• Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Free
• Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Catalina
• Audio Editing Software For Mac
• Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Download

Most Mac owners use either iTunes or a streaming service to manage and listen to their music. Mac drag app to app folder. That’s great, but if you’re an audiophile who prefers high-resolution audio, iTunes simply won’t cut it.

Read: Best audio editing software for Mac. The free version can import and work with high resolution footage (up to 5K), but one of its limitations is that you will only be able to export up. There are three ways to get hi-res audio out of your Mac: 1) through an optical Toslink cable connected to the headphone output; 2) through a USB cable; and 3) through a standard stereo eighth.

If you own music in a high-fidelity format, you may need to look beyond iTunes. 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.

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 iTunes for Mac users Alternatives to iTunes: 5 Best Free Music Players for macOSUnless you have no choice but to use iTunes, you should consider switching to one of these iTunes alternatives for Mac. Read More .

Vox is free to use, but Vox Premium is an optional subscription that adds several features. You’ll pay either $49/year or $4.99/month for the subscription.

With the 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 (Free, with optional Vox Premium subscription)

2. Audirvana+

On its website, Audirvana+ is described simply as “the audiophile music player”. The use of this term likely either excites or bothers you. If you think hi-resolution audio is a scam High-Resolution Audio: The Future of Music or a Scam?High-Resolution Audio is new and impressive, but does it live up to the hype and excitement? Is it a gimmick? Or even a scam? Read More , Audirvana+ is probably not for you. Especially when you consider the price tag.

Though it’s not the most expensive player on this list, Audirvana+ 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, plus a three-month trial of Qobuz if you’re not located in the U.S.

Audirvana+ 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. Audirvana+ also features extensive features to catalog your library, including extended tags for classical and jazz. Full text search makes it easy to find your music.

Download: Audirvana+ ($74, with a 15-day free trial)

3. Colibri

The cheapest player on this list that isn’t free, 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.

Colibri 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 as well.

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 ($4.99)

4. Amarra Luxe

At $99, Amarra Luxe is the priciest app on this list. It’s also one of a few Amarra-branded products from developer Sonic Studio. This isn’t cheap, but the app does have some unique features.

Amarra Luxe 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.

One of the bigger features of Amarra Luxe is iTunes integration. If you love the iTunes interface but want the format support and sound quality of Amarra Luxe, this is an attractive feature.

Download: Amara Luxe ($99)

5. Pine Player

As the only fully free player on this list, Pine Player is anything but barebones. While the player may not be as flashy as some of the other apps, it should still does justice to your hi-res audio files. If you’ve just blown a bunch of money on digital albums, that’s a nice thing to know.

Pine Player 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, it 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 crossfading and gapless playback, as well as an automatic isolation function for damaged files.

Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Free

Download: Pine Player (Free)

What If You Don’t Have a Hi-Res Music Collection?

These hi-res music player apps 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 hi-res audio in the MQA format. Deezer is another option, but it only offers CD-quality sound, not hi-res.

Streaming can still be less than ideal. So, if you’re looking to start a collection, take a look at our list of music sites all audiophiles need in their lives.

And as an audiophile you might also want to consider getting one of these dedicated digital audio players The 10 Best Digital Audio Players for Music Without Your PhoneYour phone can play music, but if you want a dedicated music player, you'll want to check out these best standalone digital audio players. Read More or take a look at our list of the best DACs for hi-res audio The Best DACs for Hi-Res AudioWant to play hi-res audio on your computer? You'll need a DAC. Here are the best DACs you can get right now. Read More .

Only a handful of streaming music services offer Hi-Res Audio, or HRA. Here's where to find the high quality music streams that can give you a superior listening experience..if you have the right equipment.

We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use.

Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify are just a few of the many, many online streaming music services that let you listen to your favorite songs and compositions while in the office, making the morning or evening commute, or just sitting in the laundromat watching clothes dry. They're a musical convenience.

That said, that musical convenience comes at a price beyond the monthly subscription fees. The streaming music services typically compress the audio into smaller, more manageable files that are easily streamed. For most people, MP3- or CD-quality audio gets the job done, but folks with a thirst for supreme audio—audiophiles—may want to investigate online music services that deliver Hi-Res Audio.

Hi-Res Audio, as defined by The Recording Industry Association of America (and its Consumer Electronics Association, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, and The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing partners), is 'lossless audio capable of reproducing the full spectrum of sound from recordings which have been mastered from better than CD quality (48kHz/20-bit or higher) music sources which represent what the artists, producers and engineers originally intended.'

In other words, Hi-Res Audio aims to deliver sound that comes close to what you'd hear in a recording studio. That's a big promise. In fact, Xiph.org, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the internet from private interests, claims that the entire affair is hogwash and shenanigans. Tim Gideon, a PCMag Contributing Editor and audio expert, is also somewhat skeptical, but from a logistics point of view. We'll explain.

As Gideon said to me in an email, 'the issue is: What else is part of the signal chain? Hi-Res Audio through laptop speakers or crappy earbuds will not sound like Hi-Res Audio, and even really decent speakers may not be able to convey the subtleties.'

Still, Gideon suspects that if everyone had an amazing sound system and listened exclusively to Hi-Res Audio for year, that they'd hear a difference when listening to CD-quality tunes through the same system. 'The ears get used to things,' he said. 'Even if I am skeptical now, there’s no doubt that down the road, streaming quality will be what we currently consider Hi-Res Audio. But by then, we’ll have maybe have raised the bar again and Hi-Res Audio will have a new meaning or be outdated.'

Regardless of where you stand on the Hi-Res Audio issues, what's indisputable is that there is a small, but growing number, of online sources to stream this music standard. We highlight four of them below. So, grab a quality set of headphones or fire up a home sound system and explore what Hi-Res Audio offers.

Amazon Music Unlimited

Amazon's been a player in the streaming music game for some now with Music Unlimited, but the service's September 2019 update brought Hi-Res Audio as a listening option. Branded as the $14.99-per-month Ultra HD, Amazon's Hi-Res Audio boasts millions of songs that stream at a 24-bit/192kHz, better-than-CD-Quality standard. When that isn't available, the still music defaults to 16-bit/44.1kHz streams that are better than the regular Amazon Music Unlimited tunes. Considering the company's brand recognition and large music library, Amazon just may be the company to bring Hi-Res Audio to the masses.

Primephonic

Primephonic is a streaming music service designed for the classical music lover. You can search for compositions via work, composer, or album—a much-needed solution that solves a problem inherent to most streaming music services that feature classical music. More importantly, at least in regards to this article, Primephonic offers a Platinum tier ($14.99 per month or $149 per year) that lets you stream more than a million classic works in lossless, 24-bit FLAC adaptive bit rate.

Qobuz

Qobuz fancies itself as the home for true music fans. Studio Premier ($14.99 per month or $149 per year) serves up 24-bit FLAC music at up to 192kHz. At the time of this writing, Qobuz has roughly 240,000 Hi-Res Audio albums. In a nice touch, you can also purchase Hi-Res Audio albums at reduced prices if you subscribe to the $299 per year Sublime+ plan.

Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Catalina

Tidal

Audio Editing Software For Mac

Tidal is an excellent music service, one that offers exclusive backstage content, live streams, and concerts. One of the service's more heavily hyped features is Tidal Masters, a partnership with Master Quality Authenticated that brings more than 170,000 studio-quality streams (typically 24-bit, 96kHz) to your ear. All that you need to listen is a $19.99-per-month Tidal HiFi account or $29.99-per-month Family HiFi plan.

Best Hi Res Audio Software For Mac Download