Why are all music players (on Mac) so useless?
- KVRAF
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
I'm finding it impossible to find a decent music player on Mac, iTunes just gets worse and worse, it never supported FLAC, and has no ability to actually browse a music collection the way I have it organised (ie by folders and subfolders), and the add insult to injury the latest version always starts up loading the Apple music store when you click on 'Music" tab by default.
I tried VOX, it has some great features such as being able to route music to my hifi speakers (it's the only one I have found that does this properly) and FLAC support but again it doesn't allow you to actually browse a music collection, you just get a long list of tracks in any particular folder but no organisation by subfolders. Frustrating really because apart from that limitation this is the best.
Same problem with Fidelia.
Tried Cog, which does have a file browser but annoyingly you still have to add tracks to a playlist before you can play them, and it doesn't support sending music to my external hifi (via HDMI)
Are there any that actually let you just browse a music collection and play tracks directly from it, and also route music through a hifi via HDMI?
I tried VOX, it has some great features such as being able to route music to my hifi speakers (it's the only one I have found that does this properly) and FLAC support but again it doesn't allow you to actually browse a music collection, you just get a long list of tracks in any particular folder but no organisation by subfolders. Frustrating really because apart from that limitation this is the best.
Same problem with Fidelia.
Tried Cog, which does have a file browser but annoyingly you still have to add tracks to a playlist before you can play them, and it doesn't support sending music to my external hifi (via HDMI)
Are there any that actually let you just browse a music collection and play tracks directly from it, and also route music through a hifi via HDMI?
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Doesn't seem to have a way to add my whole music library and browse it. Also I can't see a switch to output to my hifi via HDMI like Vox has (which is essential)
-
- KVRAF
- 2989 posts since 5 Nov, 2014
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Thanks - I tried Clementine, it has a lot of features and I like the Spotify integration but the sound engine somehow seems to make the music sound bad. Plus it ignores the hdmi out, even if I have switched the whole system to outputting to my hifi it still insists on just using my main audio interface.
-
- KVRist
- 318 posts since 27 Apr, 2005 from right beside you
Can this thread be erased?
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
I didn't realise there was a Mac version but as I recall the Windows version didn't have a proper file browser and you had to add an extension to add one, which isn't for Mac
http://winampheritage.com/mlplugin/inde ... umlp-about
http://winampheritage.com/mlplugin/inde ... umlp-about
-
- KVRist
- 318 posts since 27 Apr, 2005 from right beside you
ok...just found another one which maybe suits your needs 
http://www.getmiro.com/index.php
how about this one?
http://www.getmiro.com/index.php
how about this one?
Can this thread be erased?
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
Thanks, hadn't come across that one but just tried it, still another that has no folder browser. Why do these developers think people can browse music just based on a long list of track names?
-
- KVRist
- 318 posts since 27 Apr, 2005 from right beside you
Haha, ok...maybe you have some advanced imaginations that cannot be fullfilled yet. On the other hand I didn't really understand what your problem with the media-management is in all these players.
Concerning the Management-issue this software might look promising?
http://swinsian.com/
unfortunately it is not free
Concerning the Management-issue this software might look promising?
http://swinsian.com/
unfortunately it is not free
Can this thread be erased?
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
Im tired of the fanboys and the clueless know it alls.
-
- KVRAF
- 2639 posts since 16 Jan, 2013
What I wouldn't give for a Mac port of Foobar 2000 (and it's plugins).
Clementine has the library folder (with watching) but it feels bloated for a music player. Enqueue might work for you but I haven't tried it as I don't really want to pay for a music player when I listen to most of my music on Windows.
Clementine has the library folder (with watching) but it feels bloated for a music player. Enqueue might work for you but I haven't tried it as I don't really want to pay for a music player when I listen to most of my music on Windows.
- KVRAF
- 2547 posts since 15 Jan, 2013 from L'Écosse
There are a lot of high quality combined DAC/music players that play FLAC like those from Cowon and iBasso. I use a Cowon myself, which has a great browser, and I hook it up via HDMI to my stereo system. And it frees up my Mac for other duties. Transferring from the Mac to Cowon is as simple as drag-and-drop, which is what you want.
-
- KVRian
- 906 posts since 24 Mar, 2010
I never had a need for any extra plugins. If you press J to bring up the Jump To List, you can type partial names like doo to bring up all doors songs, you can queue up for example 45 songs in that window, while still having winamp set to random songs, this way you hear what you wanted to hear, and when complete, back to random.aMUSEd wrote:I didn't realise there was a Mac version but as I recall the Windows version didn't have a proper file browser and you had to add an extension to add one, which isn't for Mac
http://winampheritage.com/mlplugin/inde ... umlp-about
Another nice thing is that the Jump to window search will also check tags, so you can search for an album name, that isnt in the file name.
DrO's Jump To File plugin (gen_jumpex.dll) comes with winamp default, i think since around version 5.03

KVR Audio Forum Signature is currently unavailable for your web browser.
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 37510 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
It's basically a case of not finding something like this particularly useful or organised:Maadfoo wrote:Haha, ok...maybe you have some advanced imaginations that cannot be fullfilled yet. On the other hand I didn't really understand what your problem with the media-management is in all these players.

compared to something like this:

Cog was at least along the right lines but no longer being developed. Something that combines the browsing and overall utility of Cog with the functionality of Vox would be perfect.
-
- KVRAF
- 2648 posts since 20 Jun, 2012
Still the best music player out there. And even though it is not actively developed anymore it is pretty complete anyway.
No signature here!