Hello everyone,
Something I've been playing with recently which has me confused.
I've used MC for many years as both a stand alone player on an iMac and also as a Media Server (uPNP/DLNA) on an iMac and lately Linux. I've always loved the sound.
I recently conducted an experiment comparing MC with MinimServer both as uPNP servers from an ASUS PN64 miniPC via a wired LAN through a couple of switches to a SoTM SMS200/txUSBultra combination then to a Bricasti M1SE DAC. My amplification includes a VTL TL5II preamp and Krell 350MCX monoblocks driving Magic S1 speakers.
I don't use any upsampling, DSP or equalisers at all in any of my tests or equipment.
I was extremely surprised to find that the sound difference was huge. MinimServer sounded "anaemic" compared to MC31. The biggest difference was in the bass which affected the warmth of the midrange, soundstage depth and width, ambient information etc. The dynamics was gone. I tested with a range of music (classical, jazz, pop, fold etc) with various sampling rates. The differences were very obvious in all cases.
I asked the question whether bits-are-bits? For example on Roger Waters "Amused to Death" Trk#1 Ballad of Bill Hubbard in the first few seconds of the track there's the sound of a dog barking on the right. This was very clear on JRiver but almost inaudible on MinimServer. There are many more instances of this including the sound of the kick drum at the start of Eagles "Hotel California" on the Hell Freezes Over album which misses out on the reverb of the venue.
I used JRemote and Jplay as the controller on JRiver. The results were the same. JRiver sounded much more expansive and lively.
Jplay was the controller on MinimServer.
So does JRiver modify its data stream in any way when used purely as a uPNP/DLNA server?
Stephen
Author
Topic: Does MC modify an audio signal at all? (Read 837 times)