Sound quality of MinimServer

[sng2021]

Stefano, I use JRiver and MinimServer as purely uPNP servers. JRiver can do everything if connected directly to a USB DAC but I don't use it in that mode. I assumed the data stream in all cases of uPNP servers would be exactly the same, but in my experiment the difference is between night and day!

@simbun, No I am not imagining it. Like I said an obvious example is I cannot hear the barking of a dog in Roger Waters "Amused to Death" whereas it is loud and clear with the other servers. They are the exact same tracks when I use different servers because I only connect to an external drive which contains all my music (there are no other copies).

@simoncn, I used Audirvana as a test as I was not convinced that there can be such a huge difference between JRiver and MinimServer. Yet Audirvana (on my iMac) & JRiver (on the same Asus mini PC as MinimServer) sounded similar whereas MinimServer sounded anaemic. The difference in sound cannot be attributed to jitter which is much more subtle. There certainly is the possibility that JRiver & Audirvana both manipulate the sound in some way that I am not privy to, but if this is the case, there would have been a huge outcry from all the users out there. I have not come across any in all the forums I've read. I also made sure that my own setup is delivering the data untouched by any DSP or equaliser (I don't use any anyway as I rely on proper speaker setup for my room's acoustics). Everything else (hardware and network) is exactly the same. I ran the listening tests on FLAC, WAV & DSF files all with various sampling rates.

I began trying out MinimServer as I also believed that any server would simply present the data to the renderer untouched after all they are just bits in a well timed data stream. This has not turned out to be the case. It is a mystery.

I thought I had better ask all of you if there is something that I have missed. I have a full licence for MinimServer but I do not want to go down the path of transcoding etc with MinimStreamer. That introduces more variables than I can understand or control. I know MinimStreamer has a large following including manufacturers like Melco & dCS who recommend it, which is one reason why I wanted to try it out.

Any suggestions on what can be the cause? Has anyone else had good or bad experiences using these products? Any fixes?