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Author Topic: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives  (Read 8878 times)

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mkubota1

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Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« on: September 28, 2014, 09:01:45 AM »
A little surprised we don’t have a thread for this (unless I missed it).  It gets discussed enough I suppose.  Well, here goes…

For starters I’m one of those guys who thinks (OSX) iTunes is good enough:  Sounds okay to me (though I’ve yet to do a serious comparison… coming soon), polished interface, and dead reliable.  Those last two are biggies for me.  But I got drawn into crossfeed which leaves me with the option of picking another player that has it built-in or accepts AU/VST plug-ins, or going the hardware route- SPL Phonitor 2 or Mini.  I’m trying not to drop that $1800; but with pre-outs, remote capability, and drop-dead looks, the ‘2 is tempting.  For hardware, I want more than a simple on/off setting.

I went through the usual suspects-
Amarra (no plug-ins), Audirvana, Pure Music, BitPerfect (bare bones), Decibel, Fidelia (built-in crossfeed), and JRiver (built-in crossfeed).

I know JRiver is pretty popular around here and it was the first one that I tried.  I really liked the simple crossfeed on it.  But I guess I’m just too stuck on the iTunes interface because I just wasn’t feeling it with JRiver’s.  Also and probably most importantly, I’ve actually had the program freeze on me a few times.  (2012 MBPretina, maxed out, OSX 10.9.5/ 10.10)  Weird.

Long story short, I think I’ve decided on Audirvana with TB Isone (AU).  I like the features of Isone and its adjustability starts with almost no effects and goes upward from there.  As for Audirvana itself, I like how it gives you finer volume steps with the volume keys without having to do the Shift-Alt-Vol thing.  I wish they could have different sizes for the player because it seems to take up more space than necessary.  Pure Music was a close runner-up using the same TB Isone plug-in.  I like the compact display and how it docks with the iTunes window.  But again I thought the ticker/ meter display was quite ugly and it’s annoying how the play button on iTunes always shows ‘Play’ no matter what.  It’s too bad because I really wanted to like this one.
« Last Edit: September 29, 2014, 04:18:11 AM by mkubota1 »
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purplegoat

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2014, 11:53:01 AM »
Can't find a reason I'd use anything more than Foobar. DSD, plug-ins, easy to customize UI, lightweight, ASIO options..


EDIT: Oops. Not for Mac. Probably why you didn't mention it.
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burnspbesq

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2014, 12:16:21 PM »
I have both Amarra and Audirvana, and use Audirvana about 85 percent of the time, in Playlist mode, which bypasses iTunes altogether. I put it in iTunes compatibility mode at meets, because so may more people are familiar and comfortable with the iTunes interface.
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Thujone

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2014, 01:54:54 PM »
I also use iTunes as my main player. Ratings, playlists, playcounts, etc. are all synced to my phone and are connected to my car when I'm on the go. iTunes is the main reason I still use an iPhone...

Another alternative on OSX is Vox. It's really bare as well but it's super small and fairly user friendly.
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Azteca X

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2014, 03:41:44 PM »
I'm a big JRiver fan. That's what I use and I love the crossfeed. Frankly there are lots of good options but I think the biggest thing is bypassin iTunes' built in DSP that alters the sound regardless of any EQ being on.
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Deep Funk

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2014, 03:49:06 PM »
I used Media Monkey for a long time until it started to invade my album library. Music Bee can be nice too.

iTunes, if Apple was a tentacled creature I would hack off many of its tentacles. I once tried it on my computer but did not like it and de-installing it was more difficult than it should have been.

Within IOS iTUnes is the default media player and effectively works. Add VLC Player for other formats and media and you should be fine I guess...
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AustinValentine

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2014, 03:52:15 PM »
I use both JRMC and Audirvana Plus (with iTunes for playlist management/compatibility mode).

Most of the time, I use Audirvana. I have the same 2012 setup you do and have experienced the exact same crashing issues. JMRC for Mac also doesn't play well with Multi-monitor mac setups. In particular, the menu bar often pulls up menus on your Macbook monitor if you are working on your external. It's annoying.

I use JMRC on my Windows 7 box and love it there, but the OSX release just doesn't feel ready for primetime.




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mkubota1

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2014, 09:30:24 PM »
Quote from: AustinValentine on September 28, 2014, 03:52:15 PM
I have the same 2012 setup you do and have experienced the exact same crashing issues.
Oh good- so it’s not just me!  Yeah, JRMC just doesn’t seem that well optimized for OSX.  I think most of the guys who use it here have Windows machines so that would make sense.  It’s sort of like how sluggish iTunes is on Windows vs. on OSX.  I’m pretty stuck in the Apple ecosystem (except for Safari and iCloud) and I like it.  I’m willing to give up some things for integration, rock-solid stability, and good GUI.

Quote from: burnspbesq on September 28, 2014, 12:16:21 PM
I put it in iTunes compatibility mode at meets, because so may more people are familiar and comfortable with the iTunes interface.
That’s what I liked about BitPerfect- you could use iTunes like you normally do but get the benefits of the "back-end" processing; for me mostly the automatic bitrate switching.  Unfortunately you can’t use plug-ins for it and it would crash once in a blue moon.
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kothganesh

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2014, 09:55:27 AM »
I use Amarra 3.0.2 but I'm beginning to have serious misgivings. The software seems buggy and I have had to restart three-four times a day. Wonder if Audirvana is better..
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roBernd

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Re: Media Players and iTunes Alternatives
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2014, 11:48:27 AM »
Ended up with gmusicbrowser for some reasons after amarok started to turn crazy after 1.4. I did so mainly for it's speed, mplayer integration and dozens of ways to make it sort and find stuff (making it look like quod-libet though, so I might give that a try).

For Windows Foobar, and Winamp for temporary files and streams.
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