Mac OS X Music Players - alternatives to iTunes - Page 104

Thanks, will have to give it a look e-a-r-l-y Saturday morning...

Hi Currawong,

link to vox page is now: http://www.voxapp.didgeroo.com

BR, ELCH

Downloaded Pure Music 1.88a moments ago this morning. Listened some - last version I played was 1.82a so you know it's been awhile. While this version is an improvement on what I hear with the player, I would still slot it closely behind Amarra; Audirvana Plus w/Direct mode.

 

I noticed the option "Integer mode" was greyed out. Not sure when Channel D may have changed a few things between cats (OS X). v1.9 comes out mid Decemeber, so I'll revisit the player at that time...

 

Update: Reading the Support pages at Channel D, I've found they are not supporting Integer mode with Mountain Lion either. When they discontinued support with Lion, I simply ran PM off Snow Leopard. They also explained why they're withholding support for Direct mode at this time - too risky; subject to kernel panic attacks.

Edited by Silent One - 11/25/12 at 4:08am

 

For me, everything works with A+ without delays-pops-clicks. But I do experience panics and more often than I should. Some nights, I can  have two over an 8 hour period. Other times, I can go a week without incident. For clarity, of these incidents, in 90% of them the player will simply shut down and I'll relaunch it. In the remaining 10%, the Mac shuts down.

 

I no longer even blink with the former. The latter, however, has me concerned that one day...

I'm new to Mac's and have had a long hatred for iTunes but instead I decided to embrace it with BitPerfect and so far I'm really liking it :)

Looks like latest Audirvana + beta fixed dropouts. At least no problems so far. . Gave me a chance to try the other programs again while I had the issues but still think Audirvana + with direct/integer mode sounds best in my system.

I'm on a '09 Macbook Air with 2GB of RAM, do you think I can run Audirvana smoothly? I don't like using iTunes either, so far I just use VLC, but it sounds super bright to me

Did anyone else notice a quieter background in the latest A+ rendition?  I only gave it a quick listen but it seemed to be blacker with a more 3D soundstage.

I'm not doubting that you think it sounds the best in your system but I just don't get the appeal of Audirvana unless I'm missing something. I'm also new to Mac audio players so...it just seems like there are all these programs with horrible interfaces that costs lots of money and although they may sound good where is the functionality? We need a foobar2000 for Mac :)

To Surf,

 

Your computer will handle normal files (.wav, .flac, .mp3) with no problem.  You get skips or dropouts if you use audirvana to play high res files.  I had this issue on my 2010 Macbook until I upgraded to 8gb of RAM.  Keep in mind this was only the case when my computer was multitasking with safari, word and A+ running playing high res.  If you stick to only audio while playing high res files I don't see you having a problem with 2gb of RAM.

I can see where your coming from (I've used Foobar and it is my favorite player for Windows) however I feel that Audirvana and the other Mac players have it beat.  Most if not all of these players take the simplicity and convenience of itunes and buff up the sound quality to a level more comfortable for those that browse these forums.  Overall, I pay for these players for the ability to organize my music easily and provide a higher quality sound to boot.

 

I don't like their interface either but i use the iTunes integration mode.  So it just runs in the background while you use iTunes as you always have.  Audirvana + is much quicker than Amarra and does gapless without having to load up the whole album.  Now if you hate the iTunes interface, then I'm not sure what's out there.  You can wait a day or two and either hate iTunes more or less when the new overall comes out.  Hopefully these programs don't lose integration.

Someone on the Vox forums posted a link to a Mountain Lion modified version of Vox. I haven't had the time to look around its settings but maybe someone can figure out what's different.

From post 90 of this thread: http://www.voxapp.didgeroo.com/forums/thread-289-page-4.html
The download link is: http://rghost.net/39179299

Speaking of Macs and Mountain Lion, I wasn't expecting the Retina Macbook Pro to support integer mode (I had heard somewhere that Apple discontinued it in their newer computers).


Boy am I glad I have bassy headphones for mobile listening, the Retina MacBook Pro's speakers sound absolutely terrible compared to my 4-year old 1st generation aluminum unibody MacBook.

Cool, thanks man.

I usually just play music and maybe surf with Chrome/Safari, nothing more than that. My MBA will overheat way too fast. I have a couple of 24/96 albums but I would only play those and not run anything else.