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J River Music Software for Mac

Have been an iTunes and now Apple Music user since iTunes inception and generally very satisfied with the sound quality from my wireless audio systems using Apple Airport Express. In the last month I have become really disappointed in the sound quality from Apple Music (it replaced iTunes) and now looking for an alternative. What experiences good or bad have you had with J River media software for Mac? 
My system is designed around an Apple iMac computer with all of the music (2500 albums) in AIFF files on a separate hard drive. I wirelessly play the music using two (2) airport expresses; one to a Rotel Integrated Amp for my music room system, and the other to a Denon AVR for the whole house system. I use optical cables from airport expresses to the amps. Your suggestions regarding J River's sound quality and user friendliness are welcomed.
joscow
3 responses Add your response
joscow OP
46 posts
 
Kijanki and sfar, thanks for comments.n will take your suggestions into consideration.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
I didn't hear any difference with the switch to Music from iTunes with a similar setup in one system, iMac/WiFi/Airport Express. The optical output from the Airport Express and Apple TV suffers from a lot of jitter, timing errors in the digital signal. If you want to stick with the AE the biggest improvement you could make would be to put a reclocker between the AE and the DACs inside your amps. I've used a Wyred4Sound Remedy Reclocker with great results and there may be other such devices out there. An external DAC that does a better job of taming the jitter than the internal ones in your amps could be an improvement, as well.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
I also have Mac+Itunes+WiFi+AE, but sound quality after update to Music is exactly the same.  Perhaps something else changed?
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