Software Advice For Major Set Up Changes

Submitted by Rodnys_Danger666 t3_110dk4u in headphones

My rig is under going a major overhaul. A lot is going out, a lot coming in. Since I'm getting a lot of new Hardware. I want to change my software. The music will under go a change too. As far as bit rate and formats. I've never changed out so much before. Usually a piece here, one there. The only thing I'm keeping is the amp. The rest goes.

My music is in a few formats. MP3, ALAC, FLAC, and different bitrates, etc. I'm going to re-rip everything from CD when the new gear comes in. All will be in FLAC 24/96 for consistency across the board. This is where the software recs come in. As all of the gear will be new, I want the software to be new also. Currently all plays from Apple Music on my Mac.

The source is going to be a MacBook Air M2. This is my starting point.

What would be a good audio software for a Mac?

  1. Audio Ripping Program
  2. Music Player/Manager
  3. Software for HP EQ profiles
  4. Anything else?

Current Gear:

  1. MBP 2015 w/SoundSource
  2. S.M.S.L M300MKII DAC
  3. Monolith THX-887 Amp (keeping)
  4. HiFiMan Ananda
  5. Audio-Technica R70x
  6. AKG K371

Gear To Be:

  1. MacBook Air M2
  2. Roofull External CD Drive
  3. RME ADI-2 DAC FS
  4. Schiit Lokius
  5. HiFiMan Arya
  6. Focal Radiance
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No-Context5479 t1_j88bq20 wrote

  1. Audio Ripping Software - dBpoweramp/Exact Audio Copy (EAC)/X Lossless Decoder (XLD)

  2. Music Player - Roon Player with HQ Player (Paid Subscription) or JRiver, IINA.

  3. EQ Software - If you get Roon, you can use that for the EQ or get this if you use a different player (Get eqMAC. The Full paid version)

  4. I don't know

u/Rodnys_Danger666

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dadu1234 t1_j88vt9y wrote

i've heard a lot of good things about the RME ADI-2

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nknotz t1_j8a25pg wrote

As a fellow mac user, I'll just say what I use. For ripping, since its native and easy, Apple Music. XLD is good for transcoding. Music files are on an external hard drive, and I use either Colibri (I prefer its equalizer) or Pine player (for flac files).

For HP EQ software profiles, choices are limited more or less to eqMac or soundsource (both $30-$40). I don't use either. I looked up orartory1990 and crinacle's presets and adjusted to taste but now I just do it by ear.

CDs are all ripped to 16/44. Upscaling to 24/96 just makes the files bigger but doesn't add any quality to the music. If you want, you can buy hi-res files. I rip most everything to ALAC or AIFF as they are native to mac.

That's all I can think of; let me know if you have any questions. Good luck with the new gear! I love my Arya, hope you love yours!

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Rodnys_Danger666 OP t1_j8ar8xm wrote

A lot of what I have is in alac. The cds wre ripped straight I think. I'm going to re-rip all from cd borrowed from my local library. I'll try some of my favs in 16/44 and 24/96. And if I can't hear a noticeable difference. I'll rip all in 16/44. Subtle differences won't count with me. As I'm not trying to hear studio mice farting. Just great playback thru my HP set up. And for when I stream it to my two channel set up.

Thanks for the advice.

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nknotz t1_j8azqsx wrote

In case you don't know, all CDs are WAV files and 16/44. You can't add any more information than is already there so ripping at 24/96 is the exact same as ripping at 16/44.

The only real choices to make are whether to compress (FLAC or ALAC) lossless files or not (WAV or AIFF) or create lossy (mp3 or m4a) files for the smaller size. Honestly, I prefer uncompressed AIFF. Some people say they can't hear a difference; I can. But that's the real choice. Rip some things at AIFF and ALAC and A/B test them to see for yourself.

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klogg4 t1_j88b8oe wrote

>All will be in FLAC 24/96 for consistency across the board.

Why the hell? Lossless rips must be bitperfect, so you could throw away your CDs and still have the perfect copies of them. Resampling on a player side is perfectly fine.

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Rodnys_Danger666 OP t1_j88doeq wrote

I have a few CDs. The majority, 90% of them I borrowed from my local library. They had all of Type O Negative and Marilyn Manson. So I thought since I'm getting all new gear. I'd just re-rip everything. as a lot of my music is from DLs from torrent.

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