at lower volumes and still getting all the aspects of the music. and a bit more dynamic (god ye are going to think im a babbling idiot)
im not finished testing yet but im pretty sure jplays going to win out

only one thing that might be in audivarnas defense because running osx on my pc is a hack its onboard sound card is not exactly a native device so its utilization may not be as optimised as win 8, ill ask some freakishly good audio guys about this onboard audio osx vs win 8 thing but id imagine they'll tell be there should be nearly nothing in it.
on osx i could not tell any difference between onboard dac vs my rpac i showed no preference to either so i used onboard dac so i could have the rpac for my macbook.
now for the really shocking part jplay is better with my onboard audio than with my rpac by a good margin although id like to try a change in usb leads though i have an direct adapter ordered on ebay. shorter has to be better eh. but id still be surprised if it makes all that much difference (but i still have to check)

things to test yet
macbook with audivarna and rpac vs jplay with rpac EDIT macbook wins Rpac sounds worse on jplay (go figure)

edit: faulty usb cable rpac better than usb

install win 8 on bootcamp on macbook to test jplay on it done but pain in the ass

ok tested pc osx + rpac vs macbook + rpac both audivarna no noticeable difference (not that i expected any)

audivarna far far far easier to use and far less buggy when im swapping gear around,

jplays inconvenience factor is going to hold it back

tried jriver win 8 too, but not done any testing, first impression is its not as good as audivarna with itunes intergration
cheers nige

[nige2000]

Just rushing off to work but surely you will need at least 48g ram for that pc! Welcome aboard Nigel you will have to give a few tips on pc builds. Hopefully cheaper ways of building zuma servers.

Pearse is probably right at this time it looks like the age of the dac for the moment and jplay but they probably still have to work on a totallly seamless experience for all.

oh god im in trouble then max i can put in mines 32gb ram but 8 a nice number and then multiply by two for overkill factor but i am the sort to do fifty things at once then wonder why its gone horribly wrong.

im not sure yet about age of the dac they've been in cd players all this time but music on files on a hard drive has to be the way for convenience as long as we can get the quality we expect, and im too lazy to go the vinyl route. i think pc hardware is at a level now cost and ability to store and play lossless music. this has to be about speed in pcs music all about timing right well speed and ability of a pc most greatly influence a dacs ability to do its work on time and therefore i think its going to be more about great implementation of a good dac more so than mediocre implementation on a great dac. don't forget there's great power in software (just my initial thoughts be sure to correct me if im wrong ive got thickish skin)

thanks for the welcome
nige