BitPerfect App Reviews

I’m sorry to report that, after a couple hours of A/B testing, this application made zero difference in the quality of sound coming from a mid-range audio set up (including 2012 retina MBP 15” with Mavericks, Pioneer Elite SC-79, Sonus Faber Venere 3.0 speakers). I could not hear any discernible difference in Apple AAC files, Apple Lossless files ripped from CDs, nor from 24-bit high-def ALAC files downloaded from HD Tracks. The Pioneer’s SABRE DAC recognized the application, so I had it running in integer mode. Not sure what “profound sonic difference” people are hearing, but it was non-existent on my set-up. Your mileage may vary. Also, the application appears to interfere with the keyboard controls for volume. So, net-net, this is a loss of $10 for me.

This app claims to support Airplay. It might, but I sure as heck couldn’t get it to work. The help page says you need to use the Apple Midi App to select your Airplay device and then use their minimal app to change from local to Airplay output. After trying multiple times, I gave up. $10 wasted.

I’ve changed my mind on this app and upgraded it to “good, 4 stars”. It makes playing playing music with differing bit depths and sample rates VERY simple. You DO NOT worry about setting these parameters in the Audo Midi Setup utility. BitPerfect changes them to match the music selection being played automatically. Standard CD quality is 16 bits at 44KHz. BUT you will find some files will be recorded at 24 bit depth and you won’t notice it until your DAC shows it. I read over the prior versions comments and I agree with their overall opinions. 1. You may hear only a subtle improvement. 2. It does work better using very high quality external DACS AND AMPS and speakers and headphones. If you are using your onboard DAC, amp, and headphone jack or line out you may not hear any difference at all. 3. It has one HUGE advantage over the other audiohile grade music players: you have full iTunes music organization. 4. Does it sound better than iTunes? I’m not sure. IT isn’t GLARING or startling but sometimes I think I can hear a difference in the music. Othertimes I like the sound of iTunes better, BUT I have tried Audirvana and the TEAC HD music player and BitPerfect sounds just as good and most of the time (perhaps all the times) so does iTunes. This is a good product to start on the audiophile path! One article I saw said that ALL audiophile software was subtle and the best way to evaluate them was to use a player for awhile and then return to iTunes and listen for a difference.

BitPerfect does a good job of ensuring my DACs are configured to run at the same rate as the playing audio file. This does help improve the sound quality--more with some DACs than others as some do really good conversion/upsampling on their own. That alone is worth the price for me. I have reasonable speakers, a good amplifier, and good DACs. I can hear a difference with some source material. At the very least, it sounds a db or 2 louder and a tiny bit cleaner across the entire range--and some pretty gnarly alising vanishes from one of my DACS. The difference is more pronounced with better quality files, and I know this. I use another dedicated tool to play FLAC files and just do 128k VBR MP3 files in iTunes (for the iPod). That means that bitperfect is improving the sound of a really degraded source... there isnt anything there to improve. But at this price, why worry? As with anything audiophile, there is a point of diminishing returns and you have to think in terms of your entire system. If you cant hear (or, rather, dont know how to hear) the difference between a 128k and a 320k MP3, this wont help you much. If youve got cheap PC speakers, this probably wont help much. If youve got a good rig and are listening to higher-quaility files, it will probably help. If you are into computer audio, then you will probably notice the difference (you will know how to listen and what to listen for). I like it, Ive been using it for a long time. I think it is a good tool for $10. But you have to know what it does and what it cannot do. Dont expect magic if all your hardware is inexpensive, no software can fix bad hardware.

Simple program. Affordable program. Let’s us use iTunes so we don’t have to change anything. It works as advertised and does make a profound difference, especially when listening with a nice DAC. My only request is that you add support for AU or VST plugs so I can use Canz3D for some nice crossfeed. Thanks!

I had been doing trials with various players and/or enhancements (to iTunes) and having little success. Mostly, there were issues with upsampling to my DAC and I ended up with a garbled mess for audio or nothing at all. This little App works very well. It reads the DAC as a 32bit-192 capable device and upsamples accordingly with no fuss. I can hear a minor difference in sound, but not a lot. Most notably in the upper frequencies and I feel like maybe things opened up a bit more in terms of the sound stage. Of course, It could be placibo effect on my part. But, for the price…no complaints here.

This App sounds great, and really opens up the soundscape. If you consider yourself an audiophile, or just want your music to sound as good as it can, this app is ten dollars well spent, but I’ve run into issues using it in-conjunction with my Apogee product, Duet 2. When I’m using BitPerfect to listen to music in iTunes, it forces all other system audio to go through my display’s speakers which is annoying, so I’m only really getting the benefit of BitPerfect with my iTunes library. Also, I run into problems with controlling volume. Normally, the volume control on the keyboard controls Duet’s output level, and using the Duet’s volume knob does the exact same in unison. With BitPerfect activated they no longer work together in harmony. When I turn the volume all the way down on the keyboard and try to turn it back up again, it stays down, and I am unable to turn it back up, unless I do so from the Duet it’s self. I also have to bring their levels to the same to make things begin to work, which again is annoying. I really the benefit of sound quality this app brings, especially to a high quality DAC like Apogee’s Duet 2. I am really hoping these issues are fixed in a later update. If you own this device, or other another Apogee product, (chances are it will have the same issue) you may want to hold off until this issue is fixed. -Version 1.0.8 By the way, It would be really cool if you could quickly AB (on and off) BitPerfecto give people a real feel for the value this product brings.

First. Get FLAC files.. Second. Convert FLAC to Apple Lossless - I used FLAC Tunes FLAC Converter / I wanted to convert my FLAC files to AppleLossless and use BitPerfect with USB2 direct connect for higher resolution playback in my home audio system. I give it 4 stars because it is quick and easy. It doesnt work with AirPlay / the fix is more than I wanted to deal with. Otherwise for HDA files it’s good and cost effective. It will play at double the resolution of a VLC playerer playing FLAC files. For iTunes users I grabbed and for DAC USB2 playback.

I was perfectly happy with Bit Perfect 1, but I updated to 2, and it wont open. I went through the usual nightmare of trying to get some support, but was put on the infinite loop. The only support is some dopey blog that doesnt seem to allow input. I am using an older mac for my sound system but it meets the requirements of OS 10.6.8 and it is 64 bit. I just want to restore the old bit perfect. 5 stars before, 0 stars now, since it actually doesnt work and there is NO SUPPORT

No matter what I tried, I could not get Bit Perfect to work with Airplay or Airfoi. I’m sticking with Decible.

I recently upgraded my Mac audio chain to include a new DAC (Digital Audio Converter.) My intent was to get the best audio possible from my Mac Mini playing through to my Yamaha Natural Sound receiver. In the process I downloaded and installed BitPerfect. It made a significant difference in the audio quality that I heard from iTunes. Just the increase in audio quality would have been sufficient to warrant a five star review for BitPerfect. However, along the way I needed support from this vendor. I must say that their support was response, informative and extremely helpful. This is a product that accomplishes what it sets out to do--specifically improve the audio quality coming from your Mac.

App switching System Preferences without permission sending other app sound to digital output. I have USB DAC and normally all system sound goes to USB. When BitPerfect is active System Preferences switch to digital out so only iTunes sound goes to USB. Basically this amounts to inability to listen to music casually when other system and application sounds (such as games) also go to the USB DAC. Looks like this app only permits “critical listening” with only iTunes output going to USB. God forbid playing a game and listening to music via USB DAC at the same time...

It seems like this app should be easier to use, but it’s quite inconsistent when it comes to whether it decides to work. Sometimes I can just start Bitperfect and it opens iTunes, then the music is channeled through my Airport Express to my speakers and it sounds great. Other times I start it and I have to quit iTunes, restart Bitperfect, and then it works. Sometimes I have to start iTunes, then Bitperfect…you see where this is going. I can’t seem to figure out why sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. No rhyme or reason that I can figure out. Also whenever iTunes is updated all bets are off. I contacted support and they responded but didn’t have much advice. Good luck if it works for you on a consistent basis.

I had a little trouble getting BitPerfect to run on my MacBook Pro at first. I’m hoping the developer will advise me on how to avoid more problems. However, it’s been running fine now. The sound quality is amazing. If the set up quirks turn out to be a one time thing or easily fixed, I would consider upgrading this to a 5 star review. The sound is clearer, especially the upper midrange definition. The soundstage seems better defined as well. Overall, a much better listening experience. Similar results running on my Mini which has a digital connection to an NAD receiver. Take that, vinyl lovers. ;)

This app promises huge improvements in audio quality but at what cost. There is a noticeable difference in sound but not eneough for $10. When the app is running all other audio producing programms such as youTube or systems sounds are played through the internal computer speakers only, the app hogs “line out “ completly. One has to shut the app down to release the sound which can be hindering if you like to switch back and forth between running programs. The app also does not work for all songs in my intire library which is very disappointing. If this was a user friendly app they would have worked out these kinks. I asked them for my money back but they did never respond.

This is an excellent idea with some execution issues. I keep mostly 16/44.1 ALAC files ripped from CDs (yes, those still exist!) on my machine, but recently a few artists have released direct to digital at higher depth/sampling rate (mostly 24/48). The problem is that iTunes is kind of dumb about this and resamples the 48kHz down to 44.1 unless you go change it in Audio MIDI setup, and then you have to change it back to listen to something else. Ugh. BitPerfect solves this problem, and does seem to subtly alter playback in general, though I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes with the regular 16/44.1 content. So, if it’s so great, why only 3 stars? First, I’d give it 3.5 if I could. But becasuse writing great software is hard, and this isn’t quite up to the standard. This cuts out for no reason, often doesn’t handle sleep/wake without dying, and just generally requires a lot more futzing around than I want to keep it working. (Have to quit and restart iTunes pretty often to keep this from going wonky.) It’s cut out twice just while writing this review. I will, however, say that one thing I *LOVE* about this is that it forces iTunes to go through my optical digital out while letting every other app just use my standard computer speakers. I know other people treat this as a bug, but as far as I’m concerned, this is an amazing feature. I’ve wanted that for years, and have been really missing it since the old utility I used for this (Detour) died. I hope if this issue is “fixed” for other users, it is at least left as an option for those of us who want it.

Does make a discernable improvement in the sound quality, but constantly crashes and quits and does not play well with iTunes.

Have not tried other similar products to fully compare sound, but this works well and is stable with iTunes and running Yosemite. I output thru an optical cable to my DAC and the sound is great.

The app, when it works well, is great. However, there has not been a time where it has cut out in the middle of songs on iTunes stopping the song completely. It has been more frequent on Yosemite. Is there a fix in the works? Based on it’s price relative to other apps on the App Store, a fix is in order.

Not that good.