Read definitive guide by audio software developer Yuri Korzunov about:
• free and commercial hi res audio player software apps on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS and other [computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets],
• online for audiophiles,
• Frequently Answered Questions,
• what is the best music player app,
• supported formats (WAV, FLAC, DSD [DSF, DFF, SACD ISO], MQA, m4a, ....) and others.
HD audio file conversion
Hi res music player software for audiophiles (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, online) for WAV, FLAC, DSD (DSF, DFF, SACD ISO, DoP), MQA, m4a, ....
WARNING: This table can contain errors. It is not an offer or advertising. We are not affiliated with listed products. We guarantee nothing. If you found wrong information, contact us, please. To get exact information, contact with the software developers and/or vendors.
Supported sample rate and bit depth may depend on a file format.
Au |
Ope |
Li |
Sup |
Samp |
DAC in |
Desc |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AIMP |
Win |
Free |
CDA, AAC, ac3, APE, DTS, FLAC, m4a, ogg, mp3, WAV, WMA, Wav |
Di |
||
Album Player |
Win |
Free | WAV, FLAC, APE, WavPack, ALAC, AIFF, TAK, MP3, MP4, OGG, CD, DSD, DVD-A, other |
ASIO, Ker |
||
Amarok |
Li |
Free | ||||
Amar |
Win |
Comm |
DSF, mp3, AAC, MQA, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, stre |
DSD to PCM | ||
Au |
Win |
DSF, DFF, WAV, FLAC, BWF, WMA, ALAC, mp3, other | up to DSD128 |
DAC limi |
||
Audi |
Mac, Win |
Comm |
DSF, DFF (inclu |
DoP, DSD to PCM |
Win |
|
Auda |
Li |
Free | ||||
Chan |
Mac |
Comm |
up to 384 kHz / 24 bit, up to DSD128 |
DSD to PCM, DoP, stre |
Gap |
|
Daphile |
Run as firm |
Free | DSF, PCM | up to 384 kHz / 24 bit, up to DSD512 |
Mu |
|
Foo |
Win |
Free |
DSF, DFF (inclu |
up to DSD512 | ASIO, DSD to PCM |
Mac ver |
Fostex Audio Player |
Win |
Free | DSF, DFF, WAV, FLAC, mp3, AIFF, ALAC | up to DSD128, up to 192 kHz / 24 bit | ASIO, DoP |
De |
Gom Audio |
Win |
Free | cda, MPL, mp3, ogg, WMA, APE, FLAC, WAV, m4a, WavPack, AIFF, DSF, DFF | |||
iTunes |
Mac, Win |
Free | WAV, ALAC, AAC, mp3, AIFF, CD-audio | |||
JRiver |
Win |
Comm |
DSF, DFF (inclu |
ASIO, DoP, DSD over DLNA, DSD to PCM, PCM to DSD |
Gap |
|
Hi-Res Audio Player |
Win |
DSD, PCM |
Re |
|||
HQ Player |
Win |
Comm |
DSF, DFF (non-comp |
up to DSD |
DSD to PCM, PCM to DSD, ASIO, DoP | |
Hysolid |
Win |
Free | DSF, WAV, FLAC | up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz | ASIO, DoP WASAPI |
To work on mu |
Lo |
Win |
PCM, DoP PCM files | Bit-perfect PCM output of DoP |
Need addi |
||
Media Player Classic |
Win |
Free | PCM, DSF, DFF | |||
Mu |
Win |
Free | ASIO, WASAPI | |||
moO |
To run on Rasp |
Free |
Here infor |
|||
Pine Player | Mac | Free | mp3, FLAC, APE, AAC, m4a, WAV, AIFF, ogg, WMA, DSD, SACD ISO, other | up to 768 kHz / 32 bit | ||
Pure Asio Player |
Win |
Do |
WAV, FLAC, DSF |
no special li |
ASIO |
Op |
Re |
Win |
Free, Comm |
WAV, AIFF, FLAC, WMA, mp3, ALAC, WavPack, MID, DSF, DFF, other | up to DSD512 | ||
Roon |
Win the ser |
Comm |
Audio files, MQA, stre |
Bit-perfect, DSD to PCM |
The ser |
|
TEAC HR Au |
Win |
Free | DSF, DFF, PCM | up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz / 32 bit | ASIO, DoP | |
Tech |
Win |
DSF, DFF, WAV, FLAC, mp3, ALAC, AIFF |
up to DSD128, |
USB driver |
Read the soft |
|
Vo |
Run as firm |
Free | MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, ALAC, DSD | UPNP \ DLNA, Airplay, DoP |
Open so |
|
VLC |
Win |
Free |
mp3, AAC, MLP / TrueHD, DTS, WMA, FLAC (inclu |
|||
Vox |
Mac, Win |
Free |
DSF, WAV, AIFF, FLAC (inclu |
|||
XMMS | Unix | Free | ||||
Wtfplay | Linux | Free | WAV, FLAC, DSF |
up to DSD128; DSD256, DSD512 are experi |
DoP | |
AIMP |
An |
Free | APE, mp3, WAV, ogg, AAC, FLAC, mp4, m4a, WavPack, DSF, DFF, other | |||
Amarra Play | iOS (iPhone, iPad) |
Free, In-App Pur |
AIFF, AIFC, MP3, ALAC, FLAC, MQA | MQA Decode up to 96 kHz with Amarra Luxe license |
No DSD. Amar |
|
FiiO Mu |
An |
Free | DSD, PCM | up to 384 kHz / 24 bit | Raw DSD output |
Sup |
Foo |
An |
Free |
MP3, MP4, AAC, Vor |
Gap |
||
Hi |
An |
Free |
DSF, DFF (inclu |
DXD/DoP | ||
Hi-Res mu |
iOS (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch) |
Comm |
ALAC, FLAC, WAV, mp3, AAC, HE- |
up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz / 32 bit | DSD to PCM, DoP |
Check DSD rep |
HY |
An |
Free | WAC, FLAC, DSD | up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz | ASIO, WASAPI, DoP, native DSD |
Mu |
Ne |
An |
Comm |
mp3, ogg, FLAC, AC3, AAC, M4A, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, ALAC, APE, Wav |
UPnP / DLNA, USB DAC, DoP, native DSD, DSD to PCM |
The |
|
Onkyo HF Player |
An |
Free, In-App Pur |
DSF, DFF, mp3, ALAC, AAC, WAV, AIFF | up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz | AOA 2.0, DoP, DSD to PCM |
Some limi |
TEAC HR Au |
An |
Free, In-App Pur |
FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, ogg, DSF, DFF | up to DSD256, up to 384 kHz | DoP, DSD to PCM | |
USB Au |
An |
Comm |
WAV, FLAC, ogg, mp3, AIFF, AAC, m4a, APE, DFF, DSF, other | up to 384 kHz / 32 bit |
DoP, DSD to PCM, native DSD play |
|
VLC |
An |
|
ogg, FLAC, WavPack, AAC, other | |||
Vox |
Free, In-App Pur |
FLAC, ALAC, mp3, DSD, other | ||||
Online audio play |
||||||
High Res Audio |
Free tri |
up to 24 bit | ||||
Pri |
Free tri |
up to 24 bit | ||||
Pri |
Free tri |
PCM, DSD up to 11.2 MHz | ||||
Qobuz |
Free tri |
up to 192 kHz / 24 bit |
strea |
|||
Tidal |
PC/Mac, web-player, iOS, An |
Free tri |
FLAC 44.1 kHz / 16 bit, MQA |
sup |
||
A |
Free trial |
Al |
||||
App |
Free trial |
Mu |
||||
Dat |
Au |
|||||
Goo |
Free tri |
Mu |
||||
Jamendo Music | Free trial |
Audio plat |
||||
Noi |
Au |
|||||
Re |
Au |
|||||
So |
Au |
|||||
Spotify |
Mu |
|||||
Яндекс Музыка |
Free, Com |
Mu |
Which high-resolution audio player has the best sound quality is your personal choice rather. Some audio players may playback qualitative audio files without altering (bit-perfect). In general, there is no matter, that player is use for it, but some nuances are there. Below how to make the choice is discussed.
An audio player may works in 2 base modes (depend on the software abilities):
In bit-perfect mode, the sound quality is defined by DAC and next audio devices.
This mode consumes minimal computing resources and is desirable for non-powerful computers.
We can imagine a digital-to-audio converter (DAC) as a grinder and a music file as coffee beans.
It doesn't matter what spoon form (bit-perfect transfer) we pour the beans to the grinder's container. Taste (sound quality) of ground coffee will be same.
Processing mode sound quality depends on the player and/or processing plug-in.
This mode may consume many computing resources (more quality = more resources), and, sometimes, can't work at lower-performance computers. Also, this mode consumes more electrical energy for calculations and cooling, than a bit-perfect one.
When fans work in intensive mode, they cause more noise.
We can consider a sound file as a green coffee beans.
An audio processing in a music player is like to the bean roasting.
The grains are roasted (the file is processed) before pouring the beans into the grinder's container (DAC noted above).
The roasting (the file processing) defines the coffee taste (sound quality).
Some albums (operas, live concerts, etc.) should be played back as a continuous stream.
We can imagine live concert's recording as a pie. We can slice it to pieces (tracks/audio files).
At first glance, sliced pie is very similar to complete one.
However, the cuts cause some heterogeneity of the pie body.
Fortunatelly, audio files, that correctly cut and processed, may be united back in the complete "pie".
Some players can begin the next song without DAC re-initialization.
This ability is called as Gapless playback.
It may be applied for as bit-perfect as processed modes (see "Playback modes").
Also played back audio files may be pre-converted in gapless mode too.
This mode has a sense when audio files are resampled or DSD files are processed.
Gapless conversion has a sense, when the audio player works in gapless mode.
Some players support so called memory playback. Audio files (or album) is loaded from hard disk to RAM and delivered to DAC faster than from the disk. At old computers it can some improve smothness of transient to next track. We should bear in mind here that the feature may not be required at moderm disks, solid state especially.
ASIO is a kind of audio drivers by audio interface vendors, that provide low latency and use of specific properties of the audio interface. ASIO SDK (programming tools) is provided by Steingberg.
As rule, ASIO driver is provided together with a sound device. Specific functionality management is supported via a special software control panel.
There is universal ASIO-driver ASIO4All. But, as rule, DAC-vendor driver is more recommended.
Latest MacOS versions use their builtin drivers (Core Audio) instead ASIO. So, you no need special drivers to works with a DAC. However, audio device vendors may provide Mac's ASIO drivers for some devices.
Read more:
WASAPI is builtin Windows drivers to direct access to audio interface without operating system processings. May be used instead of ASIO.
WASAPI may use exclusive access to an audio interface to render sound stream directly to the DAC's audio buffer without mixing of audio streams from several applications. So, no operating system's audio processing is there.
Native DSD is sending DSD audio stream from audio file to DSD DAC without conversion to PCM.
ASIO drivers under Windows may support it. Under the latest MacOS version, DSD audio stream should be packed in DoP format. The packing is lossless. Also, DoP format may be used on Windows.
Read more:
DSD audio stream may not be played on PCM DAC. Before sending the stream to the DAC, this stream should be converted to PCM.
It consumes processing resources. In the general case, better sound quality depends on amount of computing resources.
Some computers may have a lack of computing power to realtime DSD to PCM conversion. It may be solved via offline DSD to PCM conversion. Also, it saves free space at hard disk (HDD) of an audio player (allow more songs on the disk). It may be very useful for portable/mobile devices.
Read more:
One of the widespread demands to players are:
To play high resolution audio on computer you can use player software...
Yes. Windows supports high resolution audio.
There are 3 options of audio driver software (program player connection to DAC):
DSD is played back natively via AISO drivers, that are provided with a DSD DAC.
Read details...
Yes. Windows Media player is capable to play high resolution audio files. If your file iss not played back, you can try other players...
What is the best player is matter of personal choice. In the bit-perfect mode all players should playback with same sound quality.
If an audio processing is applied, player sound may be different. The author recommend compare different players to verify personally...
It depends on the mode of playback. In bit-perfect mode, a music player app just transports audio data from a sound file to DAC without audio processing.
When audio player software process audio data (resample, alter bit depth, apply dithering, EQ, etc.), it causes different distortion levels. If consider psychoacoustics, distortions may have a different character, which also impacts the final perception of the distortions. Also, the interaction of the distortions with a playback system (DAC, amplifier, speakers) is matter.
EXAMPLE
Some apparatus can cause the audible level of intermodulation distortions, that generated by ultrasound components.
Practically it can cause audible noise.
You can:
General recommendation:
Hi res audio allowing solve some issues of analog filters of ADC or DAC. But actual result is matter of implementation of an audio equipment and software. Read definitive guide...
Read more:
As rule, it's personal choise. You can read opinions by other peoples. But, if you want the best music player just for you:
PC is capable to play hi-res audio with sound card that provides sampling rates and bit depths above 48 kHz and 16 bit, respectively.
See to PC audio player software list...
An audiophile music player should provides hifi sound quality (low distortions). In instance, in bit-perfect mode, an audio player don't process sound-file content and delivery it directly into a DAC.
Read also: How to improve sound quality...
Gapless playback is need to playback albums like operas, live concerts, etc.
Memory playback necessity is disputable due to given computer performance.
Read more...
Player causes no distortions in the bit-perfect mode. If the player applies gain control, some distortions may be there.
FLAC decoding, as rule, implemented via standard library. Thus, for FLAC no difference from player to player.
If resampling or other processsing is appllied, player difference is the same other lossless format.
If you are need the best result, download a player or its demo version and check sound.
See list of sites with high-resolution audio...
Look at free high-res audio downloads:
Hi-res audio is supported by:
You can play lossless music on your computer with audio player
Memory playback doesn't improve "transparency". But the mode can get rid of pauses if file played from slow/overload network or album player in gapless mode.
If an audio player re-initialize DAC, it can cause quiet clicks.
When files played back without re-initializing, there is no kind of clicks.
You can play MQA files on an audio player that is MQA compatible.
You can listen to MQA on Tidal. How to do it...
You can listen to MQA by Tidal on MQA DAC. "Passthrough MQA" turn off software MQA decoding to do it into the DAC.
Digital audio interfaces don't impact sound quality, which may be defined as "sound transparency".
Also, digital interfaces have sample rate and bit depth limitations.
Operating system built-in driver can additionally process sound and impact to sound quality.
But pauses, clicks, serial interruptions are possible when an audio interface doesn't work properly (poor cables, grounding, shielding; hardware issues, etc.).
General recommendations:
Read more:
Analog inter-module cables (linear inputs and outputs) can impact the noise floor, crosstalk and frequency response.
General recommendation:
DAC clock source can impact to analog output jitter of a digital-to-analog converter . But all other factors, including memory playback, cables and interfaces - no. Read details...
General recommendations:
To achieve maximal sound quality, lossless audio file formats are recommended: FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSF, DFF, SACD ISO. Read details...
It is resolution audio with sample rate 192 kHz and bit depth 24 bit in PCM format (modulation). Read details...
In audio resolution 384 kHz/32 bit and lesser, there is no difference between FLAC and WAV by the sound quality. Watch video...
If you need a higher resolution, WAV can provide it. When file size is more 4 GB, WAV RF64 format may be applied.
Read details about:
Both DSD and FLAC are high-resolution formats, that try solve issues of 44.1 kHz / 16 bit. But, actual result depend on implemengtation of your audio system. Read details...
MQA is high qualitative lossy format, as the author know. FLAC is lossless format, providing output sound quality absolutely identical source. MQA provides better file-size comression ratio. Read details...
Yes, VLC can play hi-res audio. However, as the author know, VLC don't support DSD formats.
CD quality means 16 bit / 44.1 kHz. Read about high resolution audio...
Lossless formats (WAV, FLAC, DSF, AIFF. ALAC, etc.) keep full sound qulity of their sources.
Higher sampling rates and bit depths cause lesser distortions than lesser ones, theoretically.
Practically, there is not the direct dependency. Your musical equipment can make difference.
Read more what the best audio formats...
FLAC is lossless format. mp3 is lossy one. FLAC is better mp3 technically. On high mp3-bitrates at 16 bit / 44.1 kHz, difference may be subtle.
Read more...
FLAC is audiophile lossless format. However, it has alternatives in excess of it.
Read details...
You can listen to hi-res lossless music via digital audio player device. For computer and mobile phone, you can use player software...
VLC is capable to play hi-res audio.
Windows Media Player can play MQA files in compability mode without full decoding.
Windows can play FLAC files via player software...
Windows 10 is capable to play DSD with audio player software...
At moment of the answer writting, Vox provides experimental version for Windows...
At moment of the answer writting, Hysolid is free audio player.
It's personal taste matter. Groove Music may cover your requirements. But, the author would recommend comparing it with alternative software...
May 25, 2022 updated | since December 7, 2018
Copyright © Yuri Korzunov
["Audiophile Inventory" (since 2011), "AudiVentory", "Audiophile Inventory by AudiVentory.com".
Также "Audiophile Inventory by AudiVentory.com" (прежде "Audiophile Inventory") охраняемое коммерческое обозначение],
2010-2022. All Rights Reserved.
All prices at this site in the U.S. dollars without V.A.T. and other applicable taxes and fees. The prices are recommended. All information at this site is not a public offer.
Read about supported formats and third-party codecs