![]() But hey, we know better :))Īudirvana was a PITA to get to work on my machine, and in retrospect with new information made available from Friends elsewhere chances are I wasn’t really getting bit-perfect out during my trial, which I spent a few days with but didn’t really feel a need to complete. ![]() Add to that excellent software like Audirvana and you’ve a compelling argument for not needing discrete components (provided you’re among the many people satisfied with “tolerable” sound with no compelling drive for “better”). My personal vendettas aside, I ruefully concede that iPhones sound good for their being phones, with all those noisy little modules and whatnot tucked into every available niche, same with MacBooks. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for how Apple products sounded, though their business practices and willingness to charge extortionate fees of their customers when their products inevitably encounter problems has always rubbed me the wrong way, as if they somehow see themselves as having rarefied airs for doing so, haha. It may not be my aesthetic but this is still damned pretty to look at, though: Is an incremental improvement in sound quality worth $60? Dunno, ask me when my free trial expires in a few weeks. The recidivist objectivist in me wants to say that the latter player is just attenuating the upper frequencies and that I could perhaps achieve a similar effect with parametric EQ, but even excepting the fact that I’m EQ-averse as a matter of principle JRiver is just a hell of a lot nicer to use and has competent DSP that makes watching movies and more fun on my rig. I’ve not done an extensive A/B, but the differences are really quite overt on the same tracks at with volume as close as I could manage f2k comes off as more abrasive and less pleasant on the ears, not to mention JRMC paints a more cohesive soundscape (yes, with all DSP turned off). My hearing’s far more sensitive as a result so I’ve not been listening to music as much, even then at somewhat lower volumes than usual, but near as I could tell listening to my digital collection on JRiver is much less tiring. I’m still sick, and if anything I feel even worse now than I did a few days back. I figured that was confirmation bias at play, not to mention I’ve got an absolute hell of a cold at the moment and my sinuses are painfully swollen, never mind what the state of my eustachian tubes must be, so I slept on it and decided to give it a try later on.This was a few days ago. It was subtle, but there was a proper difference to my ears this time around. Off to the JRiver landing page I went, and several long minutes later (Philippine internet sucks) I’m ready to give pricey software another chance. Then of course, my persistently curious ass wanted to try and see if I could get better sound for relatively cheap- I’m not what it is about paying for digital licences that feels so much more painful than shelling out the same for a physical product, but that’s how it goes. My A+ trial period lapsed and I I didn’t find myself mourning it, all hail the overlord of software audio players! Besides, I have it looking just how I wanted, and I’m loath to give up the cool retro aesthetic I’ve got going on: ![]() Plus f2k was literally free, so it had that going for it. ![]() A+ certainly looked fancier, but being on a Windows machine I found it didn’t quite perform as advertised. Conclusion: this is all being put out to a DAC so chances are my ears just aren’t skilled enough to tell them apart. Long story short, someone whose listening skills I respect recently took a dump on the SQ of foobar, which came as something of a surprise as I did an extensive comparison between it and the much-regarded Audirvana+ and found no discernible differences save for that the output off A+ was a hell of a lot louder, making level-matched testing annoying. That said, it should be no surprise that I’d gravitate towards the foobar2000 community, with its myriad customisation options and promises of bit-perfect output. I’ve always been a “bits are bits” sort of lad, though I have managed to discern differences in software media players on my mobile(*).
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