Mac OS X Music Players - alternatives to iTunes

[Rdr. Seraphim]

Re PM, I do not believe there is any added DSP except via the plug-in's. You can bypass all DSP with a checkbox. While the interface is not much to behold, it is functional, if not utilitarian. It won't win any beauty contests, that's for sure. However, it has been very reliable, especially with the latest release for Lion, v1.81d5r4. I'm quite happy with it and it to sounds great. At this time, it's the only game in town if you want to play your DSD discs or media. Actually, given the current state of affairs with DSD, it might not much matter. 

 (However, it sounds like it might be your cup-O-tea, since you'll be recording using that format.) Also, PM plays WAV files just fine. However, I use XLD and convert them to FLAC for consistency with all the music in my library--I also had problems with WAV metadata. Converting to FLAC resolved that issue.
 
 
 
 
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Thanks for the tip Agentsim. I've sent Pure Music an email for further info. Up until about page 23 of this thread, which is where I'm up to reading, the Pure Music player was not very popular with users/posters. Does PM 'tamper' with the sound before giving it over to the DAC?

 

 

[Currawong]

I've added BitPerfect to the original post by the way.

 

[gogogasgas]

Thanks for the tips on the Pure Music player, Rdr. I know that SACD is only hanging by a thread, but is that also true of it's DSD underpinnings? A company told me recently that Korg are discontinuing its DSD capable recorder. In the lower end of the Pro market, that leaves just the Tascam unit holding the fort with DSD. Perhaps DSD digital medium is going the way of the dinosaur too?
I want to transfer a large amount of LPs/12s to digital (but I want to keep my fave discs). I know of the Pure Vinyl option, but their prices for the external ADC boxes they sell are expensive and is there really a decent (as in 'really decent') quality 24/192 ADC soundcard (or external soundcard in a box) out there that would be better than the Tascam unit connected to a very high quality phono stage? (keeping mind a $4,000 external ADC unit is not an option for me) The company's digital RIAA soundcurve software has got good reviews, but the sound card/ ADC issue is really a deal breaker for me.

 

[LFG530]

I'd like to know how Bitperfect compares to it's alternative for FLAC cd files, just in term of soundquality for someone who doesn't care about tons of equalizing options and higher definition tracks (96/24). 

 

[turimbar1]

Better sound is all I use now. That (with fluke) is awesome for everything but the higher bitrate lossless stuff.

 

[darcyb62]

Quote:

has anyone tried neutrino? im downloading the trial right now. not sure if it will actually improve sound quality, but it has itunes integration like amarra.
 
http://machinecodex.com/neutrino/

I have had Neutrino for a couple of years but use it as more of a music utility than a main player.  It does a great of slowing down music without changing pitch for transcribing songs and also has a looping function which many of the other utility players don't have.  For my main player I purchased Fidelia and have been quite happy with it.
 
 

 

[omasciarotte]

Now that the first dot update is available, I just installed 10.7.1 on one of my FireWire volumes. Has anyone seen unwelcome behavior or noticed any pitfalls I should watch out for? 

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Lion was pretty stable at the GM release. What issues I've found were in third-party softwares and have all been fixed, for the most part. I ended up dropping Adium after being tired of waiting years for them to fix simple bugs. Otherwise everything else I've tried works as expected.

 

[pigmode]

Don't know if its been said already, but I find iTunes  to be such a handicap that I have no use for it for anything more than the most causal use.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

I'm sure people have said it. I disagree because it's certainly the best from a UI perspective and with the addition of something like BitPerfect it's pretty great from an audio perspective, but it's all about personal preference.

 

[qusp]

Quote:

I think a 2008 macbook with a core duo processor is fine, you don't need to boot into the 64-bit kernel, only be able to run 64-bit programs. I think the app store will warn you if your computer is not up to spec.
 
BitPerfect already has volume control. There are actually 2 volume controls, one in the menu which is available if your DAC supports volume control, this control is bit perfect and thus preferred. Alternatively, you can change volume with the slider in iTunes, but that is not bit perfect and might degrade quality. A future version will improve the iTunes volume control to increase quality, but for now, it is not an ideal solution.

hmm, i find this statement a bit confusing, how does it make any difference if my dac supports volume control (mine does its a sabre) unless you are transmitting serial commands to the dac DSP layer via i2c independently to the audio data it wont have any control over the volume of the dac chip, but rather truncate the audio data, fine for 32 bit dacs. so i guess i'm missing the relevance, or out of the loop in some way
 

 

[PedroH]

I am using Decibel and noticing a very relevant sound improvement from my MacBookAir + AppleLossless files. Nice interface too.

 

[disastermouse]

I'm using Fidelia (trial version) mostly just for the Isone VST plugin.  It'll be nice to be able to get some Hi-res tracks from HD Tracks and check them out with it.

 

[chicostein]

Hello, I read a dozen of the earliest and latest pages on the thread, but I still not sure which program try first for best SQ?
BTW, I have an old system: 2006 black MacBook, very first gen (Core Duo "1"), stuck with Snow Leopard with just 2GB of RAM)

 

[MrQ]

Quote:

Hello, I read a dozen of the earliest and latest pages on the thread, but I still not sure which program try first for best SQ?
BTW, I have an old system: 2006 black MacBook, very first gen (Core Duo "1"), stuck with Snow Leopard with just 2GB of RAM)

Download some demos and try them out for yourself. At the moment I'm trying out the full version of Amarra free for 15 days. Other software offer similar deals. Some are free. Enjoy.