I ran the bitperfect test file and worked fine on both programs. Pain in the butt getting Audirvana to run it though. That remote is next to useless for me. Maybe it works better when not using the Windows version of Audirvana.
Wow - thanks for running those tests! Very cool. If both programs pass the bit perfect test, but one sounds warmer with more detail and separation, I wonder whatās going on? Iām stumped.
I too use a headless Mac and Audirvana but I donāt screen share because thatās a pain. Audirvana has a reasonably good app that works on the iPad beautifully and thatās what I use and for the most part itās really easy.
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On my Mac Air, the BitPerfect software is remarkably better sounding than Roon, Audirvana, or JRiver. And the sound is so good that Iām very happy I bought the DS Sr! BitPerfect demonstrates that simpler software, focused on sound quality really works on computer hardware not designed for excellent audio.
I really hope PS Audio can achieve this sound quality with Octave, as I am very interested.
To the question in this topic āwhich sounds betterā, I tried 5 programs. Iāve been using Roon for a couple of years. Originally I used iTunes, then progressed to BitPerfect and I liked the sound, which made up for the glitches. But BitPerfect is āinvisibleā so you have to put up with the iTunes environment. Hence, I got Roon and have really enjoyed the features and did not feel the sound quality was much different than BitPerfect. That was with my old DAC - but the new DS Sr. is so exceptional that Roon sounds bland and less detailed. So when I read this topic, I thought maybe I can find a better alternative until Octave comes out. Hence, I downloaded trials of JRiver and Audirvana. In no time, it was evident to me that neither are not much different to Roon in sound quality (on my system) - maybe in little details, but everytime I went back to BitPerfect it was like a heavy curtain had been opened in front of the speakers. So, I do all my happy listening with BitPerfect and try to not get upset at the iTunes interface.
I using a Mac Air Laptop (mid 2013) with 500G SSD and 8G RAM, playing mainly WAV and a few AIFF files. The USB connection starts with an Audioquest Jitterbug USB filter, a BIS USB cable, a Stello U3 converter, with a AQVOX 5 volt supply so the Mac 5 volt supply is blocked. The Stello U3 is a USB to S/PDIF device using, I believe, the same XMOS technology as installed in the DS USB port. I have tried USB direct into the DS (with the Jitterbug), but it does not sound quite as good compared to the S/PDIF connection in my configuration.
I also stream Tidal via Roon, and find that all streaming leaves me wanting ( and Tidal direct with their app is even less satisfying).
Bottom line to me - the PS Audio DS DAC wāSnowmass (V3) to me is an amazing device, and it lays bare many details that I was not readily hearing before, so music software is now supremely important. My expectations are high with respect to PS Audioās upcoming Octave.
Thanks for the detailed post.
Yeah, I just happen to be stubborn about buying an iOS device solely for that purpose.
Iām a Mac OS fanatic but really into Android (specifically the elegant stock Android on Google devices).
I need to bite the bullet.
Thought I would refresh this threadā¦
Does anyone have any new or further experience comparing music management software to report on?
By the way, I received a notice today that my Roon annual subscription was about to automatically renew. Rather than get hit with another annual fee, I bit the bullet and bought a lifetime subscription. Roon is still my favorite way to discover new music and enjoy casual, continuous listening (via play lists and Roon Radio).
Ironically, if I did not also have Tidal and Qobuz subscriptions I would have been tempted to discontinue my Roon subscription.
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Time for another refresh of the threadā¦
Since the last post, Roon has launched at least one major update.
Anyone care to share their recent experiences and preferences among rendering software. I still tend to prefer JRMC for ācritical listeningā and Roon for background listening and exploring new music.
Side note: With the relatively recent addition of a used PSA DMP I now regularly hear music from CDs and SACDs (which are really well recorded) that rivals my JRMC reference. (I still give spinning my files from my iMac via JRMC and the Bridge II Ethernet card a slight edge over spinning the original source material on the DMP though - most often but not always.)
Cheers.
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For me Roon is the most comprehensive and easiest to integrate all of my music and have it in one place. If I dont have my NAS available then I use Qubuz as a standalone app. I do have Jriver but havenāt used it in a couple of years.
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Iāve been using an old version of JRiver on a pc for a long time. I just installed a Synology 920+ NAS with Minimserver In the hope to avoid bit-rot and easy backup. It sounds absolutely horrible, so Iām going back to replacing my 6 year old pc ssd drive with a new one and relegate NAS for backup. Not ideal really.
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I dont think the NAS by itself is the issue. I have Synology NASās in 2 different setups and both sound awesome to me using Roon. There must be something else amiss in the chain.
Possibly because the nas has spinning disks instead of ssd. I chose them as there are currently no available ssds in the UK that Synology recommend/approve for their current DS range (year 20)
All of my Synology NASās use spinning discs. It is a mix between āNASā rated and āEnterpriseā rated spinners.
I would think that if you are having playback issues it might be the DAC or a Windows / Mac driver or setup issue?
I dont have very much knowledge or experience with either one.
That is what I have defaulted to. I have a Synology NAS that I use to back up my iMac and all of my music. I just never found the Synology interface friendly/intuitive enough to bother figuring out how to play the files on the NAS.
Interesting.
I donāt use an NAS just external hard drives plugged into my PC. From there I use JRMC 28 to stream the music to my router where it goes via Ethernet to either my Oppo 105D or DS DAC. Nothing fancy, no extra boxes, but I think it sounds darn good as is.
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Easy. Create a folder called āmusicā on the route of the volume. Download/install Minimserver. Point it at the music folder. Job done. If you arenāt too fussy about indexing the way you want it then you donāt even need to pay for it