problems with JRiver on Mac (with iFi Nano)

[mike1127]

I have been using foobar2000 on Windows. My DAC is an iFi Nano.

 

I just bought a MacBook Pro. As foobar is not available for OS X, I tried Clementine and JRiver.

 

First let me point out that the tonal balance of the iFi Nano seems to change a lot with the laptop. For a long time I used it with a USB 2.0 output on a Windows 7 laptop, and it was pretty good. Then recently I got a new Windows laptop that has USB 3.0 outputs, and the Nano was considerably brighter. It didn't sound bad, however, just brighter than I was used to (and brighter than most DACs I've tried). Then I tried several other Windows laptops and in some cases the Nano was MUCH brighter and sounded harsh and fatiguing.

 

So I don't know why it varies so much.

 

Anyway I was told by iFi that Macs have better audio performance, all else being equal, so I was eager to try the Nano with mine. First I ran JRiver. To my astonishment it was hugely bright and fatiguing. The most extreme of any laptop I've tried.

 

Then I tried Clementine. Sounded good!

 

Any idea what's going on? I don't have much understanding of Mac audio settings. In fact there don't seem to BE many settings compared to Windows.

 

I wanted to switch my entire system over to the Macbook so it would helpful to have a good media player for it. If I can't solve this JRiver problem, what else can I use?

 

Also, I wonder if the iFi Nano is the problem here. I mean that it is so sensitive to the hardware, in a way that should probably not be happening for a good DAC.

 

Thanks.