[crumpler]

Quote:

Yes. Still, $160 for an EQ and another $100 for a crossfeed, and it does begin to add up... but for me the results are worth it. I can very accurately match the sound I get from my mixing monitors to allow for me to work mobile with my headphones. 
 
The ToneBoosters Isone and their EQ are much less expensive, but VST only - and I was having trouble getting Audio Hijack pro to use them properly. If you have a different VST host, or find a VST to AU wrapper that works for you, those would be a sub $100 option (for both).

From what i've been hearing with the Isone Pro VST installed, i can safely say i will probably never listen to music without the plugin again. With the crossfeed on, it seems to add so much layer and realism to the music. Can't believe i've gone so long without it. But as always, what has worked (beautifully) for me, might not for u, YMMW.

 

[MtnSloth]

Thank-you for all the responses. Much appreciated. 
 
There are some recordings where, with regular loud speakers, an effect smoothly tracks from the left to the right channel. However, with headphones, it feels like the sound is teleporting back-and-forth; and that is most distracting . . . or at least it is to me. However, as I think about it more, the simplest solution is to just not listen to those tracks with headphones.
 
If I could selectively save a plugin (with its settings) as a preset in my music player software; and activate it only when I need/want it . . . that might be more interesting to me.  Or I suppose I could buy something like SPL Phonitor (Jude presented in video review) or an amp or DAC from Meier-Audio, but those options seem like overkill for my purposes.

 

[liamstrain]

 
 
Quote:

If I could selectively save a plugin (with its settings) as a preset in my music player software; and activate it only when I need/want it . . . that might be more interesting to me.

 
 
Fidelia lets you use 64 bit audio units as part of the basic player, most of those will allow you to save presets. However, I have not found a 64 bit AU crossfeed yet. Redline is only 32, and most of the others are VST only. If they implement a 32 bit bridge for fidelia, we'd both be in headphone heaven. 

 

[mrspeakers]

Interesting footnote, sorry if somebody noted this already, but when Izotope came up in one of warriorant's posts, I followed it and noted that PureMusic uses the 64-bit SRC Izotope upsampler.  Nice...  The aliasing images are also very interesting.  I'd recalled I'd seen those a while back and lost the plot on where.  Good stuff.

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

thanks for the heads-up.  it seems my misconception came from VLCs ability to play qt video but it turns out it does this through the NPAPI plugin.  we learn something every day
 

As an interesting note, PureMusic solved the format issue for FLAC a different way: they import a file with metadata that points to the actual FLAC file, so you don't have to bother with converting to ALAC.  I would guess other players that call the iTunes dB could do the same.  Do others?
 

 

[mrspeakers]

Quote:

Just tried the SRS plugin. I get distortion whenever I move the volume slider up or down. Also, when setting it higher than standard I get distortion all the time.
I listened to it a bit at low volume and it's just an effects thingy, as I said before, the opposite of what the other players try to accomplish.
 

Could't stand it.  Met them at MacWorld and they kind of implied that it was meant for people with not-so-awesome headphones (not that they didn't try to sell to me anyhow).  I tried it with my JH16s and felt the sound was kind of gimmicky.

 

[AppleheadMay]

As an aside: I just found a great little app for people with multiple macs like a dedicated Music Server for example.
 
It's called "Music Control" and is available from the App Store for a few bucks.
 
What it does is:
- It lets you control volume and, more important, playback from your menu bar.
- It works with iTunes, Spotify and Rdio and lets you switch between them as well as search for music across all three of them
- it does this from your Mac for your Mac or any remote Mac, like a Music Server without a screen
Now if that isn't handy!
 
You'll need this little bit of info to make it work across your network and you're set. Here is the homepage.
 
Enjoy!  

 

[miceblue]

I haven't been monitoring this thread, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest me a free music library manager similar to iTunes for FLAC files. I know Fluke exists, but whenever I import a FLAC file with Asian media tags, it imports with a "?" instead of the Asian characters, making it impossible to navigate through music files easily. I really like iTunes for its ability to organize all of your music files with simplicity, but I dislike the non-support of FLAC files and the extra features I don't need (Airplay, shared music, iTunes Store, etc.).




I've tried Songbird before, but I'm not a big fan of it. I've tried Clementine before but it sorts my music oddly (ie. categorizing a Lady Gaga album under 'unknown artist' even though all of the tags have an artist label of "Lady Gaga")

For playing FLAC files, my main media player is Audirvana Free, otherwise it's either VLC or Vox.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Maybe Songbook will work?
It can act as a music server as well, but you can disable that.
It will let you access your iTines libray as well.

 

[geoffroyi]

 
Quote:

I was wondering if anyone could suggest me a free music library manager similar to iTunes for FLAC files. 

There's Enqueue and Sonora (which is still in development).
 
(EDIT: Didn't notice you said free 

)

 

[AppleheadMay]

Heh, neither did I apparently.
Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out geoffroyi, might be interesting as well.
 
For anyone interested, I'm using EyeConnect from Elgato as well.
It's a non-intrusive server app for on your Mac that lets you stream to a network player.
Works really well for music, video and photos and can convert the file formats not recognised by your player.
 
Another program I use is AirFoil so I can stream music from Spotify around the house as well.
Together with Music Control I mentioned above it's a blast.
 
Any other iTunes/music related software out there not mentioned in this thread before?

 

[moses195]

So I got my money back for Fidelia(I needed play counts, etc.). Very simple process.
I bought Bitperfect but need to EQ.
Ordered a Nuforce Icon 2. Received it today. Plugged it in. Set it for 96/24. Fired up a song in iTunes. Checked EQ. And It WORKS perfectly. 
 
For me with 320 kbp/s the Nuforce sounds just as good or better than Pure Music. And I've heard after burn in it'll sound better.
So for what I needed $129 is an OK price for a product that doesn't interfere at all with iTunes and sounds really good to me. Plus I can run 2 speakers off the Nuforce for free.
 
Up until 3 weeks ago I was happy with my music and Grado 80's. After finding Fidelia, my whole world has changed. I have spent 3 weeks learning. I now think I can enjoy listening instead if fiddling!
 
Time will tell?
 
 
Dana
 
 

 

[liamstrain]

I've had to revert to the 1.2.0b2 beta version of Fidelia - the more recent 3 versions have all been too unstable on my MacBook Pro running 10.6.8. 
 
Still liking it though, even with the temporary need to keep running AHP for my plugins. 

 

[AppleheadMay]

I just installed 1.0.2 r5 and it works fine.
Running Lion though, latest version.

 

[liamstrain]

Yah, I have a feeling they are optimizing just for Lion in the new versions.