Audacity Forum

Can this software be used just for playing mp3's on a laptop? I was looking for a step up in quality from iTunes. I downloaded Decibel by S Booth, but it has no EQ or tone shaping features.

You "could" use Audacity to play back MP3s on a laptop, but Audacity is designed for editing audio, not as an audio player. It would be a bit like using a combine harvester for transport.
What's wrong with using iTunes?
What operating system are you using?

People say there are better music player software options like Bit Perfect, Amarra, Decibel, Pure Music, Audinvanna, and this software came up in a search.

In terms of sound quality, the hardware makes much more difference than the software. If you are playing high quality recordings in a lossless format, then the software is unlikely to make any difference to the sound quality at all.

coolhandjjl wrote:People say there are better music player software options

It depends on what you mean by "better".
In terms of sound quality there is unlikely to be any difference. However, as a music player I think that iTunes is a massively bloated, inefficient, nasty beast, (but that's just my opinion). On Windows my preferred audio player is Foobar2000. On Linux my preferred player is DeaDBeeF.

I am on OSX10.8. I haven't bought a DAC yet, I was considering JDS Labs ODAC.

Itunes runs on top of QuickTime Services and QuickTime comes with a "real" Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft MP3 license. This is the group that designed MP3. Anything you do after that is up to the hardware.

The Headphone Out of a Mac is not terrible. I use mine for testing other audio equipment. It's not a second-thought add-on for Skype like on some Windows machines.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Itunes runs on top of QuickTime Services and QuickTime comes with a "real" Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft MP3 license. This is the group that designed MP3. Anything you do after that is up to the hardware.

The Headphone Out of a Mac is not terrible. I use mine for testing other audio equipment. It's not a second-thought add-on for Skype like on some Windows machines.

Koz

I am using a Behringer UCA202 USB DAC I bought a few years ago for $30 because someone said "you gotta use one of these". I don't know if it makes it better or not, A & B testing is very difficult in audio.

Anyway, I opened my laptops AudioMIDI panel and it indicated to me that the cheapo Behringer thingy with my is only 16 bit. The headphone out is 24 bit. Go figure. I'll be using iTunes via the headphone out, and put the JDS Labs USB ODAC on my short list.

The UCA202 has talents way above just playing a tune into a line connection. In many instances, it's the only way to get stereo line-level into your computer. This may be the case for you if you have a modern Mac.

It also allows "out of computer" monitoring of the sound in headphones without listening to the overdubbing transition delays. Note where the headphones are plugged:

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

Even on a Mac you need something like this to get Perfect Overdubbing.

The UCA202 is not a gift from the gods, but it serves something like 80% of people who post trying to get reasonable sound in and out of their computer. That's what prompted the recommendation.

If your requirements are above that, and you can throw the bux, then go for it. We are talking ten times the price.

It would be interesting if you can run both at once -- or mount both, but not run both.

Koz

I think the headphone output on my MacBook Pro puts out in the neighborhood of 2v. Most of the DACs out there put out a similar voltage.