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JPLAY - It aint subtle

Tried it awhile back and just couldn't get it to work consistently. When it did work, I could hear that it was doing some good things. Recently however, I was browsing ComputerAudiophile and saw that quite a few their members were using it so I decided to give it another go. It seems that they have done some improvements up to the current 5.1 version. It only took me 5 minutes from download of the trial version through set up.

I am not one for audiophile jargon so let's just say that what I heard would be comparable to what I would expect to hear if I had thrown some serious money at upgrading a major component. Needless to say I went ahead and spent the $130 to purchase the software.

My setup has been using two computers. One simply acts as a fileserver streaming files to the other pc. I had figured that reducing load on the pc doing the processing couldn't hurt the sound. Jplay also recommends a dual-pc setup, so I went ahead and tried their configuration and what I heard was yet another step above what I got with the single pc.

Now, I know that there is major controversy brewing over what exactly Jplay does and how to explain it. Jriver actually generates a warning page specifically citing tests that shows that Jplay has no benefit whatsoever. However, I am one of those audiophiles that follow what my ears tell me and not what some measurements show. Having said that I'd like to limit this thread to generating some feedback and discussion from others who have tried the software and want to share with others.
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vladimir
346 posts
 
Lewinskih01:

Any modern computer with 4GB or more of memory and at least a dual-core processor is OK for JPlay, but more power and more memory are better. Windows 8 helps too because some of the latest JPlay features can only be used with it. The less you do other things with the computer while it's playing music the better, to avoid clicks and pops and slooow browsing. All of that because JPlay heavily tweaks Windows to give priority to sound. I have found that using Fidelizer before starting JPlay helps even more, but then you can barely use the computer for anything else but music until you reboot. A dual-PC arrangement is even better.
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,652 posts
 
Will JPLAY work with my Squeezebox Touch using ITunes?
vladimir
346 posts
 
As Billbartuska says, JPlay is a stand-alone player, though a minimalist one, but it also works as ASIO driver for Foobar and for this player I recently discovered, perfect for my simple, folder-based, mostly classical, music collection: AlbumPlayer 2.97
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,700 posts
 
I had JPlay issues also (I use JRiver 17), but with the new JPlay 5.1, it is stable and runs fine and is an audio improvement. The big problem with its being 'unstable' may actually be a setting thing where the samples are usually set too high. Once I low 5.1 works like a charm.ered mine (with the prior versions) I ran much better.
davide256's avatar
davide256
406 posts
 
Jplay also supports a dual PC option where the control PC feeds music from the player to a second dedicated audio PC via wired Ethernet for DAC feed. I'm running that option and its very good in extracting more nuance, tone color solidity and eliminating digital irritants
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