FLAC Player for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

[SHURE530]

Ok guys, here's the thing.
Would the new media player be any different?
Your iPod/ipad source is still the same,
Unless you get one of those DAC converters and an amp.

 

[shipsupt]

Ok guys, here's the thing.
Would the new media player be any different?
Your iPod/ipad source is still the same,
Unless you get one of those DAC converters and an amp.

Higher quality source music should provide better SQ even with the internal DAC, although some would argue that many cannot actually hear the difference. This same logic holds true for higher quality music (lossless formats) that the iPad/ipod can natively play. Then there is of course the difference in the engine/software that is processing the music files as the FLAC player is not using iTunes.

Adding an external DAC and amp should provide an improvement in general, of course it will depend on the hardware you select etc...

 

[swifttal]

Quote:

Ok guys, here's the thing.
Would the new media player be any different?
Your iPod/ipad source is still the same,
Unless you get one of those DAC converters and an amp.

 
Two of the main benefits to using this program vs just loading ALAC lossless files are
 
1) With the use of asynchronous USB output devices such as the Cypher Labs Algorythm Solo. These types of devices sport up to 24/196 DAC chipsets enabling you to listen to higher quality file sources than the onboard DAC Apple uses and what iTunes limits your ability to load. 
 
2) If you have an extensive library of FLAC files, this enables you to now listen to them on your iphone/pad/touch without going through the hassle of reconverting everything to ALAC.
 
Other than those, if your wondering about the quality of FLAC vs Apple lossless, there are many threads on the topic. Having heard most of the lossless formats, I can't differentiate quality differences between them (provided they're both the same bit/data rate). I say just as long as your using any lossless format you're good to go. But others can get nit-picky on the file/coding structures of the formats, etc. I'd say do a search if you're really that interested in that subject, but you'd pretty much be wasting your time. Just encode into whatever format's easiest for you.

 

[nc8000]

The new version of Flac Player is out and I have just upgraded on my 64GB Touch on now NONE of my flac files will play and the app crashes frequently so DON'T upgrade !!!!

And yes, I have rebooted my device which made NO difference

 

[jpelg]

Thanks for the info. I am looking for a relatively high-capacity portable FLAC player, and have been seriously considering the Touch with FLACPlayer. Seems this app is still a bit flakey.
 
Please keep us updated.

 

[shipsupt]

Dan is pretty responsive to any issues so if this is widespread I'm sure he'll be all over it, but you might consider sending him a message so he is aware.
 
http://hammockdistrict.com/flacplayer
 
He's active on Computer Audiophile and recently became a member here, so he might even see these post.
 
I've been running the beta of the new version for some time on the iPad and it's been brilliant, so hopefully he can track down the issue.  Testing on all the Apple hardware available after iOS updates must be difficult.
 
I'll try loading the new version on the iPad and see how it goes.  I think I'll be able to have both the beta and the new version at the same time...?
 
 
 

 

[nc8000]

Hmmm, it seems to work on my iPhone 4 that has the latest version iOS (my Touch is one step behind due to not having 64GB of available drivespace on my main drive for backup before upgrade).

 

[nc8000]

OK, after clearing enough drive space so I could upgrade the Touch to the latest version of iOS the new Flac Player works again on that one as well

 

[jpelg]

Nice!

 

[shipsupt]

I haven't installed the new version yet.  Does it include the feature from the beta where it displays the sample rate of the track?  I liked that little feature in the beta.
 
 
 

 

[nc8000]

I havn't noticed but wont say that it's not there as I didn't expect it so havn't looked closely

 

[jpelg]

Are there any links to screenshots showing how the app displays & navigates "collections"?

 

[nc8000]

It is one dimentional. You have a long list of collections sorted alphabetically by name and a collection can hold a number of songs and that is all. Rather primitive and building them is not so intuitive but is sufficient for me. Now bring on a 256 GB Touch

 

[jpelg]

How close are the "collections" to actual albums?

 

[nc8000]

You decide yourself what you put in a collection so for me they are identical to cd albums as that is how I work (hopeless old fashioned believing that the artists intended something with the album concept). When you transfer files (vis usb file transfer inside iTunes on the Program tab) Flac PLayer attempts to auto create collections based tags in the files. These collections you can then split and/or merge into the desired collections and you can specify the play order of the files within a collection (default is track numbers). And Flac player supports gapless playback within a collection. When you merge collections, the surviving collection will be the first collection you chose and the elements from the other collections are then transferred into the first collection. A collection can also contain jpg (and perhaps other image types) that are used as album art and pdf files (and perhaps txt and doc files) that are liner notes etc. and can be viewed inside the app.