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J River Vs. Media Monkey Do they sound different

So I invested in a Wyred 4 Sound Dac 2. Initially gad it hooked up to my Oppo 83 as transport and now have taken the plunge and hooked my PC up to the dac via USB. Very simple. Downloaded Media Moonkey and found it to be unnecessarily difficult to navigate. I downloaded J River and found the interface to be great.

I have Vista and am using Kernel Streaming. Sounds great! Even downloaded some hi res albums from HD Tracks. Does anyone have an opinion if there is a sound difference between the most popular packages and if so, who's software sounds the best? Are there software tricks that improve sound (besides kernel streaming and Wasapi?

Thanks in advance.
dmm53
digilog5
29 posts
 
I have the same setup as above (W4S Dac2 and JRiver 15).
Initially I was using K.Streaming which sounded good. Later J.River released a mode called "wasapi event style", which is what I use now with Win7 64 running on a solid state disc.

KS sounds a bit more polite but Wasapi engine is a bit more analytical and transparent. Make sure to select 24 bit in Jriver's audio setup if you play with Wasapi event style.

I tried Jriver's upsampling with regular 16/44.1k FLAC files but I didn't notice any great improvements. I leave the native resolution of whatever file I play.

Cheers
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
Digilog5 - why do you suggest using 24 bit in JRiver for Event Style? Do you hear a difference on 16/44 material by expanding to 24?
digilog5
29 posts
 
Based on the reading I have done, with Wasapi-event-style you need to have the wordlength pre-set to 24 bit, which is what the dac expects.

Initially I did not know about this and the Jriver would play for a few seconds and then cause my pc to crash and then needed to reboot DAC and Windows. Setting the wordlength to 24 bits is just a requirement of the certain pc-dac communication (wasapi) and works perfectly. It is described in the JR Media Center setup guide for Win Vista/7 from the computer audiophile forum or the guidelines posted by Ayre or DCS. This is not required however for Kernel Streaming which allows you to set anything you want.

I've not heard M.Monkey though. I'd like to listen to Pure Music or AyreWave too in Mac OS and compare.

Thanks,
dmm53 OP
63 posts
 
Digilog5, I did run both KS and Wasapi event for hourrs this weekend and would agree that Wasapii event is a tad more revealing.

As a beginner with a PC-based source, I would say that the sofftware is at least quirky. The ripping software is tempermental and the album art features work about half the time.

I'm still having a ball acccessing my music and am astounded by the sound quality. Whether its the W4S Dac, which has gotten spectacular reviews, or the PC-based source, IMHO it sounds better than my Oppo 83 as a transport into the Dac. Can't see ever going back.
dmm53 OP
63 posts
 
In an attempt to hijack my own thread, I was wondering if anyone has had good results with a particular USB cable. I'm using a cheap Radio Shack 3 mete ( to reach my sofa0 right now and am looking to make an investment in a quality ($250-$500)USB cable. Looking at Cardas Clear, Audioquest carbon and a host of others.

Has anyone had good experience with a mid tier USB cable?
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