[ebag4]

I have been running Audirvana for a while now, however I am getting tired of the lack of user interface.  I decided to try JRiver 20 on my battery powered Mac.  It sounded good and the Gizmo interface is fantastic.  The issue was that JRiver didn't sound as good as Audirvana.  I noted that I was unable to run JRiver in Integer mode due to the version of OSX I was running, so I upgraded to Yosemite.  I am now able to run JRiver in Integer mode however it still doesn't sound quite as good as Audirvana which is a bit more dynamic and has a little bit more detail.  My question is, what settings should I be looking at in JRiver?  I am using the default settings for the player although I have played with DSDx2 and upsampling everything to DSD.

I don't want to overstate the difference between the two programs, they both sound very good, however there is a noticeable difference in my system where JRiver sounds a little more rolled off, not quite as detailed.

I am running my Mac Mini into a Auralic Vega via a Totaldac USB cable.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

Best,
Ed

[Atlplasma]

Do upsample your files or play them natively. If natively, you might experiment with upsampling. I play every at 2X DSD.

[Voncarlos]

I have been running Audirvana for a while now, however I am getting tired of the lack of user interface.  I decided to try JRiver 20 on my battery powered Mac.  It sounded good and the Gizmo interface is fantastic.  The issue was that JRiver didn't sound as good as Audirvana.

I don't want to overstate the difference between the two programs, they both sound very good, however there is a noticeable difference in my system where JRiver sounds a little more rolled off, not quite as detailed.

Hey ebag4,
I know this isn't answering your question, but I tried JRiver and Amarra HiFi side by side and on my system Amarra HiFi was noticeable better sounding.
I realize this is subjective with each different system, just thought I'd mention it.

[FloridaBear]

Hey ebag4,
I know this isn't answering your question, but I tried JRiver and Amarra HiFi side by side and on my system Amarra HiFi was noticeable better sounding.
I realize this is subjective with each different system, just thought I'd mention it.

So somehow, they are not delivering the same bitstream? Was this an ABX test? I'm really trying to understand how two digital players can sound different...

[FloridaBear]

I have been running Audirvana for a while now, however I am getting tired of the lack of user interface.  I decided to try JRiver 20 on my battery powered Mac.  It sounded good and the Gizmo interface is fantastic.  The issue was that JRiver didn't sound as good as Audirvana.  I noted that I was unable to run JRiver in Integer mode due to the version of OSX I was running, so I upgraded to Yosemite.  I am now able to run JRiver in Integer mode however it still doesn't sound quite as good as Audirvana which is a bit more dynamic and has a little bit more detail.  My question is, what settings should I be looking at in JRiver?  I am using the default settings for the player although I have played with DSDx2 and upsampling everything to DSD.

I don't want to overstate the difference between the two programs, they both sound very good, however there is a noticeable difference in my system where JRiver sounds a little more rolled off, not quite as detailed.

Again, what is the explanation for the apparent DSP that is happening here and rolling off the high end? How can they deliver different bitstreams to the hardware?

[*Scotty*]

FloridaBear, if you are running Windows you might download jRiver 19 and compare it to jRiver 20. Also available are XBMC,foobar, Ulilith, and PlayPcmWin. They all sound different from one another and jRiver swears that all versions of jRiver are bit perfect and in fact no bit perfect player should ever sound different from another which is also bit perfect.
Scotty

[AKLegal]

J River 18, 19, 20 and Foobar 2000 all sound exactly the same on my system.  Changing DSP options within those programs, up sampling etc does produce a difference though.