Alternative Music Player Free Lossless Audio

Dont believe me I recently read an excellent open-access paper on our ability to hear differences with high-resolution audio that can be found here.

I recently decided to set up my Mac in this way, to deliver hi-res throughout the signal chain--from my music library, to the player, to the DAC, to my preamp, amp, and loudspeakers (or preamp to headphones).

Many people prefer to use an external drive because loading up your main hard drive with music files can potentially slow your computers overall performance, especially when you get to the end of your drives storage limits.

We all know that your system is only as good as its weakest link, so I started with either 24192 or 2496 FLAC files.

Alternative Music Player Free Lossless Audio

Hi-res files may be offered in the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) format, as well as DSD (Direct Stream Digital) and MQA (Master Quality Authenticated).

To get the highest quality, you will want to avoid lossy formats like MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3), AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), and OGG (Ogg Vorbis, the name Ogg derives from the jargon word ogging) that sacrifice audio quality for file size.

This was important when storage was expensive, but now storage is plentiful and cheap.

If youre looking for suggestions on high-quality audio recordings, check out the reviews on our sister site, AudiophileReview.com.

Here are a few great-sounding albums (all available as hi-res downloads) that Id put on my list of desert island discs.

My current total storage need is approximately 2.4 TB.

Apples iCloud offers five gigabytes of free storage, which isnt nearly enough for my music files, so I opted for the 2TB plan that costs 20 per month.

I had to leave some of my more esoteric albums off the iCloud drive to fit under the 2TB size limit.

All your Excel spreadsheets, Word docs, and PowerPoint presentations are automatically stored there and are available for collaboration between users.

There isnt anything preventing you from storing your music library there, but access is via Microsofts Groove Music Pass, which is 9.99 per month in addition to the 99 annual cost of MS Office 365.

Subscribe to Amazon Prime (99 annually) and get 5 GB of storage; for another 59.99 per year, you get unlimited storage.

I currently use Apples iCloud because Ive been deeply invested in the Apple ecosystem from the first-generation iPod, but Amazons value proposition is compelling.

I am strongly considering making the switch.

Some hi-res file formats like AIFF may be played by iTunes but will not be at their native hi-res rates.

Beware: If you convert a 2496 FLAC file to ALAC, for example, you will not get the original files full resolution.

Options one and two are still in the digital domain, so you will need to convert the signal to analog before sending it along its path that ultimately leads to your analog ears.

Just remember to make certain that the DAC supports the highest quality files in your catalog.

My setup includes a tube preamp that has both a headphone output and individual right and left line-level RCA outputs, which then feed either my tube or solid-state amplifier (I have one of each).

If Im listening through headphones, they are fed directly from my preamp.

When comparing hi-res FLAC files via VLC to music coming from my iTunes library at 1644.1, the difference is truly amazing in terms of imaging, dynamic range, extended high and low frequencies, clear and detailed mids, and the all-important warmth, air, and intimacy.

When listening to the same song, switching only the file resolution, the iTunes files sounded flat and one-dimensional.

Mac Os X Alternative Music Player