JRiver for Mac - any good?

[ngibbs]

Hello

I see a lot of sigs with JRiver, so I'm curious to try out their Mac version. I'm just importing my music files now. Anyone have any experience with it?

 

[wilro15]

Holy Thread Resurrection! Sorry, I found this while researching JRiver for Mac.

Does anyone have any experience of using JRiver on a Mac? Is it worthwhile using instead of iTunes? Any gotchas?

 

[wilro15]

Well I tried JRiver and was seriously underwhelmed by it. It only supports audio on OSX and didn't seem to offer anything that iTunes doesn't already do.

I'll stick with iTunes for now.

 

[LesterAnorak]

I can't specifically tell you about JRiver for Mac, but I am currently trialling it with Windows and I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, it's far and away a better sound than iTunes. I have just compared Windows Media Player, iTunes and Winamp against it and they all sound different, my order of preference being as I've written them above, WMA worst. However, you also need to optimise set-up: JRiver has the capability to run using ASIO drivers, the others use Direct Sound, giving, to me, a glassier sound, while Winamp sounds best using Waveout. Sorry, none of this useful for Mac maybe, but may help others; regardless, JRiver runs at the highest bit-rate possible on your machine, downconverting only when necessary. The sound is the only one that sounds like real high end hi-fi. I am sad to say that I am going to have to splash out $50 and buy it, its that much better than all the free rivals. Its a 30 day free trial, so you've nothing to lose deciding for yourself. Its library and display handling capabilities are more comprehensive too, as a bonus.

 

[abolit]

I tried Jriver for mac (the last version) and was not much impressed with the sound. Even itune (as a standalone app) sounds better (more natural and refined) than Jriver. I"m not sure what audio engine they are implementing in jriver but , in comparison with Audirvana Plus + itune, I would characterize the sound quality as average.

 

[smuggs]

Its a computer media section j river is better than itunes at adding mkv dvd and blu ray rips of films / tv series

better at itunes at playing back iso music dvd rips has a grear ipad and iphone app all be it £6.99

and im sure is not far away from on the sound side of things id say get it for £30 its a great bit of kit with the best ui.

all im saying is even though you just thinking music now it offers the whole package and will keep you happy whatever your needs in the future.

also can you on the mac not just try the 30 day free trial.