Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS! (Read 303921 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #275
Are you seriously asking for some abx log? Just replaygain both files and listen. The voice coming in on second 9 sounds completely different!


Are claims of difference only required to be substantiated if asserted by persons that the peer group doesn't much like?  TOS#8 does use the word "must" but in practice there often seems to be an invisible rider "unless you're confirming our expectations or bashing someone we don't like".

I would be surprised if Wombat's assertion was proven to be false, but perhaps applying the terms of service in a non-discriminatory manner would prevent threads veering off topic (it broke my remote desktop and ate my hamster, therefore it is evil and evil stuff sounds bad... the same ...or different ...or something) and also reduce the evident temptation to just join the queue, pick up a rock and throw it (he said jehovah!).

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #276
I would be surprised if Wombat's assertion was proven to be false

Wombat, please provide an ABX log in order to validate Takla's suspicion.

I won't dignify the rest of the ironical post.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #277
Did anyone even bother to listen these samples besides dhromed and has the ability to qualify it?
Everybody should be able to abx this with his PC-Speakers as i did now, not even Headphones needed.

I needed to cut 1.38 seconds from the foobar sample and 92ms from the Jplay sample to have similar beginnings to prevent me from cheating. Replaygained foobar test:
Code: [Select]
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.1.16
2013/04/02 03:42:31

File A: C:\Brezel Jplay\testfoo.flac
File B: C:\Brezel Jplay\testJ.flac

03:42:31 : Test started.
03:42:44 : 01/01  50.0%
03:42:54 : 02/02  25.0%
03:43:04 : 03/03  12.5%
03:43:14 : 04/04  6.3%
03:43:24 : 05/05  3.1%
03:43:37 : 06/06  1.6%
03:43:46 : 07/07  0.8%
03:43:55 : 08/08  0.4%
03:44:03 : 09/09  0.2%
03:44:10 : 10/10  0.1%
03:44:14 : Test finished.

----------
Total: 10/10 (0.1%)
Is troll-adiposity coming from feederism?
With 24bit music you can listen to silence much louder!

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #278
If then, JPLAY's result has a difference in volume, we may never be able to get accurate tests.


The difference is in EQ, not merely volume. In fact there is so much EQ going on that it's next to impossible to accurately level match them.


Wombat, do you agree the jplay sample has much reduced bass and treble?

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #279
all the "tricks" they say they play to the system to gain resources, like run Jplay as a service, modify scheduler's queues or priority, shutdown other services etc...


That fine-tuning is something I could actually wish for ...

In order to improve SQ? And even if, have you lost your PC Admin passwd?
... I live by long distance.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #280
all the "tricks" they say they play to the system to gain resources, like run Jplay as a service, modify scheduler's queues or priority, shutdown other services etc...


That fine-tuning is something I could actually wish for ...

In order to improve SQ? And even if, have you lost your PC Admin passwd?


In order to prevent stuttering/dropouts on old cheap hardware. Hardware-upgrading a silent PC could easily cost more than 99 currency units. fb2k does offer provisions to set priority to the playback chain, but for the computer I just tried to get working, that is actually not enough.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #281
How do I calibrate volume levels other than turning the volume knob on my DAC to what sounds about right?


In foobar2000, the ABX comparator will align volumes. (Likely less precise if the files are EQ'ed very different, though.)

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #282
all the "tricks" they say they play to the system to gain resources, like run Jplay as a service, modify scheduler's queues or priority, shutdown other services etc...


That fine-tuning is something I could actually wish for ...

In order to improve SQ? And even if, have you lost your PC Admin passwd?


In order to prevent stuttering/dropouts on old cheap hardware. Hardware-upgrading a silent PC could easily cost more than 99 currency units. fb2k does offer provisions to set priority to the playback chain, but for the computer I just tried to get working, that is actually not enough.

How old and cheap the hardware you are using? The last time I experienced stuttering/dropouts (when I believed I have correctly configured my system) was a Pentium II 400, 192MB RAM PC, playing APE files with "Extra High" compression mode in foobar2000, with SSRC turned on.

When I upgraded my system to P4 2.8G and 512MB RAM in 2003 the task above was not a problem anymore.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #283
In foobar2000, the ABX comparator will align volumes.


Yoou mean the "use Replaygain" checkbox? I thought that meant "use the existing RG tags", not "scan both files and adjust volume"


([RG is ] Likely less precise if the files are EQ'ed very different, though.)


That is a good experiment that I will try later.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #284
Ok so i ran the ABX test with the pretzel logic files three times: Replaygained individually, Replaygained as 1 album, and without. The results were easily recognizable. So there indeed seems to have been some processing and/or a level mismatch.

Code: [Select]
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.2.4
2013/04/02 13:06:04

File A: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\foobaroutput.wav
File B: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\jplayoutput.wav

13:06:04 : Test started.
13:07:13 : 01/01  50.0%
13:07:29 : 02/02  25.0%
13:07:41 : 02/03  50.0%
13:08:21 : 03/04  31.3%
13:08:54 : 04/05  18.8%
13:09:21 : 05/06  10.9%
13:09:37 : 06/07  6.3%
13:09:54 : 07/08  3.5%
13:10:10 : Test finished.

 ----------
Total: 7/8 (3.5%)
Code: [Select]
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.2.4
2013/04/02 13:11:26

File A: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\foobaroutput.wav
File B: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\jplayoutput.wav

13:11:26 : Test started.
13:11:45 : 01/01  50.0%
13:11:56 : 02/02  25.0%
13:12:07 : 03/03  12.5%
13:12:15 : 04/04  6.3%
13:12:24 : 05/05  3.1%
13:12:35 : 06/06  1.6%
13:12:50 : 07/07  0.8%
13:13:03 : 08/08  0.4%
13:13:08 : Test finished.

 ----------
Total: 8/8 (0.4%)
Code: [Select]
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.2.4
2013/04/02 13:14:07

File A: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\foobaroutput.wav
File B: Z:\Downloads\testSounds\jplayoutput.wav

13:14:07 : Test started.
13:14:22 : 01/01  50.0%
13:14:31 : 02/02  25.0%
13:14:39 : 03/03  12.5%
13:14:45 : 04/04  6.3%
13:14:58 : 05/05  3.1%
13:15:06 : 06/06  1.6%
13:15:17 : 07/07  0.8%
13:15:26 : 08/08  0.4%
13:15:28 : Test finished.

 ----------
Total: 8/8 (0.4%)

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #285
I have a hard time believing you actually missed one.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #286
In order to prevent stuttering/dropouts on old cheap hardware. Hardware-upgrading a silent PC could easily cost more than 99 currency units. fb2k does offer provisions to set priority to the playback chain, but for the computer I just tried to get working, that is actually not enough.


The dirt-cheap way of upgrading the hardware in this respect is to increase size of the playback (DMA) buffer in the playback chain. Any HW from the last 20 years wil easily handle 192/24 long-latency playback (no DSP/resampling, of course).

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #287
I have a hard time believing you actually missed one.


Haha me too. It was my first time ABX'ing though. So I was still figuring out how to best compare. (i.e. A,X,B,Y or A,B,X,Y .. setting a good starting point and listening a few seconds of each seems to hit the spot)

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #288
Anyone finding the jplay sample more revealing of fine details in the music that is not present in the other sample?  We were told they really were representative of the way they sounded during the initial DBT conducted by sabrehagen.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #289
I played Pretzel_Logic_Excerpt.wav with foobar2000 1.2.4 and recorded the sound with rectest.exe using WASAPI loopback device.

Bit-identical.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #290
Someone did a listening test?

Are you seriously asking for some abx log? Just replaygain both files and listen. The voice coming in on second 9 sounds completely different!

Without the file being played, it is hard to say which is more accurate.

It is pointless to judge what is more accurate because we know already by some posts that the captured VLC playback is way to much off. I still don´t see the poster having fixed that playback issue.



Folks,  Arny's measurements are for foobar vs Jplay and the samples are foobar vs Jplay...why does VLC keep coming into it?

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #291
If you read previous posts, the test was originally conducted on Jplay vs. VLC, the latter of which seems to alter output in at least some default cases. I am sure you can find discussion describing the switch from VLC to foobar2000. Valid results describing double-blind comparison of Jplay to any bit-perfect second player are still missing, not very surprisingly.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #292
In order to prevent stuttering/dropouts on old cheap hardware. Hardware-upgrading a silent PC could easily cost more than 99 currency units. fb2k does offer provisions to set priority to the playback chain, but for the computer I just tried to get working, that is actually not enough.


The dirt-cheap way of upgrading the hardware in this respect is to increase size of the playback (DMA) buffer in the playback chain. Any HW from the last 20 years wil easily handle 192/24 long-latency playback (no DSP/resampling, of course).


... tried this while fb2k is also monitoring a media library of a hundred thousand items?

(I'm trying to get a Dell Mini 9 (Intel Atom-based, SSD, totally fanless) working.  It takes six seconds performing a simple search. Longer buffer even caused stuttering at track change with some fb2k versions around 1.2.  Certainly not much hope of getting foo_hdcd working, that's for sure ... but now I am drifting way off topic.)

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #293
I've run an EQ comparison of the two uploaded samples versus Pretzel_Logic.wav  as the reference audio.  The two samples (3 Copy.wav , which was foobar, and 4 Copy.wav , which wasJplay) were first scanned with replaygain, which found Jplay to be 3.6dB lower than foobar.  The .wav samples (and the reference .wav) were then scanned using Audition 1.0's Frequency Analysis tool, using a Blackmann_Harris FFT widnows size of 4096.  .  Data (average level in dB at each frequency sampling point) were dumped to Excel, and the difference between sample and reference was calculated for each channel of each sample.  Difference values for Jplay were adjusted upward by 3.6 dB as per replaygain.  Difference values from 20Hz-22 kHz were then plotted in Excel.  Showing the left channel only. 

This is a difference graph, where the Pretzel_Logic.wav file is the reference.  A bit-perfect output of the reference would be a straight line overlaid on the X axis.  Output that was merely raised or lowered in overall level compared  to reference would show a straight line above or below the X axis.  Clearly neither of these is a bit perfect output of the original, nor are they simply raised or lowered in overall amplitude.  Both have considerable, and similar EQ added. The EQ is not quite identical for both, as the two curves do not completely overlap even with level-matching...however, this could be because the two samples are not exactly the same snippet of the reference.  If someone wants to edit them to match, and post them, I will re-run the analysis. 

In any case I conclude that saberhagen has not configured his system, or his players, for bit-perfect output, based on the shape of these curves. And foobar2k certainly can be so configured on all my PCs -- I wouldn't be able to stream DTS or AC3 from them otherwise.


The graph can be viewed here:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....howtopic=100229

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #294
... tried this while fb2k is also monitoring a media library of a hundred thousand items?

(I'm trying to get a Dell Mini 9 (Intel Atom-based, SSD, totally fanless) working.  It takes six seconds performing a simple search. Longer buffer even caused stuttering at track change with some fb2k versions around 1.2.  Certainly not much hope of getting foo_hdcd working, that's for sure ... but now I am drifting way off topic.)


Well, clogging your computer with maintaining library of that size is hardly a question of playback hardware requirements.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #295
sabrehagen,

I would like to assist you to do a recording test, please provide the information below:
1. Your OS version
2. The recording software you are using

Quote
I was using a fresh install of foobar, having never used the software in my life before. No DSP, no nothing, just a stock install. I connected the output of my DAC to the line in on my on board sound card and recorded it there.

3. Does it mean onboard sound digital output> DAC digital input> DAC analog output > onboard sound analog input?

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....howtopic=100230
Please do the recording test again, using the same procedure as your Pretzel Logic test with the files I uploaded above. I need the files recorded in both 44khz and 48khz, that means you need to record 1644sweep.wv in 44khz and 48khz, and record 1648sweep.wv in 44khz and 48khz, using foobar without Jplay and foobar with Jplay.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #296
Thanks for the graph krabapple! Given the magnitude of difference between JPlay and foobar, it is not surprising that people are able to ABX.

Maybe some gain-aware loudness function from the soundcard/driver was active?

The difference between the original and the JPlay sample is also clearly audible (replaygain for level matching, manually aligned).

Code: [Select]
foo_abx 1.3.4 report
foobar2000 v1.2.2
2013/04/02 19:08:26

File A: E:\tmp\4_Copy_jplay.wav
File B: E:\tmp\Pretzel_cut.wav

19:08:26 : Test started.
19:08:39 : 01/01  50.0%
19:08:43 : 02/02  25.0%
19:08:48 : 03/03  12.5%
19:08:55 : 04/04  6.3%
19:09:01 : 05/05  3.1%
19:09:09 : 06/06  1.6%
19:09:18 : 07/07  0.8%
19:09:25 : 08/08  0.4%
19:09:35 : 09/09  0.2%
19:09:46 : 10/10  0.1%
19:09:50 : Test finished.

 ----------
Total: 10/10 (0.1%)

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #297
I can't abx the jplay sample (4_Copy) and the Pretzel logic excerpt. Maybe my ears are waxed up.

I manually edited the RG values to +3 and -7 respectively, at which point they sounded pretty much the same to me. A true RG scan came up with +8 and -0.49. Not bad for earballing it, I guess?

The difference between 4_copy and 3_copy is much greater than 4_copy and Excerpt.

The Excerpt has its phase inverted-- at least that's what I see in Audacity.

Quote
the two samples are not exactly the same snippet of the reference.

the jplay sample lacks a drumroll at the start, and the very first portion of a crash hit, which could be crucial.

Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #298
Thanks for the graph krabapple! Given the magnitude of difference between JPlay and foobar, it is not surprising that people are able to ABX.


You mean the differences in bass and midrange frequencies, compared to the reference, when the samples are level matched?  Because the Foobar and Jplay samples are otherwise pretty objectively similar from about 3kHz on up, when level matched this way.  And as I noted, we still need to rule out the effects of the two samples not being from exactly the same section of the reference track.  I expect that effect to be small -- the measurements are an average over the whole length of the section -- but I won't rule it out.




Jplay - just another scam? YES IT IS!

Reply #299
Yes, basically I mean the difference between the red and black line. Eyeballing the graphs, there's a ca. 6dB drop in the 1kHz range over at least 2 octaves and ca. 3dB boost in the bass. IMO that's quite a lot and as others have demonstrated, this is audible. I'm too lazy to time align the samples so no claims about audibility from me.