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Reviews for Macintosh Mp3 Players iTunes From Apple Inc. Free download on CD Out of all of the players I have tried, iTunes is only second to Audion 2, which costs $19.99. Audion may be slightly better, but iTunes is completely free, making it the best free player availible. It can import (convert) Mp3, WAV, and AIFF files very well, and in a surprising amount of time. Usually a four minute song encoding at 192 KB takes only a little over a minute. It also has a built in radio tuner which accesses Kerbango for streaming audio. This provides well over 1000 channels of radio without even using an internet browser. A button in the top menu provides access to CDDB, a website which provides CD information. This takes only 10 seconds, and it saves the hassle of manually typing in all of the song information. Another advantage of iTunes is the intuitive user interface. Finding songs, making playlists, and importing music doesn't take the work that other programs require. The best thing about iTunes is its CD burning capability. Other programs claim to be able to burn CDs, but they only leech off of other needed applications. iTunes has its own simple software that makes CD burning something that anyone can do. It supports virtually all burners, including SCSI, USB, and FireWire devices. The only drawback of iTunes is that it does not support plug-ins or skins. This is what gives Audion a slight edge over iTunes. iTunes does have a visualizer and a nice looking user interface, but they are not customizable in any way. If this feature makes its way into future versions, iTunes has my vote. Audion From Panic Software Inc. Free trial for download on CD,full version availible at the Audion website for $19.99. Out of all the Mp3 players I have tried, Macintosh and Windows, Audion is the best. Audion can encode in a variety of formats including mp3, WAV, and AIFF. It has encoding speeds just a little less than iTunes, access to streaming radio, (though it can only access streams you know the name of), and access to CDDB, a website which provides CD information. The interface has three components, a playlist window, a control window, and an equilizer menu with ten presets. I think that the best feature of Audion is its plug-ins and skins. From the Audion website, dozens of visual and audio plug-ins, along with cool looking skins, are availible for free download. This way your music not only sounds good, but it looks good too. The single thing that Audion lacks is CD burning capability, but since built-in burning capability is so new, I think that most users will be satisfied. Not Yet Rated Unsanity Echo From Unsanity Software Inc. Free Trial for download on CD, full version $19.99 at the Unsanity website Although it is still a very new player, Unsanity Echo has the potential to become the best mp3 player on the market. At the same price as Audion, Unsanity has all of the features of Audion, but supports more music formats and seems to be more advanced. Since it is so new, I have only tried it a few times, but from what I have seen, the technology in Unsanity outmatches both iTunes and Audion 2. The unique visualiser engine takes full advantage of the G4 Velocity Engine, and is much smoother even on slow computers. Unsanity supports plug-ins and skins, although the visualiser and skin it comes with more than suffice, and it also supports the much anticipated open source OGG Vorbis format. If much of the things I have said here don't make sense, I don't blame you. In a nutshell, Unsanity Echo is technilogically advanced and very cool. If it can gain a strong user base, Unsanity stands a fierce rival to iTunes and Audion. Not Yet Rated WinAmp Mac Alpha From Nullsoft Inc. Free Alpha Version for download on CD WinAmp is still an alpha version for the Macintosh, but if it turns out as good as the windows version, it should be a good mix between a full featured player and a simple one. It has all of the things that a good Mp3 player has, playlists, ID3 tag support, plug-ins, skins, etc., minus some extra features. It should turn out well. SoundJam
MP From Cassidy & Greene Software Inc. Free Trial for download on CD, full version $24.99 at SoundJam. Although SoundJam came before Audion, Unsanity Echo, or iTunes, it has not kept up with the new competition. SoundJam offers many of the features in its competitors, but it has nothing unique about it. Although it supports plug-ins and skins, the interface for some unexplainable reason is not appealing. SoundApp From Norman Franke Free download on CD SoundApp, the original Macintosh Mp3 player, is surprisingly good considering its age. It is as simple an Mp3 player can get, and can only do three things: Play digital music, encode digital music, and create playlists. If you just need these simple features and don't need other more advanced features, try Sound App. MusicMatch
Jukebox From MusicMatch Free basic download on CD, Plus version $19.99 at MusicMatch Despite it's adequate features, MusicMatch Jukebox is not a very intuitive Mp3 player. Many of its features are hard to use, and encoding speeds are slow. Download at your own risk. Mp3Strip From Softwarium.com Free download on CD The control strip in the Mac OS is a small panel of modules which can do certain tasks or modify preferences. Mp3Strip is a control strip Mp3 player. It allows one to play CDs or Mp3 from a square centimeter space of your desktop. This way, it's easy to play Mp3's while you're doing other things. The only drawback is that if you use memory intensive applications while Mp3Strip is running, the Mp3's become choppy. But otherwise Mp3Strip works like a dream. GrayAMP From Eckysoft Free download on CD GrayAMP is much like SoundApp, except GrayAMP supports ID3 tags, which provide song info. It's nice to play Mp3's simply, but nothing else. Online Radio AMPcaster From RSX Solutions Free download on CD AMPcaster is a small, simple applications which accesses ICEcast and SHOUTcast for streaming online radio. It can also access other online radio trackers. It features song and artist identification, and many radio stations. Although it is not as well polished a Spinner for Windows, it can access more servers. Media Players QuickTime From Apple Inc. Free download on CD, Pro Version availible for $29.99 at Apple QuickTime, the original media player, supports almost every format imaginable. It can view or play whatever you throw at it, even in full screen. The interface is simple, and separate windows are not needed inside your browser. QuickTime can also access QuickTime TV, and access live event streams. QuickTime is king. RealPlayer From Real Inc. Napster Napster From Napster Inc. Free download on CD or at Napster In almost every case, the original is the best. This applies to Napster as well. There are many Napster clients, but the original Napster client is the best. It is simple, easy to use, but can still find almost any song ever recorded. Despite the blocking system, there are plenty of easy workarounds, like typing Bbeatles instead of Beatles. Napster is is the best. Period. Mapigator Free download on CD Mapigator allows you to choose specific Napster servers and connect to them through Napster. Although it is a good and interesting idea, many of the servers it chooses are unreliable. Macigator Free download on CD Macigator allows you to choose specific Napster servers and connect to them through Napster. It also has a chat and a hot music feature. It is a good idea, but many servers are unreliable. Gnutella Mactella From C&C Inc. Free download on CD Although it is not amazingly good, Mactella is the best of the Mac Gnutella clients. It is simple, with no advanced features, but it works, and with Gnutella, that's a good thing. LimeWire From LimeWire.com Free download on CD Although LimeWire is packed with features and has a pretty user interface, it is not nearly as reliable as other clients such as Mactella. LimeWire looks nice, with shiny buttons and all, and it also features multiple searches and a long list of hosts, but it is very hard to get searches in and out fast. On my computer, LimeWire is always a step behind me. Still, on a fast internet connection, LimeWire does work moderatley well. But there are better choices. Furi
/ Phex From Gnutelliums.com Free download on CD Furi / Phex is supposed to work on all platforms. From my experience, it does not work on any platform. Download at your own risk of vomiting. Freenet Freenet From the Freenet Group Free download on CD Freenet is the most advanced free peer to peer network availible. It is also the most unreliable and hard to use. The Freenet project was created to provide a way for people to share anything online. While it is an advanced system, it is not reliable and I have not gotten it to work once. But it's a nice idea. Mp3 Streaming Mp3Streamer Alexandre Carlhian Free download on CD If you're not a techno geek or you don't have much time to set up your radio station, Mp3Streamer is for you. Streaming songs is as easy as playing them with a simple Mp3 player. Mp3Streamer does'nt have some of the features ICEcast and MACast have to offer, such as listing song and artist names, but its simplicity makes up for it. |
