Amarra Play vs JPLAY
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Amarra Play
Experience superior audio quality on your iOS device. Enjoy local music files and stream from Qobuz and TIDAL. Unlock advanced features like MQA decoding and customizable EQ with an in-app purchase or Amarra Luxe license.
- High-resolution audio playback
- Qobuz and TIDAL streaming
- MQA decoding (with purchase)
- Customizable EQ
- Support for FLAC, AIFF, WAV, and more
- Remote control for Amarra Luxe
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Amarra Play brings the highest quality playback to your IOS device. Now providing access to your Qobuz account and soon your TIDAL account, Amarra Play is the app that brings you the tools to get the music you love right at your fingertips. As a stand-alone app you'll enjoy: • A free version to get superior sound for your audio files copied to your mobile device including FLAC files as well as your local Apple Music library. Spice it all up with a set of powerful EQ presets. • Upgrade with the in-app purchase for MQA decoding, expand to a professional grade, customizable EQ and add access to your Qobuz and TIDAL accounts as well! When used with Amarra Luxe, unlock the following features: • Remote control of Amarra Luxe and Amarra sQ+ from Amarra Play. Relax, sit back and enjoy! • Use Amarra Play to play your music on your IOS device Download files to your IOS device (local files only) Stream files to your IOS device (local, Qobuz and TIDAL files) • Formats Supported MQA Decode up to 96 kHz (Amarra Luxe license required) AIFF, AIFC, MP3, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AAC, DSD->PCM real-time conversion NOTE: Amarra Play must be running on same wireless network as computer. Visit www.sonicstudio.com to get your free 15 day free trial of Amarra Luxe
JPLAY
This app is a high-fidelity music player designed for audiophiles. It seamlessly integrates streaming services like Qobuz and Tidal with local music files, offering a unified interface for all your audio content. Experience superior sound quality and discover new music through its intuitive design and advanced features.
- Plays Qobuz, Tidal, and local music files
- Works with most streamers and network DACs
- HQPlayer Control API integration
- Dramatically better sound quality
- Radio feature for music discovery
- Extended playlist management
- Artist bios and album reviews
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JPLAY is an award winning music playback app for audiophiles. It works instantly with nearly every streamer or network DAC on the market. It combines Qobuz, Tidal and local content in a single interface allowing user to access each library separately. Main features: • Beautiful, clean and easy to use app allowing you to play music on nearly all streamers/network DACs - no core needed! (UPnP AV/DLNA) • Plays from Qobuz, Tidal and files on local libraries • HQPlayer Control API – Seamlessly integrate and remotely control HQPlayer directly from JPLAY • Dramatically better sound quality thanks to minimizing network traffic • Radio feature discovers new music for you • Single library, individual library and folder views • Extended playlists management • Advanced search, sort, focus • Artists bios, album reviews etc • Highlighted audiophile formats • My Activity, My history keep your playback stats • Native iOS controls from locked screen • Sharing your favorite music on social media • And much, much more! JPLAY requires an active subscription to access its content and features. Sign up for a JPLAY subscription in the app. New users can enjoy a 14-day free trial period that will be automatically converted into a yearly subscription. Subscription is automatically renewed and charged on a yearly basis. You can cancel it at any time up until the day before renewal and you can at any time turn off the auto renewal.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: JPLAY at 4.2 against Amarra Play's 2.9. JPLAY also leads on review sentiment (59% vs 22%). Amarra Play's advantage is monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Amarra Play sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and JPLAY sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $49.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
JPLAY holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 55 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 22% of Amarra Play's written reviews are positive against 59% of JPLAY's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Amarra Play | JPLAY |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (31 ratings) | 4.2 (55 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 21.6% of reviews | 58.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 31 | 55 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 77 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sonic Studio | Marcin Ostapowicz |
Customer experience
Amarra Play
JPLAY
User reviews
Amarra Play
From 31 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎧 Great sound quality
- 🎶 Plays various file types (FLAC, DSD, MQA)
- 🎚️ Useful EQ presets
- 💻 Remote control capability (when working)
- 🔊 Good with external DACs
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐌 Slow performance and loading
- ❌ Unreliable remote connection
- ❓ Poor UI/UX and navigation
- 🚫 Lack of updates/abandoned app
JPLAY
From 55 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎵 Superior sound quality compared to competitors
- 👍 Intuitive and clean user interface
- 🚀 Fast and responsive app performance
- 🔌 Seamless UPnP/DLNA integration
- 📱 Works without requiring a server
Room to improve
- 💰 Expensive subscription pricing ($50/year, $199 lifetime)
- ❌ No monthly subscription option available
- 🐛 Frequent connectivity and playback issues
- 📱 iOS-only application
- 🔄 No cross-device synchronization
Bugs and requests
Amarra Play
Reported bugs
32 issues- App crashes on launch or during playback
- Remote app doesn't pair or loses connection
- Playback controls are unresponsive
- Album art is missing or corrupted
- MQA decoding is slow or outputs PCM
Show 27 moreShow fewer
- Gapless playback not supported
- App doesn't open on iPhone 15
- Music files load very slowly or not at all
- EQ distorts audio
- Remote app loses connection frequently
- App crashes when trying to use Tidal add-on
- Music shows as 00:00
- Remote app doesn't wake laptop from sleep
- Remote app requires constant re-pairing
- Desktop app crashes after scanning library
- Remote app doesn't display album art
- Remote app doesn't control music playback properly
- Remote app is slow to respond
- Remote app loses connection to computer
- App stops after two songs
- iTunes library sync issues
- File sharing removes cover art
- App crashes when adding more albums
- Tidal add-on doesn't work
- MQA not working on m12
- Remote app doesn't pair after upgrade
- Playlists don't show all tracks
- No search index
- EQ settings don't stick
- User presets not accessible
- Remote app doesn't open
- App crashes when loading library
Requested features
13 requests- Add more equalizer settings from MacBook version
- Timeline for updates
- Ability to add more EQ presets
- Improved album art handling
- Fix gapless playback
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Native MQA output
- Amazon Music EQ support
- Improved UI/UX
- Search functionality
- Now Playing button in remote
- Wake laptop from sleep via remote
- Persistent login for remote
- More sophisticated EQ with frequency, gain, and Q settings
JPLAY
Reported bugs
14 issues- Tracks fail to render or play from Tidal
- App crashes on startup with older iOS versions
- Playback stuttering and lag issues
- Renderer in transition errors
- Device discovery failures
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Missing cover art for local files
- Playback gets stuck at end of songs
- Random track order despite settings
- Skips tracks mid-playback
- Connection drops with certain streamers
- Metadata not syncing properly
- Album art not loading from Synology/Plex servers
- Qobuz favorites import not working
- Tidal playlist suggestions missing
Requested features
16 requests- Monthly subscription option
- Cross-device synchronization for playlists and favorites
- EQ and tone adjustment controls
- DSD file playback support
- Multi-room audio capability
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Apple Watch control support
- AirPlay support
- Android version
- Gapless playback improvement
- Family sharing support
- Apple Music integration
- Internet radio support
- Volume control in player screen
- Automatic iCloud backup between devices
- WebDAV support
- Better error messages for troubleshooting
In-app purchases
Amarra Play
- EQ support$2.99
- Adds support for MQA decoding$3.99
- TIDAL Streaming$4.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Qobuz streaming support$4.99
- Adds Qobuz, TIDAL, MQA and EQ$12.99
JPLAY
- JPLAY Premium14 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Lifetime$149.00
- JPLAY Lifetime$199.00







