Best sounding computer playback program

[adamdea]

I think it depends what you mean by “performance”. LMS is a really good system. Maybe roon does some stuff it doesn’t- but does Roon have everything it has? I couldn’t do without BBC sounds/iPlayer and YouTube and I like being able to use a pi as a server.

 

[Del monaco]

LMS is a different being but great with a Pi and Material Skin. It has a lot of the features associated with Roon and comes at no cost. It doesn’t have DSP features but I never messed with the sound when I had Roon. Sound quality is just as good. I’ve just added a Squeezebox Radio to the network and it’s great fun in the kitchen. Nice sound.

 

[miktec]

If you aren’t prepared to consider paying a few quid for the likes of JRiver, or Roon, then you are a cheapskate. By all means constrain yourself to flakey freeware lashed up by an attention seeking incel in a bedroom. Good software is worth paying for.

Bit of a shabby statement really

Whilst I agree that good software earns and deserves reward, dissing those who are quite happy to distribute their efforts freely does a great disservice to a lot of developers out there.
I use Moode and Audacity on a daily basis - both distributed freely and both stonking pieces of coding that do a fantastic job.
I am also quite happy to chip in via PayPal for their support (when I remember )

 

[Yomanze]

What gives you performance equal to Roon for £0? (Please don’t say LMS, because it doesn’t!)

Volumio and Moode with an I2S board on Raspberry Pi, using ALSA on Linux in general, using WASAPI / Exclusive Mode on Windows, perhaps ASIO, or plug and play on Mac. OK Windows and Mac are not technically free, but have a huge amount of free media server and streaming software available.

Under the hood I think Roon is Linux with the real-time kernel, using the ALSA framework for sound.

 

[AndyU]

Volumio and Moode with an I2S board on Raspberry Pi, using ALSA on Linux in general, using WASAPI / Exclusive Mode on Windows, perhaps ASIO, or plug and play on Mac. OK Windows and Mac are not technically free, but have a huge amount of free media server and streaming software available.

Under the hood I think Roon is Linux with the real-time kernel, using the ALSA framework for sound.

Don't you have to pay for Volumio if you want Qobuz integration? And in any case is it integrated as well as Roon - ie seamlessly, so you have a single, searchable library? And don't you have to pay if you want multi-room? I didn't really mean to knock free software, more the people that think it should be free because it doesn't leak oil or plug-in to the wall.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I just use programs like Audacious to play the files - be they on the machine, attached memory, or a NAS. Seems to work fine here.

And FWIW I make my software free (with source code) because others do the same for me. Given how many people do this - inc the Linux distros - essentially eveyone wins because they get far more back than they put in. And by being open, others can check for bugs or dodgy code, etc. Seems good to me.

I gave up on Windows and Macs because I got the feeling they wanted to tell me what I could/couldn't do, and make me pay for it. Plus I simply referred other GUIs, etc, that suit me better.

 

[gustav_errata]

The most important question is: can I use Roon in Emacs?

 

[evand]

What gives you performance equal to Roon for £0?

Depends on how one defines performance.

 

[evand]

Remember roon doesn’t have or offer advertising space or try to gain revenue from a third party

Neither does any of the great software that I use on my Linux desktop every day, whether it’s managing data, editing documents and spreadsheets, online shopping or surfing the web.

 

[evand]

Anyone wanting to play music from a Linux desktop would do well to look into Lollypop.

 

[miktec]

Anyone wanting to play music from a Linux desktop would do well to look into Lollypop.

I use VLC on a RaspiOs install and it works fine, just not the most attractive or intuitive interface.
Took me a while to find out how to output to an IQaudio HAT (but actually easy once I took the trouble to look it up ...)

Will give Lollypop a whirl next time I'm on.

 

[brab]

I use Windows 10. I listen to internet radio going into my Audiolab Mdac. Windows sounds is set to 24/48 as per the Audiolab manual. Windows is also set to allow exclusive control to applications. What am I missing or losing (if anything) that the suggestions in the preceding discussion would address?

 

[gustav_errata]

Anyone wanting to play music from a Linux desktop would do well to look into Lollypop.

That's what I use too.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

I use Windows 10. I listen to internet radio going into my Audiolab Mdac. Windows sounds is set to 24/48 as per the Audiolab manual. Windows is also set to allow exclusive control to applications. What am I missing or losing (if anything) that the suggestions in the preceding discussion would address?

Dunno about Windows. But I always set my audio system (alsa) and software to send to the DAC whatever the samplerate and bit depth each item may be. This avoids the OS 'resampling' anything on its way from a file/stream to the DAC.

Forcing 48k will mean CD material gets resampled. Forcing 44k1 means that many files and net streams will get resampled. (e.g. the BBC use 48k.)

 

[Pkay]

I’m currently using MPD 21.25 version and have found it to be better than LMS. It is free and Linux based (using Snakeoil as the operating system).

Up until recently the interface was terrible compared to iPeng and LMS. I recently bought an app (Apple only) for my iPad and phone called yaMPC and the interface is so much better. There is a free version or full features for $4.99.

I would highly recommend it for anyone with enough know how to try.

 

[onlyconnect]

I’m currently using MPD 21.25 version and have found it to be better than LMS. It is free and Linux based (using Snakeoil as the operating system).

looks good but seems to do a different thing than LMS which is multiroom. MPD is a music player not a server. Ideal of course if that is what you want!

Tim

 

[Pkay]

looks good but seems to do a different thing than LMS which is multiroom. MPD is a music player not a server. Ideal of course if that is what you want!

Tim

That is correct MPD is the player. My server runs in the Snakeoil operating system which is Linux based.

 

[chartz]

I don’t use anything: I just press the space bar on my Mac. Flac plays perfectly. It’s just like playing an EP!
If I want more, like playing a list, then it’s Spotify or Music.
What else do you need?
I’ve tried other software and there is absolutely no sound difference, zero, nothing. How could there be?

 

[Pkay]

I don’t use anything: I just press the space bar on my Mac. Flac plays perfectly. It’s just like playing an EP!
If I want more, like playing a list, then it’s Spotify or Music.
What else do you need?
I’ve tried other software and there is absolutely no sound difference, zero, nothing. How could there be?

What have you compared your computer to? If it sounds as good as vinyl I would be interested to hear what your vinyl setup is?

 

[gustav_errata]

I don’t use anything: I just press the space bar on my Mac. Flac plays perfectly. It’s just like playing an EP!
If I want more, like playing a list, then it’s Spotify or Music.
What else do you need?
I’ve tried other software and there is absolutely no sound difference, zero, nothing. How could there be?

I get the impression this is mostly relevant for Windows, which apparently resamples audio by default. Since we don't know(?) which resampling algorithm is used, one might not trust that it's good enough not to introduce aliasing effects. Hence the common recommendation to use ASIO drivers instead. In Linux if you use ALSA or Pulseaudio, it's very easy to enable/disable resampling. I don't know about Mac or the new up-and-coming Pulseaudio replacement Pipewire.

In all of the above cases, the playback software is irrelevant except for mundane choices like buffer size (as an example, Linux players based on the gstreamer framework struggle to play anything higher than 44.1kHz over UPnP because of a too-small buffer...I'm looking at you, Rhythmbox). Otherwise, it's the underlying soundsystem that has the effect. Unless people are using playback software that uses its own device drivers..?

IIUC, the fancy Windows players that allow resampling etc via ASIO are basically just providing an interface to the capabilities provided by ASIO, not doing anything fancy themselves. Likewise for tapping into VST plugins for doing DSP. It all goes through the bottleneck of the underlying sound system. I'm happy to be corrected here.