Article: Roon Vs. JRiver | Clash of the Titans

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

What a superb review,thanks. For all the reasons presented, compared and contrasted, I will be staying with MC (JRMC).

I have been a longterm fan of JRiver but also outspoken critic at times.

 

It comes with massive configurability which is superb especially if you get into the back-end coding.Its not that hard and JRiver folks on the Interact forum have literal wizards ever willing to help you.There is of course lots of configurabilty without having to use code. IMO however it lends itself more to folks inclined to fiddle with computers which leads to my next point.

 

Intuitive user friendliness IMO has always been an issue, improving steadily with each new iteration. As a HTPC (plus music player) it has always failed in my household as my wife and daughter just can't be bothered with it. Kodi is far easier, Roku easier still and Samsung Smart TV etc also just easier which brings me to my next point.

 

I have said if JRMC could produce a dedicated hardware remote control they would rock. It would make navigating around much easier than web interfaces or mobile devices or air mouse controls.

 

Still, I love JRMC. Although historically getting off to a slow start with audiophiles back in the old days they have listened and responded to the wishes of their customers. I may have missed it but when you did the listening comparisons did you employ the memory playback feature in JRMC? It was requested and provided some years back and does seem to make a difference. I won't even go into why that might be. For those that haven't tried it, its free to give it a go.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

5 hours ago, bluesman said:

Thanks so much for the kind words!  I never tried memory playback, based initially on JRiver's statement that they are "... unaware of any test that shows a sound quality advantage to memory playback".  When it was only 32 bit, JRMC couldn't put more than a gig in memory and reportedly stopped playing when the file reached its truncated end.  Now that it's 64 bit, more memory is usable - but it's still not able to process and cache large, hi res files.  It has a theoretical advantage if your network carries a lot of traffic alongside your audio, but mine does not.  Here's a current thread on Interact about memory playback that has some interesting and useful detail.  For those who haven't seen it, memory playback is in the audio options under the tools menu. 

 

Best regards for low noise and distortion in the new year! 😀

 

David

 

Hi David,

thanks I'll have a look at the link.

I do play hirez large files frequently and only rarely get an issue with buffering using memory playback.Typically on initial start up and then it plays fine for all subsequent songs.

Yes I am aware of JR policy statement. Many years ago I collected many of those stars alongside my name at Interact and witnessed similar S/O arguments to here at AS.I think Jim eventually softened and figured it was better to give customers what they wanted even if they didn't believe in its premise.

Anyway, its free to try, and would be interested to see if you thought it made a difference.

All the best and thanks again for a stellar and comprehensive review.

Cheers and Happy New Year

David