is there a best music player on the computer?

Ditto! JPlay is the new reference when it comes to computer playback, IMHO!

About the Apple question; I experimented with MacMini using Pure Music and Decibel (did not try Amarra), and also tried the same with the latest MacBook Pro (Core i7). None sounded as good as if running Windows 7 (x64), JRiver MC and ASIO4ALL. But now with JPlay and JRiver MC17 is a totally new level of performance.

The level of naturalness and refinement combined with extreme detail and 3D soundstage is truly amazing! Congratulations to the JPlay team!

Best wishes,
Alex Peychev

I second "JPlay" for Windows too!

For Mac I feel that Amarra still the best but with high costs. Otherwise Audirvana is now the best albeit not quite stable yet. PureMusic and Fidelia seems to be almost equal.

I will add on to the praise of Jplay. Was using J River and decided to try Jplay on a trial basis - especially since it integrates nicely into J-River as a plugin. I did not need more than a few songs to realize that JPlay was the better player in my system. Difference was not subtle.

It's not cheap (99 Euros or about $137 at time of purchase with exchange rate) but considering what people pay for cables and other tweaks it's a no brainer if you really want to optimize your digital experience on the PC. Between J River and JPlay it will set you back just under $200.

Only potential downside is that the interface is very basic. Don't expect lots of extras. The programming time and effort clearly went into optimizing the sound rather than convenient features. Hopefully, we will get some of these in later updates (which are free for life).

ok, jPlay it is.
I'll buy a HP laptop with win7/64-bit, i5 2.4GHz processor, 80GB SSD, 750GB hard drive, and 6GB DDR3.

How best to optimize jPlay? Upgrade RAM to 16GB? Do I store CDs and hi-rez files on the HD or SSD?? Or is the SSD better served as the buffer? Which USB port: Super Speed 3.0? Ideas?

Sorry, just a newbie here looking for help or a good link!

Can J Play run under Microsoft HomeServer OS? If not, what recommendation for that OS? It is a dedicated music server so I don't imagine that something that runs in "hibernation mode" would be a problem. Please be gentle on the geek-talk. My IT consultant (read my son) is away at law school ;-)