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RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type

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Chris from Lafayette

In Reply to: RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type posted by celinaa on December 27, 2020 at 20:17:05

Just to get one thing off the table before I start, I'd just like to point out that the latest Mac operating system is 11.1 (Big Sur).

I've ended up mostly using two separate playback products, HQ Player (where I'm forced to stay back level because their current software version no longer supports exaSound's ASIO driver on the Mac - although the back-level version I use with ASIO is not causing me any problems) and Audirvana (which IIRC doesn't have quite the capability for the ultra-high res formats (DSD256 and DXD) which HQ Player supports). Audirvana can be used directly with Qobuz via its direct interface, and also does better with the compressed Apple formats (AAC and ALAC) than HQ Player does. (HQ Player will play uncompressed AIFF files however.) An all-in-one "can opener" product which supports a large number of different formats is VLC Media Player - which AFAIK is still free. I'm even considering looking into Roon now, because, according to exaSound, Roon's current SW is compatible with ASIO on the Mac. My personal experience with JRiver on the Mac (some years ago) was not a happy one, and they do not support ASIO on the Mac either.

Follow Ups:

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type - zacster 08:58:33 12/28/20 (4)
Audirvana may not have supported ultra-high-res in the past but it does now. I have even upsampled to DSD512 with it, but my system couldn't quite keep up. DxD and DSD256 are no problem though. And for that matter I have yet to find a file that AV won't play, but I'm not looking for one either.

I'm running the latest AV (3.5.43) plus Big Sur (11.0.1). There may be an update to Big Sur I haven't installed yet (yes, 11.1), but that shouldn't matter. It all works.
- Thanks, zacster - that's good to know - Chris from Lafayette 09:58:00 12/28/20 (3)
  I still feel that using ASIO is a more efficient use of the computer's resources than Core Audio (and DoP) is. OTOH, if you aren't having any problems with it, maybe I should investigate further myself. Thanks again!
  - RE: Thanks, zacster - that's good to know - zacster 11:04:39 12/28/20 (2)
    It helps too to have a powerful Mac. Mine is a late 2015 iMac quad core 3.3ghz i5 with 8gb of ram. Not the most powerful ever made but still has plenty of horsepower.
    I'm still looking to borrow my daughter's M1 MBA. She won't let it out of her hands. Audirvana has already released a universal binary that runs natively on the M1. It supposedly will run circles around almost any Intel Mac.
    
    Edits: 12/28/20
    - "Audirvana has already released a universal binary that runs natively on the M1" - Chris from Lafayette 15:10:48 12/28/20 (1)
      Yup. . .
      https://www.audioasylum.com/forums/pcaudio/messages/18/18274 (Open in New Window)
      - Yep, upgraded last night.... - Ivan303 06:05:52 12/30/20 (0)
        
        In Reply to: RE: "Audirvana has already released a universal binary that runs natively on the M1" posted by Chris from Lafayette on December 28, 2020 at 15:10:48
        
        It's a bit larger package (Ver. 3.5.43) 42MB but other than than not much difference running on my late 2014 i5 Mac Mini with 16GB of memory.
What means ''supports ASIO on tha Mac'? - Ivan303 06:54:04 12/28/20 (1)
Recall the battles between Audirvana and Pure Music back in the day, but it meant nothing at the time as all I did then was spin vinyl and silver disks.

Oh, and read lost of posts from people pissed at JRiver for the cost of their frequent upgrades.

Currently running Audirvana on a Mac Mini which seems happy with Sierra (macOS 10.12.6).
- The built-in audio driver for the Mac OS is "Core Audio" - Chris from Lafayette 09:51:59 12/28/20 (0)
  If you want the ASIO driver, it has to be installed separately, via third party (in my case, from exaSound). The ASIO driver also has to be used with SW which "knows" how to use it, such as version 3 (i.e., back level) of HQ Player on the Mac. Audirvana works with Core Audio only (at least on the Mac). HQ Player can work with Core Audio too.

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