iTunes Alternatives

I think we all know by now what this section is for.
User avatar
Ray P
No idea why I do this anymore
Posts: 6294
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:18 pm
Location: Somerset

#76

Post by Ray P »

Steve, just noticed that a new release of JRMC (19.0.49) was made available on 2/10/2013. I haven't looked at what it addresses.

Ray
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#77

Post by Cressy Snr »

Just a little note on my continuing experience with JRiver Media Center for Mac.
I have 15 days of the trial period left and everything is going well.
As Ray advised above, I have updated to the latest version, which is Media Center 19.0.55.

It continues to give a great experience on Mac OSX. Sound quality remains excellent and the crash behaviour I had to work around a couple of weeks ago is now fixed.

I find JRiver a better experience than iTunes. The interface is faster, more fluid and the JRemote app for iPad works seamlessly; also, unlike the Apple Remote app it is not a crash happy piece of half-arsed nonsense.

An added bonus is the FLAC support and the on-the-fly sample rate bit depth change, on a track by track basis, something iTunes still fails to include.
A bit of a bonus with the FLAC support, came after MC had imported my library. A FLAC download of the Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges album "Side by Side" that I had completely forgotten about, appeared in my jazz genre list. Bloody good album too.

I reckon it will be a firm purchase, when the trial period is up.
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#78 I Tunes Alternatives

Post by David »

Hi All,
J River sounds very attractive. But if I move to J River can I keep I Tunes as well for synching my I Pod etc?
David
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#79 Re: I Tunes Alternatives

Post by Cressy Snr »

David wrote:Hi All,
J River sounds very attractive. But if I move to J River can I keep I Tunes as well for synching my I Pod etc?
David
Yes you can.
jRiver uses my iTunes folder for its database.
I have set it to watch for changes in that folder so that if I buy a new piece of music, JRiver sees it and updates its own database accordingly.
There is no problem with syncing with an iPod, just continue to use iTunes as normal

The only problem is that JRiver sometimes fails to register the artwork properly . However that has been an ongoing problem that all music managers have had with iTunes management of image tags; something I suspect will never be overcome. There is no will on the part of Apple, to do anything about it.
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#80

Post by David »

Thanks. I will definitely have to trial it.
David
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#81

Post by David »

Trying out J River on Mac with JK Dac and the bass /lower registers are much thinner than with Audirvana. On the other hand there seems to be a bit more detail /ambience but I would miss that bass weight.

Anyone else found this?
David
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#82

Post by Cressy Snr »

I have no issues with the bass with JRiver on Mac. It goes down low enough and with plenty of welly, on my system. YMMV of course.
It seems more weighty and solid on the new OSX Mavericks OS, which is a bonus.
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#83

Post by David »

What DAC are you using Steve? There seem to be a few issues reported with the M Tech Hiface drivers? Could it be that?
David
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#84

Post by Cressy Snr »

Hi David,
I' m using a Musical Fidelity M1 DAC, connected to my Mac Mini, via the optical out.
I don't know anything about the Hi-Face drivers. They are USB presumably?
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
User avatar
Ray P
No idea why I do this anymore
Posts: 6294
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:18 pm
Location: Somerset

#85

Post by Ray P »

Using JRiver on Windows 7, not Mac, but no complaints about the sound at all.

Ray
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#86

Post by David »

Yep, the Hi Face are USB drivers
User avatar
The Stratmangler
Shed dweller
Posts: 2890
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm
Location: Rossendale, Lancashire

#87

Post by The Stratmangler »

The HiFace2 is supported natively by Linux and Mac OS.

Image

The recent Mavericks fiasco might have broken things ... :wink:
Chris :happy3:
David
User
Posts: 123
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:12 pm

#88

Post by David »

I use the driver with the JK Dac, as does my friend who gets the same results compared to Audirvana. The sound shows lots of promise, very analogue and great detail, but thinned out in body. Robert Cary's voice becomes thin and drims lack the thwack.....
Cressy Snr
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 10552
Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 12:25 am
Location: South Yorks.

#89

Post by Cressy Snr »

The Stratmangler wrote:
The recent Mavericks fiasco might have broken things ... :wink:
The upgrade to OSX Mavericks, reset the trial period for JRMC on my Mac Mini, back to thirty days, so I'm not complaining.
I had no problems with the upgrade, neither have I had any subsequent bugs rear their heads. Apart from the slow download time last Tuesday evening, the Mavericks upgrade has been the smoothest one yet, and I have been running OSX since 2001 (10.0).

Terrifyingly, our household has used nothing but Macs since my first LC, bought in 1990 from Trimac, Sheffield. That's 23 years of trouble and virus-free computing. They have seen both my daughter and myself, through university, and have done everything asked of them without a hiccup.

The family policy of owning Macs in a Windows world has not been easy, but that's life.
Sgt. Baker started talkin’ with a Bullhorn in his hand.
Neal
Shed dweller
Posts: 2299
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:57 am
Location: From the land of the Bodgers

#90

Post by Neal »

Touch wood Mavericks upgrade on my Snow Leopard 2010 MB Air seems to have gone well and doesn't seem to have the battery management issues that Mountain Lion did.....so it may stay! I still have to update my Mac Mini....

Also it looks like Apple have re-introduced Integer mode with Mavericks.....

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-s ... ode-17814/
Post Reply