Best Mac audio player?

[Illcutz]

While I loved, and used Vox for a couple of months as a replacement mp3-player for Winamp since my Windows-days, I just now found out about "Cog" and instantly realised how much I've missed what a member here already stated: The freedom to que up whatever you want to listen to, and just like in Winamp you can also loop it, take away or add some track and keep looping on through the night, and while at it scrooble to Last.fm in the Last.fm-app, like on iTunes. Vox could loop songs, but it did not count the second and forward play as a scrobble, this gave my most played, favorite songs during my Vox-days only a few listens on Last.fm.

While it might not clean out your playlist after you've quit, look as lightweight or play the song you've selected automatically, it does everything else wonders.

My biggest problem with Vox was the playlist, and how it could only be revealed through a small fade-in-fade-out bubble. I remember trying to find ways to sneak in new songs in the playlist without having to autostart a new one.

Check it out here: http://cogx.org/download.php

Thanks for recommending this, I've been looking for something when I just want to throw tons of music in the player without having to worry about clogging Itunes with it. Also like the fact you can drag and drop folders like you do with winamp.
Currently using Itunes, Vox and VLC. Would like to cut it down to just Itunes and another lightweight player.

 

[Bregalad]

Do any alternatives play FLAC?

I prefer to keep my audio stored in lossless formats. A significant portion of my collection was ripped using EAC into FLAC and I don't want to have to convert it just so iTunes can cope with it.

Do the alternative players mentioned in this thread play FLAC natively?

 

[kdum8]

Sorry, I just saw your question. Analog out is depending on your computers DAC (Digital to Analog Convertor) which is usually just okay. Digital out passes the data off to an external DAC to handle the conversion and, generally, they're a lot better. Ex I use: AirPlay > Airport Express > Optical cable > Onkyo HT receiver. It's all digital until it hits the Onkyo's wonderful DAC.

Thanks for the explanation. As you can see I am no audiophile if I didn't even know what a DAC was, however I am looking to improve the quality of the sound output I have. I take it though, that there is no point in having a DAC unless you have fairly reasonable speakers in order to hear any difference?

Currently all my music is on a Macbook Pro 4.1, so I am not sure how good its internal DAC is.

 

[GilesM]

to Kdum8 - DAC's

Kdum8,

The soundcard DAC in your macbook (or any netbook/laptop/MAC/PC) will never be as good as a dedicated DAC constructed for the purpose of Audiophile grade digital to analogue conversion.
stand alone DAC's are always better in the most part.

For example, I have a Cambridge Audio DAC connected to my hi-fi.
As a comparison I ran a optical digital signal from my netbook to the DAC which was then connected to the amp.
Then I also ran a plain old analogue cable from the soundcard to the amp.

This means I was able to switch the AMP between the two during playback.
My word - the difference was significant.

The sound of the analogue signal was degraded where as the sound from the DAC was exactly the same as the original CD (lossless rip of course).

All of this depends upon the quality of your amp and speakers of course.

 

[kdum8]

Kdum8,

The soundcard DAC in your macbook (or any netbook/laptop/MAC/PC) will never be as good as a dedicated DAC constructed for the purpose of Audiophile grade digital to analogue conversion.
stand alone DAC's are always better in the most part.

For example, I have a Cambridge Audio DAC connected to my hi-fi.
As a comparison I ran a optical digital signal from my netbook to the DAC which was then connected to the amp.
Then I also ran a plain old analogue cable from the soundcard to the amp.

This means I was able to switch the AMP between the two during playback.
My word - the difference was significant.

The sound of the analogue signal was degraded where as the sound from the DAC was exactly the same as the original CD (lossless rip of course).

All of this depends upon the quality of your amp and speakers of course.

Thanks for the explanation Giles. Basically what you are saying is, if I want to connect iTunes through my Macbook Pro to my hi-fi system and get decent audio I need to buy a Digital Audio Converter...

 

[TMRaven]

An external digital to analogue converter also helps reduce jitter in the music, so any electrical interferences within the computer won't cause skips in your music.

 

[dressed4success]

Has Clementine been mentioned yet?

Clementine is a modern music player and library organizer

Clementine is a multiplatform music player. It is inspired by Amarok 1.4, focusing on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing your music.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

Fidelia.

 

[xblyx]

Has Clementine been mentioned yet?

Thanks for recommending this awesome player!!!

 

[Big-AL]

Testing...

I am another switcher and this is the only real gripe about the switch, But I am currently testing the following players / library organizers:

Clementine Music Player: inspired on Amarok 1.4
Fidelia Premium Music Player: Hi-Def Audio Player with iOS remote app.

Never heard of either before reading this thread, (though I am very familiar with Amarok on my Linux Box)

I will post a write up after a few days on how they stack up as players and music library organizers.

But it looks like I will find what I need here.

-Big AL

 

[xgman]

I was using Vox, but issues with Lion have me switching to Decibel.

 

[macblin]

While I loved, and used Vox for a couple of months as a replacement mp3-player for Winamp since my Windows-days, I just now found out about "Cog" and instantly realised how much I've missed what a member here already stated: The freedom to que up whatever you want to listen to, and just like in Winamp you can also loop it, take away or add some track and keep looping on through the night, and while at it scrooble to Last.fm in the Last.fm-app, like on iTunes. Vox could loop songs, but it did not count the second and forward play as a scrobble, this gave my most played, favorite songs during my Vox-days only a few listens on Last.fm.

While it might not clean out your playlist after you've quit, look as lightweight or play the song you've selected automatically, it does everything else wonders.

Image

My biggest problem with Vox was the playlist, and how it could only be revealed through a small fade-in-fade-out bubble. I remember trying to find ways to sneak in new songs in the playlist without having to autostart a new one.

Check it out here: http://cogx.org/download.php

this one is the best so far. simple and good quality sound. still winamp is the best!!! hope they make one for mac soon to beat the iTunes crap

 

[julie.hao]

I What is the best Mac music player? Thanks.

I'd wish to own a music player not tired to iTunes or Amazon but syncs with any. Currently I use Panamp iPhone app. It has basic iOS music player features, and it is outstanding by it's ability to make dynamic queues: quick mix of selected tracks and power search that quickly and efficiently find the artict, album and tracks. Most compatible with iTunes collection.

 

[abilina]

Amarra

Ever heard about this ?

 

[Ronald Williams]

vlc works fine for me to play most media files....but going to try itunes now.

 

[416049]

VLC or Itunes, amarra looks good too, i will try it out

 

[aonali21]

I think Mkv player is th best quality player and you should use that....!

 

[yaollka]

I don't like iTunes because it copies all the music files I open straight to its library. Can anybody recommend any audio player which doesn't do that? Thanks!

 

[AppleRookie]

this one is the best so far. simple and good quality sound. still winamp is the best!!! hope they make one for mac soon to beat the iTunes crap

A la winamp, which I also loved, are there any music players that have a playlist by filename?? I downloaded Vox, which I liked for 2 min until I realized that if the file info wasn't totally filled out with album, artist & all, it was blank. Some files of mine have the mp3 info, some don't. Is there a music player that has a playlist (or at minimum a playlist display option) to view filename?? So, I don't have to edit every file I have to make it viewable in the playlist?

 

[Jolly Jimmy]

I don't like iTunes because it copies all the music files I open straight to its library. Can anybody recommend any audio player which doesn't do that? Thanks!

iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Copy files into iTunes Media folder...

 

[Raul123]

COG works best for me

Do any of these iTunes alternatives offer any noticeable improvements in audio quality? My setup is toslink out -> baresford dac -> audioengine a5s, wondering if it's worth switching over.

I have tried several audio players for the mac (iTunes, Pure Music, VLC, COX, etc). I have an imac and send the digital signal to the Arcam rDAC via the USB port. I compare the sound with the one produced by a Copland CD player and I can say that the only player that HAS IMPROVED the quality of the sound of the Copland is COG when used with wav or m4a files (but it is also very good with mp3's). The music is brighter and clearer with COG. Nowadays I use iTunes to organize my music library and COG to play it. It is a pity that it seems that COG is not being developed any further (it stopped at 0.07 version) but still it is certainly my first choice for musical quality.

 

[royaljerry]

Hi all, I'm a new switcher too (actually I bought mine two weeks ago). After a short googling on this question, I have found this one:

Enqueue
http://www.enqueueapp.com/

Has anyone tried it yet? It looks promising, I'm gonna test it in the evening at home (I'm working on a PC in my workplace ATM).

 

[BlackMangoTree]

For those who like COG be sure to check out "DECIBEL"

http://sbooth.org/Decibel/

It's fantastic, though id never spend a dollar on an audio app when iTunes is free.

As for Enqueue it doesn't support gapless playback making it useless for me though it does show some promise.

 

[Raul123]

For those who like COG be sure to check out "DECIBEL"

http://sbooth.org/Decibel/

It's fantastic, though id never spend a dollar on an audio app when iTunes is free.

As for Enqueue it doesn't support gapless playback making it useless for me though it does show some promise.

I did try Decibel, but Cog was superior in terms of musical quality. Itunes is very bad. But watch out, this is for my particular setting (rDAC Arcam, Symphonic Line Amplifier, etc.) it might well be different for other equipments.

 

[KeithPratt]

Itunes is very bad.

Leave iTunes at full volume and its output via Toslink will be bit-perfect.