You’ve probably heard that the so-called lossless formats like FLAC and ALAC provide better sound than the ubiquitous MP3.
Preinstalled and almost all third-party players for Android and desktop OS support lossless by default. But the pre-installed Music player on Apple gadgets is limited to ALAC support.
If you download songs in FLAC format, you will have to convert them to ALAC, which is inconvenient and long. But these players will allow you to listen to both MP3 and FLAC without any conversion.
1. VLC
A free player that also does not contain any advertising. Music can be added in several ways: from the computer through a USB connection or Wi-Fi, as well as from cloud drives like Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. The player has simple instructions for each method.
In addition, VLC supports various gestures that enhance the ease of management. You can include the most needed ones and disable the extra ones in the settings. The application does not have enough options for structuring music, but it allows you to watch videos downloaded from a computer or from the Internet – a nice bonus for the iOS-player.
2. Documents
Another completely free program. Documents is a hybrid of the file manager, browser and player. The application allows you to download music from connected to it cloud storage, a computer (via the “Shared files” menu in iTunes) and even a direct link to FLAC files from the Internet.
Since music playback is just one of the many functions of Documents, it is not worked out in detail as in full-fledged players. For example, in the program you can not sort tracks by artist or album. But in addition, you get powerful tools to work with a variety of types of documents.
3. VOX
A stylish player with the ability to play music from your computer (FLAC files need to be downloaded via the “Shared Files” menu in iTunes), SoundCloud and Spotify. You can also add files to VOX via the “Share” menu from the application of any cloud service. In the program settings, an equalizer with different presets is hidden.
All of the above is available for free. By subscribing for a price of 349 rubles per month, you will also receive an unlimited VOX cloud for storing and downloading music, access to the radio stations directly from the player and other bonuses.
4. FLAC Player +
Immediately after FLAC Player + starts, the program offers two ways to download music: from your computer via Wi-Fi and from iCloud. By selecting the second one, you can also use as source not only Apple storage, but also any cloud disk, the client of which is installed on the device.
In FLAC Player + it is convenient to organize music by artists, playlists and albums – all the necessary buttons are displayed in the main menu. Additional buttons include sorting by genres and composers, they can also be rendered to the main menu. The application is available for free, but it shows ads. To disable it, you need to pay 75 rubles.
5. Flacbox
Flacbox supports downloading from all popular cloud drives, including Yandex.Disk, Dropbox, Mega and Google Drive. You can also add FLAC files to the player from the computer via USB (using the “Shared Files” item in iTunes) or Wi-Fi.
Otherwise, Flacbox offers all the features of a typical music player: from sorting music to artists, genres and albums to the built-in equalizer. Of the additional features, you can note the interchangeable interface themes and audio bookmarks, which will appeal to audiobook lovers. Flacbox contains advertising, which can be removed for 229 rubles.
Do not forget that to open the potential of FLAC and ALAC is possible only with the help of good audio equipment like headphones with built-in DAC (digital-to-analog converter).
