Decibel

I've been using Decibel for a couple months, and I'm very pleased with it. The sound is great, and I like the minimal interface. I do hope that some form of global control comes in a future version (i.e., global hotkeys, menubar item). Native FLAC support is also essential for me in an audio player. Regarding comments from a certain individual about player sound quality, I'd like to clear a couple of things up. Strictly speaking, iTunes can be bit-perfect (i.e., it will accurately process the digital information in a sound file) with some features disabled and its digital volume slider at 100%. Where quality degradation usually occurs is along the path between the player and the speakers; Decibel's features are designed to minimize such degradation by minimizing the amount of processing, alteration, and interference to the digital signal. For example, iTunes enables by default the Sound Enhancer feature and (I think) the equalizer. Other possible stops beyond the player include CoreAudio-handled sample rate conversion and audio stream mixing (for handling simultaneous audio from multiple applications). Decibel omits features such Sound Enhancer, can automatically adjust the output device's sample rate to match the track playing, and can "hog" the output device so no other apps can send it audio (bypassing the mixer). There's also integer mode with some caveats (see link below) Memory play can also improve quality and avoid skipping by avoiding interference that can occur when disk access is occurring. The point is that avoiding unnecessary alteration, interference, and processing helps maintain the integrity of the digital signal, and thus the quality of the sound. For a more thorough and technical explanation of how audiophile players work, see this paper by the developer of Audirvana (which uses similar principles to Decibel: http://www.amr-audio.co.uk/large_image/MAC%20OSX%20audio%20players%20&%20Integer%20Mode.pdf ).

It's a good audio player, but the $33 price, rudimentary interface, and lack of updates since 2015 make it a hard purchase to justify. Lower it to $9.99 and you'll have my order.

This app is worthless as far as I'm concerned.

First of all, I don't want to load a few songs or a single playlist, I want ALL my iTunes tracks loaded and ready to play just as if I were in iTunes, and I want them to STAY there!
Loading all my tracks takes about 15 minutes. That's okay...ONCE. But when I quit and reopen, it's blank again and I must start over!

There's no Help file.

The search function in the forums was useless - I wanted to know how to add tracks from iTunes.
A search for "itunes add tracks" (without parenthesis) yields this message: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: add tracks itunes."

It's missing a column for Date Added. My iTunes are sorted by date added and I expect the same in other players.

There's NO visible volume control! Either have to click the speaker icon to change the levels, or use odd keyboard shortcuts.

I tried to close Decibel and it hung with a track playing loudly and I couldn't mute or turn down the volume - had to force quit.

There's no equalizer! I suppose this is done for the purists, but guess what? Not all playback devices and speakers produce perfect sound! Adjustments may be needed. Even audiophiles may want to increase the bass, vocals etc. because not everyone's ears hear the same and listening preferences differ.


For these reasons I much prefer Amarra, although I've only used it a few times.

I'd like to get this update but the app store is behind as usual.

I'd like to get this update but the app store is behind as usual.

A good sounding audio player which allows native playback of many audio formats without conversion. The unfortunate side is the dubious continued development or support. I purchased Decibel in Dec 2013 and attempted to join the support forum, for some questions I had. I'm still waiting for forum posting approval almost 2 months later. I was initially concerned, at the time of purchase, that there had been no updates in a year. The positive reviews I read were encouraging, so I pulled the trigger. I'm hoping this wasn't a mistake.

For a good review of three Mac playback apps, including Decibel, that use itunes only as a database: http://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-103 Ideally you would send the output of Decibel to your DAC and amp by way of asynchronous USB.