FLAC and iTunes

Are you using iTunes on a Mac (OS X) or on a Windows PC?

Sorry silly me for omitting that. Mac OSX Snow Leopard

Itunes and FLAC do not go well together.

There are two options I can think of.  Add Pure Music to Itunes, and you will be able to play FLAC.   IIRC, the downside is that the import process is drag-n-drop,  one album at a time.   The other downside is that PM costs money (but it does improve sound quality, and it also allows playing music files of different resolutions without having to manually edit your sample size/bit rate setting and restart Itunes).

The better option (if you are really committed to Itunes) is to use MAX (or similar) to convert your FLAC files to ALAC.   If your library is large, this will take some time, but it can be done as a large, unattended batch job.

The combination of Itunes, PM and ALAC can be very good.   But your other option for native FLAC support, of course, is to simply move away from Itunes and to a different media player.

Good luck.

Hook

Many thnaks. That is a great help.

As Hook has said, I play my flacs with 'Play', keep 'em in my 'Play' library (play is from the same guy that does max).

Dave

Sorry Hawk but you have got me confused. Hook did not mention 'play'

I use the MAX player (for Flac files) on my Mac.

There is a fabulous Open Source Server - V something that will rip into flac and mirror as alac or stream flac straight into itunes....

 You know who!   

T

Sorry Davidr, I wasn't clear. Maybe I was thinking of his last suggestion of using a different player than iTunes. 'Play' is from the creator of 'max', at sbooth.org. Of course max let's you convert and play flac, and I guess play is mostly for playback and working with tags. Maybe visit the creator's site, it's all open source and free, and he also created 'rip'. 

Dave

My favorite media player since a coupel of weeks is "Fidelia" from audiofile-engineering.com.

It have a very nice front end , a rudimentäre library and a very good audio engine. The sound of fidelia is better then itunes or pure music.

I bought the app over the App Store for 15 €.

It looks interesting.  I'm assuming you have tried some Flac files on it?  After looking at it, it appears that you need to have a seperate library in their player in order to play the Flac? 

Davidr,

I'm a newb when it comes to hi-res, but I did some playing around with the demo version of Pure Music.  It works well with iTunes.  I purchased some test files from HDTracks.  Dragging them into Pure Music, while not elegant, surely did not strain my brain nor muscles. 

Let us know what you decide!  Many of us are the same boat. 

Thank you all. I am going on a business trips so will not be able to get to grips with this until the weekend. I will let you know my findings.

In a frustrated moment a few months ago I heard weird static with my MacBook and Pure Vinyl playing into my Nait, and I deleted it. Reloaded Pure Vinyl tonight, the manual is a little complicated, but it worked well and sounded really good. Not through my stereo, mind you, but in the bedroom through my iPod stereo. Gives you the iTunes library interface, without converting from FLAC, it automatically selected 88.2 khz on my mac hardware when needed for Let it Bleed, even regular tunes from iTunes sounded better with it. It's weird that I chose Pure Vinyl (over Pure Music - maybe I'm still thinking about vinyl again?). $229 isn't cheap, but this piece of software is really well written. As more and more older music is released in HD, I will be using it more often. So far the standouts in FLAC are Tom Petty, Let it Bleed, and Moving Pictures. Wonder what's next on the horizon? In the meantime, tomorrow more CDs arrive from Amazon, including Get Yer Ya Ya's Out and Rolled Gold. It's almost 4 am, time to listen to Tom Sawyer again. Good thing my wife wears earplugs.

Dave

Quote from ft-o8:

"My favorite media player since a coupel of weeks is "Fidelia" from audiofile-engineering.com.

It have a very nice front end , a rudimentäre library and a very good audio engine. The sound of fidelia is better then itunes or pure music.

I bought the app over the App Store for 15 €."

I have also purchased the Fidelia. A word of warning; if you purchase from the Apple App.Store you can only update from the Apple Store. I purchased directly from Audiofile-Engineering. The update procedure sounds less complicated and less restrictive. It's a good product with excellent support as is the  Forum. You can sync your i-tunes library to the player and create FLAC files as well as others in the complementary Fidelia library. I also purchased the remote app. This is available on the Apple App. Store. Google their web site for a more in depth view.

Quote :

" I paid $228 CAD for Pure, and you're telling me Fidelia at 15 pounds sounds better? Dave."

Better than that Dave. It's priced in US$ at 19.99$. I paid £12.85GBP. 

Regards,

Graham

Davidr,  try the FLUKE plugin for iTunes to play your FLAC files!

Here's the Link: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/28768/fluke/

sheffieldgraham, how's it sound? Do you think it's better than Pure Music?

Dave

I thought Fluke converted the FLAC files into standard bit rates......am I correct?

Dave,

           I can only say it's better than straight i-Tunes. I'm relatively new to downloading digital music, and I have no experience to compare it with anything else. The good news is you can download Fidelia on a 10 day free trial. Try it out. For 19.99$US  I think it's good value and the support from Audiophile is excellent.  There are some upgrades in the pipeline free of charge.

regards,

                Graham

Does anyone know where you can buy Hi Res music without a US credit card :-(

I believe someone asked the same question on a previous post.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/3819189071027097

The answer seems to be that setting up a PayPal account gets round the problem.

 Apparently it works for HD Tracks.

Graham

Following your posting on the subject Graham, I thought I'd give the trial version of "Fidelia" a go.

I've only used it for a couple of hours but I must say it's a very nice piece of software that sounds better than iTunes and to my ears just as good as Pure Music. You can also buy an iTouch/iPhone/iPad "App" from the iTunes store to control it wirelessly.

It played all the different formats, including an HD FLAC copy of "Goucho" seamlessly (which Audirvana can't cope with). Seems pretty excellent to me and at that price, a real bargain. Pure Music is now looking extremely expensive.

Glad to hear your opinion of the Fidelia product. Their response to my queiries and attitude to customer requirements is exceptional. Dare I say they are ahead of the field including Naim good as they are.