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Why is J River better than iTunes on PC?

I'm having a hard time finding reasons, but the general consensus I'm seeing is that J River is "better" than iTunes in every way. Now, I currently have a large amount of my albums ripped in AIFF format running through iTunes on my Dell PC (Vista Ultimate 64-bit). I downloaded JRiver (MJ) version 12 and have been playing around with it. By the looks of it, in order to simplify the tagging issues of trying to import AIFF into JRiver, I'd have to re-rip all the albums again in, what I'm assuming for best quality, FLAC.

In terms of SQ, I really hear no difference whatsoever between iTunes and JRiver...am I missing something here? Yeah, some of the DSP options are cool like the soundstage effect, but when comparing the two with all levels flat, neither sounds better or worse.

Truthfully, I seem to find the simplicity of iTunes much more appealing. Am I setting up myself for future disappointments or problems by using the AIFF codec and iTunes as my audio playback software? What are the big advantages of using FLAC/JRiver?

Thanks.
heywaj10
dtc's avatar
dtc
1,047 posts
 
I recently converted from iTunes to J River Media Center 13 because J River offers 1) ability to play 24/96 file formats, 2) can use ASIO to bypass KMixer (not an issue on Vista), 3) has a more flexible user interface. For example, with J River I can do a full page view of album covers, zoom the view in and out and then pull up a full page view of the cover when listening. Also, I can sort the view with a lot more options than iTunes has. However, the flexibility of the user interface does come with a higher degree of complexity in set up. For me, the flexibility of J River was worth it. As to converting, I used dBpoweramp batch converter to convert files from Apple lossess to flac. The batch converter is free - you just need to download it and then download the AIFF converter. I would suggest downloading it and trying a few conversions. You may have some tagging issues after converting, but I found them pretty easy to deal with. I would not re-rip unless your AIFF files did not come from lossless sources.
markblom
34 posts
 
The best thing that is way better about J.river of itunes is the screen format of seeing your LPs artwork infront of you. so its easier then the long lins you get in itunes . also it plays formats that itunes wont play and you can share your files with others Itunes you cant do that without really knowing what your doing and tricking it.
davide256's avatar
davide256
395 posts
 
Jriver allows you to chose your output method asio, wasapi or kernel streaming. These are critical for PC sound optimization
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
iTunes has no way of bypassing the windows core audio software. Jriver does. You can do WASAPI or Kernel Streaming. iTunes was never optimized for good SQ on PC. It's even deficient on Mac IMO. Needs Pure Music, Amarra or AyreWave to sound good.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
Ag insider logo xs@2x
nmcc0866
4 posts
 
I've used JRiver, iTunes, FooBar and Media Monkey. They can all deliver bit-perfect digital stream to a DAC, with proper set-up (or in the case of iTunes, an add-on like Pure Music).
So it comes down to ease of use and learning curve, and what you are trying to accomplish with your music management.
For me, JRiver offers excellent flexibility for displaying your music collection in different ways. I use different "View" schemes for classical, jazz and popular music. For classical, the ability to "slice and dice" by composer, artist, soloist, orchestra, conductor, genre, period, style - is absolutely incredible (It does require lots of work to get the tagging correct in the database, but the public databases like AMG make this easier all the time). Anyway, I don't believe you can tag/display/search with that kind of flexibility with iTunes.
OTOH, if you only listen to popular music, and want to keep it simple, stick to iTunes.
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