Fidelia

I love Fidelia I have been using it for a few years now BUT what I wanted to know is are you guys going to make a Windows version? I have to run both now and I miss Fidelia badly when on the Windows OS.....

First purchased in 2011. I have, and continue to try many other media players and can find none that sound better. Admittedly the money I spent on various bits of hardware is approaching silly proportions - notably a series of ever more expensive DACs. Beyond that, the AU compatible plugins I purchased for the various DAWs I use for production are useable in Fidelia. Five stars are not enough.

Audio is great! but unless you have internet it continuously is checking to see if it was purchased . Fidelia has ruined playback on my shows.

Fiddle just keeps getting better and better. The sound from it is just wonderful and I'm glad Audiofile Engineering continues to add subtle features/improvements.

The description of this app says nothing about how it actually works. It’s just a bunch of cheesy marketing-speak from a lazy developer.

Beautiful and very good sound!

The null test link posted by Moogan makes sense, so I played a file using Fidelia and then using iTunes, I captured the audio from the file using Audio Hijack Pro, and loaded the resulting 2 audio files into Studio One along with the original WAV file. Using Sonalksis' FreeG to invert the polarity of a track the files nulled almost perfectly, with only something going on below -93 dB. I then tried to reverse the polarity using Melda Auto Align, and this time the files nulled 100%. In practical terms there was silence regardless of which plugin I used to invert the phase. I nulled Original vs. Fidelia, Original vs. iTunes, and iTunes vs. Fidelia. What does this mean? That the audio is and sounds exactly the same, regardless of whether you use Fidelia or iTunes for playback. In all fairness, Fidelia does not claim to sound better than iTunes. Additional issues I encountered with Fidelia: Very slow and unresponsive. Adding a song resulted in losing my playlists until restarting the app. Numerous crashes upon launching -or trying to launch- the app.

Pleasant enough interface with the ability to add AU plugins to the audio. But the "audiophile" marketing premise is flawed. ITunes (which uses Core Audio of cpurse, just like fidelia), there is no difference between iTunes output and the original file. This has been null tested recently with v11 of iTunes. ( http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/15ylvm/itunes_1101_audio_quality_null_test_xpost/ ) Subjectively I couldn't tell the difference in playback of lossless files on fidelia against iTunes v11 using a $500 TC Electronic ADA and $800 Adam reference monitors. So unless you particularly like the interface fidelia cannot make your music "better" . Remember there is no difference between iTunes output and the original file according to a null test which you can do yourselves.

I own the basic licence and I REALLY like the sound coming out of it (I also own Bose speakers and the difference with iTunes is huge) BUT... - no integration with iTunes which is far better to manage music library, - beta releases... - pricing of options is totally MAD !! (just think about paying 8,99€ for the iPhone remote app...!!) - no vision on future of product - and I think they abandonned the development of this product.

Would be better if AirPlay output can be selected without opening preferences.

I purchased this on the iTunes store as I wanted a good music player to play audiophile quality music. Overall pleasing to use and the sound is great. HOWEVER, wtf is it with not being able to save your library or playlists? Really - what's the point? Most software provides the basic ability to save your work - this one does not. I am expected to re-load my library and create new playlists every time I launch this application. If it was free or a demo version I'd maybe understand, but I paid $20 for this, not to mention the extraordinary amount the developer chargers for so called 'pro' features. Until the developer fixes this incredible problem, I simply cannot recommend this application.

"new FHX Headphone Processor add-on (US $49.99)" WTF is this? Why would anyone want to pay fifty bucks for it? Why is it that, even on the Audiofile site, the only information available is that there is an FHX add-on available that costs fifty bucks? Is it Audiofile's intention actually to get people to buy this? Or is it merely something tossed in for laughs and so what if nobody knows what it is? It obviously gets the customer's attention. It certainly has mine

I have listen to Fidelia, and it does sound great. However, I can not get it to run, or load on my older laptop running due core and current OSX. On my Imac it sound wonderful. Also has anyone used the upgraded and how does it compare to Audirvana.

"WHAT'S NEW -Version 1.1.2: - new mini player" -better little player was in version 1.1.1- suited for screen size. New player is too small and no design, player in size - medium (1.1.2) is too big to mac book pro 13'. Fidelia is perfect music player but new solutions isn't perfect.

Don't forget to use your audiophile ethernet cables if your files are stored on a SAN.

The best player on Mac as for the sound quality. However still buggy and lacks important features (which hopefully gonna be improved with future updates). – Some tracks (both ALAC and MP3) from iTunes library aren't available for playback for unknown reason. The same tracks play in iTunes and Audirvana without any problem. – No support for album artwork. Instead of making the player that big, it would have been much better to display artwork instead. – Support for iTunes library is very poor overall. – HOG mode should be included in basic package. 50 USD just for that is weird. In fact, planning to buy it (now using demo). So hope developers listen to customers needs. I'm not the first one to put these points.

I ended up trying Fidelia. Positive: Improved audio quality, probably due to limiting and equalization. I did a very thorough test with one file comparing the recorded output from iTunes and Fidelia, and found greater perceived loudness along with some better response across the frequency spectrum. While listening I was also using different metering plugins to get a more accurate picture of what was going on in terms of volume and frequencies. Negative: -Scanning my audio plugins took hours. In some cases it took over 10 seconds to validate a plugin, as was the case with many Waves plugins. I have around 40 of those, and they come in different formats like VST and AU, and different variations as well, such as Mono and Stereo. -In some cases, audio was degraded and sounded terrible. Then the output would go silent. This was the case with a couple of high resolution WAV files. In order to get sound again I had to quit the application. -I also had to Force Quit the application numerous times. With each restart a crash report was supposed to be sent to Audiofile Engineering, but I don't know if the multiple reports actually went out. -There's no functionality to quickly rearrange plugins. -Additional features cost more than the application itself. I hate to give this a low rating, but this is terrible. Feels like a beta version. I prefer to use iTunes along with Digital Power Station, or with Jack OS X and DSP-Quattro and my plugins. This worked fine with MP3 files, but failed with high resolution WAV files. YMMV. I'm uninstalling it. Maybe I'll try it again once it's 1.2 or 1.5.

I'm surprised by some of the comments. Comparing this to Vox is like comparing a Hyundai with a Ferrari. Sure, both are cars, but some people will surely appreciate the Ferrari in a different level. That being said, depending on the individual's needs and desires a Hyundai may be a better buying decision than a Ferrari. I use Vox, by the way. Fidelia is more comparable with: Decibel ($33, Snow Leopard or later) Audirvana (Intel only) Pure Music ($129) Amarra ($99, $295, $695) At $20, Fidelia is not that expensive. Unfortunately added features cost an additional $50. Some reviews: http://www.macworld.com/article/158065/2011/02/fideliamusicplayer.html http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/index.php/audio-reviews/digital-source-reviews/item/211-audiophile-engineering-fidelia-for-os-x I won't rate it since I have not tested it and doubt that I'll buy it. It has a great feature that allows users to apply AU or VST plugins. I already have that with DSP-Quattro and Jack OS X. Just wanted to mention that Audiofile Engineering's products are targeting a different market than Vox and the like.

I think this is a good idea, however if you want people to use this your going to have to lower the price. There are so many music player options that are free, not many people are going to even try this with a price tag attached to it. Having said that I'm sure true audio fanatics will want to give this a go. Still, to expensive, UI needs work and needs more features.

Always on the lookout for a stand alone audio player. Like other comments here, I am a heavy Vox user. Vox unfortunately has a pedestrian development pace. But most annoyingly... is that I find that it crashes far too much when drag n' dropping files onto it. Which is what I want a stand alone players main functionality to be. Find some music, play it, without any fuss, or unnecessary deleting of playlists or associated files. The Fidelia developers seem to have decided to take on iTunes head on. No drag n' drop at all. Just *fricking playlist hell again. An ugly, antiquated graphic of an audio separate, just kills this off for me immediately... not even easily customisable... The sound from Fidelia is punchy and this app might come in handy at a gathering of friends etc. Crank the interface on 'large' throw on a playlist and it would be at the very least, a conversational starter or two. but for desk bound jockeys, looking for a smart stand alone audio player... no way. But of course, your milage may vary.