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FLAC On A Mac

Forgive me if this subject has been discussed on this forum before, but I don't do much PC Audio and I get very confused.
I have downloaded some High Res content from HDTracks to my Macbook. These are all FLAC files. I tried transferring them to a flash drive to be played in two devices that are supposed to be FLAC compatible (most recently, the Marantz NA 7004 Network Music Player). These files won't play on either device.
They also won't play using the MacBook as the source, although I anticipated that.
Do I need some sort of a music management player to play these files? When I surf the net looking for conversion programs, most of them aim to change flac to mp3, which would defeat the purpose of trying to get a High Res file.
richardfinegold
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
If I am using the same computer and software and the only thing I am changing is the same track, only FLAC versus .wav, how does is the OS at fault?

If the FLAC CODEC does not play nice with the OS, this is not the fault of the OS. It's the fault of the FLAC software.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio
ranperry
13 posts
 
The application that plays the FLAC file needs to "extract" chunks of it into memory when playing. If the application is poorly written, the extraction process may use resource that will degrade the streaming output. A good example is trying to play a 1080p file on a weak CPU with slow graphics card. It is not the file but the way it is executed.

I suggest you try comparing FLAC Vs WAV with various operating systems while using different players.
snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp
455 posts
 
I just faced this same problem and solved it by downloading songbird for Mac. It plays flac files without conversion required. It's a free download.
jwm
918 posts
 
Snackeyp don't you still need to have either Amarra or PureMusic to get the HI Rez downloads in the first place. If you have either of these do you still need Songbird?
snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp
455 posts
 
I'm not sure what you mean, but I am a total newb to this, so you may be right. What I do know is that I can download the hi-res files and play them without any conversion necessary with Songbird. If I want to play them in itunes I have to convert them to Apple Lossless, but these files have a lot of static noise in them. Songbird allows me to play them without the noise.
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