Article: Let The Music Fly With J River Media Center 15

[Matias]

This article answers some of the questions I had. Thank you!!<br />

<br />

But this is Computer *AUDIOPHILE* and one question remains: how does this solution compare in SQ with a direct connection (Halide Bridge for example)?

[Bob Stern]

provides a subset of this functionality for Mac users.<br />

<br />

Airfoil allows you to transmit audio from any software player, not just iTunes. It allows remote control from a remote Apple TV or from a remote Airport Express. <br />

<br />

However, all remote clients receive the same music; it lacks the ability for different remote clients to choose different music.<br />

<br />

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Matias - The sound quality using a Halide Bridge is better than an Airport Express in any configuration in my system :~)

[sr1329]

I can't see what is so great about this other than being able to use an Airport Express with 3rd party software on PC only. You could get a Squeezebox receiver for $129 and use that with either Mac or PC and connect to a DAC via coax or optical. With iPeng/MusicIP/Trackstat it beats iTunes any day of the week and likely beats J. River as well. <br />

<br />

If you must you could go Transporter -> AES/EBU -> DAC with a word clock cable to assuage jitter concerns. <br />

<br />

If you must send audio to an iPhone you could use Squeezecast. But I don't think iPhone playing music through a dock is really an audiophile solution. It just looks cool and I suppose might only be useful if you really must show guests that stay for more than 5 days that you were able to play different music for 120 hours from an iPhone. If they notice that is. More likely they would have fainted from sleep deprivation. <br />

<br />

One other thing, there is nothing stopping one from using MediaMonkey to manage the library used by Squeezebox. <br />

<br />

But great tutorial though for those who for whatever reason choose to use this setup.

[bottlerocket]

<<It just looks cool and I suppose might only be useful if you really must show guests that stay for more than 5 days that you were able to play different music for 120 hours from an iPhone. If they notice that is. More likely they would have fainted from sleep deprivation.>><br />

<br />

What a strange comment! That is reading a lot into this review.<br />

<br />

My house guests would catch up on their sleep fast if I tried to subject them to that much Iphone music.

[mtan002]

Hi Chris<br />

<br />

I am a Windows user. Can you please add a block diagram to show what is connected to what. Then I can see how your music fly. <br />

<br />

Cheers.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi sr1329 - It appears this solution isn't for you. Thanks for providing the CA readers with your ideas and I hope you have a wonderful week.<br />

[Dennis Graves]

I have now spent quite a bit of time with both dBpoweramp and JRiver Media 15. I thought I would use dBpoweramp to rip and JRiver to play back. BUT, I have had endless problems trying to get music (CLASSICAL) organized by composer, type (eg, chamber or symphonic), etc. using JRiver. JRiver evidently will not accurately read and translate the files ripped by dBPoweramp. There are many instances where, for instance, an album will be split into two parts or a track will be missing, and there does not appear to be anyway to correct such problems. Further, one has to spend a huge amount of time trying to correct the automatic data inputed (eg, one track will show a composer by full name and another by last name). There are just so many problems working with this software that I am close to giving up on computer audio altogether. It appears to me that the only feasible way to go is to use the same program for ripping and playing. That way you at least avoid the problems of "translation" from one product to another. So, my bottom line question: do all the programs rip well enough so that I can determine the program to use by the viability of the playback functions? What about dBpoweramp for both ripping and playback?<br />

Thanks!

[The Computer Audiophile]

Dennis - Please start a discussion about this in the forum under a more appropriate topic. This article is more about JRMC and wireless audio. You are much more likely to get help by posting in the forum where your questions will be more visible to people interested in the topic.<br />

<br />

That said, I've never had an translation problems when using dBpoweramp and J River Media Center. Let's discuss in the forum :~)

[JR_Audio]

Hi Chris. A well written article about a nice feature of JRMC15 to allow at one hand Bit Perfect local sound playback and streaming different music, to different end points, but at which the sound quality of the digital out of the AirPortExpress can't compete to the quality, that JRMC can provide.<br />

<br />

@Dennis: And as Chris already told you, JRMC15 does read over 50 Tag fields, and dBpoweramp does read 5 data bases, so it is a setup thing of JRMC what fields you are using for sorting your files, and also dBpoweramp is not responsible, for mistaken contents in the Tag fields.<br />

<br />

Juergen

[winst]

Hi Chris,<br />

Is it also possible to use the apple Tv instead of Airport Express?<br />

<br />

Winston<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Winston - I was unable to get my Apple TV to work with this configuration. Maybe someone else knows a way to get it to work.

[winst]

You are a Grand kind of guy Chris<br />

Thanks for helping all of us<br />

Winst

[Audio_ELF]

First off ... while Chris is obviously a big fan of J.River Media Center, Air UPnP is nothing to do with J.River and can work with any UPnP AV server / control point setup - this could include setups such as using Linn DS, PS Audio with Bridge or Naim Uniti / NDX for the primary zone.<br />

<br />

Chris commented the Air UPnP is a free product - is this always going to be the case Chris or is it so far a Beta product?<br />

<br />

"J.River to the iPhone" configuration also doesn't need Air UPnP - this is a function of PlugPlayer.<br />

<br />

I may have missed Chris saying it, but Air UPnP is created by Illustrate (yes he said that) the creators of dbPowerAmp (thats the bit I didn't notice). They have their own Beta software thread <a href="http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?p=92949">here</a> on their own forum that maybe helpful for people. Illustrate also produce Asset a UPnP AV server and there is an Asset control point application (also Beta IIRC).<br />

<br />

To all the naysayers that are commenting this is a low (sound) quality configuration, I don't think Chris is suggesting this to rival a main system - but for a multi-zone system it would work well for lower quality zone. Analogue (or optical to cheep DAC) and onto a pair of Audio Engine (or similar) speakers would be great for bedroom or office listening for many people...<br />

<br />

Eloise

[nottlv]

Chris,<br />

<br />

How long have you been using this? Based on the Air forum thread, I'm not sure this is really a viable solution, at least for some. A few people have complained about the Bonjour/Air combo hosing their DNS after anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and Spoon (the developer) has said development of Air likely isn't going to continue. See pages 3 & 4 in the thread linked in the original post. Has anyone noticed similar errors messages in their Event Viewer logs?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi nottlv - I've been using this combination for many months without any issues.

[wawa56]

thanks for the great article! this is my first attempt at any type of music server. This website has been a great source of inspiration and knowledge. <br />

Following the article's instructions, and using J. River, I am easily able to play separate tracks in different zones with no problem. However, I'm still unable to play the same music in two zones simultaneously. The music plays in both zones but is slightly out of sync. I've attempted to use the timing slider per J. Rivers instructions with no success. Is it possible to simply play the same music throughout the house without timing issues? thanks in advance for any help/advice.

[Bergo]

I have a library of around 1600 CDs on a 1TB disc - important stuff ripped as WAV,less important as FLAC. The HD is arranged as Composer/Genre/Sub Genre/Performer/Works.<br />

So Beethoven/Chamber/String Quartets/Italian Quartet/Opus 74 etc. Works perfectly and no library import needed.<br />

HOWEVER<br />

Media Jukebox 12 loads the HD contents perfectly. <br />

Media Center 15 and MJ14 are erratic - some trees display perfectly, some partially, some not at all. Really annoying.<br />

So I am back to MJ12. Further MJ14 doesn't support ASIO - another drag.<br />

<br />

Here are the screenshots<br />

<br />

Regards to all<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Bergo - JRMC 14 & 15 both support ASIO.

[Bergo]

Chris<br />

<br />

My point is valid. MJ14 does not support ASIO.<br />

<br />

MC 14/15 do indeed support ASIO but as both screw up on the file handling (vide my previous post) for me MC is neither use nor ornament - alas.

[JR_Audio]

Bergo<br />

<br />

Even the "old" costy JRMC 12 have had ASIO Support and also the actual JRMC 15 does still fully support file handling Wave and others and further more, JRMC does also support the BWF Format (the broadcast extension of the Wave files), that read the "ID3" Tags in Wave files.<br />

<br />

I have no experience in the free JRMJ version, but if you do own so many CDs, I think you should give JRMC a try.<br />

<br />

Juergen

[Bergo]

Juergen<br />

<br />

Please read the posts.<br />

<br />

Dennis Graves posted "I have now spent quite a bit of time with both dBpoweramp and JRiver Media 15. I thought I would use dBpoweramp to rip and JRiver to play back. BUT, I have had endless problems trying to get music (CLASSICAL) organized by composer, type (eg, chamber or symphonic), etc. using JRiver. JRiver evidently will not accurately read and translate the files ripped by dBPoweramp" <br />

<br />

Dennis is right - he cannot, and nor can I, and nor could you if you had the files organised in the manner described by Dennis and also illustrated in my post. And it has nothing to do with the rip.<br />

<br />

Look at the two attachments in my original post. The MJ14 attachment shows clearly the File error problem. I loaded the trial MC15 - it behaves exactly the same as MJ14. I can load MC15 again and take a screenshot if you wish. <br />

<br />

Perhaps the people at jRiver can explain this behaviour - I sure cannot. I am perfectly happy to use MC15 - for its WASAPI support in Win 7/Vista alone - but for me, its broken. If MJ12 can get it right why cannot MC15 - the latest prestige product? <br />

<br />

So, jRiver - please fix the problem and I'm there.<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

[JR_Audio]

Maybe I got something wrong, or misunderstood some points, but let me explain, what I thought, this issue is about, and how this works for me:<br />

<br />

I am using JRMC for several years now, beginning with JRMC12, over 13, 14 and now 15. I am also a hardware designer of digital audio equipment so I am using JRMC also for sending digital audio out of the computer. I have running JRMC on several hardware and OS (XP, Vista, Win 7), to check some OS / Hardware combination. I am listening daily with JRMC and making also some use of the Tree View, when using some Wave files without any Tags, just organized in folders.<br />

<br />

So again, maybe I do misunderstood some points, but for me. JRMC works perfectly, for many years, one different OS and hardware combination.<br />

<br />

Juergen<br />

<br />

PS: Attached two screen shots, one with JRMC15 on XP, the other with JRMC15 on Vista. Win 7 looks nearly the same as on Vista, so if you like I can add this also.<br />

[Bergo]

Juergen<br />

<br />

I head up a very specialised group of instruction manual authors - clients present and past include Klipsch, Mission, Quad, Cyrus, Roksan, Audiolab, Wharfedale and so on. We also do work for one of the largest supermarkets in Europe - DVD and Blu-Ray players and all sorts of Electronic gadgetry working in 6 languages (and no, I did NOT write that Teac DAC manual!) So I am very used to having to tell Software and Hardware designers (who often think they're perfect, I'm afraid) that they are sometimes wrong! Here is a case in point.<br />

<br />

The problem with MC 15 (and 14) is that it is erratic - sometimes it works and often it doesn't. And thats no good. I will say that MC12 and MJ12 work flawlessly every time as far as reading files are concerned - so I'm not biased against MC.<br />

<br />

Here are three attachments. One shows the actual folder/files on the drive - you can see they were all ripped in one session. MJ12 reports all the files perfectly, MC15 screws up.<br />

<br />

I also had a situation where MC15 has picked one file from the middle of a list and one file only - where's the logic (pun intended) in that?<br />

<br />

Now MC 15 may work for SOME but that's not good enough - it has to work every time - in other words do what it says on the tin. Nobody, (I hope) looking at these screenshots could possibly claim that MC15 works perfectly - and blaming it on the rip won't wash.<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

[Elprior]

Hi Bergo,<br />

<br />

the only time it did this to me was when the file absolute path (including drive, folders, full name, ...) exceeded the good old 255 characters limit in Windows systems.<br />

<br />

From your pics, that does not seem to be the case, but that's the only thing I can think of.<br />

<br />

Hth,<br />

Elp