Alternatives to iTunes on a Mac

MtnHam

MtnHam

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iTunes has, IMHO, evolved over the years into a very unsatisfactory music player. It seems to have actually devolved into something which better serves Apple (the iTunes Store) than the user. There seem to be several alternatives. What is your favorite? A new one seems to be VOX. What is your experience and opinion?
 
Hello, this is my first post. I've enjoyed looking around but thought I'd chime in here. My current player is Amarra. I've used iTunes, Decibel, Audirvana ( First version ) and the original Vox. My system is a Mac Mini ( 2009, Yosemite) with a SSD, Ayre DSD dac, Jeff Rowland Capri S2 pre, Jeff Rowland 525 amp and Sonus Faber Venere 3 speakers. I find that Amarra produces a more lifelike sound with greater space sense and emotional contact as compared to the others. They offer a trial so if you don't like it nothing is lost.
 
MtnHam said:
iTunes has, IMHO, evolved over the years into a very unsatisfactory music player. It seems to have actually devolved into something which better serves Apple (the iTunes Store) than the user. There seem to be several alternatives. What is your favorite? A new one seems to be VOX. What is your experience and opinion?
Click to expand...

Hi, could your be more specific, please?
I think I know where you are coming from. Still iTunes. iIt s so well integrated with iPhones, Apple TV and Apple Watch its hard to break away. Genius and smart playlists are excellent.. (I use Bitperfect and will most likely get DSD Master -made by Bitperfect- to get all my 24bit and higher tracks transcoded to DSD for playback using iTunes)
 
Tom,

I've used Audirvana Plus for the last two years and it has worked beautifully. It sounds terrific and almost no glitches over that entire time. You have the choice to bypass ITunes completely or use ITunes in an integrated mode, which allows you use ITunes for cataloging but not playing the music.

Ken
 
Alpinist said:
Tom,

I've used Audirvana Plus for the last two years and it has worked beautifully. It sounds terrific and almost no glitches over that entire time. You have the choice to bypass ITunes completely or use ITunes in an integrated mode, which allows you use ITunes for cataloging but not playing the music.

Ken
Click to expand...

Audirvana is still my favourite.

But it would be interesting to know the reasons the OP is looking for an alternative. If it's SQ, there are plenty of options, that you can keep iTunes as a library tool, and another app for proper playback (with better SQ).
The problem arises if you're looking to use something else to catalog your files/music. iTunes is, IMHO, still the best game in town for Macs. JRiver is too crude and ugly, and Audirvana's built-in library function is way too basic.


alexandre
 
Many thanks for all the replies. My frustration is with what I see as the diminished functionality of iTunes, at least compared to what I remember from 10 years or so ago when I first started using it. Searching doesn't seem to work as well. Cover art display is different. iTunes (the store) seems to be the focus; if the art isn't there, you have too many steps to find it elsewhere and import. TV and Movies- no thanks. Maybe it's just me and my limited computer skills, but I find it less than satisfactory.
 
Hi Tom,

This is clearly a case of YMMV :) I find iTunes' artwork search function much improved compared to the past, mostly because the iTunes Store itself has a much broader catalogue, and iTunes pulls artwork from there.

My problem with iTunes right now is that it's veeeeery slooooow, with a large collection (100k+ tracks), specially when the actual files aren't local... But I learned to live with that, and quit/open iTunes every once in a while to "keep it fresh"!
 
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