[stump4545]

I have been using itunes forever.  hesitant to switch.  itunes is just easy.

but I hear Jriver sounds better.

Is this true, and is jriver king of the hill?


thanks in advance.

[*Scotty*]

Assuming you are using an Apple machine, you should download the trial version of jRiver for Apple and do an A/B comparison and see which one sounds better. It generally agreed upon that almost any player available that will run under the Apple OS will sound better than iTunes.
Quick online search will bring up a list of alternative players to compare to Itunes.
Scotty

[ted_b]

All of the leading MAC players have free trials.  Try them in your system.  JRiver, Audirvana +, HQPlayer, Pure Music, Decibel, Bit Perfect, etc.

If you choose JRIver see here: I have two 20 minute screencast videos to get you on your way.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=121419.0

[stump4545]

I will try all.

thank you.

but does any one of these stand out by having a simple, clean, cool interface?


that is what I am looking for

[Blackmore]

If you are happy with the iTunes interface, Pure Music uses the iTunes window as your interface (even though it completely takes over the audio section)  I'm happy with Pure Music and your Apple Remote app will control the music from your phone or pad.  Don't know how it stacks up sonically, but it is very seamless and easy to use since it looks like iTunes with a blue box in the upper right quadrant for Pure Music. 

I really like the JRiver display, but you won't find it particularly easy to navigate if you have been a devout iTunes user.  You'll figure it out, but somethings will be frustrating for a moment or two until you have that "AHA" realization.

[ted_b]

The ipad remote control for JRIver is almost universally considered the best that is out there.  It is called JRemote.  It sets JRIver apart, IMHO.  It's why I spent the time to get folks set up on JRiver.  But the other players are very good, too, and each have been updated and further developed and often leap frog one another.  The competition here is fierce, and that's a good thing.

[jarcher]

I've been a long time user on a Mac mini of iTunes with Pure Music player on top and the free Remote program on iPhone & iPad as remote control. Nonetheless I have to say that Jriver 20 with Jremote is probably the better value, the most responsive & stable, supports the greatest amount of formats natively (e.g. FLAC and DSD which iTunes doesn't natively), and for DSD at least is better sounding than Pure Music. I still prefer sound-wise what Pure Music does for PCM files more than Jriver, but recognize that it might be just be flavoring the sound more in a way I prefer and that Jriver might be more "accurate / neutral". And if I were using only a windows machine and didn't have access to Pure Music (Mac only) then Jriver would be the immediate choice vs iTunes.