Streaming systems – order in the chaos!

Super Software

It feels a little crazy and forced to cover software separately here. So we’re going to try to keep it a little short. The reason it’s a bit forced is that a lot of software not only handles the playback side, but also the server side.

Consider BubbleUPnP – cited on the previous page – which serves not only as a server, but also as a controller app and renderer (playback side). And so there are more. Think of: JPlay, JRiver, Foobar (with the right extension), Audirvana and, for example, Kodi. But let’s look further.

Better playback

When streaming audio started to take a solid place in the lives of enthusiasts, there weren’t really many serious brands. There was Sonos, but that wasn’t “audiophile” enough for many. And of course there was Linn. But those players were quite pricey.

Around the same time came Lumin, Auralic and Bluesound. A little later Heos. All of them fine. But there was – and still is scarce – not really anything between 500 and 1500 euro. In short: a serious gap in an interesting price range.

Many people have a decent laptop and a good d/a converter with USB input. These have been around for a while; every decent manufacturer already had a converter. And most of them had a USB input. Otherwise there were usb to coax interfaces. Bottom line: why not install good software that does its job better than iTunes or Windows Media Player (ugh…).

XBMC – Kodi

One package that has been around for a long time is Kodi – formerly XBMC. This is really a media package for video, audio and photos. It is not primarily focused on playback quality, but your author can guarantee that it is fine in that area. Kodi just sounds excellent. Especially if you set the quality in the audio menu to high and combine it with a package like Fidelizer (free version, but paid gives more options).

Kodi is not intended for the ultra-critical listener, but for those looking for a fine, free (!) all-in-one solution with numerous expansion options, Kodi is a fine solution. Especially since they also have an app that allows you to just turn off the screen. Kodi also works as a UPnP server and can be controlled with all UPnP / OpenHome controller apps. In short: a nice package.

JRiver

JRiver is a paid package that really goes much further than Kodi. It’s also for music, video and photos, but the control options go much further. You can set up anything. Think of numerous DSP options and even room correction is possible. Be careful with DSPs, transcoding and sample rate conversions, because their quality varies greatly. Even the DSP of Roon is not world-shakingly good. How JRiver’s DSP is, we dare not say: we have not really tried it.

As with Kodi, JRiver can do more than playback. It is also a server and controller application. In other words: JRiver can send music to other – UPnP / OpenHome – players and can control them. Handy!

Foobar

Foobar is a free music package. Now there are plenty of players, but what makes Foobar very interesting is that it is expandable with numerous plugins (Components). So you can add ASIO, Wasapi, RAM buffers, CD writer or visual effects. Even DSD support is included, which is quite unique.

Many users of Foobar say that the playback is very good. We can agree with that. Whether it is better than the other, good, music players, we do not know. But the fact is: it’s free and it works like a charm. We have never noticed that it sounds better or worse than, say, JRiver. But we are going to test that a bit more thoroughly.

Jplay

JPlay is software from JCat. The well-known manufacturer of audio PC accessories. We have recently tested JPlay (JPlay Femto). This is a solution where a server and special ASIO driver is installed. There is also a player that plays directly without other software. JPlay supports several transport options, including Kernel streaming which should sound better than ASIO and Wasapi (Windows).

The JPlay software works without question. It really sounds cleaner and better than the standard drivers that are usually included. How is that possible? JPlay optimizes the timing of the signal. And that has a direct impact on the reproduction. Highly recommended if you use the PC as a player and have software that supports ASIO (Kodi does not, unfortunately). The price is 150 euros… not cheap. But it does work.

Audirvana

Audirvana is a package for Mac and recently Windows as well. Your author has no experience with it yet. However, colleague Yung does and if we are to believe him, it is excellent software that works particularly well and sounds good.

Like JPlay, Audirvana uses next to ASIO and Wasapi (Windows) also Kernel streaming which should sound better. With JPlay it works well, so we guess that with Audirvana it will also work fine.

XXHighEnd

Speaking of nerdy, XXHighEnd is by far the most nerdy player on the market. It is notable, however, that the latest version is from 2020. If the forum is to be believed, it is not for inexperienced users. We are still going to dive in. If the links on XXHighEnd’s website work again… it doesn’t give much confidence that so few updates are launched…too bad.

HQ Player

HQPlayer is a serious, high-end player that works on almost all platforms. Windows, Mac, Linux. We love that. However, the price is also serious: 240 Euros. That’s one of the reasons we haven’t tested it yet: how big is that market? We would love to hear from you if you would like a review. If so, we’ll dive a little deeper into this as well.

Other things

Now we haven’t covered one important thing yet. Direct streaming from Tidal and Spotify (and perhaps by now other services). This is done via Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect. Handy additions that make it possible to play from the Tidal or Spotify application directly to a – compatible! – streamer. Unfortunately it does not work with all streamers. It must be integrated in the software.

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