When I first came through the name of Jplay, I was thinking it is most likely just another gimmick or hoax that intend to sell more than it can do. Will Jplay, a software music player that also used kernel streaming improve the sound of my PC that already using kernel streaming? That is the doubt I have in my mind at first.
So I went and google about Jplay. Surprisingly, Jplay has very good and positive feedbacks and reviews. The 6moons.com even gave Jplay a "Blue Moon Award" with the praise "Innovation in sound quality & musicality for PC / Windows music player software". There are also feedback from users stating that they even heard improvement on sound quality from their integrated / onboard sound card. These feedbacks and reviews seem very convincing.
Free Trial Version
This is definitely the best part of Jplay. They provide free trial version to be downloaded and tested with all the features enabled. Just that there will be moments of silent that happen occasionally when you are listening to the music. So you are free to judge whether that Jplay improve your sound quality and whether it worth the money. Here is the link for the free trial version of Jplay: http://jplay.eu/download/
Jplay Sound Quality
At the first play after installed the trial version, I am totally sold by the improved sound quality. The sound just seem to be so relaxing and airy feel that I never heard on my DAC before. That is just the default settings on Jplay. After messing around with the setting of Jplay, I think Xtream setting with Direct Link seem to be the best while my sister prefer the River setting. Well, it actually depend on personal taste. From other users' feedback, it seem that the ULTRAstream setting that only support windows 8 is even better. But I will just leave it at Xtream setting for now since I don't have any plan to upgrade to win 8 anytime soon.
Verdict
- Jplay really does improve your sound from the PC.
- However, Jplay is also very demanding on PC requirement.
- With the price tag of 99 Euro Dollar. Jplay is not for everyone. It is means for those in pursuit of higher quality sound that owned some system that cost at least RM 5k or above.
- Try it out yourself with the trial version here: http://jplay.eu/download/
Showing posts with label Music Player. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music Player. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Friday, 17 May 2013
Music Playback with Kernel Streaming Just Make the DAC even Better ^^
After getting a DAC such as the recommended Stoner Acoustics UD100 in my previous post or other DAC, its time to focus back on the music playback software on the pc. There are many positive feedback about setting up the audio player with "Kernel streaming", "ASIO" or "WASAPI-exclusive" can improve audio quality. Personally, i prefer "kernel streaming" over the other settings and will only focus on it in this post.
For the music player part, i personally prefer "ttplayer" (千千静听) and "foobar2000". Both players are also free to download and use. Ttplayer seem to focus more on the vocal part of the song while the instrument part seem a little bit less focus. Besides that, this player also seem to color the vocal a bit to be more sweet to listen to. I used this player when I wanted to listen to some sweet vocal especially during Chinese songs. This player is definitely not suitable for those that wanted the natural or original sound. Foobar2000 is a more natural and balance sounding player. It's the main player on my pc.
Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Ttplayer (千千静听)
Ttplayer already have kernel streaming included. You just have to set it in the settings as long as the DAC support it.
1) Choose setting (千千选项) in Ttplayer.
2) Set it as shown in the picture below. Click save and it's well to go.
Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Foobar2000
Foobar doesn't include kernel streaming when installed.
1) Download the Kernel Streaming for Foobar from: http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks
2) Then open Foobar2000 player.
3) Choose "Library" > "Configure".
4) Choose "Components" > "Install".
5) Choose the downloaded zip file without extracting it.
6) Click "OK" and restart Foobar.
7) Go "Library" > "Configure" again.
8) Choose "Playback" > "Output", then choose "KS: (DAC name)".
Verdict
Some may prefer the newly setup sound while some may not. It's totally up to your personal taste. If you don't like the sound of Kernel Streaming, you can just change it back to the old setting. But personally, i think kernel streaming really does improve the sound quality by:
- better separation of vocal and also instruments
- clearer and more power sounding
- less noise
But it is not without flaw. The flaw of kernel streaming is only 1 software can use the DAC at the same time. Sometimes you will found that the flash player of internet browser is hogging the DAC and you are unable to play any song on the player.
For the music player part, i personally prefer "ttplayer" (千千静听) and "foobar2000". Both players are also free to download and use. Ttplayer seem to focus more on the vocal part of the song while the instrument part seem a little bit less focus. Besides that, this player also seem to color the vocal a bit to be more sweet to listen to. I used this player when I wanted to listen to some sweet vocal especially during Chinese songs. This player is definitely not suitable for those that wanted the natural or original sound. Foobar2000 is a more natural and balance sounding player. It's the main player on my pc.
Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Ttplayer (千千静听)
Ttplayer already have kernel streaming included. You just have to set it in the settings as long as the DAC support it.
1) Choose setting (千千选项) in Ttplayer.
2) Set it as shown in the picture below. Click save and it's well to go.
Setting Up Kernel Streaming with Foobar2000
Foobar doesn't include kernel streaming when installed.
1) Download the Kernel Streaming for Foobar from: http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_out_ks
2) Then open Foobar2000 player.
3) Choose "Library" > "Configure".
4) Choose "Components" > "Install".
5) Choose the downloaded zip file without extracting it.
6) Click "OK" and restart Foobar.
7) Go "Library" > "Configure" again.
8) Choose "Playback" > "Output", then choose "KS: (DAC name)".
Verdict
Some may prefer the newly setup sound while some may not. It's totally up to your personal taste. If you don't like the sound of Kernel Streaming, you can just change it back to the old setting. But personally, i think kernel streaming really does improve the sound quality by:
- better separation of vocal and also instruments
- clearer and more power sounding
- less noise
But it is not without flaw. The flaw of kernel streaming is only 1 software can use the DAC at the same time. Sometimes you will found that the flash player of internet browser is hogging the DAC and you are unable to play any song on the player.
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