FLAC On a Mac

[richardfinegold]

Do tell us if so! Presto is my emporium of choice (unless Chandos/Classical Shop have the necessary - as they do have direct Mac-compatible formats, but their range is more limited) - I've always proceeded with Presto as above, buying lossless downloads and converting them to Mac formats here.

Presto answered me that they only offer MP3 as compatible Mac format

[neiltingley]

Presto is my second choice, Qobuz is first, Europhile that I am. But it’s inconvenient having to convert the files from FLAC to ALAC (although I do have a free application that works well).

Qobuz offers ALAC as a download option.

[richardfinegold]

Why don't you ask them to burn the tracks onto a CD and post it to you? It might be easier for you.

Actually, I just added ClassicsOnline, which I think used to be the Naxos Streaming Service here, and since the other Vanska\Minnesota albums are offered, in High Res Streaming, I'm sure that the one in question will be there shortly. Listening to the stream of #1 now (24 bit) and this probably beats my SACD comfortably.
When streaming gets this good, who needs the haste of downloading?

[HighlandDougie]

I feel sure that Jayne or Highland Dougie will tell you that it can do up to 192+ if we encourage them.

Are you new to Audirvana? Since I haven't heard of the one you mentioned, I'm just wondering how it compares. If Audirvana is better then the extra cost is not so great, and could be worthwhile. I have a vague suspicion there are other players, but maybe not many do so well as Audirvana.

Sorry, I don't often venture down to the murky depths of the Techie thread but, yes, Audirvana deals with 192+ (not that I can tell the difference between 96 and 192). Jayne likes JRiver (which is also excellent) but I started off with Audirvana and have found it to deliver consistently well so I stick with it. With a decent DAC (like another Forumista - apologies, I can't remember who it is - I use a Chord Hugo), it has transformed the reproduction of music files from my MacBook.

As to e-classical.com, my two gripes are that it's FLAC - unlike Qobuz, which offers ALAC - and that it's metadata leaves something to be desired (although it's better than it used to be). I use either Bigasoft or the much-improved XLD. With the former, 24/96 is only really available as AIFF files, which tend to be enormous and which some DACs son't seem to like. XLD offers like-for-like resolution and puts the files straight into iTunes so it's the programme I now tend to use.

And streaming? Out of the question if, like me, your broadband bandwith is under 2mb, here in sunny France. Our village is the shame of the valley.

[Dave2002]

I was intrigued by mention of Bigasoft - which I didn't know. Seems it works with OS X versions before Mavericks - maybe there are updates.
One of its functions is to extract audio from video files. I discovered this can be done by Audacity quite easily - I was surprised, but it works - just drag the video into Audacity and the audio should peel off.

Thinking about this made me wonder if Audacity could do the FLAC to ALAC conversion. There has been some discussion on Audacity forums about this (going back several years - 2012 for example), but I'm not sure if it is yet a feature. Even so, it may still be limited, as most likely a conversion would rely on an underlying use of FFmpeg, which may have both bit depth and sample rate limitations for that particular conversion.

For "regular" audio, conversion from Flac to Alac audio is feasible - see http://keithmilleruae.blogspot.co.uk...your-ipad.html,
and this can be automated to go through a whole bunch of files. I'm just not sure that it's yet easy to do hi-res conversions, either using Audacity or FFmpeg. XLD seems to be capable of doing most of what's required, though I've not tried it on hi-res files myself.

If there's interest in doing that conversion using Macs rather than Linux following the lines of the blog post, I might just get motivated to adapt the script to run under Mac Terminal - but don't hold your breaths!

[jayne lee wilson]

It's worth mentioning after HD & D2k2 that JRiver offers effortlessly easy file conversion, to the extent that you don't worry about it, you just do it. Choose file conversion from advance tools, highlight your album/files, choose format (all there from alacs to wavs), click convert. Even large Flac files convert to wav (which I prefer for playback) in a few seconds. (And the files will of course convert in Audirvana (where album art even follows wavs around) on the same drive as well).
I'm surprised at the agonising over Flacs/Alacs etc when these players take every format & make it all so easy - latest Audirvana+ does DSD up to 128 as well, if that's your thing...

JRiver doesn't offer free upgrades like Audirvana (I still use JRMC19), but the immediate user interface (once mastered..) is easy and very attractive visually (especially "thunder" skin, a sort of lilac-grey), and although you do get many functions e.g. dsp, audio analysers, playback options etc., you don't have to use them and the basic store, organise & play is quick & efficient.
But Audirvana+ is the simplest for those basic functions, nice big script and art, if just a little bare on aesthetic appeal.

I'd always say the JRiver sound is more analytical than Audirvana, but recent SQ upgrades to the latter seem to have brought it closer. And it still has two integer mode settings, one slightly warmer (and very usefully too).

[richardfinegold]

Sorry, I don't often venture down to the murky depths of the Techie thread but, yes, Audirvana deals with 192+ (not that I can tell the difference between 96 and 192). Jayne likes JRiver (which is also excellent) but I started off with Audirvana and have found it to deliver consistently well so I stick with it. With a decent DAC (like another Forumista - apologies, I can't remember who it is - I use a Chord Hugo), it has transformed the reproduction of music files from my MacBook.

As to e-classical.com, my two gripes are that it's FLAC - unlike Qobuz, which offers ALAC - and that it's metadata leaves something to be desired (although it's better than it used to be). I use either Bigasoft or the much-improved XLD. With the former, 24/96 is only really available as AIFF files, which tend to be enormous and which some DACs son't seem to like. XLD offers like-for-like resolution and puts the files straight into iTunes so it's the programme I now tend to use.

And streaming? Out of the question if, like me, your broadband bandwith is under 2mb, here in sunny France. Our village is the shame of the valley.

There is some irony there with regard to Internet conncection quality. My poor Internet connection causes me to require for 4 hours for a non mp3 download, but my streaming quality is excellent. You are the opposite. Just another facet of digital living that I will never understand....
I just discovered that one on my cheap Sony Bly Ray players files flac files from it's front usb input, and in multichannel as well. So at least I can listen to this on one system
in my house

[neiltingley]

I feel sure that Jayne or Highland Dougie will tell you that it can do up to 192+ if we encourage them.

Are you new to Audirvana? Since I haven't heard of the one you mentioned, I'm just wondering how it compares. If Audirvana is better then the extra cost is not so great, and could be worthwhile. I have a vague suspicion there are other players, but maybe not many do so well as Audirvana.

I use Qobuz every day at work so don't store musical locally. At home I use squeezeboxserver playing music though that into my DAC using squeezelite as a psuedo player.

[Beef Oven!]

Qobuz offers ALAC as a download option.

The way I put that could be misleading!

What I meant was that I would like Presto to to offer Mac-ready downloads. They are my second choice because I find the fiddling about converting purchases to ALAC frustrating. Qobuz is my no.1 choice because I download ALAC directly.

[richardfinegold]

The way I put that could be misleading!

What I meant was that I would like Presto to to offer Mac-ready downloads. They are my second choice because I find the fiddling about converting purchases to ALAC frustrating. Qobuz is my no.1 choice because I download ALAC directly.

Sorry it's a source of frustration, Beef, but it makes me feel like less of an Idiot to know that others have found the process frustrating as well. It reminds me of Dr Johnson's comment about teaching a dog to walk on 2 legs--a remarkable achievement, but a lot of work for no purpose

[Stunsworth]

The message is just a warning. There's a setting in system preferences that allows apps from all developers to run - sorry, I'm on holiday at the moment so don't have a Mac to hand to provide chapter and verse about what to change.

[Dave2002]

The message is just a warning. There's a setting in system preferences that allows apps from all developers to run - sorry, I'm on holiday at the moment so don't have a Mac to hand to provide chapter and verse about what to change.

Steve

Are you referring to msg 1? I answered in msg 2, but apparently that doesn't provide a solution.

[Stunsworth]

Steve

Are you referring to msg 1? I answered in msg 2, but apparently that doesn't provide a solution.

Yes, sorry, I didn't see your response. If this thread's still open when I get home I'll have a play on my Mac - I use the same FLAC converter as the OP.

[richardfinegold]

Steve

Are you referring to msg 1? I answered in msg 2, but apparently that doesn't provide a solution.

I followed your advice, Dave, and neither of the 2 programs , XLD or Decibel, showed up in the Application File. I hadn't used them for about 2 years but did use them extensively prior to that so I am baffled by their absence.
I re downloaded XLD since it is free and ignored the warning that it was unsupported, etc. I added XLD to the Application Folder. However, the Program doesn't seem to work. Previously I would drag the flac files into the XLD Icon and the file would be converted to AIFF. Now the file jumps out of the XLD folder, as if it had inadvertently landed in the midst of a leper colony, and runs back to the folder from which it was dragged. I can only surmise that this 'unsupported status' has something to do with this.
The other program, Decibel, wanted me to repurchase it--IIRC in my op I had already spent $50 for a 'lifetime' subscription. I have emailed Decibel about this and to date no response. I therefore have not been able to retry this program.
I am listening to the Vanska/Minnesota Sibelius files in my main 2 channel system. In this system I have an Oppo 105 universal player. I was using it without a video monitor, which I had not required to play music with. The Oppo's display is good enough to play the Audio from Blu Rays and DVD Audio that I had not needed a monitor. The Oppo has multiple inputs, including 3 USB , and it plays flac files, but a video monitor is required as this is is to complicated for the front display of the Oppo, so I bit the bullet and bought a Samsung monitor.
Interestingly The Audio output from the USB ports of the Oppo is much lower than when I play a disc, and I have to crank the volume knob on the Pre Amp to what would be ear bleed levels for other sources just to get an acceptable output.
I also bought an adapter that is supposed to connect the USB port of a computer to the HDMI of the monitor. We had just bought my wife a new MacBook Pro when her old 15 inch MBP HD died. The price difference between the 13 and 15 in MBP
Was $700.00 so she agreed to get the smaller but she was grumbling yesterday while paying bills about having to adjust to the smaller screen. I figured that we might be able to use the monitor (22 inch screen) for this and perhaps also start trying to download movies and other content. I haven't started that project yet--if I have trouble syncing the Monitor and her Computer I'll be right here asking for advice.
As a final note here the cheap Sony Blu Ray is now not able to play the Sibelius in multichannel as it did a few days ago.
It just stuttered on the first track today and I wasn't able to to advance to other tracks. I hav'nt got the energy to figure out what the problem is there. It actually isn't in the spec of the Sony that it is supposed to play files from it's USB input. I must have 'got lucky' last time. Funny, I don't remember buying the Sony a drink and whispering sweet nothings In it's ear...

[Dave2002]

Richard

I had noted that my suggestions from msg 2 didn't seem to work, but I think Steve is just trying to catch up.

Not quite sure about the interfaces on your latest MBP - will have to check. My 13 inch model has an HDMI which I sometimes use with a long HDMI cable direct to the HD TV - well not quite - often through a 3 or 5 way HDMI switch which is easily accessible, and saves grovelling behind the TV to find the sockets - works well, and should give a much larger display. Problem is that not everyone likes cables - wireless seems easier and neater, but doesn't always work very well, and usually sends data via a router - so some might be concerned .... For us the HDMI switch and wires which can be (but often aren't!!) hidden under the TV table do work OK, but minimalist neatness freaks might baulk at that.

Most new Apple devices have a possibility of a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter, so if your new MBP doesn't have HDMI that is one route. USB might not work so well, but it depends. The bandwidth requirement for HDMI usually exceeds USB (perhaps not for USB 3) so Thunderbolt adapters should be better. OTOH if the application is "only" looking at bills on the screen some USB configurations are good enough - just don't expect to be able to watch HD video. It may work, but it may not.

The Chromecast or ATV options mentioned/discussed on another thread may also help for the big screen bill analysis application. I have several iMacs, and for serious work it's a big relief using a much larger screen, and for some applications I have even tried using an extra screen - for example my iPad Pro connected via USB. Too many people think that using small screens is good enough - for really serious/hard work, big screens are a much better option. The problem is trying to balance work requirements with domestic needs and constraints.