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What's your favorite Apple-based music program?

The J.River Media Center comes highly recommended and was at or near the top of most of TAS's sonic evaluations in their 4-part series about computer-based audio (Dec'11-Mar'12). However, looking over their website and some supporting forums, it appears that it's really a PC-based program. According to what I read on a JRM user forum, JRMC works on a Macintosh if you use Bootstrap to install Windows 7 and run it from there. That runs into a bunch more money and I'm not all that enamored of running the music software in a non-native mode.

OTOH, there's ChannelD's PureMusic. It's $129 vs. JRM's $50, but it's very Mac-friendly.

Any other insights, recommendations, or warnings? I just got an AQ Dragonfly asynchronous USB DAC and want to feed it the best data stream without spending several more hundreds of dollars. I also want to be able to download some 24/96 and 24/88.2 files from HDTracks, so the music-handling s/w has to be comfortable handling FLAC files on a MacBook Pro (OSX Mountain Lion).
johnnyb53
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
I have tried pretty much all the software players I can find for Mac and I have been a licensed PureMusic (I actually started with PureVinyl) user for years. But at this time I have to say the best sounding player is the Audirvana Plus, particularly the latest beta version 1.3.9.9 which added a feature called Direct Mode. Direct Mode restores the Integer Mode playback on Lion and Mountain Lion. If your DAC is integer mode capable, the improvement in sound quality is hard to believe. Audirvana Plus offers a 15-day full feature trial. I highly recommend you give it a try.
mgattmch
571 posts
 
I thought, if one uses Amarra HiFI with iTunes it is necessary too first convert HD FLAC files (24/96 and above) to AIFF? If this is done, the files are down coverted to 16/44.1 (or 16/48?) so they can play on iTunes? Is this correct?
rdavwhitaker
173 posts
 
To attempt to respond to the questions asked about Amarra. I am using the full version of the software, not Amarra HiFi. I can't speak to how good or bad HiFi is.

I have converted a number of files from Flac to Aiff using Amarra. They can be converted at their native resolution (e.g. 24/88) and can then be managed through ITunes and the Apple Remote app, and played through a USB 2.0 connection, using the Amarra plug-in, to a network streamer capable of accepting the USB connection (like the Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6). The file is transmitted and received at the native resolution, according to the front display on the Cambridge unit, and not down sampled.

I believe it is true that in order for the file to play through iTunes without Amarra, it must be down-converted to 16/44. But I am not certain.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
bpuklich
11 posts
 
Check out Decibel over at sbooth.org. Plays from memory, direct HOG mode, FLAC playback to my asynchronous USB Ayre QB-9, etc. Worth more than it costs. And it just works very well.
doggiehowser
672 posts
 
I also second Audirvana Plus but make sure to get the new beta that supports Direct Mode as well.

I have Pure Music, BitPerfect, Amarra and now A+. I bought Amarra when it was about 600 bucks and the only thing they gave me when they dropped the price was a second licence (I should have had 6! :))

I used to prefer PureMusic but Amarra 2.3 onwards was a big improvement (I think rev 2344?) and it became my player of choice. The new 2.4.2 seems to have gotten that magic back from the releases post 2344.

But A+ is still my preferred player especially since it is the other player that can play back DSD files.
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