# Good flac player for mac ?



## Old School

I'm using Cog, it sounds good, but interface is not my cup of tea.
 Can you guys recommend other players for mac ?


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## krmathis

Some alternatives:
 * Play
 * Songbird
 * VLC
 * iTunes (using Fluke)


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## Old School

songbird looks awesome, I will give it a try


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## Old School

Songbird rocks, thanks a bunch


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## triggerc

I would stay with iTunes on a Mac and convert the Flac files to ALAC with MAX. I say iTunes because I'm not sure if the other players get bit-perfect playback while iTunes definitely does.


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Old School* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Songbird rocks, thanks a bunch 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Enjoy!


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## thread

Toolplayer is a little-known player that is just awesome in my opinion. The only thing it's lacking (and yes it's pretty important) is a playlist... but you can drag a folder/group of files onto it and it will play them all. The playlist feature is supposed to be coming very soon.

 ... and the forums are currently down.

 But it's a charming little app with some unique features.


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## blessingx

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *thread* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Toolplayer is a little-known player that is just awesome in my opinion._

 

Interesting Thanks for the link.


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## IceClass

Why in God's name don't Apple™ give iTunes FLAC capabilities??


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *IceClass* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Why in God's name don't Apple™ give iTunes FLAC capabilities??



_

 

Probably because they have their own lossless codec (Apple Lossless). Which are supported by QuickTime, iPod and AirPort Express as well.

 iTunes play FLAC with the help of Fluke though.


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## blessingx

Well, FLAC existed long before ALAC, so that's not likely the cause. Rumor is ALAC use is about content licensing and encrypted streaming across Airport Express and eventually Apple TV. Who knows? I really don't get complaining about companies using one lossless over another. It used to be Monkeys Audio users (and a lesser extent SHN people) arguing against FLAC. Now it's FLAC against ALAC. In the end lossless conversion is about as painless as can be. Seems there are other things to worry about. Hell, I spend more time correcting tags.


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## IceClass

So are you saying there is no effective difference in sound quality between a FLAC and ALAC file?

 Apple™ used to be all about options.
 Now it's all about restrictions.


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *IceClass* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_So are you saying there is no effective difference in sound quality between a FLAC and ALAC file?_

 

Correct! The are *no* sound quality (audio data) difference between them.
 All lossless codecs are indeed lossless.

 There are other differences though. As hardware/software support, features, ...


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## Zathan

I've tried Songbird and I liked it.


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## Darek

how about the cowon d2 ?
[ Welcome to cowonglobal.com Test Server ]

 oops ignore me


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## Zanth

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *krmathis* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Probably because they have their own lossless codec (Apple Lossless). Which are supported by QuickTime, iPod and AirPort Express as well.

 iTunes play FLAC with the help of Fluke though. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			



_

 

Fluke works soooo well. I tried it last night. Prior to using Fluke I had this crazy apple script thing going on for each flac or ogg I wanted dropped into iTunes. Utter mayhem (well not really but it sure wasn't elegant!) This though...what a find! Now then...let's get those FLAC files on to an iPod already!


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Zanth* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Fluke works soooo well. I tried it last night. Prior to using Fluke I had this crazy apple script thing going on for each flac or ogg I wanted dropped into iTunes. Utter mayhem (well not really but it sure wasn't elegant!) This though...what a find! Now then...let's get those FLAC files on to an iPod already! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 

Great news! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 I have not tried it myself, as I moved from FLAC to ALAC some 4 years back. But its certainly nice to see that it works as smooth as they claim.


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## MasiveMunkey

Wow songbird seems really cool. I tried Fluke and it didn't work for me :-/. Does songbird support gapless playback? Usually iTunes does all that stuff automatically for me, but songbird doesn't for some reason.


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## MasiveMunkey

Actually after using songbird for 10 min I take back what I said about it. I can't figure out how to do gapless playback and I have some bug where it wont let me fast forward a track. Eh I guess I'll try to find something else to play my flac files.


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## Zanth

When you ran Fluke, before adding the files to iTunes, did you search them out in the director and "right click" then "open with" and search for fluke.app?


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *MasiveMunkey* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Actually after using songbird for 10 min I take back what I said about it. I can't figure out how to do gapless playback and I have some bug where it wont let me fast forward a track. Eh I guess I'll try to find something else to play my flac files._

 

Well, its still in beta stage. So expect a bug once in a while...
 /me don't like it either, but that's just me and the XUL stuff


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## blessingx

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *IceClass* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Apple™ used to be all about options.
 Now it's all about restrictions.



_

 

Well I understand that you are concerned about lossless openness, but lets not forget they use AAC/MP3 and H.264/MPEG-4 open standards not owned by Apple instead of coming up with their own WMA/WMV-like formats. Lossless is the exception (unless you count the DRM which I think it's fair to doubt was Apples sole idea) and likely for the reasons I mentioned before. I certainly understand the desire for more codec support (Ogg Vorbis, DviX, etc.) though. Not sure Apple has ever really been about every possibility (think eliminating serial/parallel ports, floppy drive, etc.) over what it considers "the best" or at least "future".


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## jiiteepee

In my signature there's one FLAC/MAC compatible player listed ... Native Instruments BeatPort SYNC ... Dunno if it works in all Mac OS versions ....

 jiitee


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## MasiveMunkey

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Zanth* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_When you ran Fluke, before adding the files to iTunes, did you search them out in the director and "right click" then "open with" and search for fluke.app?_

 

Yeah that's exactly what I did. I've realized why it didn't work now though. Since I just switched from a windows pc all my music is stored on a FAT32 based external hd. Mac OSX can read FAT32, but not write to it and apparently Fluke needs to edit these files to allow them to play in Mac OSX. 

 BTW what happens when I connect my iPod to my computer? Will it try to send these files and then give me an error message?


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *MasiveMunkey* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_I've realized why it didn't work now though. Since I just switched from a windows pc all my music is stored on a FAT32 based external hd. Mac OSX can read FAT32, but not write to it and apparently Fluke needs to edit these files to allow them to play in Mac OSX._

 

Mac OS X can both read and write to FAT32. But perhaps you use NTFS file system? Which Mac OS X can't write to.


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## Zanth

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *krmathis* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Mac OS X can both read and write to FAT32. But perhaps you use NTFS file system? Which Mac OS X can't write to._

 

Sure it can 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I do it every day!

 I can't quite remember which option I went with but this is a good one:
NTFS-3G: Stable Read/Write NTFS Driver


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## krmathis

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Zanth* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Sure it can 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I do it every day!

 I can't quite remember which option I went with but this is a good one:
NTFS-3G: Stable Read/Write NTFS Driver_

 

But not natively (out-of-the-box) though! Which were the point here...


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## MasiveMunkey

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *krmathis* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Mac OS X can both read and write to FAT32. But perhaps you use NTFS file system? Which Mac OS X can't write to._

 

Yeah I ment NTFS


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## MasiveMunkey

Quote:


  Originally Posted by *Zanth* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_Sure it can 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I do it every day!

 I can't quite remember which option I went with but this is a good one:
NTFS-3G: Stable Read/Write NTFS Driver_

 

WOW I just installed this (have to install some other program called MacFuse to get it to work) and it works perfectly! Thanks 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




.


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## MasiveMunkey

Hmmm... actually it's not letting read my external HD for some reason, I get an error when I plug it in. Weird, must investigate this.


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## alxwang

I am not sure it was just me or:
 I did some test and feel the songbird in OSX sound worse than foobar+ASIO in Windows xp. It just give me the feeling like foobar's sound is way more clear, clean. Even my girl friend can feel the difference. 
 My test setup is:

 Songbird:
 macbook pro + Creative USB sound card(cheap one,I do not have DAC yet)+DV 332+HD650

 and

 Foobar+ASIO(did the setting as http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/as...nation-221237/)
 T61(windows xp sp3) + Creative USB sound card(cheap one,I do not have DAC yet)+DV 332+HD650.


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## krmathis

alxwang. Believe your ears.
 If it sound good to your ears, just stick with it...


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## alxwang

Thanks.

 Finally decide base my own test result:

 ITunes is best and cog for back up.


  Quote:


  Originally Posted by *krmathis* /img/forum/go_quote.gif 
_alxwang. Believe your ears.
 If it sound good to your ears, just stick with it..._


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## khaos974

I recently discovered a cross platform ope- source player, Clementine, which plays FLAC and a whole bunch of other formats.
  It seems pretty promising, I haven't tested it yet on OSX, but it works pretty well in Win 7, it doesn't have problems with large (10000+) libraries contrary to Songbird.
   
  It's still in version 0.4 and the first build is from march, so I'm pretty hopeful it will get better.
  So if you've just swithed to Mac and don't want to convert your library to ALAC for whatever reason (messing up with personalized tags for example), Clementine could be the solution your looking for.


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## khaos974

Has updated to 0.6 version
   
  http://code.google.com/p/clementine-player/


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## TheAnalogman

Dang! I tried this, and it looks pretty good, but it crashes every time i run it on my MacBook.
  
  Quote: 





khaos974 said:


> Has updated to 0.6 version
> 
> http://code.google.com/p/clementine-player/


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## khaos974

No luck then, it runs pretty well on win 7, maybe the next version will be more stable on OSX.


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