J River Vs. Media Monkey Do they sound different


So I invested in a Wyred 4 Sound Dac 2. Initially gad it hooked up to my Oppo 83 as transport and now have taken the plunge and hooked my PC up to the dac via USB. Very simple. Downloaded Media Moonkey and found it to be unnecessarily difficult to navigate. I downloaded J River and found the interface to be great.

I have Vista and am using Kernel Streaming. Sounds great! Even downloaded some hi res albums from HD Tracks. Does anyone have an opinion if there is a sound difference between the most popular packages and if so, who's software sounds the best? Are there software tricks that improve sound (besides kernel streaming and Wasapi?

Thanks in advance.
dmm53
4est-every player is going to have different ASIO choices
as well, atleast for Windows 7. Do the math on the different possible combinations available, it is way up there. With a new Player, and new Formats coming out every
week! If I was a rock, I might have enough time to
experiment. Gotta work, Gotta make a living, Gotta eat. Is this Hobby just for Rich guys with so much money, that they have all of the time in the World to experiment till
Rocks grow old? "We have all...the time...in the World...",
only in the Movies 4est Gump/007! Most of us aren't part of "Her Majesty's Secret Service", and not privy to "For Your Eyes Only" secrets of PC Audio. Maybe "Goldfinger", doesn't want any information, and "Only wants you to die",
we DO want info. Do we really have to tie you down to a slab, and aim an Indusrial Laser between your legs to get you to talk? Count me in, it sounds like fun to watch!
Talk someone into PC Audio, then leave them stranded-NICE!
Makes you feel like an honorary member of the "Spectre"
PC Audio Fan Club. "Which insane asylum did they dig you out of"? "You do know the price of failure, don't you"?
Welcome to the Seventh Level of PC Audio Hell, watch your
step to the next Level. Remind me again who talked me into
believing that this was a good idea? Oh, yeah, it is
supposed to be CONVENIENT being able to move from one Level
of PC Audio Hell, deeper to the next. "Don't buy it if you don't like it", yeah, except the guy that I sold my Soul to
doesn't seem to be in a renegotiating mood! So, please
remind this "Private Benjamin", novice of PC Audio, exactly
where are the promised CONVENIENT Penthouses of PC Audio? I think that there has been some huge mistake, you see. I must have been sent to the wrong P-L-A-C-E for PC Audio! I'm supposed to be in the place with CONVENIENT Penthouses,
with CONVENIENT Swimming Pools, with the CONVENIENT absence
of CD Disk clutter. Well, if you are a sucker for, Perfect
Sound Forever, you must be a natural for Convenient PC
Audio Forever! Don't forget your Coins for the Tillerman!
Abandon All Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here! Better To Be Ruled
In PC Audio Hell, Than To Serve In Heaven. Wait a minute,
that didn't work out, how was that supposed to go again?
That is not what I was promised! Why am I not suprised? Actually I am surprised with PC Audio, out of my wits-as in scared out of- Captain Sir! "Thanks for the Ride, Lady"!
Yes, actually I made this comparison in the last week and I'm convinced the J. River is audibly superior to Media Monkey. I've deleted Media Monkey and I'm now using J. River Jukebox 14 (the free one).

For me the J. River was a bit more difficult to navigate than the Media Monkey but I can't argue with the sonic performance of the former. It's quite satisfying.

I also use the W4S DAC-2 and J. River was recommended to me by EJ Sarmento of Wyred 4 Sound when I told him I was having some trouble getting the DAC-2 to recognize the sampling frequency with Media Monkey. He said he had the same issue with Media Monkey. To my delight the J. River also sounds better.
Plato:

Thanks to everyone. Plato, setup was pretty simple. i read a lot before I set up J River. The only real issue was making sure Kernel Streaming or Wasapi was selected.

Are there tweaks or hidden issues that you found made a difference in using JRiver? Is there any advantage to using up sampling in the menu?
I have the same setup as above (W4S Dac2 and JRiver 15).
Initially I was using K.Streaming which sounded good. Later J.River released a mode called "wasapi event style", which is what I use now with Win7 64 running on a solid state disc.

KS sounds a bit more polite but Wasapi engine is a bit more analytical and transparent. Make sure to select 24 bit in Jriver's audio setup if you play with Wasapi event style.

I tried Jriver's upsampling with regular 16/44.1k FLAC files but I didn't notice any great improvements. I leave the native resolution of whatever file I play.

Cheers