iTunes Alternatives

[Cressy Snr]

Bloody hell!

I've just discovered adaptive volume on JRiver for Mac.
That's what I call useful

[The Stratmangler]

Isn't that also known as Replaygain?
Been a feature in Foobar for years, LMS too, and it's useful if you like to set off random playlists.

[Cressy Snr]

Well I'm back using iTunes.
The latest update 11.2.1 simply sounds better than JRiver on the Mac, on my system, with my DAC.

JRiver sounds thin, in comparison. It may well be this failing, that has been causing me so much grief with my old 60s recordings, because the latest version of iTunes played flat does not suffer to anything like the same degree from sharpness and shriek on these old records.

I've decided to stick with iTunes, which I think is the best media player on the Mac. There are probably better solutions on the PC side, but it's iTunes for me on the Mac.
It has caught up with JRiver and overtaken it in terms of sound quality.

The bits is bits brigade would argue that there can be no differences but they are clear and repeatable and in favour of iTunes.
As ever YMMV and all that jazz.

[rowuk]

I use a MacMini/Focusrite Saffire with iTunes and bitperfect as well as an "optimized" operating system with a lot of stuff turned off.

An iPod is a very nice remote for iTunes. With the current version of BitPerfect, I have been very happy with the performance and convenience. Internet radio can be added to a playlist for "special" occasions.

Alone bitperfects ability to switch sampling rate during playback makes it worth it.

The MacMini has the television attached, but is generally used headless. I have Quicksilver installed and holding down the "F5" button for more than 5 seconds shuts the MacMini down.

[David]

J River still sounds better to my ears used with Mac Mini via USB to NOS Dac. I Tunes is better, but still not there IMO

[rowuk]

J River still sounds better to my ears used with Mac Mini via USB to NOS Dac. I Tunes is better, but still not there IMO

What does sound better mean? What do you listen to and through what? What is a NOS DAC? My focusrite is a firewire DAC and about 7 years old. It is no longer NEW, so I guess it is only OS?

I am serious. I am very interested. I have listened to so many DACs and find that they all have their good and bad sides. I have never had a USB DAC plugged into a Mac that I liked. How do I tell the difference?: when I have no desire to zap to something else, rather feel the need to listen to whole works, the stereo is grabbing me emotionally. When my wife does the same, even better and when colleagues come by with their recordings and just shut up and listen, I think that I am closer. In every "shootout", the focusrite won. Not with better "bass", "treble", "imaging", "stage size", "blackness" or any other audiophile term, rather with a magnetic tie to the work being played that does not let the listener get away from the composer or conductor. Not all recordings are this magnetic, but enough are.

I am interested as my focusrite is so old that it only does up to 88/96kbps and I have non commercial live recordings recorded at higher resolution and up or downsampling destroys the sound.

[Cressy Snr]

J River still sounds better to my ears used with Mac Mini via USB to NOS Dac. I Tunes is better, but still not there IMO

What does sound better mean? What do you listen to and through what? What is a NOS DAC? My focusrite is a firewire DAC and about 7 years old. It is no longer NEW, so I guess it is only OS?

I am serious. I am very interested. I have listened to so many DACs and find that they all have their good and bad sides. I have never had a USB DAC plugged into a Mac that I liked. How do I tell the difference?: when I have no desire to zap to something else, rather feel the need to listen to whole works, the stereo is grabbing me emotionally. When my wife does the same, even better and when colleagues come by with their recordings and just shut up and listen, I think that I am closer. In every "shootout", the focusrite won. Not with better "bass", "treble", "imaging", "stage size", "blackness" or any other audiophile term, rather with a magnetic tie to the work being played that does not let the listener get away from the composer or conductor. Not all recordings are this magnetic, but enough are.

I am interested as my focusrite is so old that it only does up to 88/96kbps and I have non commercial live recordings recorded at higher resolution and up or downsampling destroys the sound.

In DAC terms, NOS means Non Over Sampling.

Hi David. I know JRiver is slightly better than iTunes with the USB connection. I managed to borrow a more recent DAC than my own early MF M1, and JRiver sounds more full bodied than it does over optical SPDIF.
But unfortunately my USB connection is only adaptive rather than asynchronous and only 48KHz capable, no integer mode etc.
In this situation with my DAC, iTunes has JRiver beaten.

Steve