[Lan647]

Hi guys! 

Got some music from a friend recently having connected the harddrive to my iMac I don't want to mess with converting to ALAC for use with iTunes. Fluke doesn't work with OSX Lion and doesn't display cover art. 

Any suggestions for another player than iTunes? Been looking into Decibel, Audirvana, Amarra and Fidelia but they all cost money. Can buy one later but for now I just want to be able to play my files in the best possible quality, functionality can wait =) 

I am a picky listener and I would prefer if the interface looks ok  

Thanks! 

 

[Elysian]

Try Clementine.
http://www.clementine-player.org/
 

 

[Lan647]

Ill try it! Is it an improvement in sound as well?

 

[Elysian]

I honestly couldn't tell much difference between Clementine and some of the players you listed.  There seemed to be slight differences, but whether you like them or not will be up to your preferences.  I think Amarra is extremely overrated.

 

[Lan647]

Can you play the music without having to put it in a playlist?

 

[Lan647]

Anybody?

 

[MaxD]

Yes you can,  I just installed it and ran a lisend to a flac file by cliking on it.  So asosiations happen at install time.   It loads on the task bar though.  and the app dosent unload when the track is finished.  you need to clos it yourself.
 
Max

 

[audiofan4life]

MaxD, Are you referring to Clementine?

I'm a beginner with this site and with playing digital music files in general. My experience in high end audio has been with traditional CD and vinyl through good amps and speakers (ARC, Wilson Audio). So I'm just getting into using music files and quality external DAC, amp, phones. I appreciate all the advice I'm finding in this forum.

I too have iMac for desktop. Has the OP tried downloading Linn flac files? Linn has a free player with the purchased music that works well with their flac files. Haven't tried with any other files but it may be worth looking into.

Anyone who could offer any advice about whether one can output lossless files other than from iTunes, to an external DAC, that is something I'd really like to do next, but don't know how. I'd appreciate the advice. (got some flac files converted to apple lossless and into iTune library and then played it through Airport Express to Cambridge DAC Magic into the stereo system but found that iTune only plays it at 16 bit, 44.2k sample rate. Not at all what I wanted.)

A rookie.

 

[MaxD]

Hey AudioFan
 
Yes I was talking about clementine.   If you add a DAC to your computer apple or intel you are effectively installing a replacement audio card.  the better the DAC the better it will reproduce sound from audio files such as flac or mp3.   Some DAC's can Evan improve the sound from what is stored in the original source.
 
So the software you run to "play" the sound reads the data file from the disk and decodes it into a stream that can then be converted from digital to analog.  analog is the sound that comes out of the speakers.      So the quality is relent on the source and then the software and then the dac and its software and then the amplifier and then the speaker you use to produce sound.
 
Get them all right (for your ear) and it sounds good.  get any wrong and it sounds bad.
 
So I guess the answer is yes you can output loss less files all you need is the core ct software to read the file and pass it on to the DAC.
 
I hope this is helpful.  I am not so good at explaining stuff.
 
Max

 

[audiofan4life]

Thanks, Max
Yes, that was helpful. I have to admit that I overlooked something simple when I opened sound preference window on iMac, namely that I have to have the DAC actually plugged in to a USB port before it shows USB output as an option. as soon as I get around (laid up after ankle surgery), I'll try again and try the Linn player through the DACmagic and Matrix amp with LCD-2 phones (latter two on order.)

Learning new things daily on this forum!

 

[MaxD]

I am learning stuff every day too.  Audio is new to me but computer hardware and software has been my job for 30 years so that bit comes easy.  I might be an audiofile in the making .   Thinking of making a analog amp if I can get quality parts and a decent diagram...
 
Max

 

[Lan647]

Just tried Songbird, appears to work fine and quality is great. I also tried Amarra and did an analytical comparison test between it and iTunes and the difference is ZERO. 

Anyone else using Songbird? 

 

[Pitou]

Have you tried VLC?