Software for Playing DSD Downloads

I've compiled a nice little DSD wish list but have yet to purchase the proper software for playback. Can anyone recommend a reliable DSD player for Mac? DSD Master ($30) perhaps?

Edit: It appears BitPerfect ($10) would be a better choice. DSD Master is conversion software. Haven't found yet if BitPerfect supports multichannel playback.

blue.monk said:

I've compiled a nice little DSD wish list but have yet to purchase the proper software for playback. Can anyone recommend a reliable DSD player for Mac? DSD Master ($30) perhaps?

Edit: It appears BitPerfect ($10) would be a better choice. DSD Master is conversion software. Haven't found yet if BitPerfect supports multichannel playback.

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I'm on Windows, so I don't have any personal experience with the Mac player apps. The one I hear about the most from the Mac fans is Audrivana Plus. It supports Native DSD and Multichannel DSD playback.
http://audirvana.com/

If you have an exaSound DAC and a Mac, you may also want to consider Decibel. It supports Stereo and Multichannel DSD up to Quad DSD (DSD 256) resolution.
http://www.exasound.com/Blog/tabid/...ophile-Player-with-Mac-OS-X-ASIO-Support.aspx

And there is always JRiver Media Center for Mac. The Mac version of the # 1 music downloads player app for Windows.
http://www.jriver.com/download.html

Nothing. My jriver expired again. What's that other one, foobar or something? Does it run on a Mac?

cupboy said:

Nothing. My jriver expired again. What's that other one, foobar or something? Does it run on a Mac?

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Foobar is a freeware music downloads player than runs on Windows and Mac. There are 15 music download players these days, 4 of which support Multichannel music (Audirvana Plus, Decibel, HQ Player and JRiver). Check the DSD Database for the list (see image and link below).



www.dsd.sonore.us

bmoura said:

Foobar is a freeware music downloads player than runs on Windows and Mac. There are 15 music download players these days, 4 of which support Multichannel music (Audirvana Plus, Decibel, HQ Player and JRiver). Check the DSD Database for the list (see image and link below).

View attachment 18459

www.dsd.sonore.us

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Hey Brian - couple questions I guess, if you know. Once you buy Jriver, is it a lifetime purchase...or you have to pay ever so often like with antivirus software?
Also - do you know if JRiver's ability to display artwork is super easy...like itunes? I find Foobar a complete disaster for artwork. All my current CD's are in itunes and I have all the artwork intact....wonder if JRiver can pull those in...or if I start from scratch again??

GOS said:

Hey Brian - couple questions I guess, if you know. Once you buy Jriver, is it a lifetime purchase...or you have to pay ever so often like with antivirus software?

Also - do you know if JRiver's ability to display artwork is super easy...like itunes? I find Foobar a complete disaster for artwork. All my current CD's are in itunes and I have all the artwork intact....wonder if JRiver can pull those in...or if I start from scratch again??

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I've never thought of JRiver being like Anti-Virus software. But yes, they do ask for an upgrade fee during major upgrades - last one was $20 when moving to a new major version (in that case from 19.x to 20.x).

JRiver does a nice job of displaying album art. With *.DSF DSD Downloads, they usually come with Metadata and Album art which is displayed in JRiver.
If the album art is missing in a .DSF file, you can add it (and the other metadata) with a low cost program like Tag and Rename for $29 (see http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm)

With *.DFF DSD Downloads, the album art and metadata is not available. However, you can batch convert *.DFF files to *.DSF with a free conversion utility.
See http://www.signalyst.com/professional.html

JRiver also has an art lookup via the Internet feature to add album art.

Once the album art is added, it shows in the regular Album and Artist views. And also the Theater View - which allows your Windows 8/8.1 laptop to be used as a touchscreen controller.
Nice.

GOS said:

...All my current CD's are in itunes and I have all the artwork intact....wonder if JRiver can pull those in...or if I start from scratch again??

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Yes, it does that. I had to set an option (when I had the free trial) to turn that feature off since I preferred to keep iTunes music with iTunes.

It doesn't change the location of the files. They will still be in the same directory as when you used iTunes.

This thread will discuss the many choices in software to play DSD Downloads. To date, there are 25 such programs. Mostly for Windows PCs but some also support the Mac and Linux.

GOS said:

Hey Brian - couple questions I guess, if you know. Once you buy Jriver, is it a lifetime purchase...or you have to pay ever so often like with antivirus software?
Also - do you know if JRiver's ability to display artwork is super easy...like itunes? I find Foobar a complete disaster for artwork. All my current CD's are in itunes and I have all the artwork intact....wonder if JRiver can pull those in...or if I start from scratch again??

Click to expand...

There are two ways I add artwork for playback in foobar2000:

1. I use mp3tag (freeware) to add the artwork, this works with DSF files too (IIRC).
2. Add a folder.jpg file to the folder where the files are and foobar will pick it up - if its set-up to display artwork...

I tried Jriver, but to default playback for the multichannel layer in SACD ISOs you have to tweak the configuration, and then the remote software for my smartphone would still double up and display stereo and multichannel files..

So I gave up and stayed with foobar2000.

LizardKing said:

There are two ways I add artwork for playback in foobar2000:

1. I use mp3tag (freeware) to add the artwork, this works with DSF files too (IIRC).
2. Add a folder.jpg file to the folder where the files are and foobar will pick it up - if its set-up to display artwork...

Click to expand...

I've found that the most dependable way to have the artwork displayed in the music software apps is to add it to the DSF files.
Adding a folder.jpg works most of the time, but adding it to the DSF metadata works all the time.