Fidelia — bit-perfect macOS music player (developer intro, measurements welcome)

[pkrekelberg]

I'm Patrick, with Audiofile Engineering — introducing Fidelia (macOS player) factually, since that's the house style here.

• Bit-perfect: outputs the file's native rate/bit depth, sets the CoreAudio device rate automatically, no resampling or processing in the default path. Nothing touched between file and DAC unless you add it.
• Exclusive device access so the OS mixer/system sounds stay out.
• Optional, opt-in DSP: three AU slots and our own crossfeed, all OFF by default. Transparent path if you want it; processing only if you ask.
• Signal path audit available at any time during playback

Free download, one-time unlock, no subscription. Happy to answer technical questions — and if anyone wants to measure the output, I'd welcome it.

 

[pkrekelberg]

Quick update for anyone following along —

Fidelia just got native DSD. DSF and DFF now play directly on the Mac: decoded in real time, gapless alongside everything else, with no more converting to PCM on import and leaving an orphaned file behind (the thing about DSD on macOS I always disliked).

For DACs that decode DSD themselves, there's an opt-in bit-perfect DSD-over-PCM (DoP) path that sends the bitstream untouched — gated behind a test-tone handshake, so it only engages on hardware that actually speaks it. (macOS has no native/raw DSD transport, so DoP is the only bit-exact route here.)

One request: If anyone runs a DoP-capable DAC and wants to kick the tires on some exotic DSD variants, I'd genuinely value the report.

Cheers,
Patrick

 

[pkrekelberg]

After years of effort and thousands of hours, earlier this week we finished bit-perfect DSD playback, midweek rolled out a retuned HeadSpace, and today, lossless streaming.

I'd love for you all to give it an audition when 2.9.7 is available and share your thoughts, technical and otherwise. Bit of a celebration here aside from a special US holiday.

 

[solderdude]

The name Krekelberg makes me suspect Dutch roots.

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I don't have any Apple but will ask my son (who is an avid Apple fan) what he thinks.

 

[pkrekelberg]

@solderdude you would be right! One day I will get back to the 'old country'.

Great, I am looking forward to hearing his feedback especially once 2.9.7 is through App Store review.

 

[RickS]

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[pkrekelberg]

Done - thanks @RickS !

 

[ShadowBoxer]

There is no trademark conflict between Fidelia music player and Fidelia speakers?

 

[pkrekelberg]

There is no trademark conflict between Fidelia music player and Fidelia speakers?

It's possible they didn't look around much before going to market with that name just last year (2025). We released the first version of Fidelia 15 years ago and it has received significant press over that period. But I don't mind; there is no trademark conflict because they do not make audio players, and we are not entering the speaker market.

 

[pkrekelberg]

Hey, it took 15 years but better late than never, right?

Fidelia now plays live internet radio stations. The "Streamside" bar is auto-organized by station tag and drag/drop re-positionable. Stations can be assigned a "preset" to make it easy to play a given station via ^1 - ^9 or the keypad on the free iPhone remote. The stream is routed through the same Audiofile Engine as local files - so you can play bit-perfect or include in the signal chain your own plugins and Audiofile HeadSpace headphone processing.

We'd love to hear your feedback. Cheers.