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Audiophile Music player/orgaizer?

post #1 of 33
4/26/11 at 3:58pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, im looking for a windows7 64 music player that will play my files at full resolution in as many formats as possible... also would like something that can organize my music files for me... im connecting through a ati 5450 card with hdmi and sending it to an avp.. (though i can change that if there is a better solution... the card not the preamp lol )... can anyone suggest a decent program(s)?
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post #2 of 33
4/26/11 at 4:53pm
J. River Media Center. It's a 32-bit application that runs flawlessly in Win 7 64-bit.
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post #3 of 33
4/26/11 at 9:13pm
Foobar2000

Even has a plugin for DVD-A playback. Handles massive libraries very well.

Also, if I'm not mistaken (it has been a few years) the quote actually is "I am but an egg"

Either way, great book!
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post #4 of 33
4/26/11 at 9:33pm
I've used WinAmp since around version 1.8. I can't say it's the best because it has worked so well for me I haven't had to bother with anything else. Most of my music is in one or two large folders (I don't bother with sub-folder after sub-folder after sub-folder like some software forces you to) and WinAmp can search or sort through 30,000+ songs (a lot of live music) in my networked folders in less than half a second. I use it on my HTPC using the MilkDrop visualizations in desktop mode and it looks and sounds real pretty. It also uses the GraceNote data base to keep your tags straight.
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post #5 of 33
4/27/11 at 2:32am
I love media monkey and highly suggest it. It is very powerful in all aspects especially in library organization. There are many plug-ins so if you want a feature (like tagging lyrics for example) you just have to install it, or if you want it to play other formats then just install it.
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post #6 of 33
4/27/11 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
i like the look of the interface for j.river but it looks like media monkey has a better way to organize your files (the auto organizer)... im using winamp right now but it doesnt seem like a complete solution compared to the other two.... does anyone have experience with more than one for an opinion?
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post #7 of 33
4/27/11 at 4:23pm
Thread Starter 
Can you use media monkey as an organizer and j.river as the "front end"?
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post #8 of 33
4/27/11 at 6:03pm
I don't see why not, if Media Monkey fills out the file's tags JRMC will read them and present them as such.
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post #9 of 33
4/28/11 at 7:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Smitty2k1 View Post

Foobar2000

Agreed. Foobar2000 is great. I have almost 1 TB of digital music, in a variety of resolutions (CD, 96/24, 192/24, etc.) and formats (mostly WMA Lossless, but a fair bit of FLAC) and FB2K plays it all perfectly.

http://www.foobar2000.org/

Highly recommended.

Mike
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post #10 of 33
4/28/11 at 8:09am
I'm looking for a audiophile-ish music player too. I need to be able to output audio via HDMI (up to 6 channels) and analog (stereo). Must be able to play 6channel flac 96khz 24bit. My entire collection is flac and is hosted on my unraid server.

I don't care about OSD, I wont use it. I do, however, want a good remote that shows covers, etc. This can be an android or ipod or ?? remote.

My listening is either a single CD or shuffle of the entire library. I already use mp3tag to manage tagging so I wont use it in the player.

I don't mind paying for the software. I'll be building a dedicated machine and buying the remote hardware. That, along with the cost of media, makes software costs inconsequential.

Is there a application out there that will meet my needs?
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post #11 of 33
4/28/11 at 9:59am
JRMC has a Android app that I'm pretty sure will control playback (in addition to playing it local to the phone).
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post #12 of 33
4/28/11 at 1:44pm
I also recommend J. River Media Center. They have great support and release weekly public builds based on user input. Several friends use the Gizmo app on their Android phone to stream from my library. You can also use the Gizmo app to turn your Android device into a remote control. I don't have an Android device yet, but am thinking about getting the Nook Color and using it as a touch screen remote.
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post #13 of 33
4/28/11 at 3:57pm
Thread Starter 
i was reading some j river reviews and they say that the ipod/ipad/iphone solution works really well for a remote... i think they said that the android one was a little hokey....
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post #14 of 33
4/28/11 at 7:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcadeus View Post

i was reading some j river reviews and they say that the ipod/ipad/iphone solution works really well for a remote... i think they said that the android one was a little hokey....

I think it's the opposite. The iPhone uses a web-based system, which can be used by Android phones too. However, there's a dedicated app for the Android, Gizmo, which is meant to be way better.

By the way, there is a learning curve with JRMC, but I find its organisational features to be its best selling point. It's also great at handling huge libraries (I have ~30 TB of music and video, all in the hands of JRMC). You can organise your music any way you want according to your tags, e.g. genre/year/artist/album etc. and it'll automatically move everything into the correct directory structures.
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post #15 of 33
4/29/11 at 11:32am
I have an ati 5450 card connected to an Onkyo receiver via HDMI and use Foobar 2000. I can play all my HiRez music, flac, dts, dvd-a, etc. I make giant playlists and just let it play random. There's some great skins for Foobar, make sure you install it correctly with the right components and skin.
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post #16 of 33
4/29/11 at 11:51am
Thread Starter 
one of the things i like about jriver is that it apparently bypasses windows to play bitrate stuff if you set it up properly... does mediamonkey do this or does it go through windows mixers (where it gets converted and then put out as a single media stream i.e. more steps to corrupt data) ?
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post #17 of 33
4/29/11 at 7:33pm
foobar2000.

the best thing about it is that its Free. And its highly customizable. I switched to Foobar (from winamp) around 4 years back. I just can't go back ever. Please do give it a try.
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post #18 of 33
4/30/11 at 7:13am
Are there any videos showing the android and ipod/iphone remotes in action controlling JRMC? Are they advanced enough to fully control JRMC without using a display (talking about music only)? Can they sleep/suspend the OS seamlessly?

On a side note - I'm glad to see the mods have removed the off topic/personal agenda posts. This forum is too good to allow certain members to ruin it with their personal vendettas.
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post #19 of 33
4/30/11 at 7:15am
Does foobar have a remote that can fully control it so a display isn't needed?
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post #20 of 33
4/30/11 at 7:26am
Do any o these work with a 10' interface or are they all keyboard only?
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post #21 of 33
4/30/11 at 8:29am
JRMC has a "Theater View" 10' interface.
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post #22 of 33
4/30/11 at 8:39am
Just a little tip, do not rely 100% on auto-organizers that are built in programs. Certain programs handle meta data differently, I've had Zune, Foobar, MediaMonkey and Subsonic all read the metadata differently. Not to mention that say you have an artist that has a common name, the software can just pull the first album from the artist but not have it be the right one. Depending on library size it can be a headache to get everything to be 100% clean but it is totally worth it.

I've used a combination of MediaMonkey, MP3Tag and Foobar to get my cleaned up. Since it ends up being used in WMC I'll load it into Zune for a final run through. Here is what I would do:

Load the entire library into MediaMonkey and set the view to show the Album Art in the main pain. Scroll through and search for any missing album art via Amazon. If it's not working that way, I'll load the album into MP3Tag and use the searches in their (MusicBrainz is a good one). After I get the library cleaned up with album art, artist, album, etc I'll then load it into Foobar and use Foobar's built in file renamer to clean up all the file names. Last step is loading the library into Zune and going to "Unknown Artist" and "Unknown Album" and try to fix them up.
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post #23 of 33
4/30/11 at 2:12pm
I also am a big fan of J.Rivers Media Center and though it is a paid for app, the cost IMHO is minor given the size of the OPs collection. Two things the OP will like:
1) Top Audiophile support for processing and more tweaks and options to get the best out of your equipment across all your file types
2) Customisable Views for all your organisational needs based on the Meta Data (name, tags etc) that can be read. It will then even rename and re-organise your files (if you want) on the physicall HDD based this meta data if you want.

Like all high end produces, it does not dumb down the interface or what you can do so as fitbrit said it does have a learning curve to understand how it all can work. Anyway the trial is free so give it a whirl.
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post #24 of 33
4/30/11 at 3:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmone View Post

I also am a big fan of J.Rivers Media Center and though it is a paid for app, the cost IMHO is minor given the size of the OPs collection. Two things the OP will like:
1) Top Audiophile support for processing and more tweaks and options to get the best out of your equipment across all your file types
2) Customisable Views for all your organisational needs based on the Meta Data (name, tags etc) that can be read. It will then even rename and re-organise your files (if you want) on the physicall HDD based this meta data if you want.

Like all high end produces, it does not dumb down the interface or what you can do so as fitbrit said it does have a learning curve to understand how it all can work. Anyway the trial is free so give it a whirl.

Is that a legitimate 'AudioPhile' goal? To tweak one's music? I thought the point of 'AudioPhile' was plain, simple purity...
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post #25 of 33
4/30/11 at 3:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by olyteddy View Post

Is that a legitimate 'AudioPhile' goal? To tweak one's music? I thought the point of 'AudioPhile' was plain, simple purity...

Depends on the person and their requirements, and I was certainly not clear! Anyway the included options that seem to please many include (among many others)
* Output Modes: WASAPI / WASAPI (Event Style) with toggles for Exclusive mode, buffer clearing etc as well as ASIO, Kernel Streaming and more std DirectSound and Wave Out
* DSP: These options create more of the for/against argument I think you were getting out....but you can turn the on or off and each have plenty of options to play with if that is your thing:
- Output Format: Resampling / Bitdepth. This is good for matching output Sample Rates and Bitdepth to match the requirements of sound cards where the input formats may need modification. You can also do Channel Mixing here.
- Vol Leveling: good to keep a playlist of mixed content at the same apparent vol level
- EQ / Parametric EQ: as you would expect
- Effects: for these that like this stuff
- Headphones:
- Tempo & Pitch:
- Room Correction: for those that want to do this in the PC over the receiver it is a very good option.
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post #26 of 33
5/1/11 at 5:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BizarroTerl View Post

Does foobar have a remote that can fully control it so a display isn't needed?

There is with the ipod/iphone/ipad

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/...9664&hl=remote

I played around with it a few months ago when it was a little less developed. It took a while to setup and had some bugs but I wouldn't be surprised if they have been ironed out. The foobar community is pretty good at making progress.
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post #27 of 33
5/1/11 at 7:29pm
J. River Media Center gets my vote.
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post #28 of 33
5/2/11 at 7:47am
Own both J river and media monkey. Had Media Monkey first and it is the best for tagging and organising and nice simple interface. J River has more options (more complicated) and the ability to produce bit perfect through my ati hdmi to my avr. The media server built into J River is fantastic.

Presently still Use Media Monkey for tagging and J river for playback and media server direct to my DNLA Denon AVR.
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post #29 of 33
5/2/11 at 5:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by frankspin View Post

Just a little tip, do not rely 100% on auto-organizers that are built in programs. Certain programs handle meta data differently, I've had Zune, Foobar, MediaMonkey and Subsonic all read the metadata differently. Not to mention that say you have an artist that has a common name, the software can just pull the first album from the artist but not have it be the right one. Depending on library size it can be a headache to get everything to be 100% clean but it is totally worth it.

I've used a combination of MediaMonkey, MP3Tag and Foobar to get my cleaned up. Since it ends up being used in WMC I'll load it into Zune for a final run through. Here is what I would do:

Load the entire library into MediaMonkey and set the view to show the Album Art in the main pain. Scroll through and search for any missing album art via Amazon. If it's not working that way, I'll load the album into MP3Tag and use the searches in their (MusicBrainz is a good one). After I get the library cleaned up with album art, artist, album, etc I'll then load it into Foobar and use Foobar's built in file renamer to clean up all the file names. Last step is loading the library into Zune and going to "Unknown Artist" and "Unknown Album" and try to fix them up.

Much easier way with mediamonkey. There is a plug in (or is it built in cant remember) called files to edit.

Here is a picture with all the different ways that it can help in tagging your music:

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post #30 of 33
5/25/12 at 7:06pm

JR Mediacenter also get my vote.

Was using Exact Audio Copy to play a file. Sounded good. Used Songbird to play same file. Sounded dull and lifeless. Was using Winamp befor - Not great either. Downloaded JR Mediacenter. Changed the audio output to WASAPI. Sounds stunning. Bought it immediately. My kit - ASUS sound card and Adam A7 monitors.
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