[Prophet293]

Hi guys, please recommend me a good FLAC player for my iPhone (free or paid). I used VLC to play a couple of tracks but the playback had artefacts in them (top popping), I had a feeling that it was because the tracks were 24 bit?

 

[appsmarsterx]

get an Android device may be... we have Poweramp and many more here on Play Store
 
 
P.S: I was just joking .. may be if you can encode your flac collection to 320kbps mp3, that would be just fine.

 

[BetterLate]

Can't we give a serious answer to this question? I am playing with FLAC Player+ (free, ad-supported), and it works fine, but so far I can only figure out how to transfer files one at a time (ugh!). I would gladly pay, but the $10 app (FLAC Player) recommended by random website got crap reviews on itunes.
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[thatBeatsguy]

Use Xrecode II to re-encode your FLAC files to ALAC. Hardly any difference since both are lossless formats. Oh yeah, I converted all of my FLAC files to ALAC because iPod.

 

[AlrightMister]

Capriccio sounds better to me than FLAC Player +. I'm using it until something better comes along.

 

[originalsnuffy]

I primarily play my higher res files (and at least non bit reduced files) on my FIIO units.  But I realize from time to time that a single device has merits.
 
I have a FIIO E07 that works with both my iphone lightning connector and ipad 30 pin connector using the appropriate Apple Camera Connecting Kits.
 
But I am thinking that maybe a good FLAC player approach can make do without so many extra gadgets.
 
So first, I want to verify what the max native capability of my phone can be.
With a 6 plus running IOS 8.x; is the max resolution 24 bits and 48 khz ?  If no, what is it.
 
I figure I can then use foobar and reduce my file to this max level for portable use.
 
I am also looking for an app that hands off the signal properly to the DAC to avoid resampling or downsampling.  I would also like an App that supports gapless playback and preferably some kind of file folder management.
 
Any input?

 

[AlrightMister]

If you're going to go through the trouble of converting you may as well convert to 16/48 ALAC and use itunes natively as anything coming out of the headphone out of your iphone will be downsampled to 16 bit 48 kHz limit of the internal DAC. All current FLAC players that I have tried are clunky. You have to import files through iTunes and create folders and drag files into them from within the app on the phone. I only use it to avoid conversion and I am generally not a fan of iTunes. I have a Fiio X1 now so pretty much only use my phone and iPods for streaming, podcasts, or when exercising. You can use an external DAC with your phone but after using one with a Galaxy S3 I find a decent DAP to be a much better option for me. We are starting to see mfi certified headphones with lightning connectors that have a built in DAC and amp that will allow full resolution playback. Philips Fidelio M2L and the new Fidelio NC1L. I'm not crazy about having everything built into the headphones but I'd like to some options come out that look like an extended battery case/cover with a shrouded volume knob so we can bring our own cans. 

 

[AlrightMister]

 
I have a FIIO E07 that works with both my iphone lightning connector and ipad 30 pin connector using the appropriate Apple Camera Connecting Kits.
 
But I am thinking that maybe a good FLAC player approach can make do without so many extra gadgets.
 

 
I reread this. You say this like they are mutually exclusive. You already have to use a FLAC player to output anything over 16/48 to your E07 now as iTunes won't take files of higher bit rate. What do you currently use?
 
I do like having a DAC/amp that I can with a phone or tablet for streaming but for file playback I guess I've decided carrying a phone and a DAP is easier than worrying about camera kits or otg cables pockets full of spaghetti and extra bulk.

 

[nimaina]

I' m using CanOpener.  Absolutely great.  Have a lot of cool options.  You have ability to choose from a long list of headphones or manually enter your headphone impedance and sensitivity.  There's also Crossfade, and Pencil EQ functions.

 

[originalsnuffy]

Maybe I should explain a bit more where I am coming from. Right now I sort of separate my hi fi playing from my bit reduced playing. Hi Fi involves a FIIO X3 or X1.

I also have a Tarkan modified ipod 5.5g which can play FLAC redbook files using Rockbox and ALAC files using native IOS firmware.

Bit reduced playback involves an iphone 6, and I can also playback non-bit reduced files using ALAC or FLAC with some apps. Sometimes I hook up my E07 Andes to that, but that involves carrying a second piece of equipment and the E07 can't handle 192khz.

So I was thinking that perhaps I could come up with a file format that utilizes the maximum native resolution of the 5.5g and iphone 6, and use that more often since I do not want to carry around too much equipment day to day.

One thing that still confuses me is whether the iphone 6 and the ipod 5.5 g can natively handle 24bit playback. There was a pretty good analysis that I recently saw that said that although the chipset can handle that, the units are still limited by software to 16 bit. I know Rockbox can down scale bit rates, but I am still not sure exactly what the native limits are with Rockbox and 5.5g.

So if 24 bit 48 khz is the top limit of the idevices, then I might create some files for that. I don't want to use ALAC, in part because I really do not like itunes and prefer to work with Rockbox and FLAC files are something of a standard and ALAC is less so.

 

[DrSheep]

Onkyo HF Player is the best with FLAC and DSD support.

 

[originalsnuffy]

DSD support is a funny beast. On most systems the dsd files are converted on the fly to PCM. So one is loading a file that is about 3x the size of a hi res flac which is then modified for further processing. My observation is that memory space on these devices has a shadow cost.

 

[karloil]

Long time Android user and now switching to iPhone. I sold my X7 and just decided to use my phone for music (quite tired of bring multiple devices)

I was also looking for a flac player for iOS but decided to recoded my Flac files to ALAC instead and go through iTunes (which i hate).

Sound wise i really can't hear any SQ degredation so i'm quite happy about it

 

[originalsnuffy]

There are quite a few FLAC players for the iphone, some are free.  Just keep in mind that the iphone natively can only handle 24 bit 48 khz at the max.  So to go above that you need an external DAC and the apple camera connecting kit.  And getting external DAC units work is more an art than a science.
 
Now you can use a player to downsample to 24 bit 48khz, just be aware that downsampling is going to happen.
 
I use nPlayer but that also has some strong video capabilities..  I can stream from my home NAS using nPlayer but many other apps can do that as well.