Play music with DAC in MacOS

Use music players in MacOS and output to DAC directly.

Colibri

Website: https://colibri-lossless.com/

Setup

• Go to Preferences -> Output screen
• Change Output Device
• Change DSD mode to DoP if DAC supports DSD.
• Change PCM mode from to the highest DSD format DAC can play
• Enable Exclusive / Hog mode if don't expect OS sounds appear
• Enable Audio Signal Bypass if want to disable OS sound functions
• Auto-raise system volume to 100% for this device if the DAC has no problem such as reseting voice level. For example, Creative portable DAC can suddent raise to very high level when turning on.
• Changing device requires Remember... setting to be off

Note: If using Exclusive mode, need to change system default sound device to other device in order to use the device selected for music playing.

Cons

• Free
• Can play many format
• Changing options require player restart
• Can not specify DAC unsupported formats to be software decoded

VLC

Setup

Forgot how to change them.

• Go to **Preferences"
• Click on Show All at bottom left corner
• ...

Cons

• Cannot play DFF format
• Not easy to find out options
• Mainly for video playing

JRiver Media Center

This is a library style player, but user interface isn't user friendly as iTune, and library isn't manging not well at all.

Pros

• Not free and yearly upgrade
  • Master (for Windows, Mac, and Linux) License Upgrade $34.98
  • Single OS Upgrade $22.98

Cons

• Support Windows, Mac, and Linux