The sound out of jplay 6 is astonishing

Googled jPlay and then read the blogs debating its worth. If you hear it, then you hear it, but there is a claim made by jPlay that is an impressive sounding straw man that attacks a problem that does not exist.

The argument is that Windows is not a real-time system, and jPlay modifies the behavior of Windows to make it approach real-time performance. I worked in real-time operating systems, and I understand the lingo and arguments that jPlay asserts, but a reasonably recent Windows laptop should be staggering overkill for delivering a quality, bit-perfect data stream to a DAC in a timely matter.

The human mind is susceptible to assertions presented as stories. JPlay has a nice one, but reality seems to differ. True, I haven't heard jPlay, but it seems to address a well-constructed problem that actually isn't.

At the point that jPlay claims to improve the data stream, you can quantify the difference. I could not find a single example of a documented difference. As a player it may be terrific, but some of their reasons for 'better' seem iffy.

Ive toggled and toggled back and forth. I have it, gladly pay for it - but do not use it. I just don't hear the improvement. If you put a quarter on my preamp, I'll tell you if its heads or tails, but I can't hear this.

"If you put a quarter on my preamp, I'll tell you if its heads or tails, but I can't hear this."

That's winning use of hyperbole!

Depends on how you set things up, jplaymini is the player. But I use foobar -> 64bit aaio -> jplay. I don't use the streaming features.

You can use asio bridge for apps that doesn't support it. I use MPC-BE -> wasapi asio bridge -> jplay for video.

The difference at this point in windows should be instantly noticeable. Assuming you got a 5k+ audio setup of course.

Had you tried previous versions and this one blowed you away more than earlier ones?

I ask because I tried it in my system and couldn't hear a big difference, despite me wanting to. Might try it again.

For the record, my system is a very much optimized PC running WS2012R2 with Audiophile Optimizer and JRiver. The optimized (hardware) server made a big difference vs the previous laptop running JRiver. Running WS2012 in core mode made a big difference. The Optimizer made a huge difference. JPlay, even running from JPlaymini in the mode that blocks you out of the PC, etc, etc, made a marginal improvement. Not worth the hassle at the time.

But JPlay is still on my future list to try. Been chasing other shinny stuff though.

So the question whether you tried previous versions is very relevant to me.