Now that the dCS network attached devices are JPlay certified I am wondering what I might enjoy if I purchased the app. Mind you, 50 quid a year versus zero is the first hurdle.
My first question concerns JPlay’s statement that " JPLAY minimizes the network traffic between the app and the audio endpoint " How does that stack yup against Mosaic? Is there network noise of this nature with Mosaic? Mosaic does not, of course, handle the music data, it only controls selection. This statement implies to me that this JPlay iOS app has music data passing through it. Has anyone clarification for me?
Secondly I see that internet radio is offered. Does it offer the BBC stations and, if so, does it offer the HD rates i.e. AAC 320kb/s that airable gives us in Mosaic ( at least for UK)?
Thirdly, noting that there is an integration of Qobuz and Tidal, is this function extended to local files? So if I want to play, say, Beethoven’s fifth symphony not only will I be offered a choice between my four or something owned versions but also everything for this title on Qobuz or Qobuz/Tidal ( dozens of them) ?
Pete, the UPnP protocol is pretty specific about how it works with UPnP Servers, Renders, and Clients. JPlay cannot independently deviate from that, and especially not with a 3rd party platform like dCS.
JPlay’s statement about “minimising network traffic” is bogus. As are any claims of better sound quality, as it does not contribute to sound quality at all being merely a control point.
I think this is a little bit of marketing “spin”. I interpret the statement to mean “we use UPnP rather than Airplay to avoid hair-pinning the media stream through your mobile device”. As Anup says, since JPLAY conforms to UPnP it has to follow the standard which means it generates precisely the same amount of network “noise” as any other UPnP client.
I think speed-reading let you down here. JPLAY has a “radio” function, similar to Spotify Radio which can “discover new music for you”. As far as I can see there is no internet radio integration.
Yes it does. JPLAY will discover your UPnP server and the “single pane” and will allow you to search across all three sources. However in search results each recording is only listed once (presumably at the highest resolution?) and you have to first select that recording and then scroll down to Versions to see all the different available versions, their sources and their resolutions - at least hi res “HR” vs std res “CD”, to see the actual sample rate you have to click again on a specific version.
In my opinion JPLAY is a nice UPnP client, similar in many respects to Audirvana (which has of course now also pivoted to a subscription model), but especially given the lack of internet radio support I don’t see it as offering you anything substantial over Mosaic for your use cases. It seems to me to be more of a Roon competitor than a Mosaic alternative, although again JPLAY’s assertion “No core needed!” is again a little bit of spin since to play local files a UPnP server is indeed needed, which is analogous to a Roon Core (now Roon Server).
Quick answer Pete as I am not in front of my computer. Jplay has a free trial and I would suggest you give it a spin. I have played with it off and on for the past year and I rather like it.
As @Anupc said ignore their marketing claims as they make no sense. What I like about Jplay is that it is strictly a control point sending commands to the streaming services. In that light, it has absolutely no effect on sound quality. As you know half the people here feel Roon affects sound quality while the other half feel it doesn’t.
I look at J play as a Roon clone ie a much nicer interface than Mosaic - with no possible way to negatively influence playback quality (the same as Mosaic). Not everyone feels Roon sounds the same as Mosaic and Jplay eliminates any of those doubts
Thanks Gregg but I think I was indicating that it has no features that interest me now that I have learned that there is no internet radio and about the integration of multiple services.
may check it out. Does anyone know if jplay will open associated album liner notes as pdf files the way roon does?
also any experience with how it displays meta data for classical music. Roon displays album track lists as work and movement, which means everyitng is nice and neat rather than a long list of tracks
.
