Generally, I have found there to be little difference between the most popular programs such as Winamp, Foobar, and JRiver Jukebox, although a lot depends on how the computer is set up, and whether it uses plug-ins such as ASIO. You will hear different play-back software touted as sounding better or worse than the competition. I improved matters with Windows XP by stripping back the operating system to the bare essentials but if you use the computer for other jobs, that isn't very practical. This may be because there are a lot of processes in a Windows operating system that can adversely affect the music play-back. In my own experience, I have found that I prefer to use Ubuntu (when I can) for music played from a computer (actually it's played from some type of storage such as a hard drive, but the computer provides the means of getting from the storage to the hi-fi). Of course, how large that effect is will depend on the quality of your hi-fi to reveal subtle changes.

Apart from the hardware, it appears that the operating system, and the play-back software can and does affect the quality of the music coming through the speakers. It appears that with the arrival of computer-audio, we now have a whole new set of variables to go along with the ones in our hi-fi systems. In this review I'll step-aside from the controversy over digital cables and look at playback software. I think, or at least I hope, that we have all by now realised that digital audio is just as subject to the influences of the playback system as analogue audio.

Reviewed: September, 2011 and updated January 2016 Squeezing a bit extra out of a Windows music server

J river media jukebox