14 DAY TRIAL // Nowadays, iTunes is the standard music player for many Mac users and it offers numerous playback features tightly packed within an intuitive interface. Unfortunately, when it comes to high-end audio formats files like FLAC, WAVE or OGG, iTunes is lacking the ability to play them.
Decibel is an easy-to-use audio player specially designed to fulfill the needs of audiophiles. This app is capable of playing all popular lossless and compressed audio formats such as Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Musepack, Monkey´s Audio, WavPack, Apple Lossless, True Audio, MP3, AIFF, AAC and WAVE.
The application's trial version is available on the developer´s website, while the full version can be bought from the App Store for $32.99.
In addition, Decibel's installation process is fairly simple, especially if you are installing it via the App Store, and this makes it very easy for anyone to test the program before buying it.
The Looks
To the delight of OS X users, the developer managed to create an intuitive and non-intrusive application. Similar to iTunes, Decibel comes with a minimalistic interface featuring a plain list view of your tracks and a search field.
Each time a new track is being played, a large, transparent notification panel overlaps for a few seconds, which displays the title of the track, along with the name of the artist and the album artwork.
Furthermore, you will be able to view the playback status of the current track in the dock icon, but, unfortunately, it will not allow you to skim through the song.
Detailed information about the audio track, including the album artwork can be viewed in the Inspector window. If you choose to link your iTunes library with Decibel, you can access your files by clicking on the iTunes icon located in the top right corner of the app’s interface.
The Works
One of Decibel's main assets is the ability to support continuous playback with seamless transitions between tracks. Moreover, the application is capable of loading the audio files in your Mac's RAM memory and will allow you to listen to them without having to worry if your hard drive will be able to keep up.
In addition, Decibel renders lossless formats using 64-bit floating-point precision thus, providing an excellent playback quality for files sampled at all bit rates.
On top of that, taking advantage of its built-in hog mode, Decibel is capable of controlling the output device and instantly adjusting its sample rate to match the one of the playing audio track. As a result, any and all audio quality distortions associated with the sample rate conversion process are avoided.
As a bonus, the built-in plugins enable the app’s users to control Decibel using their Mac's IR remote, send the music they listen to the Last.fm service, browse iTunes' library and display Growl notifications when changing tracks.
What makes it even more special is that Decibel sounds surprisingly clearer and more open than iTunes. While comparing these two, we've noticed that the music played with iTunes sounded hazy and artificial, whereas Stephen F. Booth’s app stepped up and offered a more distinct and pleasant sound.
Decibel makes up for iTunes’ audio shortcomings and ensures a more refined music playback, playing pretty much anything regardless of the format. Being able to play any lossless audio tracks is Decibel's major highlight and this can determine music lovers to give up their entire iTunes library.
Although Decibel doesn't come with a flashy interface, it does handle a wide range of high-quality audio formats and, from our point of view, its audio playback capabilities and not its interface are the ones that make Decibel worth every cent you'll pay for it.
The Good
Using its hog mode feature, the app takes exclusive control of the output device and plays the audio track using the device’s native format.
What's more, Decibel smartly and automatically matches the device’s sample rate to that of the playing track, avoiding audio quality degradation.
The app can also preload the played files in your Mac's memory, thus assuring a pleasant playback experience and preventing any annoying audio glitches.
The Bad
Moreover, regarding its interface, we find it overly minimalistic and definitely lacking certain playback control buttons that should always be present when talking about an audio player. For example, a volume control could prove really handy and the numerous shuffle and repeat options in the menu should also have a counterpart within the app's window.
The Truth
Decibel was not created to replace iTunes or perform miracles, but its ability to play almost every lossless format out there makes it a must-have for all audiophiles who listen to music using a Mac.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
