JPlay - a Player for Windows

[Marcin_gps]

Hi Priaptor,

 

And what is that message?

 

[kyrill]

My main objection to digital compared to analogue LPs has fully disappeared. I had already chosen for digital since 2003 because of my wonderful DEQX digital preamp as it makes practically any good diver sound as a much better wide band driver with no taken for granted distortion because of the irregularities in phase and freq response of driver and of (expensive) multi-band cross-overs. Still I could hear my Lp's on my Well Tempered turntable with Spectral MC sounded more full, organic, with more micro details space and naturalness as the DEQX is a full digital preamp feeding my modded Jadis tube amps.

Then JKenny's USB/SPDIF converter made a BIG difference it killed practically the digital gremlins, but The Lp's still sounded better, but with no practical consequences. The Jplay and that is the indispensable application at the source. You know the saying garbage IN garbage OUT? It does not matter at all really how good your setup is. But the more better your setup is, the more indispensable JPlay becomes.

 

The new V4 version is seduction by itself, especially now with the ease of Foobar. Remember to have a superb spdif cable, at least ( for DIY) a Furutech FX-?-Ag quality. I do not use a USB cable as Kenny's device fits direct on the USB out of my laptop

 

[Priaptor]

You guys just sent me an email as that refers to the fact that error occurs with a NAS which I am indeed using.

 

I am going to try my "test" computer with files on the same computer drive and some of the settings changes you guys have recommended and see where that leaves me.

 

 

 

[DM]

When will JPlay support JMRC?

 

I don't use iTune for obvious reason (sound quality), also I don't use foobar (horrible interface)...

 

[Marcin_gps]

DM, you miss the point... itunes or foobar are not used for playback - only interface works and jplay takes over the output, so it doesn't matter how itunes sounds in this case

 

[firedog]

DM-

 

If you are interested, look on the Net for Foobar interfaces. Hundreds are available for free. With about an hour of work loading some plugins and some set up, you can have an interface that looks cool and meets your individual user interface requirements.

 

I attached one that I use often. It displays file/song info, album art, and highlights what's in the playlist. It also has a great search function. In the attached example, I wanted to listen to "Dark Side of the Moon", so I quickly typed in "pink floyd" and the search took me right to it. I like this interface b/c it's simple and easy to use, yet provides me with the info I want when listening. Better yet, I can adjust it or change it whenever I want.

 

There are other GUIs available that look amazing - with highly aritisic themes and not utilitarian like the one in my attachment. (some even imitate the iTunes interface). Foobar with a GUI you like and Jplay go very well together.

 

[johniboy]

Very interesting piece of software, indeed. And it gets pretty close to what I am envisioning as best solution: very god user interface and best possible SQ.

 

No idea whether it is possible but could you envision a system comprising of 2 computers, one for managing the music database and having the user interface and one which is responsible for the playing the music.

 

The first computer could be positioned in a basement and connected to a network router. The hardware can be standard and you could use normal HDDs. The software could be something similar to J.River, which in my opinion has a fantastic user interface and music management system. You could select the music you want to play via phone or tablet and hit enter. Then the required information would be transferred to a second computer that runs something like JPlay. No interface, best SQ. The hardware could be tweaked for best sound, a fanless setup that could be located at your hifi rig.

 

What do you think? Technically possible?

 

[Marcin_gps]

Hi johniboy,

 

Thanks for the compliments

Why use second PC when you can control it with tablet or smartphone already? But I think I understand what you're proposing: client-server? In that case the future looks bright with W8 and tablets. It's possible we might take a look at it, but it's not sth definite at this point.

 

Regards,

Marcin

 

[firedog]

Johniboy-

 

Sure it's possible.

 

http://www.salkstream.com/

 

or the Sonore people can certainly set you up with something like that if you ask.

 

The above both run Vortexbox (Linux). But no reason you can't set up a "player" with Windows and Jplay in a setup like this if you want.

 

[johniboy]

this setup is exactly what I was thinking of. client - server. the client can be extremely slim with a clean connection to the dac (either via usb or spdif) while the server would do the "number crunching". the server would run jriver, the client Jplay. the best of both worlds. :-)

 

[Marcin_gps]

That's should be the other way around Client should be used for controlling playback only and server should take care of playback only (no gui, no music management, only playback engine that'd receive commands from the client)

 

[johniboy]

now i know where you are going. had to read your post a couple of times to get it... not a bad idea once windows 8 tablets come out (next year!).

 

i was thinking about a somewhat different route.

 

1. server: hdds with all the music + a software for the library management similar to what jriver does. this will be a pretty "messy" machine with all the hard disks, processor intensive tasks.

 

2. client: small computer without any moving parts. clean power. usb or spdif out to the dac.

 

3. controller: tablet to control the server, select a song or album, which is then sent to the client for playback.

 

I have this setup with jriver running on the server and on the client. my controller runs gizmo. but actually it would be much nicer if the client would not need jriver but could run jplay instead. this setup is similar to a NAS - player setup with the exception that the NAS runs a full blown operating system and allows to run a decent library management software with a great ui.

 

[Marcin_gps]

And how would you send data (music) to a DAC?

I don't think that's possible...

 

[johniboy]

the server sends the data to the client via network. the client has a player software that outputs to an internal soundcard or to an external dac? again, this is my setup already working with jriver running on server and client. i just wish the client side server could be a bit more like jplay...

 

[Marcin_gps]

But from where do you control playback?

 

[johniboy]

i control the playback via android phone (or tablet) using the gizmo app which controls jriver on the server. the server sends the required data to the client. see here: http://www.jriver.com/thenet.html

 

i know, it sounds a bit complicated but its not that bad. and it enables me to have the actual data far away from the hifi equipment.

 

have also a look here: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Server

maybe it explains it a bit better.

 

[Marcin_gps]

But I don't see any advantages here as you have JRMC on both PCs Both computers must run the same version and build of Media Center and this provides on-demand streaming of files from a server to a client.

 

Realtime streaming is against our philosophy as from our point of view it can't provide good results (high latencies). Mind you that jplay pre-loads complete playlist into RAM guaranteeing zero disk I/O during music reproduction.

 

[kodric]

Hi Marcin,

 

I would like to ask you in what way will the connection/communication between the PC and tablet change with Win 8? At the moment (with Win 7), one can use a tablet for a remote control of a PC via remote desktop protocol. The other option is webcontrol of certain applications like JRMC. What are the options under Win 8?

 

Thank you.

 

Bye, Borut.

 

[johniboy]

and that is why i would like to have a client-server software that is better than jriver! you can put as much buffer in the system as you like. this should take care of the latency issues. at the end of the day, this would very similar to the linn ds system with the exception that i could optimize the hardware at will.

you see no advantage? i think there is a huge advantage to have all the dirty stuff: hdds, music management, etc far away from the dac. this setup: server -> client -> dac is equal: dirty -> cleaner -> very clean. in this setup the client could even be a small ARM based computer with minimalistic OSS.

 

[DM]

>itunes or foobar are not used for playback - only interface works

 

agree with you, what I meant was:

 

1. Didn't use iTune because it doesn't sound any good, and I am not going to start using it now just because jPlay support it, as I have already set all my music library based on JMRC.

 

If JPlay existed at day one, then I will choose iTune over JMRC and stick with iTune.

 

2. Foobar's interface is a joke and hence not attractive to me at all.

 

Any timeframe for JMRC support?

 

Many thanks.

 

[p_hsieh]

Hi Firedog,

 

I am using Jplay and loving it. I know how to use it to play files stored on my NAS server.

 

I am curious, are you able to use Jplay to play music on your Vortexbox? If so, could you elaborate a bit how this is done as I have no experience with Linux nor Vortexbox.

 

If so, that will be great! Because I will then be able to run my convolution filter generated by Audiolense on the Vortexbox server in my tiny server room, and use Jplay in my other dedicated PC in the media room.

 

Thank you!

 

Peter

 

 

[cpalcott]

Considering trying jplay on a 2010 mac mini using bootcamp windows 7 64 bit. With the itunes integration and using apple remote, are you able to use play/smartlists and skip tracks from the remote ap?

 

[Musiq]

to this one I can answer, this is how I use it. So, the answer is yes. You can either skip, go back, pause, play, access to any list/search criteria that are available through regular remote features.

 

[firedog]

No, it's for Windows and I can play files on my Windows computer.

 

I also don't know how you are going to use the Audiolense on Vortexbox. I haven't found any DSP software solutions for Vortexbox. At least not something that doesn't involve massive hacking. And the Audiolense solution needs a computer running a chip with at least 2.O speed. Most Vortexbox solutions aren't powerful enough to run the DSP.

 

In fact, even for a MAC there aren't a lot of possibilities in terms of the software.

 

[p_hsieh]

Thanks Firedog,

 

sorry I didn't make myself clear last time. What I meant was:

 

install Brutefir on Vortexbox to process convolution filter generated by Audiolense. on a second PC, run Jplay, to access, through LAN, Vortexbox server which is the first PC.

 

is that possible? thanks.

 

Peter