But I've also ripped my entire CD collection (~2,500 titles) to Redbook AIFF (using dBpoweramp). I do that for building playlists for iPod, background music, party tunes, etc. Its not really for critical listening but I would like for it to be the best it can be within reason. I just love the convenience of having my entire CD library at the tip of my fingers using the Remote app with an iPad. I have two choices from the Mac Mini to sound, both are via USB. One is to an Empirical Audio Offramp (with upgrades) and a digital coax out to preamp. The other, newest option, is USB straight to an asynchronous USB connection to the superb DAC section of a Rega Saturn-R. I honestly think I will only listen to these Redbook files and I don't think I'm ever really going to get on the hi-res train. For God's sake, I don't think I need another format to support. I think that might be enough background to finally get to my question. Before I try to untangle the mess of information regarding ALL of the "audiophile" players and make a choice between something like Amarra, PureMusic, jRiver, etc., I would like for someone to explain in terms that hopefully I can understand, what deleterious effect there is to just using iTunes by itself? Do these other programs just add features, that I may or may not have value for, or do they do something to make the music sound better? What? If this has been asked and answered someone point me in the right direction please. I've just recently tried the demo Audirvana, and am in the middle of a Pure Music trial. Testing was done with a grab-bag folder of 4000 tracks. They both sound slightly more robust than iTunes, and that in itself is dismaying. Seems to me any player should be sending the same 1s and 0s to the DAC. Pure Music's upsampling was very compelling, at first. But when I played familiar classics, it became evident it was mangling the files somehow. Worse, Pure Music is way too fiddly and finicky for my purposes. While they do visibly post instructions to minimize or disable many computer functions to optimize music playing, that's a non-starter for me. Might as well buy an outboard player in hardware form instead. Worst of all, PM occasionally stalls or stutters. (My iMac is loaded.)Īt least Audirvana is stable. Likely due to its independent-from-iTunes operation. I wouldn't call its library management great to work with, compared to iTunes. Guess I'll reluctantly buy this one only to play back the tiny number of DSD files in the system. Unless, as it's been suggested, it can't handle large libraries. I'm not sure what large is I don't think I'll ever exceed 50,000 tracks. My impression so far is that all these software players are tinker-toys compared to an outboard player.What is general opinion on Roon sound quality? I have used Audirvana+ for 5 years and updated each time a new version came out. I changed DACs 2 weeks ago, and my new DAC is more resolving of my server (Mac Mini with Uptone Audio MMK, LPS, SSD, 8 meg RAM feeding USB to my DAC. It sounds fantastic, but it got me thinking. So I spent all day on trying Amarra, HQ player, PureMusic, then lastly Roon. Audirvana+ is still ahead of all of these except Roon. I tried Roon about 18 months ago and it was nothing special. ![]() I don't upsample, and feed my NOS DAC resident rate. Swopping between A+ and Roon on select tracks, they sound very similar, closer than the rest of the bunch. But A+ has a digital sound to it, a very slight coarseness that clings to the treble region, most noticeable on female vocals for example.
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