Bitzie. Took the plunge & iTunes alternative

Hello again,
Sorry its actually called FLACTunes. Its on the App Store for Macs. £1.65 I think (or about thirty bob)

Here's what the developer says:
FLACTunes is the easiest way to get your FLAC files to play in iTunes and your iPhone or iPod. Drag in your FLAC files and they get imported into iTunes. Simple. $3.99
Lossless conversion — FLACTunes converts your music into Apple Lossless, preserving every bit of sound quality in the original track.
Metadata preservation — FLACTunes preserves all your track information, including album art.
Multi-threaded — FLACTunes uses all the cores of your processor to import FLAC as efficiently as possible.

Whilst talking about iTunes ;
Honestly I never knew iTunes was quite so disliked. I have no problems with that just never knew it was regarded as a bit naff in hifi terms.

So... When my Bitzie arrives I will try as the gentleman suggested "Bitperfect" but on the WHAT HIFI site today, whilst previewing the Naim DAC-V1 they say this;
"you could just use this with the BitPerfect add-on for iTunes, but then I’d go out of my way to avoid using iTunes for anything I can. In fact, aside from downloading subscribed podcasts, I’m not sure when I last actually used it. if you’re going to go much beyond CD quality – and if you want to play FLAC files – you’ll have to look beyond the iTunes, and for my time with the DAC-V1 I obtained copies of both Audirvarna and Amarra players for OSX".
Pretty damning for iTunes.
I don't take WHIFI says as gospel, but from what I've read on this forum as well, it does seem iTunes can be bettered. Interested in what others think. No idea what Audirvarna and Amarra cost.

By the way anyone tried Grado GS1000's? I broke the bank to get them a few years ago, look awful, even look cheap, leak sound like nothing else but when I played the "Pros & Cons of Hitchicking" by Rog Waters through them I was hooked.

Regards
Jeremy

The best format conversion tool I have found for OSX is XLD. I like the fact that you can load in cue files and it will output the source file as individual tracks.

morris_minor wrote: My dislike of iTunes really stems from having to use it to setup and sync all our Apple devices, rather than it's music abilities.

I don't find that an issue at all. We have four Macs, of which two have large iTunes libraries. Home sharing is switched on and there are 4 music systems in the house all connected by Homeplug and Ethernet. Any of the 3 iPhones, 1 iPad and 4 macs can access either of the iTunes libraries and via AirPlay selection (note only iPhones, iPad and 2 laptops, none of which hold the music files, are wireless; everything else is wired) send whatever music to whichever room.