FLAC On A Mac

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.

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.

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?

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.

I know it is an older thread but....

where is the link forSoungbird? will Mojave support it?

RE WAV vs
i’ve found at times, this media player or that one tends to do better with some file types than it does with others.

this is of course a subjective appraisal using likely very different hardware and PC arrangements than the poster indicating a glaring disparity between FLAC & WAV..

some FLAC encoders offer varying levels of compression, as with Dbpower amp when encoding FLAC while ripping 16/44 CDs.

I've always opted for level 1, with zero being the least compressed and 8 being the most *compressed (* for lack of a more accurate term).

a brief test using different levels for encoding showed me level 1 was best overall. zero began to show glare, and level 5 and above began showing less insight into the cut, but had much smaller file sizes.
 
back then I had only JRiver to use for comparison.

that said, IF any media player supports FLAC and WAV, and or other lossless formats, and their higher sampling rates and word lengths, it stands to reason   ALL formats should be rendered equally despite their word or bit rates.

apparently, sometimes it just don’t come out of the speakers like it does on paper.

as to sQ being ’sqquelched’ or tunneled, I’ve not realized that result per se, what I have discerned is a flattr, less involved result when a particular media player seems to like say, FLAC over AIF, all else being equal.

the prime EX is with JRiver up to ver 19/20. it likes FLAC to my ears, better than it does aIF

In the same context, WAV & FLAC do not have the same degree of disparity however, and sounded so similar differences were undetectable.

that all said, should blame sit squarely on the rendering or decoding, or should the encoding itself carry some of the lesened sQ burden?

additionally, what if a conversion of formats occurs? should we then point a finger at that process ntirely for the now better or poorer result?

or perhaps the encoding was done on one pc and the conversion done on another? what then?

retail HD tracks, once converted domestically to merely another format have to receive consideration and or suspicion as culpible if the outcome to some other format does not duplicate SQ once the process is complete.

Ascertaining the real culprit for diminished SQ if percieved, lives in deeper waters than what may be observed at first hand.


Personal confusers! Whada ya gonna do?