IPhone Now Supports FLAC

Great news! No need for mp3 converter anymore.

 

I've used VLC, FLACBox and MusicStreamer on my iDevices to play FLAC files.

VLC can sound weird occasionally, adding a slightly compressed "pump" depending on the material. FLACBox sounds excellent as does MusicStreamer. I use FLACBox the most, because like VLC it allows me to access Dropbox and Google Drive (in addition to my NAS) to download FLAC files to the iDevice locally to play on-the-go. But even FLACBox is not perfect: it is not Gapless on playback. If it were, I'd probably buy the ad-free version and make it my main player.

 

I would like to know this as well. I'm not too tech savy.
How do I get FLAC files onto my iPhone (Currently have a 4s) & be able to play them without jumping through too many hoops.
I have the Foobar2000 app on my phone. Is this an ios issue?

Darryl

 

ALAC isn't proprietary, though - Apple opened it up at least a couple of years ago. It isn't as broadly supported as FLAC yet, but support is growing.

Personally, I think they should have just supported FLAC from the start, instead of creating a FLAC-clone that the world wasn't crying out for. They've become quite Sony-like in that regard. But they have opened it up, and if I were fully inside of the Apple ecosystem I'd probably convert my library to ALAC just for convenience sake.

 

I don't want to be tied down to apple products. I hardly ever listed to music on my iPhone anyway.
Preferring to listen to CD (in car) or Vinyl/FLAC files at home.
Would like to find a portable music player that I can play FLAC files on the go or in my car.

Darryl

 

For anyone who is curious, I bought the $9.99 add-on yesterday to the Onkyo HF Player app in order to put my FLAC files on my iPhone and the sound quality is excellent. It was easy and all of the artwork is intact and looks great. Only problem so far is every once in a while, the audio cuts for a second. My phone is nearly full (2GB free) so I don’t know if it’s that I need to clear out space but I would think that’s enough.

I’m using a Dragonfly Red USB DAC with the Apple USB camera 3 adapter as Dragonfly suggests. It goes to 96/24 even though some of my files are 192/24 but at least I don’t need a power supply like it seems every DAC over 96/24 needs.

 

I’ve never had an issue with audio cutting out for a second with the Onkyo HF app. The only issue I have is a brief blast of white noise when I start play and the phone ringer is on.

I have an Oppo portable DAC/Amp. No power supply and it handles 24/192 and various DSD.

 

digital output dropping after ios 10.3.1 update | Communities

I suspect you have come up with the problem discussed in this thread, and other threads on Head Fi amongst other places. There is an issue with versions of iOS from 10.3.1 up to and including the latest version of iOS 11 whereby audio can stop / pause briefly / glitch when played via an external DAC. This appears to affect MFi certified DACs (like my Oppo HA2) and other DACs connected via the Camera Connection Kit. The issue appears to have improved with iOS updates, but I still get the occasional brief glitch with audio. Annoying.

 

I seem to remember reading that they came up with their own lossless format because they wanted to optimize it for the battery in their iPods.

 

That might have been the case, although from what I understand, ALAC and FLAC are extremely similar, and I'd be surprised if ALAC had much of an advantage when it came to the processing power required to decode. They're both much less processor-intensive to decode than MP3 or AAC...

 

finally!

 

Finally what?

 

subject matter...

 

Currently have an iPhone 6.
Would like to know how it's possible for an iPhone to play FLAC files.
I'm talking FLAC (not Apple's version of lossless ALAC).
I have a lot of my music files in FLAC.
I'm looking for a portable player I can use on the go or in my car.
It doesn't have to be an iPhone, but it's more convenient.
I can use a second device just for music if there's a difference in sound quality.
Currently have a few albums on my iPhone 6

Darryl

 

I use Onkyo HF Player. Search the App Store!

 

Several apps are mentioned in this thread. I use Flacbox, but Onkyo, VLC, and foobar have been mentioned as well.

 

'nother Onkyo HF Player user over here. Works on a basic level with CarPlay, and with the camera connection kit + Dragonfly Red it can output up to 96 kHz. Also supports DSD formats if that matters to you.

 

I've been listening to FLACs on an iPhone for years using VOX as the player & iFunbox as a drag & drop means to move music files or albums into the phone VOX folder from my laptop. Very easy.

iFunbox | the File and App Management Tool for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch.

 

This third party app solution technically works, and always has... but it’s a trash half solution. Still waiting on the day these files can be synced properly to the NATIVE music app and not treated like a second class music library

 

I Down loaded flac box and figured out how to load my flac files using google, only issue I’m having is a gap between tracks, do you have too up grade to the purchase version to rectify this or is there a way around this issue. Thanks in advance

 

The app WALTR 2 is one solution. (I think it's $20.)

You drag files into it from Finder, and it converts them to iOS-ready format and sends it to your device in the relevant native iOS app (Music, TV, Books, etc). This works for FLAC, any video file, ebook, etc. It does take a little longer for some files, of course. But it sends tagged FLACs with artwork to my iPhone as ALAC files. Not sure about higher-resolution files. It works over WiFi or hardwired.

 

I’ve just tried the iOS version of Foobar2000 on my iPad Air. Free, plays FLAC via a similar syncing process to other apps via iTunes. Seems pretty good and can play from a media server, so looks like a useful alternative to Onkyo HF Player with additional functionality.

 

I was one of the original paid contributors to this project, so I've been on the alpha and beta track from the beginning. It's well on the way to being the best 3rd party iOS music player, which is not surprising with Peter at the helm. As you say, it integrates with your iPhone music library, supports DLNA, and even works as an FTP client to get your music files onto your phone into the fb2k library. Very nice straightforward UI, too.

 

I believe it was due to licensing issues. Although FLAC was (and still is) open source, the license under which it was published at the time was somewhat restricted when it came to modification to the code, forcing those who use the code with modifications to publish those changes. As Apple wanted to include lossless code in embedded devices (iPods and Airport Express), Apple would have had to publish the entire code of those devices to comply with the license.