Choosing a player · Mac
The best music player for Mac
Six Mac players for a local library, side by side. MP95 switches the device to each file’s rate, outputs 24-bit with no needless dither, plays 35+ codecs from Finder, and has bs2b crossfeed, with no subscription.
All of them, one table
| MP95 | VOX | foobar2000 | Audirvana | Roon | Swinsian | Colibri | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Watch | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac | Mac, Windows | Mac, Windows, Linux server; mobile remotes | Mac | Mac |
| Price model | Free on Android; free to start on Apple, Pro yearly or lifetime | Free tier; Premium subscription | Free | Subscription | Subscription | One-time purchase | One-time purchase |
| Plays your own files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Formats | 35+ codecs, 49 file types | Wide | Very wide | Wide | Wide | Wide | Lossless focus |
| FLAC / ALAC / WAV / AIFF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DSD (DSF, DFF) | Yes, to PCM | — | — | Native / DoP | Yes | — | — |
| Imports from the Apple Music library | iPhone, iPad | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Wi-Fi, cable, AirDrop, USB drive, NAS | Yes | Partly | Partly | — | — | — | — |
| Cloud drives and servers | Any Files-app provider, SAF folders | VOX Cloud (Premium) | UPnP/DLNA, FTP | Qobuz, Tidal, UPnP | Qobuz, Tidal, network endpoints | — | — |
| Works offline with no account | Yes | Partly | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | Yes |
| No ads on any tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bit-perfect path | Yes | — | — | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| Output rate follows the file (USB DAC) | Yes | — | — | Yes | Yes | — | — |
| Gapless | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ReplayGain | Track / album | — | Yes | — | — | — | — |
| Headphone crossfeed | bs2b, 3 presets, free | — | — | Via AU plugins | Yes | — | — |
| Equalizer | 5-band + 14 presets | Premium | Partly | Via AU plugins | Parametric | — | — |
| Tag editor | Yes | — | — | — | — | Yes | — |
| Retro machines (cassette, vinyl, reel, wheel…) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Real analog tape / vinyl sound | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 8D audio, slowed + reverb | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Music visualizer | Yes | No | No | — | — | — | — |
| Flashlight follows the bass | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Home screen widgets with transport | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Apple Watch | Remote | No | No | No | — | — | — |
| Mac app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
“Partly” = exists with limits (a paid tier, an account, a narrower scope). “—” = not a listed feature, or one we could not confirm; it does not mean “no”. Other apps’ details are as of September 2026 and can change; check their store listings.
The one niche each rival keeps
VOX
VOX has one thing MP95 does not attempt: its own cloud. With Premium your library lives on VOX servers and syncs between iPhone and Mac, and SoundCloud and other streaming sources sit in the same list.
foobar2000
foobar2000's niche is UPnP/DLNA streaming from a home media server and an unusually long codec list (Opus, Musepack, tracker formats). If your library lives on a DLNA server, that is its edge.
Audirvana
Audirvana’s niche is the full studio-grade toolkit: exclusive (hog) mode and integer mode, native DSD and DoP, high-quality upsampling, Audio Unit plugins for room correction and EQ, UPnP renderers across the house, and Qobuz and Tidal in the same library.
Roon
Roon’s niche is the library as a magazine, with credits, reviews and links between artists, plus multiroom playback to endpoints all over the house and a DSP engine with convolution and parametric EQ. It runs as a server (a “Core”) and needs an account and a subscription.
Swinsian
Swinsian’s niche is library management at scale: a fast column browser for tens of thousands of tracks, batch tag editing, smart playlists and folder watching, in a classic iTunes-like layout.
Colibri
Colibri’s niche is minimalism: a tiny, native Mac app that opens a lossless file and plays it, with little else on screen.
Head to head
MP95 vs VOX
Both play FLAC on iPhone and Mac. VOX adds cloud storage and streaming with a subscription; MP95 stays offline with no account and plays your files on retro machines with analog sound.
MacMP95 vs foobar2000
foobar2000 for iOS is free, minimal and plays almost any format. MP95 is a retro player with six machines, analog sound and no network access. Both play your files offline.
MacMP95 vs Audirvana
Audirvana: hog mode, DoP, upsampling, plugins, streaming, by subscription. MP95: device rate matched per file, 24-bit out, crossfeed, four decks, no subscription.
MacMP95 vs Roon
Roon is a music server with metadata, multiroom and DSP, by subscription. MP95 is a player: your folder, bit-perfect, crossfeed, on Mac, iPhone, Android.
MacMP95 vs Swinsian
Swinsian manages huge Mac libraries with tag editing and smart playlists. MP95 plays them at each file’s rate, with crossfeed, DSD and four retro decks.
MacMP95 vs Colibri
Colibri is a tiny native lossless player for Mac. MP95 matches the device rate too, and adds crossfeed, ReplayGain, DSD, 35+ codecs and four retro decks.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best music player for Mac for audiophiles?
If you want a clean, rate-matched path without a subscription, MP95. For DoP, upsampling and plugins, Audirvana; for a whole-house system, Roon; for managing a huge library, Swinsian.
Does the Apple Music app switch sample rates?
Music.app and the system handle this differently across macOS versions. MP95 always sets the device to the file’s rate and puts it back when you quit; see how to check it.
MP95 for Mac
Free to start. No account, no ads, no internet.