Cog is a similarly simple open source player for macOS which also supports Opus and has a folder pane.
(original author) https://cogx.org/screenshots.php
I really like it, it is still my goto player after 8 years.
Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
31–40 of 120 posts
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can drag it and move it wherever you want. I usually put mine in the top 2/3rds of my screen as I'm a habitual +space
Fun fact: if you press and hold the spotlight icon in the menu bar, the spotlight window is reset to its default position.
Mind. Blown. Thank you both!
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
>without loosing quality Yes, you did lose quality, Opus is a lossy format so whatever your source material is, you will lose some quality. How important or noticeable that is will depend on the opus bitrate, your hearing and your personal preferences are. But just putting this as a warning for anyone reading.
This is obvious. Whoever collects MP3 files already knows what a lossy compression format means. I don't mean recoding FLAC to OPUS can save space without loosing quality, I mean recoding MP3 to OPUS can save space producing a file of the same quality as the MP3 original is. Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). E.g. I am sur…
>Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low).
This is incorrect. Lossy-to-lossy transcodes always incur a quality loss. It is known
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
>without loosing quality Yes, you did lose quality, Opus is a lossy format so whatever your source material is, you will lose some quality. How important or noticeable that is will depend on the opus bitrate, your hearing and your personal preferences are. But just putting this as a warning for anyone reading.
This is obvious. Whoever collects MP3 files already knows what a lossy compression format means. I don't mean recoding FLAC to OPUS can save space without loosing quality, I mean recoding MP3 to OPUS can save space producing a file of the same quality as the MP3 original is. Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). E.g. I am sur…
Decoding an MP3 and then encoding the data to OPUS of course incurs generational loss and will sound worse than the original MP3. You should encode from the original or losslessly compressed data.
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is obvious. Whoever collects MP3 files already knows what a lossy compression format means. I don't mean recoding FLAC to OPUS can save space without loosing quality, I mean recoding MP3 to OPUS can save space producing a file of the same quality as the MP3 original is. Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). E.g. I am sur…
>Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). This is incorrect. Lossy-to-lossy transcodes always incur a quality loss. It is known
The same kind of loss as caused by using cheap audio cables instead of golden cables perhaps... (sarcasm)
It would make sense to speak about quality loss if it was about FLAC originals but not if the originals are already MP3. You can't save what is not there.
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can drag it and move it wherever you want. I usually put mine in the top 2/3rds of my screen as I'm a habitual +space
Fun fact: if you press and hold the spotlight icon in the menu bar, the spotlight window is reset to its default position.
I never understood why Apple always hides functionality beneath undiscoverable gestures.
Especially on iOS where once I had a friend complain that they cannot see the time that a message was sent or received. I had to show them to hold and swipe so they can see the hidden column of times.
I guess they don’t want to clutter up at the interface with things like labels and options.
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#37I wanted to solve this very problem, and use !iTunes to play audio files on the Mac.
First, I went with VLC. It's quite capable.
It turns out there's a native Mac app called 'afplay' and it'll do the trick as well. "afplay foo.mp3" and it'll play that MP3. No frills, no controls. Just plays the file.
I would cd to a directory with the songs I wanted to play, and use a for loop to play them all.
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). This is incorrect. Lossy-to-lossy transcodes always incur a quality loss. It is known
The same kind of loss as caused by using cheap audio cables instead of golden cables perhaps... (sarcasm) It would make sense to speak about quality loss if it was about FLAC originals but not if the originals are already MP3. You can't save what is not there.
Umm ... no, when you recompress music that was already compressed with a lossy algorithm, you will have lower quality than if you had just stuck with the original. You can’t save what isn’t there, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t lose even more!
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is obvious. Whoever collects MP3 files already knows what a lossy compression format means. I don't mean recoding FLAC to OPUS can save space without loosing quality, I mean recoding MP3 to OPUS can save space producing a file of the same quality as the MP3 original is. Obviously it will have less quality than a FLAC/CDDA original but not less than MP3 (unless you actually set the bitrate too low). E.g. I am sur…
Decoding an MP3 and then encoding the data to OPUS of course incurs generational loss and will sound worse than the original MP3. You should encode from the original or losslessly compressed data.
I have lost (left behind moving) all my CDs a decade ago already and I didn't have enough HDDs to use FLAC back in the days. Now I recode my 320 kbits MP3s to 128 kbits OPUS and can't tell the difference (although I am one of those rare people who can distinguish between high (128+ kbits) MP3 bitrates).
Re: Show HN: Minimal native MP3 player for Mac
#40Author here, thanks for all the responses.
Gapless playback is high on my personal wishlist as well.
Same goes for additional audio formats. I was actually surprised that the latest macOS had built-in support for FLAC but there are a few others I'd like to add.
Both of these features will require a more custom audio solution, which may take some time to figure out... but it's on the roadmap!