Article: JRiver Mac vs JRiver Windows Sound Quality Comparison

[mitchco]

This test is flawed, you just route the digital stream out and back and save it in the software, the software recorder does not care about jitter, but in actual DA process, where the analog sound is actually forming, does.

 

A better test would be recording the actual analog output with a high res recorder.

 

No, the test is not flawed. Please re-read carefully the section, "Test Configuration and Recording Process".

 

Recording the actual analog output would bring the converter's digital to analog conversion and analog output section into the test loop. That was not the purpose of this article.

[koblongata]

No, the test is not flawed. Please re-read carefully the section, "Test Configuration and Recording Process".

 

Recording the actual analog output would bring the converter's digital to analog conversion and analog output section into the test loop. That was not the purpose of this article.

 

So the ultimate goal of this article is to prove JRiver Mac and JRiver Windows have exactly the same audio quality because bits are bits, right?

[tranz]

Nice work Mitcho.

 

Two thoughts:

 

1. It would be interesting to see whether the inverted output of another bit perfect software like Amarra, Foobar, XXHighEnd, Audivarna or iTunes would null out with the JRiver wav files with all settings the same.

 

2. In the end though it is the wav form coming out of the DAC output when using the various software programs (or even hardware and power supply differences, cache and integer modes) that will tell you whether it sounds different. That is where all the ground plane noise effect, jitter effect, receiver chip noise shows up.

 

Cheers

[Croweproductions]

Windows version of JRiver sounds way better on my system than Mac version. (running Windows XP Parallels on my Macbook Pro as a direct comparison).

 

Also, Pure Music (which I've owned for 3 years) doesn't sound as good as JRiver.

 

You can't compare sound quality of the digital domain without comparing the Digital to Analogue interactions. It's a valid way of checking if something is bit perfect, just don't call it a "sound quality comparison".