Amarra 2.4.2
Well what it proves to me is that if you want to be absolutely sure that there's no hokey pokey going on you do at least need something like bitperfect in the background managing things like buffering, hog-mode and biterate/bitdepth selection. In that respect yes you may as well be running a PC and JRiver. At the end of the day it's obviously down to what os and player you'd rather be running. For music I'd rather have a Mac and ITunes. But I'm under no illusion that my choice inherently gives me better sound because I've bought the 'audiophiles choice' of computer. I suppose that makes me a pretty naff Apple fanboy lol.
Until HD Tracks opens up its license to the EU, then JRMC will really compete with itunes with user friendnliness.
Which begs another question actually - if you use the native OS (i.e. Aple OS vs Windows) which is less intrusive? If only because spotify must be streamed through the native BIOS resampling / sound mixing process since as far as I understand it doesn't have a resampler, and no direct control etc.
Fair question...answer is I'm not sure. Based on my long experience of Windows products (15 years or so from Win3.1 to Vista) and my short experience of Mac products (a year and a half, OSX 10.6 - 10.8 ) my gut feeling is that the Mac is less intrusive. Before joining here I hadn't heard of audiophile players such as J River, but I had noted that without using drivers such as ASIO4ALL, music from Windows sounded a bit veiled. I don't feel that's the case at all with a Mac, even without BitPerfect (which of course you can't use with Spotify anyway).
I'm inclined to agree with you on that, I suspect that Mac OS is inherently more sympathetic with it's treatment of native audio, even if it's not as much as I had assumed.
JRMC is a really excellent bit of software to be honest, I am amazed by how much you get, and how much support there is for a measly $40 or so.
Yeah it does look good. If I used a PC for music I'd probably buy it.
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Quite why iTunes doesn't switch the bitrate properly is anyone's guess...
The answer to this is something to do with the way Core Audio handles system sounds, iirc. It's a long time since I read an explanation of this and, of course, I have no way of knowing if the explanation was correct. And also because it is only a tiny, tiny, miniscule percentage of iTunes users who are aware that audio files at higher bit-depths/sample rates even exist, and that is before getting into the argument of are they even necessary given the limitations of human hearing and the kit playing the music, it is probably not worth Apple doing it.
Since when did Apple subscribe to the Gates ethos then??
The iPod; the "audiophiles" portable, the BMW sports saloon of mobile music. It really was BS all the time then. Phew. I tell ya, forget dissing cables and DACs; all you Apple people really have gone for a swoosh
(not directed at you necessarily Craig!)
JRiver MC17 -> Cambridge Audio DACmagic+ -> Roksan Caspian M2 -> ProAc D18