Macbook
Aug 3, 2008 at 2:39 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 27

Antishatter

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I just got a black mac book for college (my first mac) and so I had a few questions. What media player should I use? I normally use Foobar2000 being it will let me do everything, I have quite a bit of flac audio that Itunes doesn't seem to support and frankly after using Foobar Itunes just comes up short in terms of functionality. Also the audio out is an optical audio out what exactly does this mean and can I use a dac such as the Zhalou out of this or do I still have to use a usb dac?
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 3:24 AM Post #2 of 27
Cog and Songbird
Cog is the simplest, no-nonsense player, but feature-poor
Cog - News

Max is great for converting files on the Mac
Max from sbooth.org

The optical out is exactly that. Plug in the miniplug end of an optical digital cable into your Mac's headphone jack, and the TOS end into your DAC, and you're good to go. You don't need to worry about ASIO, etc.

The Line In jack of the Mac is also an optical digital in. You can use the included iLife Garage Band to record an optical digital feed.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 4:50 AM Post #3 of 27
Nice, tricky. I use Cog and Max both extensively. No iTunes for me.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 6:13 AM Post #5 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Pangaea /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I would at least give iTunes a shot on the Mac, it is much better than the windows version.


No FLAC support though...

...well, you can get a plugin (see http://xiph.org/quicktime/), but it has odd limitations -- no metadata importing, for instance.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 6:55 AM Post #7 of 27
Some alternative players are "Play", "Songbird" and "Cog". Or check out Fluke, which allow iTunes to play native FLAC files.
I would rather transcode the FLAC files and use iTunes. But thats just me..
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Optical out mean that it have an output connector, outputting a digital signal using optical light. Which can be used to hook up an external DAC. If the Zhalou have optical inoput, then it can be used.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 1:25 PM Post #8 of 27
I used to hate iTunes on the PC, but on a Mac, it's really quite good. You might give it another extended look now that you're on a mac. As krmathis has pointed out, you can transcode the FLAC files and use iTunes. Btw and somewhat OT, if you haven't discovered it yet, I'd suggest VLC as an all-round media player. Have yet to find an audio or video file it can't play. I simply don't bother with Quicktime anymore.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 3:20 PM Post #10 of 27
Also, do take extra precaution against theft in college. Lock it to keep it physically secure, encrypt your data (strong passwords, File Vault) to keep that secure as well.

My cousin had his MacBook stolen the first day he moved into a new dorm room. He hid the MacBook behind furniture, left the room for dinner, and it was gone by the time he returned.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 6:26 PM Post #11 of 27
Personally, I rip CDs in Apple Lossless on my MacBook Pro, and use iTunes.

I had some albums in FLAC which I converted to AIFF using xACT, and then imported into iTunes to convert to Apple Lossless. This meant that I didn't lose any quality, yet it is nicely organised in iTunes (my preferred music player) and can work on my iPod.

Current Macs have an optical digital output which can be used to connect to a DAC (or AV receiver, surround system etc).

In my uni halls room, I use a kensington lock wrapped through the wire hole in my desk. I also have insurance cover, just in case.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 7:56 PM Post #12 of 27
Yeah I have a wire lock that I will use for sure. I am definitely going to pick up a dac now that I know how easy it will be.

Vlc has definitely been one of my favorite video players but I dont frequently use it for flac because you cant make a playlist with it as far as I can tell.

Based on the responses in this thread I will have to go back and look at Itunes again.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a Dac that will work with the mac book and sound pretty good with a CKII amp and Beyer DT770's? I was looking at a zhalou but I think I will have to fix my Beyers before I buy one because the left speaker has a pretty bad rattle in it that I cant seem to get rid of.
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 8:24 PM Post #13 of 27
VLC does do playlists
To see your playlist, Window -> Playlist, or click the Playlist button in the controller
Drag and drop stuff on to the playlist, drag to arrange

When you're done, File -> Save Playlist (M3U or XML are supported)
 
Aug 3, 2008 at 8:51 PM Post #14 of 27
I've heard good things about Songbird. I'm probably going to switch to it when it's more mature though, as I heard it currently has memory and performance management issues.

Off-topic, but what's a good security cable for the Macbook? I've read horror stories of certain Kensington cable locks doing a number on the sides of black Macbooks.. Plus I've read many can be unlocked with simple pieces of paper.
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