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What Lossless Audio player do you use?
- Thread starter Irishman
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Pretty much the same for me. I use Foobar2000 when I am on PC, but most of the time I am using iTunes.
Why use it? Idon'tthink it can even see the airplay or airport express speakers and it does notshare libraries with other Mac or IOS devices. It is just a player.
Foobar via Wineskin, but I'm trying to switch to SongBird, since I prefer native things (but Foobar is hard to just forget due to my windows background and Imma have to migrate the playcounts and stuff).
Why use it? Greatest format compatibility out there, for audio AND video. OP was polling for lossless audio players that might be used by us.
Don't recall any mention of AirPlay nor iOS. But feel free to keep having that monologue.
If I really like a song, on in rare cases the whole album I will download a flac copy. It is just the single song I will keep it in a flac singles folder and play through audacity. If a whole album I will import it to itunes using that fluke utility. One wish I have about flac on itunes is that I cannot assign album artwork to a album composed entirely of flac tracks. I have to place one 320 kps mp3 in the album and attach the art to that track. It works well enough, the artwork is visible throughout the various sorting methods, it is just not visible in the mini-player artwork thumbnail.
If I am ripping a album from compact disc I will encode the tracks with apple lossless on itunes, but that is a pretty rare occurrence nowadays.
By the way, does anyone else agree that we should go back to "to-night". Without the hypen the world is so plan, with it there is excitement.
If I am ripping a album from compact disc I will encode the tracks with apple lossless on itunes, but that is a pretty rare occurrence nowadays.
By the way, does anyone else agree that we should go back to "to-night". Without the hypen the world is so plan, with it there is excitement.
I just use iTunes-- nothing else. If I really like an album and it sounds like it was recorded and mastered really well, then I'll rip it into wav. 90% of the time I use 320kbps aac, which more than suffices.
I have some decent performing hifiman headphones and psb speakers, but I cant tell the difference with lossless so there's no reason for me to use lossless in general.
I have some decent performing hifiman headphones and psb speakers, but I cant tell the difference with lossless so there's no reason for me to use lossless in general.
I got FLACTunes yesterday from the MAS on some recommendations (to convert FLAC files to ALAC to be readable by iTunes 11). It's $4, but it's drag and drop convenient.
HDTracks has a 5 song sampler of their 96/24 music. If you go to Bowers&wilkins.com and click on the Society of Sound link, it takes you to a page where you can enter JUST your email address (no credit card required) and download about 10 free full songs from their catalog.
Does anyone else know of any other free lossless music available from reputable sites?
HDTracks has a 5 song sampler of their 96/24 music. If you go to Bowers&wilkins.com and click on the Society of Sound link, it takes you to a page where you can enter JUST your email address (no credit card required) and download about 10 free full songs from their catalog.
Does anyone else know of any other free lossless music available from reputable sites?
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Thanks for the Society of Sound info. I'm going to download the free songs tonight, and I would seriously consider the yearly subscription!
B&W also gives a FREE three-month Society of Sound subscription to anyone registering any of their purchased products - this means two hand-picked full albums each month plus a selection of catalogue albums.
Hyperion Records also offers an EXCELLENT classical music catalogue on both ALAC and studio master ALAC 24-bit files.
I'm guessing that there isn't enough bandwidth in current 802.11n for streaming lossless files at full quality? I'm seeing my FLAC files imported into iTunes on my AppleTV 2nd generation and can play them, but it doesn't sound as good as I've heard 96/24 files sound over an AVR via a thumb drive.
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From your ATV, are you going straight to speakers, RCA to an amp or optical to an amp?
Could be that the decoder in the ATV is simply ka-ka, so bypassing this by going optical to a separate amplifier or receiver may resolve the issue.
Ah, yeah. From the ATV2, I'm running HDMI from the ATV to my 9G KURO. Now, the Elite has an optical audio output that I have run to my pre-HDMI Yamaha home theater receiver.
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Thanks for the Hyperion tip. Also, can't believe I forgot them, but Linn Records offers hi-res downloads as well. http://www.linn.co.uk
I use itunes and VLC.
Importantly, I usually shut off all the features of itunes that may modify the sound. I want unadulterated sound!
Incidentally, I have been researching some of the "high end" (and expensive) audio player software recently. These programs claim to provide higher quality sound than iTunes, etc. However, to be honest, the only objective reviews and analyses I found seemed to indicate that there were minimal differences found, if at all. : /
I still worry that itunes "messes" with my audio. I'd love to find a bare-bones media player that doesn't mess with anything. Although I do think VLC might fit the bill for that. And itunes still sounds pretty good.
Importantly, I usually shut off all the features of itunes that may modify the sound. I want unadulterated sound!
Incidentally, I have been researching some of the "high end" (and expensive) audio player software recently. These programs claim to provide higher quality sound than iTunes, etc. However, to be honest, the only objective reviews and analyses I found seemed to indicate that there were minimal differences found, if at all. : /
I still worry that itunes "messes" with my audio. I'd love to find a bare-bones media player that doesn't mess with anything. Although I do think VLC might fit the bill for that. And itunes still sounds pretty good.
I use itunes and VLC.
Importantly, I usually shut off all the features of itunes that may modify the sound. I want unadulterated sound!
Incidentally, I have been researching some of the "high end" (and expensive) audio player software recently. These programs claim to provide higher quality sound than iTunes, etc. However, to be honest, the only objective reviews and analyses I found seemed to indicate that there were minimal differences found, if at all. : /
I still worry that itunes "messes" with my audio. I'd love to find a bare-bones media player that doesn't mess with anything. Although I do think VLC might fit the bill for that. And itunes still sounds pretty good.
Actually iTunes can, indeed, turn into a bit-perfect player as soon as you turn off all sound enhancing/equalizer options.
I'm using clementine.
Objectively i prefer the sound, though i haven't done any kind of testing on this so it could be bull.
I do, hoever, find it less clunky and generally runs smoother then itunes, it plays my music and doesn't try and connect to the internet to fill up my library with 'cloud' music and stuff i don't want. If i could sync my ipod and burn CDs easily with it i would ditch itunes all together.
Objectively i prefer the sound, though i haven't done any kind of testing on this so it could be bull.
I do, hoever, find it less clunky and generally runs smoother then itunes, it plays my music and doesn't try and connect to the internet to fill up my library with 'cloud' music and stuff i don't want. If i could sync my ipod and burn CDs easily with it i would ditch itunes all together.