Computer Audio Players

I've looked at HQPlayer in the past, but now that I have the Bifrost Multibit, it seems like it would be redundant or possibly counter-productive, considering that Schiit's secret sauce is their filter.

 

Yes for sure. Rob Robinson is a very smart guy (nice too) and great engineer but his software UI design/integration chops aren't always the best IMO. I use the RIAA algorithm in Pure Vinyl to do my LP transfers (I own a Seta L phono). The RIAA filter is excellent and the sound quality of the built in playback engine (same as Pure Music) is also excellent (on par with Audirvana+) but the user interface reminds me of UNIX xwindows stuff from the 90s lol

I'll see if I can reset the demo and give it another shot. The only thing that stopped me buying it last time is that it had issues with using DMG Equilibrium as an AU plugin. I also use Sonarworks sometimes (for both headphone and speaker) so the fact those are working good for you is encouraging.

 

Spent some time with Roon for Mac a little while ago.

If I had a massive library of locally stored music I think I may have taken the plunge. The Tidal integration with Roon is good. When you favourite an album it more or less seamlessly becomes a part of your library. It would be a very cool addition to a large music collection. However, I felt that for people who are doing a greater portion of their listening/searching with Tidal it just felt slightly awkward for the following reasons:

• searching for tracks required an extra step each time to expand search results into Tidal, even when I was within the Tidal section of Roon
• The playback bar for Tidal music was buggy
• playlists of Tidal tracks curated in Roon did not sync to the Tidal App (it works the other way around) meaning you can't take them on the road in offline mode
• some general annoyances such as needing to click twice or three times to play a track & a fair number of low-res pics for even well-known artists
• not all of the genre search features pulled up Tidal results too

I'm being picky since I'm probably not it's target market. The extra features Roon offers such as lyrics, full credits and fairly comprehensive searchable links for people involved in the production of an album are very cool. Not only are there links for "similar artists" but also for "collaborated with" or "influenced by" too. The intelligent layout for classical/soundtracks was also very good.

They've almost nailed it with their "Discover" screen. It's packed full of ideas for things to listen to - albums from particular years, artists, tracks, composers. But again, the content is just curated from your own collection, rather than offering you fresh music and ideas from the streaming services too. So, a great way to re-discover music you already own but not for people focused on finding new content based on what they already have. For me this makes it feel a bit stale - but if I had 10,000 albums stored locally and couldn't remember what I had then I'd probably feel differently.

What surprised me was that I seemed to prefer the sound-quality from Roon when it came to streaming. At the time I was also trialling Amarra for Tidal and Amarra SQ+. In terms of sound these two were more or less indistinguishable from the normal Tidal App. The interface for Amarra for Tidal was horrible & slow and seriously felt like going back 10 years. SQ+ adds some simple EQ options. Roon sounded smoother & more free of grain, somehow more robust. Vague, I know. I miss it more for that than the features.

I'm not quite there in paying another $10 per month on top of the Tidal payment. But I'm close.

I like the Roon aesthetic a lot. Very clean & uncomplicated, despite all the features. Pic below showing the layout & available options / pathways for discovery for a typical album

 

I like Roon a lot, but I definitely wouldn't use it exclusively for Tidal for the reasons you mentioned. It is really great for having a large local collection, however, and having Tidal in conjunction usually yields results for the linked artists when I don't own something

 

Yes indeed - certainly made me wish I had more locally stored stuff. It's a shame because the totally seamless streaming integration is almost there & the things I mentioned seem more like minor annoyances that added up rather than obstacles that would be totally insurmountable. Still it would be a lot to pay for what would essentially be an enhanced version of Tidal.

Since there are now a few streaming services out there that have extensive libraries it seems like user-experience and how they curate content based on your tastes will be key. For £20 it would be nice if Tidal was a lot better at that.

 

I'll have to give roon a try. I have a 10,000 track, 900 album library. Pure Music is intriguing, but I'm trying to untie myself from iTunes.

 

I kind of got lucky with Tidal (timing). With a purchase in June I received a complimentary 3 month subscription to Tidal HiFi which I canceled when the 3 months was up. For CyberMonday Tidal offered former subscribers 4 months' subscription for the price of 1, which I jumped on.

I liked the selection of music but had issues with the iOS app. Hope the OS X Tidal app is less buggy.

Roon does look interesting...

 

Anyone else ever try Fidelia? I quite like the player, as it keeps things simple and sounds great. You can change plug-ins without restart and it has a built in crossfeed that is VERY well reviewed.

 

I've always used Foobar for Windows, but just started trying out MusicBee a few days ago. I really like it so far, might make a permanent switch to it once I figure out how the various features relate to my old foobar config.

 

And they have that nice "Can Opener" feature which allows you to introduce some "room feel" cross feed etc. That was a particularly nice feature on the ATH M50s... which have almost no sense of space.

 

I use Foobar, but sometimes wish it was prettier. Anyone have favorite themes/plugins that can help it look a little prettier? I really like JRiver from the few times I tried the trials, but I have a hard time paying for software if I can help it.

 

The DarkOne is my favorite theme, check it out

http://tedgo.deviantart.com/art/DarkOne-v4-360862076

 

I have searched long for good theme. This seems excellent!

 

Thanks! Never thought to look on deviant for foobar themes. Might have found a rabbit hole that might take some time to follow.

 

So I'm using foobar with my D-Zero MK2 (up to 24/96, or so the manufacturer say) and set to WASAPI (event).

How come I'm experiencing this kind of error with some files?

"Unrecoverable playback error: Unsupported stream format: 22050 Hz / 24-bit / 2 channels"

YetI could play those files when set to either "DS" or "Primary Sound Driver". I guess Windows downsamples them before playback?

 

22050Hz is a strange format, most propablt your ibasso doesnt support this kind of file.

Yes if you play DS/primary windows downsamples.

 

has anyone tried the hifiberry digi+ hat for their rp2?

 

If you would like to know the true sample rate of the file, I recommend Media Info https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo it is great because once installed, you can simply right-click an audio file and select Media Info to get all sorts of useful information on an audio file. Just make sure when you install you don't install the bundled software that it offers you to install, just click "I do not Accept" and it will not install the bundled software, just Media Info.

After install, open the program and it well ask you for settings. Make sure the box ("Add to Windows Explorer Right-click Menu" is checked). See Pics:



(Click each image to enlarge)

You can also try Audacity http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/ or Free Audio Editor 2015 http://www.free-audio-editor.com/ - both do more than just tell you sample rate, however if you put the file in either one of those programs it will tell you what the actual sample rate is.

 

Just tried Media Info and I can confirm that the sampling rate is indeed 22.05 KHz. And indeed it is a weird sampling rate.

I am usually on random playback for most of my listening and when these files are played while on event mode, foobar just stops playing.

Oh well, I'll just have to weed them out.

Thanks!

 

If you want, you can try to re-sample the file. If you are unable to do so, send me a message (PM) and I will convert it for you.