J Play .. ultimate pluggin or clearly easy loss of money

[Maro73]

Hello Folks

I came across the J Play site and proposition of pluggin for J River etc ..

What are your views on this ?

Cheers

 

[AmDismal]

Well the J River guys consider it a hoax. I would be generous to consider it disingenuous at best, if it were free.

Like Russ Andrews, there is a free trial where you can teach yourself all about the placebo effect first hand :^

 

[Maro73]

I tried the J play .. crashes with my J river .. I guess that the memory is only 4 gb ..but it's supposed to work .. it hasn't

cheers

 

[Jazid]

I got no audible improvements from it, and it seemed pretty buggy. I wouldn't have kept it even if it had been free, mostly for the loss of utility, but also because in my system it offers no benefits at all. YMMV.

jRiver, plays well, sounds great IMO.

 

[Brumjam]

It's a waste of time and money. I've never seen so many bugs in one piece of software - quite an achievement.

 

[Maro73]

That was my conclusion , but couldn't resist to asking ..

@ brumjam : how's the shindo ? LOL

 

[Brumjam]

That was my conclusion , but couldn't resist to asking ..@ brumjam : how's the shindo ? LOL

Shindo is wonderful Edun. I think it feels lonely without a Cortese power amp to keep it company though ;-)

 

[tonerei]

I use jplay and wouldnt be without it. Ignore negative stuff here and try it out it is free. It requires a bit of effort to get the best from it but if you go onto the jplay forum and have a good read of the various threads it will open your eyes. Then go tweak your pc/laptop setup and move eventually when you build up some experience with it to a streaming set up using a fanless high spec pc and the ultrastream engine in Jplay you will end up with an incredibly high quality playback device. Jriver is useful if you like the set up of players like itunes. Jplay is minimalist personally I prefer that.

Not surprised at the negative stuff as it seems to permeate some forums concerning computer audio software. Never see it as prevalent in relation to turntables cdp's etc. But look at some of the systems and set ups that the guys on the jplay forum have. Difficult to see how they have great set ups and somehow according to the posts above are destroying it by using jplay.

 

[pluto]

Then go tweak your pc/laptop setup and move eventually when you build up some experience with it to a streaming set up using a fanless high spec pc and the ultrastream engine in Jplay you will end up with an incredibly high quality playback device

And therein lies the problem. By the time you've tweaked and changed your computer and tried this engine and that engine and tweaked this, that and the other you are completely bemused and have forgotten that, right at the very beginning, JRiver on your cheap laptop sounded exactly the same.

I tried JPlay under quite carefully controlled conditions (comparing two machines side by side) and provided that your computer is stable (i.e. plays music without glitches, clicks or any other hints of instability), I heard no evidence of sonic advantage.

My gut feeling is that if your playback computer is inherently not quite right, the fact that JPlay seems to take a firm grip of absolutely everything may well help you out. But on a lightly-loaded machine whose only job is to gently decode a FLAC file and leisurely send the data out via a USB port* (and the machine is doing this without glitches or complaint), nah!

* If you are driving a digital or analogue audio output port (rather than USB), then in any case you are entirely at the mercy of your audio port's driver software – an entirely unknown quantity over which the audio player application can have no influence!

 

[Maro73]

Hi again

Will do some try out today

And will post the components of my system

 

[tonerei]

Hi againWill do some try out today

And will post the components of my system

If you want to try and figure out computer audiio get out of here.Wigwam or pfm don't dig it.Flat earth policy rules especially pfm.

The original version of jplay was buggy and subsequent versions slowly but surely sorted the issues while moving it forward. At least on the jplay forum you will get useful advice. If after implementing it you see no payback go in another direction.

THe guys running jplay are two computer geeks(hope Josef or Marcin dont check this post) The effort is borne out of interest that turned into a business.They had a stand at the munich show that won best sound at the show. The support they give to customers having issues is second to none.They will connect remotely to sort issues that are generally caused by the customers lack of knowledge. All future upgrades are free.

The jplay forum is worth its weight in gold. If you are at the beginning with regard to computer audio take your time to get acquainted with all the threads and suggestions. I went from one laptop to two laptops streaming to now a dedicated zuma spec pc using core server on usb powered by maplin linear supply streaming from a good laptop. The leaps in sound and functionality in the space of a year is remarkable.

Computer audio is like owning a turntable. You can spend a few hundred euro or the sky is the limit. By and large most improvements add to SQ. As per any part of this hobby some stuff is just a waste of money or overpriced or foo, e.g SOTM usb card.

But carefully putting together a hispec pc using half decent linear supplies available from maplin for small bucks getting rid of noisy fans and installing operating systems that are carefully adjusted/downsized to suit audio and using software like jplay designed to work well in this type of set up

When you hear negativity think of british leyland and ostrich with head stuck in the sand. CA is the way forward.

Unfortunately CA with really good SQ takes a bit of tweaking a bit like the auld turntable.But it is worth the effort.Alternatively you spend lots of money on stuff like dcs etc to get the quality with the work done by somebody else.

 

[pluto]

What a load of old twaddle. Exactly what computer audio does not need – an attempt to make it as tricky as a turntable. It isn't; it's simple, logical and works well once a few particular bases are covered.

I see JPlay largely as a sop to the audiophile classes who appear to believe that unless the road to 'perfect' audio entails some difficulty, a sacrifice if you like, it cannot possibly be all it could be. Even the bloody bugs become part of the necessary suffering for your art. Codswallop.

JPlay is the computer equivalent of the $1k cable – the thing that audiophilia nervosa sufferers feel might just be the final step en route to Nirvana. Even the free Foobar (with WASAPI or ASIO output) sounds every ounce as good, but as most people don't make a fair comparison of the easy way and the hard way, the audiophile mind clearly believes in the superiority of the latter.

 

[tonerei]

This guy does the same thing on jplay posts on PFM hence my advice to go elsewhere for whatever advice you want.It aint worth the aggravation here life is too short. I don't like some of the media players but the notion of searching forums and injecting rubbish into a thread about that product seems childish.Jplay may rock your boat it may not I can see how some people would get fed up fairly quickly and feel it is too much hassle.Marco73 join the jplay forum. Post any queries etc there. Try it out for free. Compare it to other players and if you find no difference or they have attributes that suit your needs better go for them. Best of luck whatever you decide on.

 

[rdale]

JPlay is the computer equivalent of the $1k cable – the thing that audiophilia nervosa sufferers feel might just be the final step en route to Nirvana. Even the free Foobar (with WASAPI or ASIO output) sounds every ounce as good, but as most people don't make a fair comparison of the easy way and the hard way, the audiophile mind clearly believes in the superiority of the latter.

I can't see how something that cost $100 is the equivalent of a $1k cable. Maybe I am being a bit simple, but I would think that a $100 computer program was the equivalent of a $100 cable.

 

[AmDismal]

Cables actually do something - they connect one device to another. JPlay sits inside something that already works perfectly.

 

[meninblack]

I listened to a demo of JPlay at Munich. My arse was that the best sound at the show! Not by a long way. :nup:

Anyway, they were comparing a PC with JPlay to a mid-range turntable. I preferred the turntable. That wasn't the answer they wanted.

 

[tonerei]

http://www.audiostream.com/content/jplaythrax-audio One mans arse is another mans elbow but suppose it all depends which way the wind is blowing so to speak.

Edun I see you have a cyrus transport. I had a cd8se and psx-r and really liked it. When I got the jkdac32 and used it wtih one laptop using jplay found I liked both equally they were very close. I personally think cyrus cdps' are underrated especially the new se engine.

Sold the cyrus when I went to streaming from laptop to laptop using xstream engine at the time in whatever version of jplay was out at the time. Sound was marginally better but it was so much easier playing music/searching for stuff. No more getting up and down out of the seat.

There was still issues with slow response from jplay at that time. The new release using Ultrastream engine overcame any of these response time issues. Pause/start/stop is more or less instant.

The jriver people have attacked jplay as a hoax program. Very unusual way to do business and you can make of that what you wish.

Read lots of the threads but I just saw it as product thrashing so ignored and got on with normal forum browsing.

amarra is another engine liked by lots of people but definitely the tweakers prefer jplay.

Not sure if you have heard of windows core server and windows to go on usb stick. Dedicatied pc with minimalist operating system on usb stick. Check the jplay site for the windows script and instructions if you have the inclination.You can download trial core server free.

I was sceptical about windows on a usb stick couldn't see any advantage but after hearing it compared to my setup was one over.

Actually was slow to embrace the idea of a dedicated fanless pc again until I borrowed one for a period of three weeks. Sound is just richer more harmonic deeper tone. That convinced me to go to the effort of building a pc.

This route imho is the relatively cheapest way to get to high end playback without dropping crazy money. Even going the CA route you can spend large sums on dacs. I have heard a meitner dac on a number of occasions and hugely impressed but I could never buy it(cant afford to)

 

[Maro73]

Hello Guys

No fighting , and I am reading quite closely the posts .. quite interesting , and very informative

I'll try to find some time to demo.

However , some things to point out on computer audio : I came to it for the sake of my lazy attitude on the sofa .. and not willing to move to change discs..

And my surprise was that music was almost as good .. at least blind test with some friends didn't reveal something significative ..

I'll let alone the fact that cds are sounding better or not ..

I'm into CA for the practical aspect.

Secondly , the best improvement in my home made HTPC , was the passing to a dedicated linear power supply .. and I understand that hifi is very dependant on electricty.

Then comes the operating system .. but till now I have not yet tweaked .. but a recent article in some french hifi magazine explain the memory stuf etc.. and to resume , better electricty , lighter OS , and huge RAM is what is needed ..

And I don't know whether Jpkay works , but I read that Jplay works with the RAM ..

All your opinions count , guys

Cheers

 

[tonerei]

Eh excuse moi you don't need any advice you have figured it all out yourself. You are on the right route. 3 maplin linear supplies available for less than 150 euro. You separate out the supply to the chip prefarably i7 if funds allow, then the usb key and the other supply for the mobo. I got an intel board but have heard an asus board higher spec than the intel 1155 socket and hard to believe it sounds better. After that it is the usb cables,special usb cards with power supplies check out paul pang. The dreaded dragons jplay will have their own versions shortly. I don't know if they work but hopefully people I know will buy various bits so I can check it out. The fanless case should be streacom fcwo5 whatever or my preferred option the ht=plex5 but unfortunately it has been out of stock for awhile in europe. Do all that and you are in audio heaven but of course the icing on the cake is Jplay but keep that bit quiet as it just annoys certain people.