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Hello I was having problems with my system It was working great at one time sounded great. It consist of a Bryston 3b Peachtree Pre and a pair of Audio Physic speakers and a sony laptop. I was using foobar and started to get noise so I thought it was the Sony so I bought a Mac. I'm 55 years old an computer eliterate. So far I have tried to download Jriver and bought it can't get my money back them moved on to Amarra can't figure it out. Is there anything out there that is simple to install that will play my high rez through the Mac? Thanks Dan in Ont Canada, and I would be willing to pay someone.

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Hello Dan from Ontario! Sorry to hear about the issues you are having. Have you tried posting about the issues you are having with JRIVER working on your system on the JRIVER forum? They are usually pretty good at helping folks get up and running.

 

Their forum is located here.

 

Or if you post more details on how your system is setup, including where you music is stored ( is it on the Mac?) someone here should be able to assist.

Silver Circle Audio | Roon | Devialet | Synology | Vivid Audio | Stillpoint Aperture | Auralic | DH Labs

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Not sure there is a royal road to the learning required here, so my advice is based on my experience only.

 

My advice-stick with JRiver and commit to learning it for two weeks. Its intuitiveness is a bit lacking, which extends the learning curve, but the feature/functionality is rich and shows its value to those that get serious with it. I started with WMC. Then Foobar, then I realized the computer audio will never be easy (like vinyl, a cassette, or a CD), so I bit the bullet with JRiver and stuck with it. Happy I did so because I find it more effective to study one program deeply than browse several. Hope that helps?

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Certainly try to persevere with JRiver. I'm surprised that you found it more difficult to set up and use than Foobar2000, which is notriously klunky.

 

What I do find odd is that you didn't just replace your faulty Sony laptop, with another Windows machine. That way you could have carried on using Foobar2000, which you seemed to be happy with.

We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.

-- Jo Cox

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...or you can always get somebody help you setup the Mac as a Windows machine (boot camp), and go back to what you're used to.

 

The bootcamp setup is very straightforward; even if you are unable to complete this yourself I hope you could find a more literate friend or colleague to help. Once it's done, the Mac behaves just like your old Sony Windows....

Grimm Mu-1 > Mola Mola Makua/DAC > Luxman m900u > Vivid Audio Kaya 90

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Hello I was having problems with my system It was working great at one time sounded great. It consist of a Bryston 3b Peachtree Pre and a pair of Audio Physic speakers and a sony laptop. I was using foobar and started to get noise so I thought it was the Sony so I bought a Mac. I'm 55 years old an computer eliterate. So far I have tried to download Jriver and bought it can't get my money back them moved on to Amarra can't figure it out. Is there anything out there that is simple to install that will play my high rez through the Mac? Thanks Dan in Ont Canada, and I would be willing to pay someone.

 

 

First of all, do you know for sure that everything is working properly? My first step would be to ascertain that you can get audio from your Mac to your speakers. I'd launch iTunes (forget JRiver for the time being) and find an Internet radio station. If you can get that to play through your speakers (I'm assuming that you have a wide-band Internet connection; either Cable Modem or ADSL), then you know that hardware-wise, everything is working properly. Then you can launch JRiver and go through that program with the help of the JRiver tutorial

 

Getting Started - JRiverWiki

 

There are also a number of YouTube tutorials on-line for JRiver Media Center. Google to find them.

 

Be patient and give it plenty of time. JRiver has probably the most complex and unintuitive GUI of any program I've seen. Therefore the learning curve is really steep. But hang in there, you'll figure it out. But you'll never figure anything out until you ascertain where the problem is. If your hookup is not feeding audio from your computer to your speakers, messing with applications 'till the cows come home won't yield any music - irrespective of what application or computer platforms you try to employ>

 

Hope this helps you some.

George

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Hi Danco,

 

Some good advice above . There are lots of ways to playback audio from a computer and I suggest you also check out the following web sites for a brief but insightful look at how digital audio works and and how to set up your computer.

 

Computer Audio

 

The Well-Tempered Computer

 

If you are using a MAC and not very computer literate I would start with the simplest and easiest software, which has plenty of support, and that is iTunes. It is bit perfect on a MAC and also free. I produced the following guide for friends so have a read as it maybe of assistance if you decide to go that path.

 

STORING YOUR MUSIC

 

If you decide to use an external hard drive, and you are using a USB connected DAC, many at CA believe that it is best to connect via the thunderbolt output using a USB connector. i.e. don't connect your DAC and hard drive using the same USB system. The reason why can be found in many threads on CA but it is to do with interference from the spinning disc.

 

Connect the 2TB external hard drive and make a folder called MUSIC and then Open iTunes and then in iTunes Menu > Preferences > Advanced Preferences > Change ... nominate the folder marked MUSIC and then un-click “Copy files to iTunes Media Library" …. need to do this otherwise your music will fill up your internal hard drive instead of just making the links to where any new ripped CD's now preside.

 

When adding Music from downloads or other sources via the finder simply add files to the "Automatically Add to iTunes". When adding using iTunes use the add to library under the File Menu.

 

Transfer your existing music files, located in the old iTunes Media folder, to the new external MUSIC folder using iTunes > Export Library. Alternatively simply copy the actual files across and then delete the old links and the old files from within iTunes (but only after you have moved them all safely). Then click on File > Add to Library > MUSIC ... note you will only be adding the "links" to your music, not the actual files.

 

RIPPING CDS

 

It is imperative when copying (ripping) your CDs that you make an exact copy and don't loose any data. You do this by selecting lossless quality via the menu - iTunes > Preferences > General Preferences > Import Settings > AIFF > Automatic > and click on "error correction' tab.. this is really important to ensure a bit perfect copy.

 

Should you wish to play your music on your iPhone then iTunes allows you to reduce the file size to about 20% of the original size by simply connecting the iDevice to iTunes and on the front page select 256kb. The sound will still be more than acceptable for travelling and in ear listening but remember to ALWAYS choose AIFF (or Apple Lossless) with error correction on to make your original copy.

 

HOW TO VIEW YOUR MUSIC

 

This is obviously subject to personal preference, however, there is certain information that helps you conveniently play your music and maintain your music database.

 

Inside iTunes firstly click on the "Music" tab at the top / LHS followed by the "Playlists" tab at the top / middle of your iTunes screen. Firstly set up an overview of all your music by selecting View and ensuring the column browser is open. Then check on Genre, Groupings, Artists, Albums. This will set up how the top of your iTunes screen will appear.

 

Secondly, choose the information you want to see with regard to individual songs by placing your mouse's arrow on the heading half way down the screen (above the songs) and then right click and check the following items and un tick the others. Rearrange their order by dragging and dropping so that you have the following column headings:

 

TRACK # NAME ALBUM ARTIST YEAR TIME BIT RATE SAMPLE RATE GROUPING

 

You can choose other headings as you become more familiar with what it is that you as an individual feels important.

 

Thirdly, select a song you like and right click and check "get info” and then select the RHS tag File, which will show you the quality of the file - i.e. whether it is compressed (AAC or mp3 e.g. 320kps or 256kps etc) or CD quality (16 bit with 44.1khz sampling rate) or hi-res being (24 bit with either, 44.1k, 48k, 96k or 192k sampling rate). Note that the info I deem to be important is already selected in my column headings above, however, bit size (16 or 24) is not available and you need to use "get info" to determine this.

 

GROUPING YOUR MUSIC FOR SPECIAL OCCASSIONS

 

You can better control how you listen to your music by creating "Smart Playlists", by grouping together similar types of music for different occasions e.g. Blues, Cruising, Party, Relaxing, etc. IMO the easiest and best way to do this is by using “Grouping” as the variable to be changed.

 

Click on the + sign at the bottom / LHS of the iTunes screen and selected New Smart Playlist. Click on Artists and then select Grouping and then the rule "is" and then in the RH box put the name of the type of music. Use the same name as the title of the Smart Playlist.

 

You can then group certain songs that correspond to this name using either "get info" or by simply typing into the grouping column in your song view of iTunes.

 

iTunes speeds up this process by guessing the name as you start typing so it makes sense to choose a different first letter for your playlists to avoid having to type the whole name.

 

Your various playlists will appear in two different locations - in the LHS sidebar and under the "Grouping" column in the overview at the top of the screen.

 

PLAYING HI-RES MUSIC (24/96 AND ABOVE)

 

Should you wish to play "bit perfect" hi res music files with different sample rates you will need to either manually change in the Audio Midi application or purchase a specialist audio player such as Audirvana, which will not only provide better quality playback it will also automatically changing the sample rate. You can set it up so that it uses iTunes continues as the database and it simply operates as the player.

 

Audirvana Plus | The Sound of your Dreams

 

Before posting again please read the web sites linked above and have a play with iTunes.

 

Good Luck

 

 

Ajax

LOUNGE: Mac Mini - Audirvana - Devialet 200 - ATOHM GT1 Speakers

OFFICE : Mac Mini - Audirvana - Benchmark DAC1HDR - ADAM A7 Active Monitors

TRAVEL : MacBook Air - Dragonfly V1.2 DAC - Sennheiser HD 650

BEACH : iPhone 6 - HRT iStreamer DAC - Akimate Micro + powered speakers

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Apologies .... here is the other "link", which will help with your understanding of CA

 

Computer Audio

LOUNGE: Mac Mini - Audirvana - Devialet 200 - ATOHM GT1 Speakers

OFFICE : Mac Mini - Audirvana - Benchmark DAC1HDR - ADAM A7 Active Monitors

TRAVEL : MacBook Air - Dragonfly V1.2 DAC - Sennheiser HD 650

BEACH : iPhone 6 - HRT iStreamer DAC - Akimate Micro + powered speakers

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If you bought jriver for Windows I don't think it is transferable to a Mac. Thinking they are different programs. I would try the Sony again. Make sure you have the driver for your Peachtree installed. I think you just need to go through it slowly. First where are you storing your music ? What are you playing it through ? These need to be set up. Also are you playing just 2 channel's. These type of things jriver needs to know. Think of it like a book library and you are the librarian. And someone asks you where a certain book is. Don't get caught up in the jargon and don't be afraid to ask questions even step by step.

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If you bought jriver for Windows I don't think it is transferable to a Mac. Thinking they are different programs.

 

 

You are correct, it's not "transferable". At one point in the development of OS X, Apple had the option to design their new OS so that it would automatically and seamlessly run Windows applications. They had even given the feature a code-name: "Yellowbox". But in the end, they decided not to incorporate it. I think I can understand why.

 

OTOH, there is a version of JRiver Media Player for the Mac, but while it can read a Windows version's music library (and vice-versa), the programs themselves are not cross-platform compatible. If you have both platforms, you have to buy two versions of JRiver.

George

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Thanks for all your advice, the main thing is to be patient I think, So far today I have the Mac working with itunes and coming through the speakers but still have the crackell but after a song and a half it all quit? reset the settings for the peachtree to the internal speaker of the Mac and have Music. A couple of weeks ago I sent the peachtree to a Peachtree dealer in Toronto and they said it was fine.

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