Audio Player For Mac

A native Mac audio and music player that supports crystal-clear bit-perfect gapless playback of all popular lossless and lossy audio formats, uses only a tiny amount of computing power and offers a clean and intuitive user experience – it only ‘does what it says on the can'.

1. Jun 05, 2020 Elmedia Player for Mac is a free multifunctional player aimed at the macOS. It can play a range of formats, which makes it a fantastic option. There's even a PRO version that packs a whole lot more in terms of functionality and other tools.
2. ‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about jetAudio - MP3 Music Player. Download jetAudio - MP3 Music Player and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. ‎jetAudio is a music player with 10/20 bands graphic equalizer and various sound effects.
3. Read definitive guide by audio software developer Yuri Korzunov about free and commercial hi res audio player software apps on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and other computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, online for audiophiles, F.A.Q., what is the best music player.

Try the freeColibri DAC/DSD Test app

Devices and Mac OS X version. VLC media player requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later. It runs on any 64bit Intel-based Mac. Previous devices are supported by older releases. Jan 15, 2020 VOX Music Player for Mac is a premium Mac music player for Hi-Res music through the popular sources. It supports the common formats including FLAC, MP3, CUE, APE and M4A. You can also playback Hi-Res audio with up to 24bit/192kHz and enjoy 5.1 multichannel audio playback for the most comprehensive and sophisticated experience.

• Saves your battery

  Uses a barely noticable amount of computing power, Colibri is built using state-of-the-art Swift programming language while the BASS audio engine is bundled as machine code and the interface uses built-in components by Apple. This was done in order to achieve a tiny footprint and to be as native to macOS as humanly possible.

• Plays your audio

  Colibri supports the most widely used range of file formats in terms of lossless audio: FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, WavPack, popular lossy formats: Ogg Vorbis, MP1/MP2/MP3 and AAC/M4A, network streams/online radio, MOD and MIDI files (with per song SoundFont support)! For your undisturbed listening pleasure, Colibri supports Exclusive/Hog mode as well. A lossless audio player at heart with love to other popular formats as well0010.

• Handles CUE Sheets

  Complete Cue sheet support: malformed and disordered content is reprocessed during loading along with a painless and quick way to add your whole collection – Colibri will analyze and decide whether to load the Cue sheet in the folder or queue every song one by one for every added/dragged folder recursively.

• Supports gapless playback

  Extensively designed from the ground-up to provide a true gapless listening experience. Colibri prepares the upcoming song for playback in the background to further eliminate gaps for (slower) external drives or network shares without pushing the entire song into memory, meaning that no extra CPU or RAM usage is needed!

Next-generation BS2B support

Individual Song & Audio Device Profiles
Custom Processing Order
Automatic Profile Switching

• Picks up where you left off

  Saves or empties your current playlist upon quitting and re-opens your songs when you start it up again. Furthermore, Colibri can also save and load its' current playlist to a custom format that can even be appended to an already existing playlist. Loading and appending is also available for M3U and M3u8 playlist files.

• Avoids most problems

  Colibri does its' best to avoid most problems before, during and even after playback. Loading unsupported files show up as an error message and files that have disappeared since loading are automatically removed and skipped upon being reached in the playlist. A Mac lossless player developed with flexibility and error correction in mind.

• Understands your language

  Capable of rendering the song information as it was intended to be shown: of all the tried metadata it had no problem with displaying Cyrillic or kanji/katakana/hiragana characters mixed with ASCII. All known metadata types readable by the BASS engine and macOS are supported by Colibri.

• Respects your privacy

  Colibri does not phone home, collect usage data, spy on you or modify files in any way. It also does not contain DRM routines, have features hidden behind a paywall or bind functions to a subscription model. Colibri is an audio player that respects your privacy to the fullest and this will never change.

10-band Peaking Equalizer

Individual Song Profiles
Automatic Profile Switching
Adjustable Bandwidth

• Displays album art

  Displays embedded cover art for FLAC files and ID3 / iTunes artwork metadata (mainly for ALAC / M4A and MP3 files). When that yields no visible results then Colibri looks around the folder where the current song resides for a cover art image and shows that. See the FAQ for details on the exact files Colibri looks for. FLAC files with embedded picture data or supplied album art images are displayed automatically.

• Resides in your Menu Bar

  Colibri can place an unobtrusively small icon in the Menu Bar for easy access and playlist control: you can either start/pause the playback, skip to the next track or go back to the previous one. It also displays the info and cover art image of the current song. Control Colibri from even multiple Spaces desktops away with the MenuBar Controller! Torrent for mac app store.

• Integrates with Finder and your Keyboard

  Colibri conforms all of Apple's strict requirements – which means that it shows up in Finder as an option in 'Open With' when a supported file is selected. Colibri can also open all files of a folder by opening just one of them from Finder – see the Settings – Behavior screenshots in the Gallery.

• Adjusts to your Display

  Colibri's interface elements scale themselves nicely on every screen resolution and pixel density, while Colibri also offers a wide range of usage modes from small condensed to fullscreen complete with multiple types of column layouts and a resizable player window.

Colibri 1.9.1 Changelog

Thank you for using Colibri! This updates brings a bunch of bugfixes (codec errors, SoundFont usage, per-Song BS2B/EQ profiles, various crashes), eight new playlist columns (…and sorting for all!), a new ‘insert' mode for the Playlist, switchable Auto-Play and Permanent Pause options – among other smaller enhancements. Happy listening!

ENHANCEMENTS

• Updated codebase to Swift 5
• Settings -> Output now better fits all kHz entries
• Volume is now automatically raised to 100% for DSD files when DoP/DoPA mode is selected and restored to previous volume level for non-DSD files (and PCM mode)
• Unsupported DST encoded DSD and DTS encoded WAV files will now show proper Unsupported Codec error messages
• added an alternate fallback method for Automatic Sample Rate Switching for stubborn DACs (Colibri uses it automatically when needed)
• Finder sorting order is used to enqueueing files to the Playlist
• Playlist will be rendered with system default monospace font when available (macOS 10.11 and up)
• added a ‘Use Default SoundFont' option for MIDI files to the right-click context menu of the Playlist
• removing the default SoundFont will automatically set the next available SoundFont as the default
• if the SoundFont list is empty, then the first SoundFont will automatically be marked as the default
• removing a SoundFont only causes playback restart if the currently played song is affected by the removal
• importing a new SoundFont will automatically set it as the default
• new switchable option in Settings -> Playlist: 'Dragging to the Playlist via Mouse / Trackpad':
  • songs will be added at pointer position (insert)
  • songs will be added at the end of the list (append, like before)
• added ‘Permanent Pause' to Settings -> Behavior (Off, by default):
  • pause will ‘hold' until the Play button is pressed again
  • switching to a different song will ‘arm'/prepare the song for playback
  • seeking repositions the playhead and it will play audio from the selected spot once unpaused
  • removing songs from the playlist does not affect the paused state
• added ‘Auto-Play' to Settings -> Behavior (On, by default):
  • On: Colibri automatically plays the next song
  • Off: Colibri stops when the current song ends
• Playlist Columns have been rewritten from scratch for improved stability: see Settings -> Columns
• Columns are now sortable:
  • click on the header once to sort playlist by that column
  • clicking once again switches between Ascending/Descending sorting
  • sorting is supported across all columns
• added new Columns:
  • Length, kHz, Codec, Year, Track Number, Disc Number, Composer and Bit Depth
• Playlist Columns can now have vertical and horizontal Grids:
  • they help in finding the columns boundaries during reordering and resizing
  • Grids can be toggled on/off in Settings -> Themes
  • a color picker has been added to Settings -> Themes for the Grid
• new Loop option ‘Random Round Robin' in Settings -> Playlist:
  • each song in the Playlist will be played once per 'round'
  • when all songs were played once, a new 'round' begins
  • removing a song causes the 'round'
  • double-clicking on a song does not reset the 'round'
  • a great way to have a balanced, random playback order
• monospace system fonts are now used in both the Title bar and Status bar (10.11 and up)

BUGS FIXED IN THIS UPDATE

• Colibri would not display its' name in the Force Quit and Activity Monitor windows
• Colibri would prevent the system from entering sleep state
• Colibri would fail to play the upcoming song under very high system load
• Playhead wouldn't always continue from the same spot on output device change
• Playlist would have a weird glitch on startup
• Force Sample Rate would cause crash on startup
• Online Streams wouldn't always start playback
• Random playback order would sometime cause Colibri to crash
• BS2B and EQ profiles wouldn't property restore on next startup
• After starting Colibri, the playlist would become disorganized/chaotic if files had gone missing since last start
• Automatic Sample Rate Switching wouldn't always switch properly after the end of the playlist had been reached
• Menubar Controller didn't always refresh the data on song change
• some built-in Audio DSP hardware wouldn't switch sample rate properly (mainly newer MacBook Pros)
• SoundFonts won't always properly reload on next launch
• SoundFonts won't properly switch on a per-song basis
• custom SoundFonts could disappear from the SoundFont list
• setting a custom SoundFont as default wouldn't always save properly
• network streams won't trigger a ‘Problem calculating song length' error
• Menubar Controller properly shows Light/Dark control buttons as per system theme
• Colibri could crash by clicking on the EQ button while the Playlist is empty
• moving multiple songs in the Playlist at once could cause titles to be become disorganized
• dragging files / folder to the dock would not be added to the Playlist properly
• Colibri could crash on El Capitan 10.11.6 when switching between Dock and Menu modes
• added missing keyboard shortcut to DSD output mode menu
• About Colibri window didn't properly switch the Light logo in Dark Mode
• Theme import / export buttons wouldn't properly spawn the browser windows
• Pressing Return on an empty playlist could sometimes cause crash
• Pressing Return while nothing is selected in the playlist could cause crash
• Color Pickers in Settings -> Themes should now behave as expected of them

Thank you Henning Gärtner for all-around essential feedback and testing, Rick Ernsting for feedback on the SoundFont issues!

Colibri is the passion project of Gábor Hargitai, brought to you by countless sleepless and caffeine-induced nights.
Support Email: gabor@barefootwebdesign.co.nz

DSD player software is designed to playback Direct Stream Digital audio files (.dsf, .dff, sacd iso, DoP). Look how to play DSD files via free software (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS for iPhone, iPad), about sound quality, comparison list, F.A.Q. at this page - explanation by audio software developer Yuri Korzunov.

HD audio file conversion

DSD player list

WARNING: This table can contain errors. It is not an offer or advertising. We are not affiliated with listed products. We guarantee nothing. If you found wrong information, contact us, please. To get exact information, contact with the software developers and/or vendors.

DSD player audio software list [See FREE audio players for hi-res]

HD audio file conversion

Download FREE DSD converters >

Check FREE DSD music downloads >

Read about DSD DACs >

Read more about mobile device connections to DSD playback here.

How to play DSD files

To play DSD files, audio player software should be configured properly. DAC may be either DSD or PCM.
There is no general rule, that is the best sound quality for every case.
When PCM DAC is used, the conversion of DSD to PCM format is used.
DSD DAC may get an audio stream natively ('native DSD' stream via ASIO driver) of DoP (DSD over PCM).

Check out How to play DSD with foobar2000 >

Read more details below.

How do I get the best sound quality on my computer?

You can get the best sound quality on your computer / laptop on Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile device on Android, iOS, when you reduce weak places of the audio-signal path and your DAC works in optimal resolution.

What is bit-perfect mode

DSD files may be played back in bit-perfect modes:

• DSD file (DSF, DFF, SACD ISO);
• DoP (DSD over PCM) file (FLAC, WAV, AIFF, other lossless PCM files).

Bit-perfect means transmitting of audio file content to DAC without altering.

What is gapless playback

When uninterrupted albums (operas, concerts) listen, non-gapless playback can cause clicks at track borders.

Gapless playback means playback album as a solid (uninterrupted) stream without re-initialization of DAC.

If the album is converted from an audio format to another one with resampling, it can cause artifacts at track borders. To avoid the track-border artifacts, True Gapless conversion may be used.

Offline conversion mode

With bit-perfect mode, you can playback offline pre-converted audio files (including PCM to DSD). This mode doesn't consume additional computing resources for altering an audio file. Also, it saves electrical energy that is spent on the processing.

Many digital audio players (DAP) capable of playback at stereo headphones. But some of your records may be multichannel.

When DAP play a multichannel record, it downmixes to 2.0. Downmixing is a lossy operation and its sound quality depends on implementation.

Also, extra channels consume free space on the hard disk of the DAP. Offline pre-downmixed to stereo files allow putting more songs at hard disk.

If file played back on a mobile device in bit-perfect mode or with minimal processing, it allows:

1. saving battery charge;
2. getting a longer time of autonomous work;
3. getting more computing resources for other (not audio player) applications.

Inline conversion mode

DSD and PCM files may be played back with inline (real-time, 'on-fly') altering of audio content:

• with DSD resampling;
• with room correction;
• with conversion DSD to PCM on PCM DAC.

This mode allows saving time for pre-converting of various audio files to the best sounding mode of DAC. But each playback can consume big computing resources to resolution conversion and other processing.

Real-time playback conversion DSD to PCM on mobile devices consume additional battery charge and part of the device CPU performance. It can cause a lesser time of autonomous work and reduce the response of other (non-player) applications.

Inline (real-time) vs offline conversion
of audio files on mobile devices

Offline conversion of audio files gives a longer battery lifetime. Because a mobile device performs lesser calculation number.

Also pre-downmix, pre-conversion DSD to PCM, pre-downsampling save free space at the hard disk of the mobile device.

DAC interfaces

To DSD playback (including bit-perfect) under Windows, DAC may be connected to an audio player via ASIO driver or DoP protocol.

Also, WASAPI (with DoP) interface may be used to playback (including bit-perfect).

DoP is the special open protocol to coding DSD into PCM audio stream. The stream cannot be played back as PCM.

To DSD playback under Mac, DAC may be connected to an audio player via DoP protocol.

Read more about:

What is the best DSD player

In audiophile application, the players are compared by the sound quality.

If the player has bit-perfect mode and used DAC support played file resolution, sound quality is the same for such players.

But, if an audio resolution is altered or EQ is used, then applied processing quality is a matter. Thunderbolt to firewire 400 adapter mac.

In general, the best DSD player with processing should cause minimal distortions.

Also kind of distortions may be matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Best Audio Player For Mac

What is DSD player? How do I listen DSD files?

DSD player is a device or software, that capable to play audiophile format Direct Stream Digital. It may be suggested as SACD optical disks or computer files.

Is DSD better than FLAC?

It is matter of recording quality and playback tool implementation. Read about DSD and FLAC comparison..

Is DSD audio worth it?

• Saves your battery

  Uses a barely noticable amount of computing power, Colibri is built using state-of-the-art Swift programming language while the BASS audio engine is bundled as machine code and the interface uses built-in components by Apple. This was done in order to achieve a tiny footprint and to be as native to macOS as humanly possible.

• Plays your audio

  Colibri supports the most widely used range of file formats in terms of lossless audio: FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, WavPack, popular lossy formats: Ogg Vorbis, MP1/MP2/MP3 and AAC/M4A, network streams/online radio, MOD and MIDI files (with per song SoundFont support)! For your undisturbed listening pleasure, Colibri supports Exclusive/Hog mode as well. A lossless audio player at heart with love to other popular formats as well0010.

• Handles CUE Sheets

  Complete Cue sheet support: malformed and disordered content is reprocessed during loading along with a painless and quick way to add your whole collection – Colibri will analyze and decide whether to load the Cue sheet in the folder or queue every song one by one for every added/dragged folder recursively.

• Supports gapless playback

  Extensively designed from the ground-up to provide a true gapless listening experience. Colibri prepares the upcoming song for playback in the background to further eliminate gaps for (slower) external drives or network shares without pushing the entire song into memory, meaning that no extra CPU or RAM usage is needed!

Next-generation BS2B support

Individual Song & Audio Device Profiles
Custom Processing Order
Automatic Profile Switching

• Picks up where you left off

  Saves or empties your current playlist upon quitting and re-opens your songs when you start it up again. Furthermore, Colibri can also save and load its' current playlist to a custom format that can even be appended to an already existing playlist. Loading and appending is also available for M3U and M3u8 playlist files.

• Avoids most problems

  Colibri does its' best to avoid most problems before, during and even after playback. Loading unsupported files show up as an error message and files that have disappeared since loading are automatically removed and skipped upon being reached in the playlist. A Mac lossless player developed with flexibility and error correction in mind.

• Understands your language

  Capable of rendering the song information as it was intended to be shown: of all the tried metadata it had no problem with displaying Cyrillic or kanji/katakana/hiragana characters mixed with ASCII. All known metadata types readable by the BASS engine and macOS are supported by Colibri.

• Respects your privacy

  Colibri does not phone home, collect usage data, spy on you or modify files in any way. It also does not contain DRM routines, have features hidden behind a paywall or bind functions to a subscription model. Colibri is an audio player that respects your privacy to the fullest and this will never change.

10-band Peaking Equalizer

Individual Song Profiles
Automatic Profile Switching
Adjustable Bandwidth

• Displays album art

  Displays embedded cover art for FLAC files and ID3 / iTunes artwork metadata (mainly for ALAC / M4A and MP3 files). When that yields no visible results then Colibri looks around the folder where the current song resides for a cover art image and shows that. See the FAQ for details on the exact files Colibri looks for. FLAC files with embedded picture data or supplied album art images are displayed automatically.

• Resides in your Menu Bar

  Colibri can place an unobtrusively small icon in the Menu Bar for easy access and playlist control: you can either start/pause the playback, skip to the next track or go back to the previous one. It also displays the info and cover art image of the current song. Control Colibri from even multiple Spaces desktops away with the MenuBar Controller! Torrent for mac app store.

• Integrates with Finder and your Keyboard

  Colibri conforms all of Apple's strict requirements – which means that it shows up in Finder as an option in 'Open With' when a supported file is selected. Colibri can also open all files of a folder by opening just one of them from Finder – see the Settings – Behavior screenshots in the Gallery.

• Adjusts to your Display

  Colibri's interface elements scale themselves nicely on every screen resolution and pixel density, while Colibri also offers a wide range of usage modes from small condensed to fullscreen complete with multiple types of column layouts and a resizable player window.

Colibri 1.9.1 Changelog

Thank you for using Colibri! This updates brings a bunch of bugfixes (codec errors, SoundFont usage, per-Song BS2B/EQ profiles, various crashes), eight new playlist columns (…and sorting for all!), a new ‘insert' mode for the Playlist, switchable Auto-Play and Permanent Pause options – among other smaller enhancements. Happy listening!

ENHANCEMENTS

• Updated codebase to Swift 5
• Settings -> Output now better fits all kHz entries
• Volume is now automatically raised to 100% for DSD files when DoP/DoPA mode is selected and restored to previous volume level for non-DSD files (and PCM mode)
• Unsupported DST encoded DSD and DTS encoded WAV files will now show proper Unsupported Codec error messages
• added an alternate fallback method for Automatic Sample Rate Switching for stubborn DACs (Colibri uses it automatically when needed)
• Finder sorting order is used to enqueueing files to the Playlist
• Playlist will be rendered with system default monospace font when available (macOS 10.11 and up)
• added a ‘Use Default SoundFont' option for MIDI files to the right-click context menu of the Playlist
• removing the default SoundFont will automatically set the next available SoundFont as the default
• if the SoundFont list is empty, then the first SoundFont will automatically be marked as the default
• removing a SoundFont only causes playback restart if the currently played song is affected by the removal
• importing a new SoundFont will automatically set it as the default
• new switchable option in Settings -> Playlist: 'Dragging to the Playlist via Mouse / Trackpad':
  • songs will be added at pointer position (insert)
  • songs will be added at the end of the list (append, like before)
• added ‘Permanent Pause' to Settings -> Behavior (Off, by default):
  • pause will ‘hold' until the Play button is pressed again
  • switching to a different song will ‘arm'/prepare the song for playback
  • seeking repositions the playhead and it will play audio from the selected spot once unpaused
  • removing songs from the playlist does not affect the paused state
• added ‘Auto-Play' to Settings -> Behavior (On, by default):
  • On: Colibri automatically plays the next song
  • Off: Colibri stops when the current song ends
• Playlist Columns have been rewritten from scratch for improved stability: see Settings -> Columns
• Columns are now sortable:
  • click on the header once to sort playlist by that column
  • clicking once again switches between Ascending/Descending sorting
  • sorting is supported across all columns
• added new Columns:
  • Length, kHz, Codec, Year, Track Number, Disc Number, Composer and Bit Depth
• Playlist Columns can now have vertical and horizontal Grids:
  • they help in finding the columns boundaries during reordering and resizing
  • Grids can be toggled on/off in Settings -> Themes
  • a color picker has been added to Settings -> Themes for the Grid
• new Loop option ‘Random Round Robin' in Settings -> Playlist:
  • each song in the Playlist will be played once per 'round'
  • when all songs were played once, a new 'round' begins
  • removing a song causes the 'round'
  • double-clicking on a song does not reset the 'round'
  • a great way to have a balanced, random playback order
• monospace system fonts are now used in both the Title bar and Status bar (10.11 and up)

BUGS FIXED IN THIS UPDATE

• Colibri would not display its' name in the Force Quit and Activity Monitor windows
• Colibri would prevent the system from entering sleep state
• Colibri would fail to play the upcoming song under very high system load
• Playhead wouldn't always continue from the same spot on output device change
• Playlist would have a weird glitch on startup
• Force Sample Rate would cause crash on startup
• Online Streams wouldn't always start playback
• Random playback order would sometime cause Colibri to crash
• BS2B and EQ profiles wouldn't property restore on next startup
• After starting Colibri, the playlist would become disorganized/chaotic if files had gone missing since last start
• Automatic Sample Rate Switching wouldn't always switch properly after the end of the playlist had been reached
• Menubar Controller didn't always refresh the data on song change
• some built-in Audio DSP hardware wouldn't switch sample rate properly (mainly newer MacBook Pros)
• SoundFonts won't always properly reload on next launch
• SoundFonts won't properly switch on a per-song basis
• custom SoundFonts could disappear from the SoundFont list
• setting a custom SoundFont as default wouldn't always save properly
• network streams won't trigger a ‘Problem calculating song length' error
• Menubar Controller properly shows Light/Dark control buttons as per system theme
• Colibri could crash by clicking on the EQ button while the Playlist is empty
• moving multiple songs in the Playlist at once could cause titles to be become disorganized
• dragging files / folder to the dock would not be added to the Playlist properly
• Colibri could crash on El Capitan 10.11.6 when switching between Dock and Menu modes
• added missing keyboard shortcut to DSD output mode menu
• About Colibri window didn't properly switch the Light logo in Dark Mode
• Theme import / export buttons wouldn't properly spawn the browser windows
• Pressing Return on an empty playlist could sometimes cause crash
• Pressing Return while nothing is selected in the playlist could cause crash
• Color Pickers in Settings -> Themes should now behave as expected of them

Thank you Henning Gärtner for all-around essential feedback and testing, Rick Ernsting for feedback on the SoundFont issues!

Colibri is the passion project of Gábor Hargitai, brought to you by countless sleepless and caffeine-induced nights.
Support Email: gabor@barefootwebdesign.co.nz

DSD player software is designed to playback Direct Stream Digital audio files (.dsf, .dff, sacd iso, DoP). Look how to play DSD files via free software (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS for iPhone, iPad), about sound quality, comparison list, F.A.Q. at this page - explanation by audio software developer Yuri Korzunov.

HD audio file conversion

DSD player list

WARNING: This table can contain errors. It is not an offer or advertising. We are not affiliated with listed products. We guarantee nothing. If you found wrong information, contact us, please. To get exact information, contact with the software developers and/or vendors.

DSD player audio software list [See FREE audio players for hi-res]

HD audio file conversion

Download FREE DSD converters >

Check FREE DSD music downloads >

Read about DSD DACs >

Read more about mobile device connections to DSD playback here.

How to play DSD files

To play DSD files, audio player software should be configured properly. DAC may be either DSD or PCM.
There is no general rule, that is the best sound quality for every case.
When PCM DAC is used, the conversion of DSD to PCM format is used.
DSD DAC may get an audio stream natively ('native DSD' stream via ASIO driver) of DoP (DSD over PCM).

Check out How to play DSD with foobar2000 >

Read more details below.

How do I get the best sound quality on my computer?

You can get the best sound quality on your computer / laptop on Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile device on Android, iOS, when you reduce weak places of the audio-signal path and your DAC works in optimal resolution.

What is bit-perfect mode

DSD files may be played back in bit-perfect modes:

• DSD file (DSF, DFF, SACD ISO);
• DoP (DSD over PCM) file (FLAC, WAV, AIFF, other lossless PCM files).

Bit-perfect means transmitting of audio file content to DAC without altering.

What is gapless playback

When uninterrupted albums (operas, concerts) listen, non-gapless playback can cause clicks at track borders.

Gapless playback means playback album as a solid (uninterrupted) stream without re-initialization of DAC.

If the album is converted from an audio format to another one with resampling, it can cause artifacts at track borders. To avoid the track-border artifacts, True Gapless conversion may be used.

Offline conversion mode

With bit-perfect mode, you can playback offline pre-converted audio files (including PCM to DSD). This mode doesn't consume additional computing resources for altering an audio file. Also, it saves electrical energy that is spent on the processing.

Many digital audio players (DAP) capable of playback at stereo headphones. But some of your records may be multichannel.

When DAP play a multichannel record, it downmixes to 2.0. Downmixing is a lossy operation and its sound quality depends on implementation.

Also, extra channels consume free space on the hard disk of the DAP. Offline pre-downmixed to stereo files allow putting more songs at hard disk.

If file played back on a mobile device in bit-perfect mode or with minimal processing, it allows:

1. saving battery charge;
2. getting a longer time of autonomous work;
3. getting more computing resources for other (not audio player) applications.

Inline conversion mode

DSD and PCM files may be played back with inline (real-time, 'on-fly') altering of audio content:

• with DSD resampling;
• with room correction;
• with conversion DSD to PCM on PCM DAC.

This mode allows saving time for pre-converting of various audio files to the best sounding mode of DAC. But each playback can consume big computing resources to resolution conversion and other processing.

Real-time playback conversion DSD to PCM on mobile devices consume additional battery charge and part of the device CPU performance. It can cause a lesser time of autonomous work and reduce the response of other (non-player) applications.

Inline (real-time) vs offline conversion
of audio files on mobile devices

Offline conversion of audio files gives a longer battery lifetime. Because a mobile device performs lesser calculation number.

Also pre-downmix, pre-conversion DSD to PCM, pre-downsampling save free space at the hard disk of the mobile device.

DAC interfaces

To DSD playback (including bit-perfect) under Windows, DAC may be connected to an audio player via ASIO driver or DoP protocol.

Also, WASAPI (with DoP) interface may be used to playback (including bit-perfect).

DoP is the special open protocol to coding DSD into PCM audio stream. The stream cannot be played back as PCM.

To DSD playback under Mac, DAC may be connected to an audio player via DoP protocol.

Read more about:

What is the best DSD player

In audiophile application, the players are compared by the sound quality.

If the player has bit-perfect mode and used DAC support played file resolution, sound quality is the same for such players.

But, if an audio resolution is altered or EQ is used, then applied processing quality is a matter. Thunderbolt to firewire 400 adapter mac.

In general, the best DSD player with processing should cause minimal distortions.

Also kind of distortions may be matter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Best Audio Player For Mac

What is DSD player? How do I listen DSD files?

DSD player is a device or software, that capable to play audiophile format Direct Stream Digital. It may be suggested as SACD optical disks or computer files.

Is DSD better than FLAC?

It is matter of recording quality and playback tool implementation. Read about DSD and FLAC comparison..

Is DSD audio worth it?

DSD allow to simplify a playback system and solve some issues of analog filter, theoretically. But implementation of the system makes actual result. See more..

Where can I download FLAC songs for free? Where can I download high-quality music for free?

You can download high-quality (high-resolution) files from the download resources into list here..

Can VLC play DSF?

Looks like, VLC can't play DSF. Follow current state here..

Can iPhone play DSD files?

Yes. iOS player software can play DSD files. See here..

How do I play DSF files with foobar2000?

Yes, you can. Read foobar2000 DSD playback guide here..

Can Windows Media Player play DSD?

No. Windows Media Player can't play DSD. But, you can use other software..

What is DSD music file?

DSD audio files are files, that capable to contains DSD audio content: DSF, DFF, SACD ISO and DoP FLAC, WAV, etc. Read details here..

What is DSF audio file?

Read DSF file quick guide here..

What is DFF audio file?

DFF file is one of DSD files. Its audio data content is identical to DSF by the sound quality. Read DFF file details here..

How do I open DFF file?

DFF file is supported by software..

How do I play DFF files?

DFF files are played back via auio player software..

How do I play SACD ISO file?

You can play SACD ISO at hardware and software players.

However, SACD ISO may contains stereo and multichannel album variant. And it consume additional place at hardware player.

You can extract SACD ISO to DSD or PCM files. You choice PCM vs DSD is matter of your music player and hardware ability.

See more:

How do I convert DSF to FLAC?

Read about conversion DSF to FLAC here..

How do I convert DSF to mp3?

Read about conversion DSF to mp3 here..

What is native DSD support?

DSD files may be played back 3 ways:

1. on-fly conversionDSD to PCM, and playback on PCM DAC (in PCM mode of the DAC);
2. offline conversion DSD to PCM with conversion software, and playback on PCM DAC (in PCM mode of the DAC);
3. transmit DSD audio stuff to DSD DAC to playback.

Winamp For Mac

Option #3 is called 'native DSD support'. DSD may be transmitted via ASIO driver or as DoP.

Gom Audio Player For Mac

September 15, 2020 updated | since May 01, 2018

Best Mp3 Player For Mac