The sound out of jplay 6 is astonishing

I had been using Jriver on my Zuma computer for a year. A few weeks ago I switched to JPlay v6/Jplay streamer, with minimserver, using bubbleupnp as the control point. That combo is blocks ahead of Jriver in terms of sound quality -- I agree with Coli completely. The folks at JPlay have taken quite a bit of flack from those who contest its technical description -- I'm not qualified to add or subtract anything from that discussion. But it is free to audition, and well worth the effort to do so, IMHO. -- David

The magic bullet seems to be an optimized machine like CAPS running Windows Server 2012 with latest beta AO, Jplay 6 and throw in the latest Fidelizer as well. My friend just recently updated and those who have heard his system claims it's the best digital sound they have heard. I run a dual server setup and am quite happy with the sound I am getting now so I am holding off the updates for a bit.

While I am strong advocate for this kind of setup, this definitely isn't for novices. It requires just as much finicking and tweaking as a good turntable setup to get best sound.

I actually think the problem is my DAC being sensitive to input jitter, so if your DAC handle crappy input better, then jplay would not be needed.

I'll be getting a different DAC in a month time so I will find out...

Also going to be trying out AES vs the USB that I'm using right now.

05-14-15: Hew
The magic bullet seems to be an optimized machine like CAPS running Windows Server 2012 with latest beta AO, Jplay 6 and throw in the latest Fidelizer as well. My friend just recently updated and those who have heard his system claims it's the best digital sound they have heard. I run a dual server setup and am quite happy with the sound I am getting now so I am holding off the updates for a bit.

Hew

Maybe there is something dramatically different in version 6 vs 5, or in AO version 1.30 vs 1.26 that I have. But in my experience and with a singlePC very similar to AudioPhil's (and CAPS, for that matter), it didn't make a huge difference. Maybe it's the DAC, like Coli said. Or maybe my speakers aren't resolving enough (B&W 804S).

FWIW, room correction at the PC through Acourate has made a significantly bigger improvement in my system than JPlay. Yet I want JPlay to work for me so I will probably give it another go down the road.

Alright, AES is good stuff, turning the buffer size to min was key. No longer needing jplay 6 with aes.