[sphinx]

I'm just curious if there isn't any other software out there to play mp3's other then iTunes. That offers better quality playback..

[Stradlater]

There are plenty of MP3 players available; do a search on http://www.macupdate.com

I'm not sure what you mean by "better quality playback," though...

[df55555]

There are a few alternatives:-

Audion isn't bad
Some people use VLC + Mplayer, which are video players by design, to play flac files.

One thing that continually bothers me is the lack of support of alternative lossless formats. To play Flac or Monkeys Audio(ape) files - well you can't mainly, you have to convert them. There are some beginning open source projects to do some of this stuff - but none of them are quite there at the moment.

For an os that aspires to be the creative users best friend - audio support is well lacking.

With regard to your comment about better quality, thats a bit subjective. Though having a look around hydrogenaudio.org - will give you more information, than you probably cared for.

Daryl

[wataru]

I have a hard time believing that you will get "better quality playback" from anything. Sound quality is 99% a function of the file you play, not what software you play it with.

[justinp]

Originally posted by wataru:
I have a hard time believing that you will get "better quality playback" from anything. Sound quality is 99% a function of the file you play, not what software you play it with.

I can play a file (mp3) in QuickTime and it sounds different than it does in iTunes. Better, in fact, for that particular file (and the only one I've played with QT). Not that iTunes is lacking, I use it every day. But there is a difference (or at least there can be).

[Millennium]

Originally posted by sphinx:
I'm just curious if there isn't any other software out there to play mp3's other then iTunes. That offers better quality playback..

Out of curiosity, what do you find wrong with the quality of playback in iTunes?

This is an honest question. mp3 is a lossy file format, and so players can only do so well when it comes to quality. It is possible that your files are simply not encoded at a good bitrate, in which case no mp3 player will be able to help you.

[solbo]

The best mp3 player ever for OS X was MacAmp Lite X. It didn't have the best GUI ever but it was the least resource intensive mp3 software for Mac. iTunes is a hog.


It is discontinued now, but you can get it here.

http://www.bigblueamoeba.com/~pxr/pub/

[Krypton]

There was a promising cocoa iTunes alternative called 'Whamb'. Not sure whether it has survived.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by justinp:
I can play a file (mp3) in QuickTime and it sounds different than it does in iTunes. Better, in fact, for that particular file (and the only one I've played with QT).

Then turn off the Sound Enhancer in iTunes and it will sound 100% like in QuickTime Player.

[wataru]

Originally posted by justinp:
I can play a file (mp3) in QuickTime and it sounds different than it does in iTunes. Better, in fact, for that particular file (and the only one I've played with QT). Not that iTunes is lacking, I use it every day. But there is a difference (or at least there can be).

What ^he said. There's also an equalizer that you might have set to something weird.

Yet again it comes down to someone not taking the time to look through the prefs.

[djlotek]

The only thing I use iTunes for is managing my music for my iPod. I hate its huge interface, and the way it kills your resources. I have not been able to find a single alternative that will run under native OS X.

Since I am a big Unix user in the office, I installed XMMS via fink (xmms.org), and it runs quite nicely. Only downside is that you have to start X11 before using it, but thats only a click of a mouse button.

XMMS is an open source clone of the Winamp 2.x series. You can even use Winamp skins on it from Winamp.com. (2.x skins only)

Anyone who is unhappy with the mp3 player situation in OS X should give it a try.

Remember to install Apple X11 if you havent already, and Fink (fink.sourceforge.net).
Once Fink is installed, just run 'fink install xmms' via your terminal. Once its done compiling, youre good to go. Load up xmms by typing 'xmms&' into your X11 terminal.

[voodoo]

Fun fact: iTunes uses QuickTime to play mp3 and aac files!