Fidelia App Reviews

Not good !!

To be honest, Fidelia sounds very, very good upsampling uncompressed (FLAC) files using Goodhertz - its among the best Mac players available. But, apparently nobody has told Audiofile Engineering that skeuomorphism is out, and its library management is all but non-existent. I was also a little dissaponted with the recent update (version 1.6.3), having patiently waitied so long for it. If you have a large library, you might want to look for something else. Otherwise, Fidelia is a great sounding player, even in the basic version.

After using this app for a week , I am very impressed with the sound quality of this app , I am using FLAC music files with an optical cable fom my macbook pro to a Denon amp , The sound is awesome compared to using the macbook sound output ,Also , The ability to convert music files from Itunes to FLAc files is very useful , Fidelia also has many options and functions to adjust the sound as well , Bottom line, this app produces great sound ,

Ever since I upgraded this software it freezes on startup and support has not bothered to get back to me regarding the problem. Requires a force quit.

I am very pleased with this app. I have become a dedicated FLAC file listener, and this was the first app i tried for use on all my Macs. Does everything i need it to do. Sounds great. I am not able to detect any sonic flaws in the output from my MacBook Pro via optical output. Sound is incredibly clean and full. With this app an audiophile can easily here the difference between FLAC quality and CD quality music files (tip - just dont forget to change the optical audio output settings to 96/24 in the Audio MIDI Setup window). I am not quite a fan of the big old style interface. But i do like the mini-player interface. I never use bass, treble or an equalizer, as i prefer unaltered/unenhanced music as it was recorded so the absence of these controls on the interface is no big deal to me. I purchased the iPod/iPad remote app too and that also works perfectly with no delays. From a listening point of view i give it 100%. From an interface point of view, perhaps 60%. Id like to see the library window and interface window merged (like in MediaMonkey on a PC). But, if the interface doesnt eventually change, ill still use this app every day as my FLAC player.

I am giving up on Fidelia too. I tried Enqueue but its not bit perfect and sound like crap compared to Fidelia. that was $10 wasted. and now with Fidelia another $20 wasted. Fidelia works fine until I pause. when i hit play it stops working and then hangs. i have to force quit and then I loose my Library! I have to re-do the Library which is 400G of FLACs which takes about 10 mins. then i can play music again. but once I pause. rinse. repeat. its just not practical. So I am going to try to find another FLAC player but I am not going to spend anymore money on these things. Avoid Fidelia and Enqueue until the devs fix all these bugs.

Over the past few years I have become a dedicated FLAC listener. I have also become a Mac user. I switched to Mac because I am a musician and was tired of fighting with Windows drivers to make my hardware work. However, there is one windoze app that I continue to use on my audiophile system and that is MediaMonkey. This is what I was used to working with for listening to music, and it works very, very well - on a PC. Due to the advertising and a couple of good reviews, I decided to try Fidelia on my Mac. Unlike most things Mac, I have had to fight to figure out Fidelias user interface. The sorting and viewing options in the library are so limited and out-dated as to make it virtually useless. The application takes forever to load - even when ensuring that the network drive has already been mounted. Updates few, far between, and do not contain any UI improvements. This leads one to believe that support tends to ignore you when you make suggestions to improve. While the sound quality is good, I cannot recomend this application to anyone as the functionality and useability is horrid. Stay away.

I bought this about a year ago and mostly think it is great, except for the library which is a complete hot mess. I really dont like iTunes, but have resorted to it recently because when I want to list to an album I dont have to think about how I am going to play it through my media player. Audiofile Eningineering, please take note: Work on the library organizarion please. It might seem insignificant but most of our consious time with Fidelia is in the library, and when it is a pain to navigate it doesnt leave a good feeling about the otherwise awesome application.

Very good sound quality. Much better than iTunes. Good interface. But each time I try to add folder to Fidelia playlist I find all files added unsystematically. Ok. Just go menu/view/track numer and sort it as you like. But its unlogic way. It must be like that by default. It would be excelent if Fidelia will learn to recognize all audio playing system keys (back/forward/pause). Overall quality of player is excelent.

No way to restore in-app purchases, and they were expensive. Hangs randomly - OSX Mavericks, B&W MM-1 DAC. Unusable.

You have to fix the bug that occurs when you add a song from your itunes library to Fidelia library.when you delete the song from fidelia library and then try to play this song from itunes library the song didnt start… you have to quit and opean again Fidelia..

First: it lacks a column to browse the music by artist, when you have a large library it becomes a problem. Second: The artwork feature hat was implemented is completely useless since if the artwork is not in the metadata of the file fidelia wont display it (no cover drag and drop feature), and here im arriving to the third point: it would be nice to add a feature that allows to modify the metadata of the file (Artist/album/year/...) also since many songs that dont have those information will fall in the bottom of the library limbo!

On the (significant) plus side, the sound quality is great. If you’ve been playing lossless or HD files through iTunes, Fidelia will shock you with how much better they can sound. Simply put, it’s not possible to hear the full potential of your high-quality music through iTunes. On the downside, library management with Fidelio, even simply accessing the songs you’re looking for without a text seach, is just flat-out terrible. If you’re used to calling up a desired song quickly in iTunes, Fidelia will be an extreme disappointment. Don’t even think about browsing your music with Fidelia; it’s impossible. Essentially, the only way to use the app is to start with a specific song or album in mind, and then use text search to find it, open it, and enjoy the sound quality that Fidelia offers. Really, Fidelia’s file management is no better than just using the finder in OS X, which can be frustrating. Also, the app can be VERY slow, especially if your library is a large one (which I’d guess it is for most folks who’d be interested in an app like this.) Bottom line: if you’re willing to sacrifice all elements of convenience that iTunes has taught you are “normal,” Fidelia will deliver eye-popping sound quality. For me, that’s a fair trade-off, at least in certain situations. But I definitely find myself screaming in frustration at this app a lot.

The sound is awesome -and that’s the only reason I put up with the frequent crashes. I use it exclusively for playing lossless FLAC files. Usually the crashes occur when the sample rates change between albums. Wish they’d fix it !

For those seeking an audio upgrade from Itunes, this program is it. Nice interface and the ability to use plugins (Like an EQ) gives you some control over the Macs audio for a change. It will read your Itunes library albeit without the album pictures, but then again I am "listening" to the music...Not looking at it. Ive been looking for a program like this for a while and Im not disappointed I bought it. They also have an IPhone app that allows remote control of this software and your playback library, but at an addidional $9.99 I felt the price was too steep for the amount of utilization I would get out of it.

Great! But songs are missing from the Fidelia itunes library that are in my original library...? Please Advise

Great app. Does what it says. However if you tweak a media player, itll do the same as this. My dislike bout this app is the cost.

So far I am very impressed! Fidelia does indeed get your MAC to play FLAC files. After listening to 16 bit FLAC files downloaded from the DG website and 24/96 FLAC files from LINN Records using Sennheiser HD600 headphones I would say the sound quality is excellent. Detail resolution is noticeably better than the same files played on i-Tunes (after conversion to WAV or Apple Lossless using MAX software). And for only $20 - what a deal!

The sound is unbelievable, but usability needs to be improved. 1. Please implement extended keyboard functionalities . Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Fast Forward, Previous and Next should be functions accessible from outside the app as well with global hotkeys. 2. Crossfade. I would love that! 3. VoiceOver accessibility… Please do something? Playlist content is not spoken when navigating with the arrow keys, the main playback window and volume control are totally unaccessible. I did not manage to apply any AU effects either. I would be happy to leave a 5 stars if the suggestions and few issues raised here are solved in upcoming versions.

Folks, as far as sound goes, variety of kinds of files you can play - this is super, and a huge upgrade in sound over iTunes. But it crashes like a junkyard dog, sticks skips, and just isnt stable yet. If this were free, I wouldnt mind help work out the kinks, but I paid for this. Therefore, it should work. Period. And when you go to report problems, even that doesnt work correctly. Not ready for prime time. Yet.