TWEAKS for PC USB DAC SETUP

I am running Windows Xp and using a pretty high quality sound card(Echo Layla 24/96) which has an external breakout box with built in dac. I have been using Windows Media Player 9 for all of music. But sounds like you guys are saying that J River is leaps and bounds in sound quality so i am interested. I would like to try this but i don't want to screw anything up with my soundcard. Will the J River integrate seemlessly with it or do i need to do some tweaks after downloading. I believe the Echo Layla already is using ASIO. When i went to try to disable this Kmixer thing i couldn't find it anywhere? I don't want to mess anything up as you can imagine and i am not the most PC savvy guy in the world but i can navigate around decently.
Can anybody help me out with the required steps i need to take to take this to the next level with J River? And is the J River everyone is using free or is that something i need to purchase for best performance as i understand also there is a free one and one you need to purchase?
THANKS!

I'm not too fond of the J River support forums, but if you are willing to dig a bit, your questions and the answers are likely there.

I'd not be too concerned about JR's install. it'll see what you have for your video and audio just like WMP, ItUNES, OR ANY OTHER media player would.

there's two JR players. Jukebox & Media Center 12. Jukebox is free 100%. Media Center 12 has a 30 day trial. Media Center can play ALL media files. Jukebox only plays audio files. MC plays protected, WMA, iTunes, etc.

I suspect yet do not indeed know, that JR MC (what I use on my XP Pro), alters the path for music playback apart from the Sound Mixer inherent to Windows OS AUDIO playback.

What I do know, is with as crapy a sound card as one can have, the onboard audio became immensely better with no other changes and doing playback simply through my desktop Altec Lansing 2.1 junkie speakers.

gaining a better USB DAC (or in essence, a diff Sound card), playback via a higher res system was again improved.

As I had no ASIO (audio stream input output) driver, I added one of them too... ASIO for all... together, the sound is rivaling my main CDP source... albeit not surpassing it. the immediacy or avialability of the greater variety and access of the tracks on my PCs USB HDD offsets the lessend presentation...

The other installed software media players I have on board werent' affected. I never use WMA... but do use and have installed, ituens, Power DVD, EAC, VLC, & Winamp. so it's doubtful something bad or irreversable will happen if you install JR.

In fact I'D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW IF GREATER GAIN COULD BE HAD USING JR WITH A BETTER ONBOARD CARD, AND i SUSPECT IT WOULD... BETTER THAN WITH usb dac? THAT'S A DIFFERENT TEST.

Good luck, don't worry.

Thanks Blindjim!

Well you are right. I should get over there and read up on their forums and see what i can learn there before downloading, just to be on the safe side.
I'm curious if the sound quality of the free version is as good as the JRMC? That is something i would like to know.
And also if i download JR if it will disable all of WMP 9 functionality? It sounds like you are saying that your other media player software players weren't affected by the JRMC install and that you could still use them?

I need to find out if the Kmixer is bypassed in the install of JR and if my WMP files will still be able to be played. I have a few FLAC files downloaded but they will not play at present if i try and open them. I need to convert them over to Wave files via a program i use called Flac Frontend which then converts them into Wav's with the WMP logo on them which then lets me listen to them or burn to disc if i choose to. So i don't understand at this point how people are just listening to Flac files on their PC's and on their own at this point.
I guess you are saying maybe that the JR Media Centre CAN play the Flac files and JR jukebox and WMP 9 can't?

Well i better get over to the JR forum and see what i can learn there.

Thanks for the thelp in this thread and on others!

installing either jukebox or MC won't affect the other sofgtware on your PC. The ONLY issue may be that YOU allow it to be the sole or default player on the PC via file associations. That can be changed too. Later. In the options menu under tools, in JR.

yOU CAN TELL THE PC TOO. bY OPENING UP eXPLORER AND FINDING THE FILES YOU WISH WHICHEVER PROGRAM TO OPEN, RIGHT CLICK ON ONE OF THEM, AND CHOOSE THE 'OPEN WITH' SELECTION, AND THEN THE ACTUAL PROGRAM YOU LIKE.

Sometimes you have to do both. I had no such porblem except with CD playback... and that took just a few seconds to fix by following the above steps.

This way with XP will ensure there are no conflicts... create another user account. Give it admin rights. Log onto that account. Download whatever software there using this new account. Windows should not allow that newly made accounts setting s to conflict with other normally used account settings... and vice versa.

I noticed no diff sonically using either Jukebox or MC 12. I chose MC 12 ONLY because it played my protected files as well. Jukebox would play them now and then but not always.

it might have needed to be reinstalled... I don't know. But MC12 did so that was fine by me. I don't even use the MC12's video facets at all as it conflicts with my adaptive software... or the other way 'round. But somethings going on that prevents it from showing DVDs, etc. other apps do the same thing too, so I know it's not just JR but my needed accessibility program.

jukebox will play FLAC too. winamp will as well with the right plug in. I'm sure there are others too.

Ok i just went ahead and downloaded the J River Media Jukebox 12. It prompted me through some things and i think i made the right decisions but time will tell. But just imported all of the music files on my computer into it and am listening to it now and it sounds fantastic. I went into the drop down menu and selected 24 bit since my sound card is 24 bit so i hope that was the right decision? Sounds just fine and when i did hit the 24 bit it did seem to open up a bit for sure. And heck i am just listening to an Mp3 file and i never heard this file sound so good!

I'm sure i will have more to follow down the road and probably more questions..... hah!

thanks again Blindjim!