Audirvana for Windows v. JRiver

[rn701]

Long time JRiver user, was interested in looking at the Audirvana for Windows if and when it ever materializes. Mainly for nicer, less disorganized user interface, and any other benefits.

 

Then I saw one of the new Audirvana features is display by artist? JRiver has had that for ages, plus a bunch of other ways to display the library plus custom ways.

 

What else is Audirvana missing in terms of features, like library management, ripping, tagging, format conversions, handheld sync, DSP, network server, etc.?

 

Convince me why I should try Audirvana.

[zackthedog]

If it's features you want, then Jriver is much more comprehensive.  Many of us aren't that interested in the extra stuff and prefer the sonic benefits of Audirvana.  The library feature is adequate, but I'm a drag-and-drop guy so I don't really use it.  It's easier to scan my folders than try to sort through a huge library of stuff, a lot of which is poorly tagged.  I only use Jriver to search for things I misplaced or forgot I had. ?  The only thing I can suggest is that you try it when it finally comes out and see if you prefer the sound.  You can always use Jriver as a cataloging/ripping/tagging tool.  In fact you can drag albums or files from Jriver directly into Audirvana for playback.  So it's really up to you.  If you don't hear a difference then don't bother.

[rn701]

Thanks zachthedog for the insights. Maybe I'll give it a try. 

[steveoat]

I much prefer the sound of audirvana to jriver.

JRiver has become more of a jack of all trades -- focusing more and more on video, and less on things of interest to audiophiles.  For me the inability to upsample with dsd is a deal-breaker.

JRiver is still very useful for its tagging and organizing abilities.  However, the lack of ability to upsample to dsd makes it less useful when I want to seriously listen to music.

I also forgot to mention that Audirvana allows you to upsample to dsd music from tidal and qobuz.  JRiver refuses any integration with these music sources, and is promoting streaming from radio paradise, which is not in the league of qobuz and tidal

When Jriver first started out, it allowed many integration's of 3rd party plugs ins.  However, as it became more of a sucessful product, It became much more of a closed system, and the owner takes a more "my way or the highway approach", which I don't like.

[Mike Rubin]

I just uninstalled Audirvana during my trial.  

 

Audirvana’s sound quality, even over the network, was noticeably better than JRiver’s, but it’s crazy inconvenient to manage a large library on it and the lack of virtually any management tools meant I continued to spend more time on JRiver than Aurdirvana out of necessity.  
 

I would have endured that, however, if the software weren’t so incredibly unstable and crash-prone on my Windows 10 system.  (It’s a pretty new, near-state of the art computer, with a ton of horsepower and little extra software on it, and Audirvana is the only software thus far to crash it out.). The paid android remote app also was prone to disconnects.  
 

In the end, the SQ differences weren’t important enough to make me put up with the usability issues.