I just signed up for JPlay trial and am using the MPD/Minimserver settings in my Kala K50. All seems to be working well and I am learning the interface. Yes, it sounds great. Not sure it sounds better than ROON/Squeeze however. Time will tell.
One issue: It seems to have found 1656 Playlists that I have no idea of. In ROON or Qobuz, I have only a dozen or so.
These playlists seem to be complete albums.
Does anyone have an idea where they came from and how I might get rid of them as Playlists?
I still find JPlay a little buggy at times. I have to rescan periodically and sometimes restart the app. The sound quality is still superior to Squeeze/Roon. I spun some CDs the other night. Itās fun to do once in a while. My CD Transport/DAC combo sounds superb. Of course the next day I had to compare JPlayer to my CD Player. Very close. I probably could not tell the difference. I switched back to Squeeze/Roon and it is a distant 3rd. Roon sounds veiled or something on my system.
Iām the opposite, JPlay is just about flawless in use for me.
Howeverā¦ā¦. squeeze/squeeze is almost unusable.
Laggy, buggy, slow, wonāt respond to multiple track shuffles and just ends a song and plays the one Iāve selected in the list - refuses to connect.
Iāve had to log ANOTHER Support job to get it looked at again. Itās lasted about 3 weeks since the last IT tech fixed the connection issue.
Iām about ready to forget about it completely - if I didnāt need Internet Radio like Radio Paradise that JPlay doesnāt support.
Iām about ready to just get Roon to provide that Internet Radio need.
Although Iād rather not pay a hefty subscription just for that, as JPlay is that superior sound wise compared to Roon/Roon that it isnāt even close.
I use Roon ARC in the car and love it. The mystery for me is how I can have my K50 set on MPD/Mininserver and Roon ARC still works.
As a Jones Generation person, I stuck to understanding software until about a decade ago. Now, itās a stretch for me using this leading edge streaming gear. Like I said before, it was a lot sorting through cables, power cords, network switches and even which streamer box to buy but now we have to evaluate even the software for the best sound.
I bought my wife her first Apple computer almost 20 years ago for the user simplicity. Now, I have been using Apple computers myself since 2015. Not like decades ago when I would build my own PC.
Iām testing JPLAY with MPD/Minimserver and comparing it to Roon/Squeeze, which is my usual playback method.
I get the impression that Roon/Squeeze sounds more unfocused, although I need to test it more thoroughly.
Roon server should have more options to disable background processes, although Iāve already disabled all library analysis.
I also canāt disable ARC, which I donāt use.
On the other hand, Iām having a lot of problems when I try to connect to the Roon server on my CX; it never connects on the first try, it always needs several attempts lately. This doesnāt happen with Squeeze+Squeeze or Jplay. Am I the only one?
Hello. The error you mentioned regarding JPlay and multiple scans and reloads of the library could also be a MinimServer issue. I also experienced some album covers simply not displaying, even though everything was correctly stored in the folder. This happened with both JPlay and BubbleUPnP. Squeeze/Squeeze, for example, has no problems displaying my album covers. Sonically, JPlay with the MinimServer/MPD combination is perfectly fine. I compared this combination to Squeeze/Squeeze during my two-week trial period. JPlay offered more tonal colors than Squeeze/Squeeze. The soundstage is flatter with JPlay than with Squeeze/Squeeze. With JPlay, the individual tonal characteristics have more impact and sound more coherent. However, this isnāt necessarily due to JPlayās sound; itās certainly also related to the MinimServer/MPD combination. This combination sounds almost identical with BubbleUPnP as it does with JPlay. But only almost. I preferred JPlay, but the spatial impression was nearly the same. Squeeze/Squeeze sounds the most natural to me of all the possible combinations. Nice and spacious. Great sense of room. Very open. Incredibly airy. Squeeze/Squeeze plays with total ease. Regarding Jplay, Squeeze/Squeeze could perhaps offer a bit more tonal variety. That would be its only criticism. Roon/Roon remains at the bottom of the list. Far behind, in fact. I donāt even compare it to Roon/Roon anymore. Roon/Squeeze is such a misleading combination of sonic experiments. Thatās why this combination sounds rather muddy.
I agree with everything in your message, from beginning to end. I disagree that Squeeze is unusable, as it still sounds the best, and it seems the Squeeze developers are doing many things right. I also have the issue of playback suddenly stopping and then playing the next track. Even after several remote access attempts, the problem was never truly resolved. My K50 software is also up to date. You can listen to Radio Paradise on Jplay, though. I was able to add it.
jplay is a controller and cannot modify the sound in any way; it doesnāt perform any local processing.
The difference is between mpd minimserver and squeeze.
jplay is like an UPnP remote control, nothing more.
Thatās why I specifically addressed the Minimserver/MPD combination in terms of sound above. Therefore, I believe my sonic observations are accurate, and Iām happy to switch back to Squeeze/Squeeze.
As a follow-up: Perhaps Jplay simply implements the functionality of the Minimserver/MPD combination very well. Therefore, one can and should say that Jplay sounds good, or better thanā¦ even if all other remote controls use Minimserver/MPD.
It could be, because it uses less bandwidth and therefore less noise.
Iām not very familiar with jplay, but I use it and it seems to work well.
Iāll try switching back to squeeze/squeeze out of curiosity.
Yes, I completely agree. Feel free to let me know if you switch to Squeeze/Squeeze at any point. To me, this combination doesnāt sound perfect either, but compared to the other possible combinations, itās somehow the best. With Jplay, I prefer the fuller sound compared to Squeeze/Squeeze. Well, itās all a bit complicatedā¦
Yes itās all relative to each users system/room/taste etc.
I got an Internet server /modem set up tip from Mark and itās seems to resolve my connection issue with squeeze/squeeze.
Iāve compared JPlay and squeeze/ squeeze extensively over many, many months.
Without question - for me - squeeze / squeeze has the better sound quality.
It has more resolution, bass punch & articulation, better soundstage, more space between instruments and vocals - itās just not as compressed as JPlay and more ācolorā to the music and just more fun and engaging in general.
Not night / day, but enough to matter to me.
Nowā¦ā¦. The user experience and ease of use vs JPlay, now thatās another matter:ā¦ā¦.
Thatās true, I agree with Christian too. Squeeze/Squeeze sounds more precise and dynamic. jplay doesnāt work with Squeeze even if the UPnP plugin is enabled on Squeeze, too bad.
I completely agree with you. Iāve simply gotten used to Squeezeās user interface. Select music, start, listen, done. Thatās all I need. My CD collection didnāt offer me anything more back then.
While my Antipodes is away being serviced I have been running Lyrion on a mac mini m4. With the Create Virtual Libraries, DSP, Tidal and Qobuz plugins I am slowly replacing roon. I am going to try the Backup plugin next. I am tiring of the roon forums and their condescending attitudes as well as roonās harsh sound.
Harsh sound is exactly the right word. That was also my final assessment of Squeeze/Squeeze and Minimserver/MPD/Jplay. I completely deleted my Roon account, or rather, had it dissolved/deleted by Roon. It simply doesnāt make sense to continue with Roon. Roon is far too expensive for such poor sound quality. It just doesnāt add up.
