Most Mac owners use either the Apple Music app or streaming services to manage and listen to their music. That’s great, but if you’re an audiophile who prefers high-resolution audio, Apple Music simply won’t cut it.
If you own music in a high-fidelity format (such as ALAC, AIFF, FLAC, WAV, or DSD) you may need to look beyond Apple Music. Fortunately, there are plenty of other options available to you, so here are the best hi-res music player apps for Mac.
1. Vox
If you’ve looked around at solutions for playing FLAC files on a Mac, the chances are you’ve run into Vox. In addition to FLAC, Vox features support for other hi-res formats like ALAC (Apple Lossless), DSD (Direct Stream Digital), and uncompressed formats like PCM, WAV, and AIFF. If you have no idea about these formats, read our guide on choosing the best audio formats for your use case.
Vox can play hi-res audio in up to 24bit/192kHz. On the off chance that you have music in surround format, you also get 5.1-channel support. This isn’t especially common, but it’s a nice feature to have. All in all, Vox is one of the best alternatives to Apple Music for Mac users.
With a subscription, you’ll also get advanced audio settings, like a built-in 10-band equalizer to tailor the sound to your tastes. The subscription also adds gapless playback and the ability to automatically set the sample rate of your output device to that of the file playing.
Vox Premium also includes unlimited storage with Vox Music Cloud, which is handy if you’re running out of hard drive space. This feature is also useful as it ties into the Vox iOS app. With your files in the cloud, you can listen on your Mac or iPhone whenever you want without worrying about running out of space.
Download: Vox Player (Free, subscription available)
2. Audirvāna Studio
Many people describe Audirvāna Studio as “the audiophile music player.” The use of this term likely either excites or bothers you. Though it’s not the most expensive player on this list, Audirvāna Studio is still far from cheap. You get a fair amount of features for your money. Some of them aren’t even found elsewhere on this list.
You also get a three-month trial of Tidal’s streaming service plus a three-month trial of Qobuz if you sign up for the Studio Āccess subscription.
Audirvāna Studio features support for the major hi-res formats, including MQA (Master Quality Authenticated). This app was the first to integrate the MQA Core Decoder, which brings out the full quality of the music, even if you’re not playing through an MQA-capable audio device. The app also supports formats like FLAC, ALAC, DSD, and even SACD ISO.
Audirvāna Studio also features extensive features to catalog your library, including extended tags for classical and jazz. It can bypass the internal audio mixer to block unwanted sound from other apps or macOS. The app decodes and processes the entire audio prior to playback, minimizing jitter, and providing better audio quality through Bluetooth, all with reduced memory usage.
Download: Audirvāna Studio (Subscription required, free trial available)
3. Colibri
Colibri offers plenty of features for its low price tag. The website even points out that this is a one-time purchase and guarantees free upgrades. That isn’t even mentioned on the websites of the more expensive players. This app offers bit-perfect, gapless playback of lossless audio formats, and it supports lossy formats as well.
Supported lossless formats include FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, APE, TTA, DSD, and WavPack. When it comes to lossy formats, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and AAC/M4A are supported. The app includes support for CUE sheets and Chiptunes. It’s possibly the only player that reduces the “stereo fatigue” that one can experience while listening to music with headphones.
If you prefer your Mac apps to look like Mac apps, you’ll love Colibri. The website states that one of the project’s goals is to be “as native to macOS as humanly possible.” It also aims for a tiny memory footprint and minimal battery impact. That’s great if you want to listen while you work from a coffee shop without having to plug in.
Download: Colibri ($9.99)
4. Amarra Luxe
Amarra Luxe is one of a few Amarra-branded products from developer Sonic Studio. The app supports a host of file types, including DSD, MQA, and FLAC. The app features built-in real-time DSD to PCM conversion, meaning you can listen without the need for a fancy digital-to-analog converter. You also get integration with Tidal and Qobuz, letting you listen to streams from multiple services in one place.
The app has a deep integration with Apple Music. All you have to do is export the Library.XML (found by going to File > Library > Export Library), click Scan iTunes, and import the file. If you love the Apple Music interface, but want the format support and sound quality of Amarra Luxe, this is an attractive feature.
Download: Amarra Luxe ($99, free trial available)
5. Pine Player
As the only fully free player on this list, Pine Player is anything but bare bones. While the player may not be as flashy as some of the other apps, it should still do justice to your hi-res audio files. The app supports a ton of formats, including MP3, FLAC, APE, AAC, M4A, WAV, AIFF, OGG, WMA, DSD, and SACD ISO. It also supports listening to BIN/CUE files.
Even better, Pine Player supports hi-res audio all the way up to 32bit/768kHz. If you’re a fan of keyboard controls, you’ll find a lot to like in Pine Player. You can control nearly every aspect of the app with a handful of keyboard shortcuts. This includes playback, volume, and playlist editing.
Other features include a 12-band graphic equalizer with over 27 presets, a metadata editor, the option to transcode music, crossfading and gapless playback, as well as an automatic isolation function for damaged files.
Download: Pine Player (Free)
Use a Dedicated Digital Audio Player
These hi-res audio player apps for Mac are great, but what if you don’t have a hi-res music collection? To start, you could use a streaming service like Tidal, which offers high-resolution audio in the MQA format. Deezer is another option, but it only offers CD-quality sound and may not be available in some countries.
If you’re an audiophile, we recommend you getting one of these dedicated digital audio players as they provide superior audio quality, support for lossless music, and expandable storage.