There is no denying that computers have a genuine role to play in the audio system of any self-respecting audiophile. And, going hand-in-hand with this are some top-quality software programs that can really elevate a sound system to new levels of excellence. Below are the software programs you need to consider when putting together your system.
Exact Audio Copy
Exact Audio Copy is a program that does exactly what its name says it does. Ripping files from a CD without changing them at all, EAC reads files up to 82 times to make sure it does not miss a single bit. Moreover, if it discovers that it will lose any more than 0.499 percent of a file, it will alert you. Oh, and this software program is completely free.
JRiver Media Center
This premium specialty HiFi software that works on computers running either Mac or Windows operating systems not only plays a huge range of audio formats such as DSD, FLAC, and WAV, it also has video capability to play Blu-ray files on DVDs or streaming from services such as Hulu and Netflix. However, it is not these capabilities that make JRiver so special, it is the quality of the sound that it saves and produces along with its ease of use. JRMC is bit perfect which means that it buffers the signal to maintain its memory playback quality during the processing. Also, it pushes sound out as quickly as possible so that very little jitter and very few amplitude errors can enter the sound that is produced.
Foobar2000
Foobar2000 is a free music playback software program that is comparable to JRMC, the not-free program above. Foobar2000 plays the same files as does JRMC and even produces sound of a similar quality. However, its downside is that its user interface is less than user friendly, and it is not exactly ready to use out of the virtual box.