[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ph0rk /img/forum/go_quote.gif If they are all capable of bitperfect output there is no difference, save for the user interface.

My thought exactly!
If they all output bitperfect audio data, then I don't see a difference. Not counting preferences related to playback software that is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Covenant /img/forum/go_quote.gif iTunes cannot play FLAC, can it? My music library is ripped exclusively to FLAC, and I'd prefer to keep it that way as my DAP, the Cowon S9 is a FLAC player also. Are there any other music applications for Macs than iTunes, that do have support for the non-Apple codecs?

iTunes do not support FLAC out-of-the-box, but there are components adding this feature. Ex. Fluke: iFLAC your Mac

Or simply use one of the alternative players:
* Play
* Cog
* Songbird
* VLC

 

[.Sup]

How exactly do you know if you have bitperfect enabled?

 

[iriverdude]

Your amp receives 44.1khz when playing audio ripped from CD's, your Dolby Digital/DTS 48khz light comes on when playing Dolby Digital/DTS movies, and when you playback a HDCD or DTS encoded WAV your amp goes switches to HDCD/DTS.

 

[LFC_SL]

I use my Edirol on my HP notebook (XP). Have not really dug beneath the surface with my Macs. I am using the excuse that I need to get a DAC with digital i/o

 

[Kobra]

I've just switched over to Mac as I bought the new MacBook Pro a few weeks ago. Trust me, it wasn't a easy decision as I've been a Windows user since the Windows 3.1

I'm not going to start a long debate over one OS's merits over the other, nor am I going to dwell in to my reasons behind the switch.

I've used an alarming amount of PC's over the years, and I've experimented with Linux. I can't put my finger on it, but I do sense a slightly better audio quality playing the exact same music file (I've tried both flac and alac) through the same USB Dac and set of headphones. I'm not totally sure about it as I haven't done any research about it but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the MAC OS has a slightly different way (better?) of rendering audio.

One thing that I am sure about though is that I haven't encountered any OS crashes or slow downs because of ASIO or WASAPI (as it's not used in OS X). Also, I haven't experienced any stuttering in the sound

As my entire music collection (~3000 cd's) was ripped to flac I was at first a bit disappointed in the poor (almost non existent) support of flac in MAC OS. I tried SongBird but didn't like it as it's so damn slow, fluke didn't work out either (it plays fine in iTunes but requires a lot of work to get all music in to the library). So, over the past two weeks I've been entertaining myself with a bit of flac -> alac conversion and ID-tagging

I'm now using iTunes (which is a rather good music player, despite the fact that Apple tends to bog it down with useless futures by every new release)

What I find most satisfying with my the MAC is that "everything works right out of the box" (I know it's a cliche, but it's true) The same NuForce DAC that every now and then would give me some pain with Windows 7 and Foobar, worked like a charm right a way on the macbook without any need for configuration in either the preferences (that's the control panel for you Windows guys) nor in iTunes.

I'm a happy (mac) camper and I will follow this thread with great enthusiasm and curiosity (as I'd be more than happy to learn more about the technical differences between Windows and OS X regarding hi-fi)

 

[Bizzel]

I'd throw the possibility of using a Squeezebox or other network player out there. Windows, Mac and Linux support and bit-perfect since all you're sending is the raw file data over ethernet.