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JRiver vs Foobar - which do you prefer and why?

I have both programs installed on my office computer system and found that JRiver worked and sounded slightly better to me than similar vintage version of Foobar.  Operation and features were also superior at the time.  I have since upgraded to latest version of JRiver (21.0.23) and have ceased using Foobar at all.  I recently did a rough AB comparison with a friend on his fairly resolving system with two computers running the same music files but using the different playback programs, and the JRiver version sounded better (more detail in the treble and midrange, better spatial information, more interesting and involving overall).  Not dramatic or in your face differences, but reproducible.  There could be other confounding issues, but I thought this result was interesting.

Has anybody done a thorough recent comparison of the two playback programs on a PC within the last year, and if so, what was your experience?  I did a quick search on Agon forum, but did not turn up anything useful in terms of comparison.  Would also appreciate info on link to post here that covers this topic, or review/comparison elsewhere on the Internet.  Found some opinions on a broad Internet search, but not comparing the latest iterations of the software.

Thanks,

kn
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bsme85
151 posts
 
Foobar and Jriver sound same to me. I use JRiver 19 because I payed for it and is far less labor intensive than Foobar--it's really a beautiful application.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
Historically, the older programs did not always play FLAC files equally.  I did a comparison years ago and found JRiver was highly superior to a couple other.  I think one was Media Monkey, which sounded worse than JRiver.  If you play FLAC, there is a certain amount of overhear in processing when decoding the FLAC file into actual WAVE bit form.  JRiver does an excellent job of pre-processing this information before it's sent to the audio interface drivers.  JRiver just does an excellent job in playing and processing audio files in general (with all the DSP you can add).  I'm sure there are a few other software that are good as well.
bsme85
151 posts
 
Enjoy the music
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knownothing OP
1,579 posts
 
Thanks for the input everyone.  I have been buying and ripping files in AIFF format vs FLAC since doing some research on Sound quality, including advice from Empirical Audio website, and in order to be have files easily compatible across Mac and PC platforms, although the last issue is perhaps an anachronism with sophisticated programs like JRiver and Amarra.  Still using JRiver, up to version 22 now.  I use it on a laptop that sees 3 different DACs, and the software adjusts well to each one, but wondering if there are some custom settings that could maximize performance in each case that I am missing.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Another positive fact for JRiver:

The latest Diana Krall hi-res album (Turn Up The Quiet) appears to have been engineered a little differently.  Both the 192 FLAC and DSD have had problems playing on Oppo 103/105 players.  When the Oppo reads the FLAC or DSD data, there appears to be an issue with timing because the audio constantly skips (like once per second).

When I am using JRiver to play this latest Diana Krall file locally on my DAC (attached to my computer), it does it just fine. 

I use JRiver 22 as a DLNA server for my FLAC files. The Oppo "reads" the FLAC files over the network.  When it's reading the "original" file data, it skips.  However, I can set the JRiver DLNA server "Audio Mode" to "Specified output format only when necessary".  In this mode, JRiver will decode the FLAC and send it down as strictly a WAV file.  In this mode, the Oppo will play the 192 file just fine.

This is just another element which shows JRiver is highly configurable to support any sort of environment or quirk.  I'm sure other software are good, but I haven't reviewed.  (JPlay, etc.)

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