Audiophile
JRMC has a feature rich interface.
This in general doesn't appeal to the audiophile community.
There is a strong belief that less is more (sound quality).
However JRMC offers a couple of typical audiophile options.
Drivers
A (device) driver is a piece of software allowing other programs to communicate with a device without having specific knowledge of this device.
If you print a document, the device driver of the printer translates the incoming stream into something the printer understands.
In case of audio it is no different.
A media player doesn’t know every possible sound card.
The driver of the sound card takes care of the specifics.
In case of computer audio drivers like WASAPI or ASIO are deliberately chosen to bypass parts of the audio system of the operating system.
This in general results in lower latency, a bit perfect path and automatic sample rate switching.
ASIO
The Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) architecture is developed by Steinberg to create a low latency, high performance, easy set up and stable audio recording environment.
It is a proprietary protocol.
Your hardware must support it.
Direct Sound
This is the Windows default.
It allows multiple audio streams and they will be mixed and converted to the same sample rate.
Disk Writer
Writes the audio to Hard Disk.
Audio is converted to WAV.
Wave Out
The old Windows default (3.x).
It has been superseded by Direct Sound most of all to improve gaming experience.
Kernel Streaming
Compared with wave out method, kernel streaming requires less CPU time.
It also bypasses Kmixer and Windows volume control.
It has a lower latency.
This might be interesting when using XP.
XP can be configured to deliver bit perfect output but this is probably a better way as no other device can use the sound card during playback.
It probably won't work with Vista or Win7.
Kernel Streaming is known to work on certain Windows Vista and Windows 7 configurations, but not with devices having WaveRT drivers such as High Definition Audio Devices integrated with newer motherboards
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=78885
In my case (Win7) it doesn't, no output device is selectable.
WASAPI
A driver available in the new windows audio architecture (Vista and later).
In exclusive mode it bypasses the Windows audio engine.
More about configuring WASAPI can be found here.
Can you play this from memory?
The answer is yes.
You can choose to load the entire song in memory, no disk access during playback.
More about memory playback
Media center playing from memory, zero reads.
More about memory playback.
64-bit data path
JRMC 15 build 101 and above uses a purely 64-bit data path for all audio.
The new 64-bit precision path ensures that no precision is lost even when doing many stacked DSP effects.
Multiple output devices
If you have multiple audio channels e.g. the onboard speakers and an external DAC, you can set the speakers as the default playback device and Media center to the external DAC.
No more system sounds in full blast over the stereo!
Plug-ins
You can add all kind of plug-ins
- J. River
- VST
- Winamp
- DirectShow Filter
More about DSP