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I am a long time user of Pure Music and was satisfied with how it interfaced with iTunes and the overall sound quality. However, the old iMac (2009) was starting to run very hot so I got a new 24" iMac running Sonoma. I have found Pure Music has not committed to a release date for a version that will run 64 bit, so I'm at square one looking at options to play my Music / iTunes library. I have about 10,000 songs with several hundred being hi res that will not play without a front end to iTunes. Looking for recommendations for a product that will interface easily with iTunes and play my hi res files. Streaming, etc. are secondary considerations well as "absolute sound" as I have all the CD's, LP's, and SACD's that make up the vast majority of the iTunes library.
Follow Ups:
I ran Pure Music for quite a while in iTunes compatibility mode (or whatever they called it). They also had a feature called direct mode(?) or something like that which supposedly bypassed core audio for supposedly better sonics. Then Apple changed things and PM blamed Apple rather than rolling with the changes. That's what you get for writing code outside of standard API's and not keeping up with the times.It's unfortunate that PM didn't keep up and thought it best to blame Apple instead. I ended up switching to Audirvana which is also an outstanding player that continues to innovate to this day.
I eventually went with Roon and I'm very pleased with it.
P.S. As Apple / Mac users it's nice that we have so many excellent choices now. In the early days music players were slim pickings unless you were a PC/Windows type.
Edits: 03/01/24
All the FiiO players have an app called Pure Music. Is this what you're talking about. If so, that's what I've been using to play music on all my FiiO players. It sounds great to me!
As I understand it, Pure Music/Pure Vinyl is dependent on iTunes/Apple Music. It's been around since the mid '90s. Maybe they have a licence agreement with FiiO, but I don't think so.
Link below.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
I'm giving Audirvana a trial run right now. Sonics are improved over bare iTunes and my old ears say it is on par with PureMusic, unfortunately the 2009 iMac is on its way to Apple's recycler. Aside from a few albums not showing up it seems pretty glitch free. Right now Roon seems to be a bit on the pricey side as I'm still one of those dinosaurs who for serious listening will spin up some vinyl or pop in an SACD.
Sounds like you are trying out alternatives and working toward an informed decision that meets your needs. That's the right way to do it. Audirvana is a solid choice, and it may work out to be the best for you.
In a world where SACDs and LPs sell for $30 - $50 ea or more, I can't agree that Roon is "on the pricey side" at $12/month given all that it offers. I spend a lot more than that on coffee.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
I still amazes me that audiophiles will easily drop thousands of dollars on hardware without flinching but PAYING for good software? No way! Free and open source or cheap little apps is the only way to go. I'm not saying that about the OP but in general.
Edits: 03/01/24 03/01/24
Since both "players" reference, but do not touch my original music files in iTunes/Music, I guess I could run trials on both and see which one tickles my fancy. Down the rabbit hole I go.
I'm a satisfied Audirvana user. What I like is that there is only the app that runs on you Mac and it otherwise makes use of the open protocols like DLNA/UPnP and AppleTalk to stream to your other devices. No special "certified" hardware to deal with. No configurations to work with them. It combines your local files and Qobuz and/or Tidal into a decent interface.
Just for another set of data points.......While Roon uses their own Roon Advanced Audio Transport (RAAT) protocol Roon also supports, Apple AirPlay, Chromecast, Devialet AIR protocol, Sonos, LMS (Squeezebox). Roon supports DLNA/UPnP through 3rd party extensions. But why run the other protocols if several dozen manufactures support native Roon RAAT?
While there are several dozen manufacturers that sell Roon "certified" hardware (what Roon calls "Roon Ready"), there are as many or more that are simply Roon Tested that also work fine. In fact, my Roon streamer is a $50 Raspberry Pi board running the free Roon Bridge software developed by Roon. This setup is certainly not "certified" but it works perfectly.
Roon can stream to multiple devices playing different music to those devices or the same tune in sync.
Roon manages your local music library (without "touching" the files) along with Qobuz / Tidal / KKBOX in one seamless user interface w/o having to switch between services.
Roon can also automatically (on a schedule) back itself up to Dropbox, your local drive, or a NAS.
Edits: 03/04/24 03/04/24 03/04/24 03/04/24
I've given up waiting on the Channel D folks to get current with their software. I think they have decided to concentrate on their phono preamps, which get great reviews and presumably generate more profit. Too bad, because the Pure Vinyl app is the best I've found for digitizing vinyl records. I still have an older MacMini stuck running Mojave just for that reason.Pure Music is/was a great sounding player that went from being way ahead of its time to way behind. Likewise, Bit Perfect was a terrific iTunes extension that integrated seamlessly and included DSD capability, but it hasn't been updated in several years: BitPerfect
I've moved on to Roon, which I recommend highly. There is a cost, but I think it's worth it. I paid a reasonable lifetime fee 8-1/2 years ago, so my ROI is in the black. The rest of my family of adventuresome music lovers is still committed to Apple Music for ripping and playing, and I can't persuade them otherwise. We all share a library on a NAS and because of Roon I don't have to deal with Music, so everyone is happy.
If you want to stay with Music as your player, I have some thoughts. I'm not sure what you mean by "hi res", but unless they are DSD you can play them directly in Music or convert them to compatible file types (ALAC or AIFF) with no loss in quality. XLD is a great free app for converting, or dBPowerAmp, which has a cost. XLD
You can use the built-in Audio MIDI setup program in MacOS to manually reconcile output resolution with anything your DAC will handle. If you have varying files, there is a free open-source app called LosslessSwitcher that will change the resolution on the fly. Link below.
I hope this is of some help to you, but frankly my recommendation is to let go of Apple Music and write off pM. Roon has a 30 day free trial, and there are other good alternatives out there.
. . . in theory, practice and theory are the same; in practice, they are different . . .
Edits: 02/29/24 02/29/24
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Gsquared
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