MAC BITPERFECT DRIVER
MAC BITPERFECT SERIES
MAC BITPERFECT MAC

The aftermarket programs like Amarra, Pure Music and Bit Perfect (all MAC only programs) use iTunes only as a management tool and include their own player, bypassing the iTunes player and upsampler. You arenвЂ™t getting what you think you are getting вЂ“ ever. This is not ever going to be acceptable to any of us вЂ“ and if youвЂ™re an iTunes user you should know this. So, for example, if you connect our upcoming entry level DAC the NuWave (which replaces the venerable DLIII), which can accept 192kHz 24 bit asynchronous signals over USB, iTunes will upsample everything you play to that sample rate вЂ“ even standard CDвЂ™s and, unfortunately, their upsample engine isnвЂ™t all that good (none are) so your standard CDвЂ™s end up sounding digital and somewhat unmusical compared to their native resolution. To make matters worse, iTunes does this with everything вЂ“ both up and down. Make sense? The designers of iTunes simply want you to hit play and not worry about anything else вЂ“ but weвЂ™re Audiophiles вЂ“ and we worry about everything! So iTunes sends the high resolution file through a downsampler and converts it to the highest allowed rate your connected device can handle: in this case 96kHz 24 bits.

MAC BITPERFECT DRIVER

Most connected sound cards, USB and network connected DACS are limited to 96kHz 24 bits and so it is the responsibility of the interface driver to announce the restriction to the player so things are seamless. In either case you wonвЂ™t get music at 192kHz 24 bits вЂ“ youвЂ™ll get something less.

If you are trying to play a 192kHz 24 bit file and your sound card, DAC or connected device doesnвЂ™t support that high sample rate (most donвЂ™t) then one of two things will happen: youвЂ™ll get nothing or youвЂ™ll get trouble. The problem you immediately run into is one of compatibility. I think weвЂ™ve shown that once any music player begins to actually play a track it most go somewhere to be heard: your computerвЂ™s sound card, a USB connected DAC, etc. iTunes is set up to make sure the user experience is never in question and the net result of that, from a high-end perspective, is an unfortunate up and down sampling of all the music that passes through the program. And who can blame them? Although itвЂ™s widely accepted that Steve Jobs himself was one of us and cared deeply about the way audio sounded in his home,Audiophiles make up only a tiny percentage of music lovers the world over. HereвЂ™s the deal: iTunesвЂ™ primary objective is to make playing music easy and to do that Apple sacrificed the ultimate fidelity thatвЂ™s important to us Audiophiles. If youвЂ™ve managed to keep up with streaming audio in the magazines, you may have heard of these aftermarket programs that are add ons to iTunes вЂ“ and since iTunes is the single most popular music management and playback program in the world вЂ“ boasting tens of millions of users вЂ“ one would question why anyone would spend money on adding an iTunes вЂњhelperвЂќ program like those IвЂ™ve just mentioned.

MAC BITPERFECT SERIES

Through our mini series on streaming audio weвЂ™ve learned how iTunes finds and plays a track on your hard drive but we havenвЂ™t yet learned why programs that circumvent iTunes, like Amarra, Pure Music and Bit Perfect exist at all.

Mac bitperfect