Best Hi Res Music Player for Windows

**Beresford** · 25-01-17, 19:32

I tried several players around Christmas 2015. Foobar (free) came out almost best for me, and I paid for JPLAY additions to improve it a little more. But you have to be ok moving files around, loading drivers, and so forth, and you have to know how to find your music files then cut and paste, at least with the simple shell (skin) I used. And JPLAY is for tinkerers, but worthwhile.
It' probably not worth fiddling with these unless you have a separate DAC with it's own drivers that can be used to bypass the Mixer software that is built into Windows, rather like the Pure player for Macs, I think.

If you really want the best, there is an enthusiast written player called MQn, but it took me weeks to get it working.
Try downloading some of the players - you will soon see what you like best. There is one called Simple, which is erm.. simple.
Complex software like iTunes will organize all your music files, as well as playing them.

**richardfinegold** · 25-01-17, 20:09

You will want JLW input here.
I now skip the PC entirely with downloads and play them from flash drives from a USB port on my Oppo 105. No software program required. When I was using a computer it was a Mac. I do read Computer Audio forums and it seems like J River has a lot of satisfied customers. The newer kid on the block is Roon, but I am a bit unclear because some people run Roon and J River together as their functions do not entirely overlap. They both have significant learning curves

**PJPJ** · 26-01-17, 05:55

Originally posted by Parry1912 View Post

I couldn't see any recent discussions about this so I was wondering what recommendations forumites have. The Maria Callas download on the Bargains thread has brought it to mind

.

A separate DAC is essential if you want decent sound quality.

USB DACs start at a reasonable price:

Dragonfly DAC

and playing via foobar, which is free, will give good results and easily. Otherwise, there's JRiver (which I found fiddly) or software like HQAudio which I haven't used.

There's a lot of useful and helpful discussion at:

Computer Audiophile

Mac users have the advantage for being able to use Audirvana with a suitable DAC; several friends find this give excellent sound quality!

Otherwise, some modern disc players and amps have USB inputs and will play from drives. Like Richard I occasionally plug a USB stick into my Oppo player and this gives very good results.

Finally, a somewhat retro method, if you have a decent DVD player, is to burn 24-bit files to a DVD-R and play from there. Circlinca software (which I still use) or similar is needed for creating the disc.

Cirlinca

**Dave2002** · 26-01-17, 10:26

Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post

The newer kid on the block is Roon, but I am a bit unclear because some people run Roon and J River together as their functions do not entirely overlap. They both have significant learning curves

I don't know much about Roon, though I gather it's expensive, and also supports multi-room operation. I don't actually know what are the requirements for multi-room functionality, or which systems satisfy those requirements optimally. Perhaps multi- room is more useful for hotels or restaurants. Comments?

**Sir Velo** · 26-01-17, 10:40

I also use Foobar, although to my ears I hear very little difference between that and Sony's Media Go, provided one overrides the PC's own soundcard and uses the DAC's bespoke software (in my case Audiolab's M-DAC+ which also doubles as a preamp) and then ensure the correct sampling rate is entered.

Dragonfly while exceptional for USBs and portable players may not quite have the guts to support a full HiFi set up. Likewise Chord's Mojo which I also dallied with does not quite deliver the overall performance required for sustained listening. It also tends to get hot when hooked up to an amp.

One slight disappointment for me with the M-DAC+ is it's lack of connectivity with any other portable devices apart from ipads/iphones. I have a Walkman NWZ-15A hi-res player which will not connect to the DAC. The only way to get it to play through my HiFi is to use the aux jack which of course rather defeats the purpose of having a high performance DAC.

**Parry1912** · 26-01-17, 12:16

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll give foobar a try to start with.

I've got a firewire audio interface that does 24/96 so that should do the job. I've also got a Cambridge Audio CD/DAC but the PC is too far away from it to connect!

I might need to borrow my wife's netbook.

**richardfinegold** · 26-01-17, 18:03

Originally posted by Parry1912 View Post

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll give foobar a try to start with.

I've got a firewire audio interface that does 24/96 so that should do the job. I've also got a Cambridge Audio CD/DAC but the PC is too far away from it to connect!

I might need to borrow my wife's netbook.

firewire! relatively rare on the ground. What dac do you use?

**Parry1912** · 27-01-17, 12:10

I've got a Cambridge Audio Azur 851C and a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

**richardfinegold** · 27-01-17, 12:50

I formerly had a Pro Audio DAC with a fw interface and loved it. I could only use it with the PC but it seemed to beat the other inputs decisively. My current DAC the Mytek Manhatten doesn't offer USB for Macs and so the fw is required.

**Dave2002** · 27-01-17, 13:49

Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post

I formerly had a Pro Audio DAC with a fw interface and loved it. I could only use it with the PC but it seemed to beat the other inputs decisively. My current DAC the Mytek Manhatten doesn't offer USB for Macs and so the fw is required.

According to these specs there is USB, though not USB3 - which may be the limitation you mention. No mention of fw either, so perhaps you have an earlier model?

Mytek Audio - Superior Dacs and Amps

https://mytekdigital.com/hifi/products/manhattan2/

New York Audio Equipment creators for music makers and lovers alike

**David-G** · 28-01-17, 00:04

I play music from my Windows laptop via a high-quality DAC. Does the player make a difference to quality, or only to convenience? I use either Windows Media Player or VLC Player. Is there any reason that I should change?

**richardfinegold** · 28-01-17, 01:10

Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post

According to these specs there is USB, though not USB3 - which may be the limitation you mention. No mention of fw either, so perhaps you have an earlier model?

https://mytekdigital.com/hifi/products/manhattan2/

Yes, I have the Manhatten, not the II. I should contact Mytek about the upgrade so that I can add MQA

**Dave2002** · 28-01-17, 10:36

Originally posted by David-G View Post

I play music from my Windows laptop via a high-quality DAC. Does the player make a difference to quality, or only to convenience? I use either Windows Media Player or VLC Player. Is there any reason that I should change?

There are people who say there is a quality difference. Whether you will hear a difference will depend on how good the rest of your equipment is, plus other factors. Have you ripped material to lossless formats?

One thing you could try, if you have the time and patience, is to encode some tracks you know quite well to lower and lower quality levels using lossy codecs. You should find levels which sound different, and if you go low enough the tracks may start to sound really quite poor. However even that is not guaranteed. For example, if your original track has a lot of high frequencies, perhaps including some distortion, then a high degree of digital compression will probably remove a lot of the high frequencies, and the result might actually sound smoother.

Trying this should enable you to hear some of the characteristics of lossy codecs at different quality levels.

When you've done that, go back to lossless, and it should sound better than the lower lossy codec quality levels.

If your equipment is "only" good, then you perhaps won't hear the differences between lossy codecs at high bit rates and lossless rips. This can also be a similar situation to using different bits of kit, such as CD players. There are CDs which have passages which will sound very different on different machines, though the overall effect may at first seem to be similar.

One such I found was Ashkenazy's Decca CD of Rachmaninov 2nd symphony. There is a passage in the last movement which sounds much more like a concert hall performance and much more involving when played on some CD players with matching systems, while merely OK on others.