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

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Posted on December 27, 2020 at 20:17:05
celinaa
Audiophile

Posts: 2
Joined: December 27, 2020
hello folks!

looking for an app for a Mac desktop which will allow for all audio files playback.

is this possible without paying for a subscription service?

Accessibility to Apple's screen reading app, VOICE OVER is imporrtant!

J River for mac is a no go as the August 2018 ver did not allow the Mac OS accessibility software to work with it at all.

ALSO it would be great to have one that will incorporate major audio streaming apps like SPODOFY, TIDAL, and maybe Quboz.

I've migrated or 'am migrating' from windows OS to the latest Apple OS 10.14.3 (MOJAVE).

My current physical library (30K or so files) has every concievable music file format. the majority of which (86%) are fLAC & ALAC in 16/44k, with a few AIF, FLAC, and WAV files in HD 24/96, or 24/88.

there are about 5K worth of MP3, WMA and AAC.

I'd vewry much like to be able to open up one app and play all my files and stream music from Spodofy & Tidal as well.

it this what ever app works with mobile devices, great but not necessary.

as for the new service Quboz? Maybe it too,. I was unable to get that one to play at all for what ever reason. Pilot error perhaps.

the only substitute app I've found is VOX and I am using the free version of it presently for unsupported file playback right off the HDD via FINDER.

I'm not opposed to paying for a subscription based media player but would sure like to avoid it with maybe a paid once for app which does not demand recurring periodic payments, if no free alternative exists.

any an all thoughts are quite welcome. Many thanks.

 

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RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on January 7, 2021 at 17:14:41
Jimbocky
Audiophile

Posts: 54
Location: High Rockies
Joined: September 15, 2015



Audirvana is awesome and sounds amazing. It will run the latest software and has streaming Tidal and Quboz. Hella bargain for anything in the Audiophile world.

 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 28, 2020 at 13:07:52
Palustris
Audiophile

Posts: 2407
Location: Cape Cod
Joined: September 12, 2008
Here's a follow up question:

Will an Apple read files written on a USB drive by a Windows machine?

I want to give a friend with an Apple computer some music on a USB drive. Now that I know the Apple can read FLAC with VLC, I need to know if the Windows USB drive is formatted the same as an Apple so we can exchange music.

 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 28, 2020 at 15:58:18
AbeCollins
Audiophile

Posts: 46200
Location: USA
Joined: June 22, 2001
Contributor
  Since:
February 2, 2002
VLC is fully compatible with Apple Mac so long as it is NOT the very latest M1 chip based Mac. They're still working on it.

YES, your friend's Apple Mac will be able to read and write USB disks including those formatted MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT. [Mac can read NTFS as well but requires a third-party add-on to write to NTFS].



 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 29, 2020 at 08:57:55
Palustris
Audiophile

Posts: 2407
Location: Cape Cod
Joined: September 12, 2008
Thank you!

 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 28, 2020 at 09:56:06
You can use VLC.

I put the link below to VLC.

 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 27, 2020 at 20:44:06
Posts: 26351
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since:
February 6, 2012
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.

 

RE: is there an app for mac that plays any music file type, posted on December 28, 2020 at 08:58:33
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2175
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
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, posted on December 28, 2020 at 09:58:00
Posts: 26351
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since:
February 6, 2012
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, posted on December 28, 2020 at 11:04:39
zacster
Audiophile

Posts: 2175
Location: NYC
Joined: November 22, 2003
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.

 

"Audirvana has already released a universal binary that runs natively on the M1", posted on December 28, 2020 at 15:10:48
Posts: 26351
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since:
February 6, 2012
Yup. . .

 

Yep, upgraded last night...., posted on December 30, 2020 at 06:05:52
Ivan303
Audiophile

Posts: 48887
Location: Cadiere d'azur FRANCE - Santa Fe, NM
Joined: February 26, 2001
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.




First they came for the dumb-asses
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a dumb-ass

 

What means ''supports ASIO on tha Mac'?, posted on December 28, 2020 at 06:54:04
Ivan303
Audiophile

Posts: 48887
Location: Cadiere d'azur FRANCE - Santa Fe, NM
Joined: February 26, 2001
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).



First they came for the dumb-asses
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a dumb-ass

 

The built-in audio driver for the Mac OS is "Core Audio", posted on December 28, 2020 at 09:51:59
Posts: 26351
Location: SF Bay Area
Joined: February 17, 2004
Contributor
  Since:
February 6, 2012
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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