Most Mac owners use either iTunes or a streaming service to manage and listen to their music. That's great, but if you're an audiophile who prefers high-resolution audio, iTunes simply won't cut it.
If you own music in a high-fidelity format, you may need to look beyond iTunes. Fortunately, there are plenty of other options available to you, so here are the best hi-res music player apps for Mac.
1. Vox
A fresh install of macOS (formerly Mac OS X or OSX) does not have a convenient way of playing your FLAC files (although since High Sierra pressing the Spacebar in Finder does play FLAC files) as iTunes would. Which is the Best FLAC player for Mac? Strictly objective speak would define the best FLAC player on Mac as the one that works for you! 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, F.A.Q., what is the best music player app, supported formats and other.
If you've looked around at solutions for playing FLAC files on a Mac, the chances are you've run into Vox. In addition to FLAC, Vox features support for other hi-res formats like ALAC (Apple Lossless), DSD (Direct Stream Digital), and uncompressed formats like PCM, WAV, and AIFF.
Vox can play hi-res audio in up to 24bit/192kHz. On the off chance that you have music in surround format, you also get 5.1-channel support. This isn't especially common, but it's a nice feature to have.
Vox is free to use, but Vox Premium is an optional subscription that adds several features. You'll pay either $49/year or $4.99/month for the subscription.
With the subscription, you'll also get advanced audio settings, like a built-in 10-band equalizer to tailor the sound to your tastes. The subscription also adds gapless playback and the ability to automatically set the sample rate of your output device to that of the file playing.
Vox Premium also includes unlimited storage with Vox Music Cloud, which is handy if you're running out of hard drive space. This feature is also useful as it ties into the Vox iOS app. With your files in the cloud, you can listen on your Mac or iPhone whenever you want without worrying about running out of space.
Download: Vox (Free, with optional Vox Premium subscription)
2. Audirvana+
On its website, Audirvana+ is described simply as 'the audiophile music player'. The use of this term likely either excites or bothers you. If you think hi-resolution audio is a scam, Audirvana+ is probably not for you. Especially when you consider the price tag.
Though it's not the most expensive player on this list, Audirvana+ is still far from cheap. You get a fair amount of features for your money. Some of them aren't even found elsewhere on this list. You also get a three-month trial of Tidal, plus a three-month trial of Qobuz if you're not located in the U.S.
Audirvana+ features support for the major hi-res formats, including MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). This app was the first to integrate the MQA Core Decoder, which brings out the full quality of the music, even if you're not playing through an MQA-capable audio device.
The app also supports formats like FLAC, ALAC, DSD, and even SACD ISO. Audirvana+ also features extensive features to catalog your library, including extended tags for classical and jazz. Full text search makes it easy to find your music.
Download: Audirvana+ ($74, with a 15-day free trial)
3. Colibri
The cheapest player on this list that isn't free, Colibri offers plenty of features for its low price tag. The website even points out that this is a one-time purchase and guarantees free upgrades. That isn't even mentioned on the websites of the more expensive players.
Colibri offers bit-perfect gapless playback of lossless audio formats, and it supports lossy formats as well. Supported lossless formats include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, and WavPack. When it comes to lossy formats, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC/M4A are supported. The app includes support for Cue sheets as well.
If you prefer your Mac apps to look like Mac apps, you'll love Colibri. The website states that one of the project's goals is to be 'as native to macOS as humanly possible'. It also aims for a tiny memory footprint and minimal battery impact. That's great if you want to listen while you work from a coffee shop without having to plug in.
Download: Colibri ($4.99)
4. Amarra Luxe
At $99, Amarra Luxe is the priciest app on this list. It's also one of a few Amarra-branded products from developer Sonic Studio. This isn't cheap, but the app does have some unique features.
Amarra Luxe supports a host of file types, including DSD, MQA, and FLAC. The app features built-in real-time DSD to PCM conversion, meaning you can listen without the need for a fancy digital-to-analog converter. You also get integration with Tidal and Qobuz, letting you listen to streams from multiple services in one place.
One of the bigger features of Amarra Luxe is iTunes integration. If you love the iTunes interface but want the format support and sound quality of Amarra Luxe, this is an attractive feature.
Download: Amara Luxe ($99)
5. Pine Player
As the only fully free player on this list, Pine Player is anything but barebones. While the player may not be as flashy as some of the other apps, it should still does justice to your hi-res audio files. If you've just blown a bunch of money on digital albums, that's a nice thing to know.
Pine Player supports a ton of formats, including MP3, FLAC, APE, AAC, M4A, WAV, AIFF, OGG, WMA, DSD, and SACD ISO. It also supports listening to BIN / CUE files. Even better, it supports hi-res audio all the way up to 32bit / 768kHz.
If you're a fan of keyboard controls, you'll find a lot to like in Pine Player. You can control nearly every aspect of the app with a handful of keyboard shortcuts. This includes playback, volume, and playlist editing.
Other features include crossfading and gapless playback, as well as an automatic isolation function for damaged files.
Download: Pine Player (Free)
What If You Don't Have a Hi-Res Music Collection?
These hi-res music player apps are great, but what if you don't have a hi-res music collection? To start, you could use a streaming service like Tidal, which offers hi-res audio in the MQA format. Deezer is another option, but it only offers CD-quality sound, not hi-res.
Streaming can still be less than ideal. So, if you're looking to start a collection, take a look at our list of music sites all audiophiles need in their lives.
Read the full article: The 5 Best Hi-Res Music Player Apps for Mac
Music entertainment has been continuously evolving in the recent years. As the audio encoding technology keeps developing, the MP3 format is not enough for people who want to have ultimate music enjoyment. To get a better audio playback performance, more and more people would choose the FLAC format for their music and audio files. However, although the FLAC format can provide us a better audio quality, the compatibility of the format has always been a problem for users. So in today's article, we will take a look at some of the best music players with FLAC support in 2020.
Part 1: Best Music Players with FLAC Support
SanDisk Clip Sport Series
If you want to have a well-designed, light-weighted and sound-quality-oriented music player, then the SanDisk Clip Sport Series might be a good option for you. SanDisk is an American manufacturer of flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives. It was established in 1988 and added the native FLAC support to their MP3 player as early as in 2009. SanDisk Clip Sport currently has 4GB and 8GB capacity available and with up to 5 color options as well. And the most important, with FLAC support and other audio formats like MP3, WMA (NO DRM), AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and Audible (DRM only). Price starts from $39.99 for 4GB model. SanDisk Clip Sport Plus is the advanced version of SanDisk Clip Sport and with the max capacity up to 16GB plus FLAC support as well as other audio formats mentioned above.
Vox Flac Player
Selling Points:
Multiple colors available
Great storage ability by the SanDisk's technology
Various capacity options
Cowon PLENUE 2 and Cowon PLENUE M2 from JetAudio
On its website, Audirvana+ is described simply as 'the audiophile music player'. The use of this term likely either excites or bothers you. If you think hi-resolution audio is a scam, Audirvana+ is probably not for you. Especially when you consider the price tag.
Though it's not the most expensive player on this list, Audirvana+ is still far from cheap. You get a fair amount of features for your money. Some of them aren't even found elsewhere on this list. You also get a three-month trial of Tidal, plus a three-month trial of Qobuz if you're not located in the U.S.
Audirvana+ features support for the major hi-res formats, including MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). This app was the first to integrate the MQA Core Decoder, which brings out the full quality of the music, even if you're not playing through an MQA-capable audio device.
The app also supports formats like FLAC, ALAC, DSD, and even SACD ISO. Audirvana+ also features extensive features to catalog your library, including extended tags for classical and jazz. Full text search makes it easy to find your music.
Download: Audirvana+ ($74, with a 15-day free trial)
3. Colibri
The cheapest player on this list that isn't free, Colibri offers plenty of features for its low price tag. The website even points out that this is a one-time purchase and guarantees free upgrades. That isn't even mentioned on the websites of the more expensive players.
Colibri offers bit-perfect gapless playback of lossless audio formats, and it supports lossy formats as well. Supported lossless formats include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, and WavPack. When it comes to lossy formats, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC/M4A are supported. The app includes support for Cue sheets as well.
If you prefer your Mac apps to look like Mac apps, you'll love Colibri. The website states that one of the project's goals is to be 'as native to macOS as humanly possible'. It also aims for a tiny memory footprint and minimal battery impact. That's great if you want to listen while you work from a coffee shop without having to plug in.
Download: Colibri ($4.99)
4. Amarra Luxe
At $99, Amarra Luxe is the priciest app on this list. It's also one of a few Amarra-branded products from developer Sonic Studio. This isn't cheap, but the app does have some unique features.
Amarra Luxe supports a host of file types, including DSD, MQA, and FLAC. The app features built-in real-time DSD to PCM conversion, meaning you can listen without the need for a fancy digital-to-analog converter. You also get integration with Tidal and Qobuz, letting you listen to streams from multiple services in one place.
One of the bigger features of Amarra Luxe is iTunes integration. If you love the iTunes interface but want the format support and sound quality of Amarra Luxe, this is an attractive feature.
Download: Amara Luxe ($99)
5. Pine Player
As the only fully free player on this list, Pine Player is anything but barebones. While the player may not be as flashy as some of the other apps, it should still does justice to your hi-res audio files. If you've just blown a bunch of money on digital albums, that's a nice thing to know.
Pine Player supports a ton of formats, including MP3, FLAC, APE, AAC, M4A, WAV, AIFF, OGG, WMA, DSD, and SACD ISO. It also supports listening to BIN / CUE files. Even better, it supports hi-res audio all the way up to 32bit / 768kHz.
If you're a fan of keyboard controls, you'll find a lot to like in Pine Player. You can control nearly every aspect of the app with a handful of keyboard shortcuts. This includes playback, volume, and playlist editing.
Other features include crossfading and gapless playback, as well as an automatic isolation function for damaged files.
Download: Pine Player (Free)
What If You Don't Have a Hi-Res Music Collection?
These hi-res music player apps are great, but what if you don't have a hi-res music collection? To start, you could use a streaming service like Tidal, which offers hi-res audio in the MQA format. Deezer is another option, but it only offers CD-quality sound, not hi-res.
Streaming can still be less than ideal. So, if you're looking to start a collection, take a look at our list of music sites all audiophiles need in their lives.
Read the full article: The 5 Best Hi-Res Music Player Apps for Mac
Music entertainment has been continuously evolving in the recent years. As the audio encoding technology keeps developing, the MP3 format is not enough for people who want to have ultimate music enjoyment. To get a better audio playback performance, more and more people would choose the FLAC format for their music and audio files. However, although the FLAC format can provide us a better audio quality, the compatibility of the format has always been a problem for users. So in today's article, we will take a look at some of the best music players with FLAC support in 2020.
Part 1: Best Music Players with FLAC Support
SanDisk Clip Sport Series
If you want to have a well-designed, light-weighted and sound-quality-oriented music player, then the SanDisk Clip Sport Series might be a good option for you. SanDisk is an American manufacturer of flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives. It was established in 1988 and added the native FLAC support to their MP3 player as early as in 2009. SanDisk Clip Sport currently has 4GB and 8GB capacity available and with up to 5 color options as well. And the most important, with FLAC support and other audio formats like MP3, WMA (NO DRM), AAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and Audible (DRM only). Price starts from $39.99 for 4GB model. SanDisk Clip Sport Plus is the advanced version of SanDisk Clip Sport and with the max capacity up to 16GB plus FLAC support as well as other audio formats mentioned above.
Vox Flac Player
Selling Points:
Multiple colors available
Great storage ability by the SanDisk's technology
Various capacity options
Cowon PLENUE 2 and Cowon PLENUE M2 from JetAudio
JetAudio provides great FLAC portable player twins just like SanDisk. Cowon PLENUE 2 and Cowon PLENUE M2 provide high definition sound quality and evolution beyond your imagination. These are high-everything FLAC portable players with 24bit/192kHz high definition sound, highest performance Burr-Brown PCM1795DAC, high performance amplifier and high speed 128GB internal memory. Not mention the powerful support of FLAC and other popular audio formats like DXD/DSD(DFF, DSF), FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, APE, MP3, WMA, OGG, WV,TTA, DCF etc. COWON Plenue M2 32GB Black currently is selling for $134.99. Price is obviously higher than SanDisk but with bigger and better screen, bigger capacity, excellent FLAC support and industry-like outfit design.
Selling Points:
High audio definition support
Multiple high-quality audio formats support
Big capacity up to 128GB available.
Onkyo DP-X1A
Onkyo DP-X1A is a powerful portable music player with a variety of audio formats support. The player is built with a full version of Android 5.1, and has complete support for features like Wi-Fi connectivity and the Google Play Store. Banner maker pro for mac. Onkyo DP-X1A has two audio ports – one headphone jack and one balanced output for those interested in a cleaner and overall better-quality sound. Additionally, the device has an easy-to-use volume wheel, as well as physical playback buttons and two microSD card slots for those with a sizable collection of music. Overall, the Onkyo is a great and professional choice for all of your high-quality FLAC music files.
Selling Points:
Professional design with a convenient volume wheel
Two microSD card slots
Easy-to-use Android operating system
iPod Touch
iPod Touch is definitely the go-to option for Apple users. As a member in the iOS ecosystem, iPod Touch can cooperate perfectly with your other Apple devices like iPhone, iPad or Mac computer. With the ability to store up to 128 gigabytes of your favorite tunes, plus smartphone-like functionality including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and access to the Apple App Store, there is no better iPod for casual listeners and those who don't want to carry a smartphone or drain its battery. Although iPod Touch is designed for casual listeners and doesn't provide many advanced audios playback support, the device is still recommended for your FLAC audio files as it's smart, easy-to-use and light-weighted.
Selling Points:
User-friendly iOS operating system
Great entertainment extendibility
Great portability
Sony NW-A45 Walkman
As a professional music player, Sony NW-A45 Walkman is packed with 16GB of built-in storage and a slick touchscreen UI. The product comes in multiple colors that will definitely suit your taste. For audiophiles, the NW-A45 supports Hi-Res playback, plus DSEE H can help restore lossy files back to a near lossless state. What's more, Sony's Walkman also comes with an S-Master HX digital amp that's powerful enough to drive some relatively high-impedance headphones. With the powerful audio decoding ability, the Sony NW-A45 starts at around $149, which is reasonable for high-end portable FLAC audio player devices.
Selling Points:
Outstanding user interface
Powerful HX digital amp
Expandable memory card slot
Part 2: Free Flac Player Software
Although the portable FLAC player devices introduced above can player your FLAC audio files quite efficiently, they also have their own unique drawbacks. Some of them are too expensive, others are not powerful in certain functions. So in addition to the players in the above, there is one more product that can play all FLAC audio files perfectly for free: Leawo Blu-ray Player.
Best Flac Player Ios
As one of the best media players that works on both Windows and Mac operating system, Leawo Blu-ray Player is the first choice for a lot of professional users to play FLAC files as well as more than 180+ other audio and video files because with the powerful decoding technology. The 100% free media player can play almost every digital video format. In addition, the player application can also play Blu-ray/DVD across region, and open all kinds of DVD materials in form of disc, ISO image or folder. In the premium version of Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can even convert your Blu-ray or DVD to a lossless digital MKV video, which is very convenient for Blu-ray or DVD lovers.
In terms of the audio playback ability, Leawo Blu-ray Player supports not only the MP3 and FLAC format, but also most of the popular high-quality audio formats like AAC, AC3, APE, DTS, M4A, MID, MKA, MP2, MPA, OGG and many more. The audio playback quality that Leawo Blu-ray Player can provide is also excellent. Here are the main features you can expect from this free media player application.
Why to Choose Leawo Blu-ray Player
Perfect playback for high quality media files
User-oriented playback control
Stereo Audio Enjoyment
Complete Dolby, DTS, AAC, TrueHD, DTS-HD (including 5.1, 7.1 channels) support
Full lossless-format support
Part 3: FLAC Introduction and FLAC&MP3 Comparison
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, as what it indicates, lossless is the most important feature of FLAC. FLAC file is a file which contains audio samples compressed with the FLAC audio encoding algorithm, which is a very good, open-source, lossless, audio codec.
As one of the popular and lossless audio formats, FLAC is always used to compare with another very common audio format in use, which is MP3. So, let's have a closer look at these two audio formats from different aspects.
The biggest difference: FLAC is lossless while MP3 is lossy. Lossless audio formats keep all the audio quality of the original source while lossy one compresses the files for space savings; therefore, the sound quality will be slightly affected in this case.
Since FLAC is lossless as mentioned above, which keeps all the audio quality of the original source and makes FLAC the ideal audio format to store your music in lossless style. On the contrary, MP3 is a lossy but common audio format around. It's well-supported by a lot of music download sites and portable devices, MP3 is definitely No.1 for the audiences if people are talking about the music thing.
Bonus: How to Play FLAC Music on My Phone
Besides playing the FLAC music with a professional music player or with a free player application on PC, there are still a lot of people would love to have a third option, which is to play the music on their smartphones. However, not all smart phones can directly play FLAC music. In order to make your FLAC music playable on your phone, you need to either install a player app that is compatible with the FLAC format, or convert the FLAC audio file to MP3 before transferring it to your phone.
You can find some FLAC compatible music player apps on both Android and iOS operating system. For Android users, you can try PowerAmp Player, which has a pretty good user interface, VLC for Android which is famous for its decoding ability, or many other options. For iOS users, the options are kind of limited. As far as I know of, VOX Music Player is one of the few that works.
If you don't want to take time to find a proper app, or you are not willing to pay for a decent FLAC player app, converting FLAC to MP3 in advance is also a good choice. Download adobe pdf viewer for mac. There are may great audio converter applications like Leawo Video Converter on both Windows and Mac system. By converting your FLAC audio file to MP3, you should be able to play it on your phone without any problem.
