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Read definitive guide by audio software developer Yuri Korzunov about:
• free and commercial hi res audio player software apps on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and other [computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets],
• online for audiophiles,
• Frequently Answered Questions,
• what is the best music player app,
• supported formats (WAV, FLAC, DSD [DSF, DFF, SACD ISO], MQA, m4a, ....) and others.

Cocktail Audio X45 Pro Music Player/DAC ($5,995 USD) This Korean-made digital all-in-one box offers just about everything for the audiophile who is exploring digital technologies for the first time—CD ripper, DAC, music server with plenty of storage, hi-rez streaming capabilities, a phono stage, an FM tuner and, most importantly, great sound. Music players for mac os? I know that Jriver has a Mac OS version. I use and enjoy the Windows version. It's not free but they offer a 30 day trial. R/audiophile is a subreddit for. Here are the best free Mac music play tools for you with their great features. VOX: Music Player. Vox is a good and simple music player sporting minimal looks with tons of options. It supports all the present audio formats like FLAC, MP#, APE, etc. If you love to tweak and fettle with the music settings.

Let’s look at some of the best audiophile music players on the Mac. An excellent software player for Mac OS X, which ticks all the boxes is Audirvana. This is the program I personally use for my day to day listening. Audirvana can work both as a standalone player or in iTunes integrated mode if you wish. It's the best MPD controller and a really fine player when combined with MPD. Rating the music players. The following table shows my ratings of the various open source music players I tried. I've broken the players into two groups: most are standalone music players and one is a music player front-end used in conjunction with a music server like.

HD audio file conversion

High-resolution audio player software

Hi res music player software for audiophiles (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, online) for WAV, FLAC, DSD (DSF, DFF, SACD ISO, DoP), MQA, m4a, ....

WARNING: This table can contain errors. It is not an offer or advertising. We are not affiliated with listed products. We guarantee nothing. If you found wrong information, contact us, please. To get exact information, contact with the software developers and/or vendors.
Supported sample rate and bit depth may depend on a file format.

Read more:

What is the best hi-res audio player software

Which high-resolution audio player has the best sound quality is your personal choice rather. Some audio players may playback qualitative audio files without altering (bit-perfect). In general, there is no matter, that player is use for it, but some nuances are there. Below how to make the choice is discussed.

Sound quality

Playback modes

An audio player may works in 2 base modes (depend on the software abilities):

1. bit-perfect (transmitting data from an audio file to DAC without altering);
2. processing mode (resampling, room correction and other).

In bit-perfect mode, the sound quality is defined by DAC and next audio devices.
This mode consumes minimal computing resources and is desirable for non-powerful computers.

Processing mode sound quality depends on the player and/or processing plug-in.
This mode may consume many computing resources (more quality = more resources), and, sometimes, can't work at lower-performance computers. Also, this mode consumes more electrical energy for calculations and cooling, than a bit-perfect one.
When fans work in intensive mode, they cause more noise.

Gapless playback

Some albums (operas, live concerts, etc.) should be played back as a continuous stream.

Some players can begin the next song without DAC re-initialization.
This ability is called as Gapless playback.
It may be applied for as bit-perfect as processed modes (see 'Playback modes').

Also played back audio files may be pre-converted in gapless mode too.
This mode has a sense when audio files are resampled or DSD files are processed.
Gapless conversion has a sense, when the audio player works in gapless mode.

ASIO

ASIO is a kind of audio drivers by audio interface vendors, that provide low latency and use of specific properties of the audio interface. ASIO SDK (programming tools) is provided by Steingberg.

As rule, ASIO driver is provided together with a sound device. Specific functionality management is supported via a special software control panel.

There is universal ASIO-driver ASIO4All. But, as rule, DAC-vendor driver is more recommended.

Latest MacOS versions use their builtin drivers (Core Audio) instead ASIO. So, you no need special drivers to works with a DAC. However, audio device vendors may provide Mac's ASIO drivers for some devices.

Read more:

• How to configure foobar2000 for DSD playback >

WASAPI

WASAPI is builtin Windows drivers to direct access to audio interface without operating system processings. May be used instead of ASIO.

WASAPI may use exclusive access to an audio interface to render sound stream directly to the DAC's audio buffer without mixing of audio streams from several applications. So, no operating system's audio processing is there.

Native DSD

Native DSD is sending DSD audio stream from audio file to DSD DAC without conversion to PCM.

ASIO drivers under Windows may support it. Under the latest MacOS version, DSD audio stream should be packed in DoP format. The packing is lossless. Also, DoP format may be used on Windows.

Read more:

• How to configure foobar2000 for DSD playback >

DSD to PCM

DSD audio stream may not be played on PCM DAC. Before sending the stream to the DAC, this stream should be converted to PCM.

It consumes processing resources. In the general case, better sound quality depends on amount of computing resources.

Some computers may have a lack of computing power to realtime DSD to PCM conversion. It may be solved via offline DSD to PCM conversion. Also, it saves free space at hard disk (HDD) of an audio player (allow more songs on the disk). It may be very useful for portable/mobile devices.

Read more:

Functionality

One of the widespread demands to players are:

• album artwork displaying;
• text metadata displaying;
• search in song database;
• web radio/streaming playback.

Audio player software F.A.Q.

Can Windows Media Player play high-resolution audio?

Yes. Windows Media player is capable to play high resolution audio files. If your file iss not played back, you can try other players...

Do audio players have different sound quality?

It depends on the mode of playback. In bit-perfect mode, a music player app just transports audio data from a sound file to DAC without audio processing.

When audio player software process audio data (resample, alter bit depth, apply dithering, EQ, etc.), it causes different distortion levels. If consider psychoacoustics, distortions may have a different character, which also impacts the final perception of the distortions. Also, the interaction of the distortions with a playback system (DAC, amplifier, speakers) is matter.

EXAMPLE

Some apparatus can cause the audible level of intermodulation distortions, that generated by ultrasound components.

Practically it can cause audible noise.

You can:

• try low sample rate 44.1 kHz, or
• apply ultrasound cut in hi-res audio file.

General recommendation:

• Do a sound check of different players in various modes and audio resolutions on your music equipment. Read details...

Does hi-res audio sound better? Is hi-res audio better than CD?

Hi res audio allowing solve some issues of analog filters of ADC or DAC. But actual result is matter of implementation of an audio equipment and software. Read definitive guide...

Read more:

What is the best music player for Windows 10?

As rule, it's personal choise.

• Read common rules how to choose the best audio player...
• Try and choose own player...

Where can I buy high resolution music?

Audiophile Music Player

See list of sites with high-resolution audio...

Does memory playback improve audio quality?

Memory playback doesn't improve 'transparency'. But the mode can get rid of pauses if file played from slow/overload network or album player in gapless mode.

Do gapless playback is helpful?

If an audio player re-initialize DAC, it can cause quiet clicks.

When files played back without re-initializing, there is no kind of clicks.

Do computer digital hardware interface (HDMI, USB, SPDIF, etc.), its cables impact sound quality?

Digital audio interfaces don't impact sound quality, which may be defined as 'sound transparency'.

Also, digital interfaces have sample rate and bit depth limitations.

Operating system built-in driver can additionally process sound and impact to sound quality.

But pauses, clicks, serial interruptions are possible when an audio interface doesn't work properly (poor cables, grounding, shielding; hardware issues, etc.).

General recommendations:

• Buy thick cables in the mid or higher price range. It is fairly for longer cables especially.
• Ferrite rings/barrels can give some advantages. But it's recommended, that measurement tools are used.

Read more:

Do analog audio cables impact to sound quality?

Analog inter-module cables (linear inputs and outputs) can impact the noise floor, crosstalk and frequency response.

General recommendation:

• If you hear the hum at 50 Hz or multiple frequencies (power high voltage network), try to use other analog cables or use digital inter-module connection instead.

Is jitter a real issue for audio playback?

DAC clock source can impact to analog output jitter of a digital-to-analog converter . But all other factors, including memory playback, cables and interfaces - no. Read details...

General recommendations:

• Don't bother about jitter, when DAC is clocked by its internal source.
• Don't use synchronization by SPDIF digital audio input.

What is the best audio format for sound quality?

To achieve maximal sound quality, lossless audio file formats are recommended: FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSF, DFF, SACD ISO. Read details...

What is 24 bit / 192 kHz audio?

It is resolution audio with sample rate 192 kHz and bit depth 24 bit in PCM format (modulation). Read details...

Is WAV better than FLAC?

In audio resolution 384 kHz/32 bit and lesser, there is no difference between FLAC and WAV by the sound quality. Watch video...

If you need a higher resolution, WAV can provide it. When file size is more 4 GB, WAV RF64 format may be applied.

Read details about:

• WAV;
• FLAC.

Is DSD better than FLAC?

Both DSD and FLAC are high-resolution formats, that try solve issues of 44.1 kHz / 16 bit. But, actual result depend on implemengtation of your audio system. Read details...

Is MQA better than FLAC?

MQA is high qualitative lossy format, as the author know. FLAC is lossless format, providing output sound quality absolutely identical source. MQA provides better file-size comression ratio. Read details...

Can VLC play hi-res audio?

Yes, VLC can play hi-res audio. However, as the author know, VLC don't support DSD formats.

October 10, 2020 updated | since December 7, 2018

A native Mac audio and music player that supports crystal-clear bit-perfect gapless playback of all popular lossless and lossy audio formats, uses only a tiny amount of computing power and offers a clean and intuitive user experience – it only ‘does what it says on the can’.

Best Audiophile Music Player For Mac

macOS Big Sur update is out in a few days

Progress report at the Devblog

Try the freeColibri DAC/DSD Test app

• Saves your battery

  Uses a barely noticable amount of computing power, Colibri is built using state-of-the-art Swift programming language while the BASS audio engine is bundled as machine code and the interface uses built-in components by Apple. This was done in order to achieve a tiny footprint and to be as native to macOS as humanly possible.

• Plays your audio

  Colibri supports the most widely used range of file formats in terms of lossless audio: FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, WavPack, popular lossy formats: Ogg Vorbis, MP1/MP2/MP3 and AAC/M4A, network streams/online radio, MOD and MIDI files (with per song SoundFont support)! For your undisturbed listening pleasure, Colibri supports Exclusive/Hog mode as well. A lossless audio player at heart with love to other popular formats as well0010.

• Handles CUE Sheets

  Complete Cue sheet support: malformed and disordered content is reprocessed during loading along with a painless and quick way to add your whole collection – Colibri will analyze and decide whether to load the Cue sheet in the folder or queue every song one by one for every added/dragged folder recursively.

• Supports gapless playback

  Extensively designed from the ground-up to provide a true gapless listening experience. Colibri prepares the upcoming song for playback in the background to further eliminate gaps for (slower) external drives or network shares without pushing the entire song into memory, meaning that no extra CPU or RAM usage is needed!

Next-generation BS2B support

Individual Song & Audio Device Profiles
Custom Processing Order
Automatic Profile Switching

Audiophile Music Player Windows 10

• Picks up where you left off

  Saves or empties your current playlist upon quitting and re-opens your songs when you start it up again. Furthermore, Colibri can also save and load its’ current playlist to a custom format that can even be appended to an already existing playlist. Loading and appending is also available for M3U and M3u8 playlist files.

• Avoids most problems

  Colibri does its’ best to avoid most problems before, during and even after playback. Loading unsupported files show up as an error message and files that have disappeared since loading are automatically removed and skipped upon being reached in the playlist. A Mac lossless player developed with flexibility and error correction in mind.

• Understands your language

  Capable of rendering the song information as it was intended to be shown: of all the tried metadata it had no problem with displaying Cyrillic or kanji/katakana/hiragana characters mixed with ASCII. All known metadata types readable by the BASS engine and macOS are supported by Colibri.

• Respects your privacy

  Colibri does not phone home, collect usage data, spy on you or modify files in any way. It also does not contain DRM routines, have features hidden behind a paywall or bind functions to a subscription model. Colibri is an audio player that respects your privacy to the fullest and this will never change.

10-band Peaking Equalizer

Individual Song Profiles
Automatic Profile Switching
Adjustable Bandwidth

• Displays album art

  Displays embedded cover art for FLAC files and ID3 / iTunes artwork metadata (mainly for ALAC / M4A and MP3 files). When that yields no visible results then Colibri looks around the folder where the current song resides for a cover art image and shows that. See the FAQ for details on the exact files Colibri looks for. FLAC files with embedded picture data or supplied album art images are displayed automatically.

• Resides in your Menu Bar

  Colibri can place an unobtrusively small icon in the Menu Bar for easy access and playlist control: you can either start/pause the playback, skip to the next track or go back to the previous one. It also displays the info and cover art image of the current song. Control Colibri from even multiple Spaces desktops away with the MenuBar Controller!

• Integrates with Finder and your Keyboard

  Colibri conforms all of Apple’s strict requirements – which means that it shows up in Finder as an option in “Open With” when a supported file is selected. Colibri can also open all files of a folder by opening just one of them from Finder – see the Settings – Behavior screenshots in the Gallery.

• Adjusts to your Display

  Colibri’s interface elements scale themselves nicely on every screen resolution and pixel density, while Colibri also offers a wide range of usage modes from small condensed to fullscreen complete with multiple types of column layouts and a resizable player window.

Colibri 1.9.1 Changelog

Thank you for using Colibri! This updates brings a bunch of bugfixes (codec errors, SoundFont usage, per-Song BS2B/EQ profiles, various crashes), eight new playlist columns (…and sorting for all!), a new ‘insert’ mode for the Playlist, switchable Auto-Play and Permanent Pause options – among other smaller enhancements. Happy listening!

Best Budget Cd Player Audiophile

ENHANCEMENTS

• Updated codebase to Swift 5
• Settings -> Output now better fits all kHz entries
• Volume is now automatically raised to 100% for DSD files when DoP/DoPA mode is selected and restored to previous volume level for non-DSD files (and PCM mode)
• Unsupported DST encoded DSD and DTS encoded WAV files will now show proper Unsupported Codec error messages
• added an alternate fallback method for Automatic Sample Rate Switching for stubborn DACs (Colibri uses it automatically when needed)
• Finder sorting order is used to enqueueing files to the Playlist
• Playlist will be rendered with system default monospace font when available (macOS 10.11 and up)
• added a ‘Use Default SoundFont’ option for MIDI files to the right-click context menu of the Playlist
• removing the default SoundFont will automatically set the next available SoundFont as the default
• if the SoundFont list is empty, then the first SoundFont will automatically be marked as the default
• removing a SoundFont only causes playback restart if the currently played song is affected by the removal
• importing a new SoundFont will automatically set it as the default
• new switchable option in Settings -> Playlist: “Dragging to the Playlist via Mouse / Trackpad”:
  • songs will be added at pointer position (insert)
  • songs will be added at the end of the list (append, like before)
• added ‘Permanent Pause’ to Settings -> Behavior (Off, by default):
  • pause will ‘hold’ until the Play button is pressed again
  • switching to a different song will ‘arm’/prepare the song for playback
  • seeking repositions the playhead and it will play audio from the selected spot once unpaused
  • removing songs from the playlist does not affect the paused state
• added ‘Auto-Play’ to Settings -> Behavior (On, by default):
  • On: Colibri automatically plays the next song
  • Off: Colibri stops when the current song ends
• Playlist Columns have been rewritten from scratch for improved stability: see Settings -> Columns
• Columns are now sortable:
  • click on the header once to sort playlist by that column
  • clicking once again switches between Ascending/Descending sorting
  • sorting is supported across all columns
• added new Columns:
  • Length, kHz, Codec, Year, Track Number, Disc Number, Composer and Bit Depth
• Playlist Columns can now have vertical and horizontal Grids:
  • they help in finding the columns boundaries during reordering and resizing
  • Grids can be toggled on/off in Settings -> Themes
  • a color picker has been added to Settings -> Themes for the Grid
• new Loop option ‘Random Round Robin’ in Settings -> Playlist:
  • each song in the Playlist will be played once per “round”
  • when all songs were played once, a new “round” begins
  • removing a song causes the “round”
  • double-clicking on a song does not reset the “round”
  • a great way to have a balanced, random playback order
• monospace system fonts are now used in both the Title bar and Status bar (10.11 and up)

BUGS FIXED IN THIS UPDATE

Best Audiophile Music Server

• Colibri would not display its’ name in the Force Quit and Activity Monitor windows
• Colibri would prevent the system from entering sleep state
• Colibri would fail to play the upcoming song under very high system load
• Playhead wouldn’t always continue from the same spot on output device change
• Playlist would have a weird glitch on startup
• Force Sample Rate would cause crash on startup
• Online Streams wouldn’t always start playback
• Random playback order would sometime cause Colibri to crash
• BS2B and EQ profiles wouldn’t property restore on next startup
• After starting Colibri, the playlist would become disorganized/chaotic if files had gone missing since last start
• Automatic Sample Rate Switching wouldn’t always switch properly after the end of the playlist had been reached
• Menubar Controller didn’t always refresh the data on song change
• some built-in Audio DSP hardware wouldn’t switch sample rate properly (mainly newer MacBook Pros)
• SoundFonts won’t always properly reload on next launch
• SoundFonts won’t properly switch on a per-song basis
• custom SoundFonts could disappear from the SoundFont list
• setting a custom SoundFont as default wouldn’t always save properly
• network streams won’t trigger a ‘Problem calculating song length’ error
• Menubar Controller properly shows Light/Dark control buttons as per system theme
• Colibri could crash by clicking on the EQ button while the Playlist is empty
• moving multiple songs in the Playlist at once could cause titles to be become disorganized
• dragging files / folder to the dock would not be added to the Playlist properly
• Colibri could crash on El Capitan 10.11.6 when switching between Dock and Menu modes
• added missing keyboard shortcut to DSD output mode menu
• About Colibri window didn’t properly switch the Light logo in Dark Mode
• Theme import / export buttons wouldn’t properly spawn the browser windows
• Pressing Return on an empty playlist could sometimes cause crash
• Pressing Return while nothing is selected in the playlist could cause crash
• Color Pickers in Settings -> Themes should now behave as expected of them

Best Audiophile Portable Music Player

Thank you Henning Gärtner for all-around essential feedback and testing, Rick Ernsting for feedback on the SoundFont issues!

Best Audiophile Music Player For Mac 2015 Download

Colibri is the passion project of Gábor Hargitai, brought to you by countless sleepless and caffeine-induced nights.
Support Email: gabor@barefootwebdesign.co.nz