J River Vs. Media Monkey Do they sound different

Pettyofficer,

I share your frustrations and skepticism. I simply choose to abode by Elvis Costello's famous oobservation:

"Well I used to be disgusted,
But now I try to be amused."
Neal

Does JRiver provide an easy way to deal with these needs:

1)easy sync to FLAC-only portable device (Cowon J3)
2)easy sync to ipods (for car input and girlfriend's portable)
3)plays nice with Squeezebox for home system

Currently I keep two libraries, one AIFF/mp3 and another all FLAC. It's a PITA! Will JRIver help me get away from the computer and get back to listening to music?

Thanks,
Spencer

Pettyofficer,
I have have a hammer, nails, saw, a level, and some other things at home, but I couldn't build a house tomorrow or next month. Same goes for a PC. It's basically a tool chest that allow you to build/make/do things once you figure out how to apply the tools.

If you have a problem, please state it as concisely as possible and leave out the "extras". Then, maybe, somebody will be able to help you. However, some things, like serving music, extend beyond just one machine and involve other hardware and networks. None of this stuff can be mostly understood by a noobie in a few days, weeks, or even months. You need to take one piece at a time and build up.

I'm not gonna spend too much time or get technical here but here is what i just discovered re:...

j river vs media monkey for ripping cd to flac...

Result... the files ripped by mediamonkey sound better.
The files ripped by jriver sounded ridiculously bass heavy and the mids were flat and distant.

It sounded like i was listening to a mid grade stereo system with the bass cranked and everything else dialed way down.

Which program is easier to use/ better features/ faster?
i dont know or care.
Did i expect this result?
No.
I expected j river to do a better job based on my reading in 'absolute sound' mag. (they glowed over j river and poo-pood mediamonkey) (i still trust them on opinions, but i trust my own ears much more)
Yes, all the variables for ripping were identical, I'm not going to go on and on with the details to prove how smart I am. Just wanted to share the results that i found surprising.

Cereb,

What encoder were you using. I have a PC and have tried most programs for PC. I find foobar the best player followed by J River. I use DB Poweramp to rip my discs to WAV format. I feel it is the best to my ears in my rig. I could not get Media Monkey to output bitperfect.