[holland]

Clementine and Cog are a couple of others.  I haven't found one I totally like.  There is a foobar2000 port, using X11 though.

 

[clams]

fidelia is suprisingly good but I have a feeling it will be quite expensive when it comes out. Decibel is quite good and a pretty noticeable improvement over Play. The only thing I miss in Decibel are libraries but I can easily get around that.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Thanks for the list! I'll have to give these players a try. Right now, I have music stored on an external HD and some still on my macbook's HD. Will these players be able to automatically integrate the music from different locations? I haven't had time to try to figure it out on iTunes.

Looks like Pure Music might do what you want, but it will cost you.
 
Vox is very simple, it goes where you point it and treats everything in the current directory you point it to as a playlist.
 
So for standard iTunes downloads and a lot of rips, I just let iTunes manage those files, but for all of my HD stuff I download as FLAC to conserve space, then I set up a simple directory structure by vendor, album, or genre, or however it strikes my fancy, and play that with VOX.  Best part i that it supports all the geeky pluggins I want and three different cross feed algorithms, and it's freeware.

 

[JIGF]

Just saw the price of Amarra, I thought it was going to be something like $100 tops. Very, very steep for a player. I hope Fidelia is not as expensive as I am enjoying it quite a bit.

 

[Hero Kid]

The price of what JIGF? But yeh some of the prices are ridiculous.

 

[Richiyaado]

Am also enjoying Fidelia, and hope it won't be too high-priced. I already own Pure Music, and like that as well. Also, downloaded Phile Audio from the new Mac app store to rip CDs... very nice, as it will save several codecs simultaneously (have set mine to create both ALAC and AAC for iTunes/iPod).

 

[JIGF]

 
Quote:

The price of what JIGF? But yeh some of the prices are ridiculous.

Fixed.

 

[JIGF]

Here's a thread where people are posting impressions on the Fidelia player.

 

[Hero Kid]

 
Quote:

Fixed.

I'm confused now... :/  Y u do dis ;_;

 

[Currawong]

I forgot about Clementine and had forgotten the name of Cog.  I'll add them shortly.  I've put in a request for info with the makers for Fidelia on pricing.
 
It's funny reading impressions -- I found Amarra to be the harshest and Pure Music the smoothest, with Decibel and Fidelia close to spot-on for me.  It would be interesting to compare the DACs being used with the impressions of the players.  I know, for example, my DAC has dithering on by default, so the dither available in Amarra and Fidelia will likely have no effect. Up-sampling, especially if it uses a very good algorithm, may have some benefits for some DACs but not others as well.

 

[JIGF]

 
Quote:

 I'll add them shortly.  I've put in a request for info with the makers for Fidelia on pricing.
 

 
Great! Lets see if we get a number.
 
Be sure to mention them head-fi users are providing impressions on the Fidelia.
 
@Hero Kid: I meant Amarra.

 

[Currawong]

I had another look at Cog -- it hasn't been updated for some time and the last version has a serious bug, so I haven't included it.

 

[Hero Kid]

Yeah Cog is not worth mentioning.

 

[Bacci]

So how do these players claim improving the sound over Itunes? In OS X sound options you can specify system sounds to be routed to the internal speakers so they don't go to your headphone and even set their volume low or disabled. Don't need hog mode for that. The other 'features' in the article are intended to change the sound of the source, quite useless as most audiophiles are looking for the best possible reproduction.
Bit perfect playback would be useful, but this OS X shortcoming as far as I understood it is not addressed by any of these players.

 

[AVU]

The sound quality between many of these and itunes is quite obvious.  Amongst themselves, it's a bit harder to tell.  But Amarra 2.1, full version $700, is my favorite by a hair.  Then Decibel, which is amazingly free, then Pure Music or Pure Vinyl (I've tried both, they're identical) which is like $200, Amarra's lower versions would seem to be identical for the 16/44 files I'm playing, but they're clearly not - the difference is quite obvious.  Then Play, which is good, then the lower versions of Amarra and Pure Music. Those are all I've tried.  
 
In terms of usability, Amarra is the best, since it integrates with itunes, but its also unfortunately the buggiest.  Pure Music also integrates perfectly, and I'd use it if the SQ were better.  Decibel, like Play, unfortunately has no integration with itunes, so you have to reimport your library or select individual tracks.  Sound makes it worth the trouble through.  And there's no psychological buyer's bias in my case since I have them all free from school. If anything, I'm biased AGAINST amarra since it can be so #@*$& buggy. 
 
But there's no use bothering about what other people think - you can try all of these yourself for free.  they all have trial versions - see which one you like the best yourself!
 
 
Quote:

So how do these players claim improving the sound over Itunes? In OS X sound options you can specify system sounds to be routed to the internal speakers so they don't go to your headphone and even set their volume low or disabled. Don't need hog mode for that. The other 'features' in the article are intended to change the sound of the source, quite useless as most audiophiles are looking for the best possible reproduction.
Bit perfect playback would be useful, but this OS X shortcoming as far as I understood it is not addressed by any of these players.