“The simplicity enabled my brain to think about only the music. And, the sound was fantastic.”
VeraVox Music Player – A Budding Rose Among Thorns
Read article on Audiophile StyleThe signal, untouched.
VeraVox delivers every bit of your audio files directly to your DAC, exactly as the recording engineer intended. No DSP, no mixer, no software volume in the player path: everything downstream is your DAC's job, and VeraVox stays out of its way.
30-day full-feature trial · No account required · macOS 14+
Format ceiling. Actual support depends on your DAC's capabilities.
Design Philosophy
Most macOS apps send audio through the system mixer: sample-rate conversion, 32-bit float intermediates, software volume scaling. It works for everyday use. But between your file and your DAC, the signal has already been rewritten.
VeraVox is built specifically to avoid that path. It acquires exclusive access to your output device (Hog Mode), negotiates the physical stream format directly with the driver, and delivers raw samples with zero processing in between. The signal that leaves your file is the signal that reaches your DAC.
VeraVox doesn’t do upsampling, room correction, EQ, or software volume in the player path. If your DAC does any of those things, that’s its design and VeraVox stays out of its way. The same is true for everything downstream: preamp, integrated, room correction box, hardware processor. VeraVox feeds the chain you’ve built, untouched.
Some chains add room correction, convolution, or custom filtering in software on the same Mac. VeraVox does not perform any of it, by design: that step in the chain belongs to you. Route VeraVox’s output to a virtual audio device that your processing chain expects, or to a hardware processor over USB or your network. VeraVox delivers bit-perfect samples to that handoff point and stops there. Everything beyond is your authorship, and VeraVox has no opinion about it.
Signal Chain Comparison
✗ Standard macOS CoreAudio
✓ VeraVox — Hog Mode
Where VeraVox Begins and Ends
A player is one stage in a longer signal chain. VeraVox does its stage faithfully and leaves the rest to the equipment that’s designed for it.
What VeraVox Does
What VeraVox Doesn’t Do
VeraVox is built to reveal what your DAC already does. The better the DAC, the more there is to hear. The better the chain downstream (preamp, room treatment, room correction), the more VeraVox stays in service of it.
Signal Chain Patterns
VeraVox feeds whatever you place after it. These are the three realistic shapes of an audiophile signal chain.
Pattern A · Direct
✓ Hog Mode, file to DAC
Pattern B · Software processing on the Mac
✓ Bit-perfect to the virtual handoff
Pattern C · Outboard processing
✓ Bit-perfect over USB or your network
In every pattern, VeraVox delivers bit-perfect samples up to the handoff point and stops there. What runs after is your chain’s authorship, verifiable end-to-end with the built-in Bit-Perfect Test.
Capabilities
Built from the ground up for audiophiles who understand why the signal chain matters.
Hog Mode
Exclusive hardware ownership: no other app touches the output device. Sample rate and bit depth negotiated directly with the driver. CoreAudio software mixer bypassed entirely.
PCM Bit-Perfect
FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, WavPack up to 32-bit / 768 kHz. Integer-only output: no float conversion, no dithering. Decoded in 64 KB chunks into a ring buffer read directly by the IOProc.
DSD via DoP
DSD64–DSD512 via DSF, DFF, SACD ISO, and WavPack. DoP packing fully in software with alternating 0x05/0xFA markers. Higher DSD rates require a DAC that accepts the corresponding PCM carrier (DSD512 = 1.4 MHz). DSD→PCM fallback via exclusive mode when hardware doesn’t support DoP.
DSD64 · DSD128 · DSD256 · DSD5123-Level Gapless
Sample-accurate for PCM and DSD. Level 1: file pre-open. Level 2: adaptive pre-decode into the live ring buffer (10 s local, up to 30 s for NAS). Level 3: IOProc reads continuously through the track boundary. No stall, no restart.
HDCD & CD De-Emphasis
The two decodes the disc itself declares, honored automatically. HDCD: a pre-scan detects the control code hidden in the least-significant bits, then the decoder restores Peak Extend and low-level detail on the exclusive path, where the code survives intact. Pre-emphasis: rips flagged by tag or CUE sheet get the inverse 50/15 µs curve instead of playing several dB too bright. Vintage-style LEDs light in the format badge, the Signal Path reports Faithful Decode, and the Library marks HDCD and PRE albums.
HDCD · 50/15 µs · Faithful DecodeStream Inspector
Real-time lock-free telemetry: bit-perfect chain verifier with fade gain monitor, DSD envelope waveform, RMS history, bit-plane visualizer, DAC sync status, DoP marker quality, and a timestamped event log. Non-blocking on the audio IOProc.
Audio Analysis
Offline FFT analysis. Measures true bandwidth and effective bit depth from decoded samples to characterise what a PCM file actually contains relative to its container metadata. Two-stage brickwall detection with 96 kHz safe-zone ceiling.
PCM content checkDynamic Range
On-demand Crest Factor DR (Pleasurize TT DR Offline Meter) and EBU R128 LRA (Tech 3342, BS.1770-4 K-weighted pipeline) for every Library track. Strictly user-initiated: right-click a track, album, or folder, or run a library-wide pass from Tools. Values live in the local database only and are never written back to the source files. Displayed as Library columns, as an album-card pill (MIN per album, "worst master heuristic"), in the player technical row, and as a Track Info card with the four persisted values (DR, LRA, LUFS-I, sample peak).
DR · R128 LRA · LUFS-IVectorscope
GPU-accelerated Lissajous stereo field via Metal, with phosphor persistence simulation. Mono traces the M diagonal; wide stereo fills the circle. Available as artwork flip side in the player.
Spectrum Analyzer
Real-time 4096-point FFT at 30 fps with Blackman-Harris window. Logarithmic frequency axis, IEC 61672 A/C weighting, peak hold, interactive crosshair cursor, line and gradient-fill modes. PCM and DSD via FIR decimation.
RTA · ⌘⇧SSpectrogram
Two-axis time × frequency × intensity visualization. FILE mode runs an offline 8192-point Hann STFT on the whole track with click-to-seek and a playhead overlay. LIVE mode taps the Spectrum Analyzer pipeline for a scrolling real-time view. Three perceptual colormaps (Viridis / Inferno / Grayscale), three dynamic-range floors. Forensic identification of lossy artifacts and fake hi-res.
STFT · ⌘⌥GVU Meter
Dual analog-style VU meters (L/R) with IEC 60268-17 ballistics. K-14 calibration, nonlinear scale −20 to +3 VU, 60 fps needle animation. Ballistic response modelled on the Sifam AL19 moving-coil meter; warm amber lighting evokes the Pioneer RT-909 fluorescent VU panel.
IEC 60268-17 · ⌘⇧USurround Sound Scope
Dedicated multichannel monitor following ITU-R BS.775-3 / SMPTE ST 2098-2. Top-down speaker map with SMPTE trapezoid icons, radial energy wavefield, dB graticule, phantom crosshair, plus a side panel with per-channel dBFS bar meters and a dedicated LFE LED bar. 3.0 / 5.1 / 6.1 / 7.1 / Atmos 7.1.1→7.1.4 / generic ring up to 12 ch. IEC 60268-17 ballistics shared with the VU Meter.
SMPTE · ⌘⌥MSignal Generator
Laboratory-grade test instrument in the Vectorscope window. Six patterns (sine, beat, noise, impulse, Lissajous, reference) routed through the bit-perfect pipeline. Dual-channel measurement engine with level, frequency, phase, and bit-perfect verification.
SIG GEN · BPT · IEC 61672Polarity Inversion
Bit-perfect absolute polarity reversal across all paths. PCM: two’s complement negation. DSD/DoP: only the 16 audio bits per frame are flipped; DoP markers preserved. Active during playback. Symbol: ø
DAC Warm-Up
Streams DoP-encoded silence (DSD mute: 0x69) before the first track, stabilising oscillators in exclusive mode. Duration 1–10 s. Effective for tube-output and R-2R ladder DACs.
Tube & R-2R DACsDAC Diagnostic
Queries every physical stream format from your DAC driver in real time. Shows active format with score, max capability, and full format table with NON-MIX / MIXABLE classification.
Metadata Viewer
Full tag reader for FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, WavPack, DSF, DFF. Displays title, artist, album, year, genre, track/disc, composer, cover art. Read-only — audio files are never modified.
Mini Player & Output
Floating always-on-top player with artwork and transport controls. Output selector enumerates all CoreAudio devices with capability classification. Auto-refreshes on USB connect/disconnect.
NAS & Network Storage
Full support for SMB, AFP, and NFS shares. Volume health monitoring with automatic reconnection when a NAS wakes from sleep. Adaptive buffering extends preload windows based on measured I/O latency. Non-blocking startup: the UI never freezes on unreachable volumes.
SMB · AFP · NFS · USBWeb Remote
Control VeraVox from your phone or tablet. A built-in HTTP server serves a Progressive Web App. No app install, no internet needed. Full transport controls, queue, library browsing, artwork, and device selection. PIN-secured, local network only.
PWA · WebSocket · QR CodeUPnP / DLNA
Bit-perfect networking in both directions. Send to any UPnP/DLNA renderer — the file is served over HTTP and decoded untouched at the far end. Or let VeraVox be the renderer: a control app pushes a stream and VeraVox plays it through the very same bit-perfect engine as a local file — and reports whether what arrived is lossless or was transcoded upstream.
Send · Receive · SSDP · AVTransport · GENAStream Inspector
The Stream Inspector shows the complete picture of what’s happening inside the audio pipeline. At the top: a live oscilloscope displaying the audio waveform. For DSD sources it shows the envelope decoded via a FIR 1-bit→audio filter; for PCM sources it shows the raw sample waveform. To the right: a scrolling RMS history bar chart with peak hold indicator.
Below, Stream Status gives you instant DAC SYNC, DoP MARKERS, PHASE ERR, FILL INJ. and UNDERRUN counts. The bit-plane visualizer shows DSD natively transported in 32-bit DoP frames, exactly what the DAC receives. Every anomaly lands in the Event Log with a precise timestamp.
DAC Diagnostic
A two-level summary at the top tells you the active format VeraVox has negotiated with the driver (and why), and the device’s maximum non-mixable capability. Below: every physical format the DAC exposes, with its sample rate, type, bits, channel count, and mixability.
Formats are queried live via CoreAudio property listeners, not guessed from metadata. The ACTIVE row is highlighted. NON-MIX rows are eligible for bit-perfect playback. Formats are ranked by bit-perfect eligibility: non-mixable first, sorted by container suitability.
Audio Analysis
Audio Analysis performs an offline mathematical FFT analysis of the decoded audio samples, not the container metadata, to characterise the actual spectral content of a file relative to what the container claims. Available for PCM sources only (FLAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, WavPack).
The spectrum panel shows the average frequency response on a logarithmic scale with dB reference lines at −30, −90, −96 (16-bit floor), −120, and −144 dB (24-bit floor). Vertical dashed lines mark 22.05 kHz and 44.1 kHz rolloff boundaries. The score card below reports Detected Quality, Bit Depth, Bandwidth, Noise Floor, DC Offset, and Duration.
When the analysis reports “Fake Hi-Res”, it means the measured content does not fill the claimed resolution. A file tagged as 96 kHz/24-bit whose spectrum shows a hard cutoff at 22 kHz and a noise floor consistent with 16-bit, for example. This can occur for several reasons: upsampling, certain mastering choices, or format conversion. It is a technical observation about the audio content, not necessarily an indication of intentional manipulation.
Vectorscope
Tap the artwork during playback to reveal the Vectorscope. Left channel maps to the horizontal axis, Right to the vertical. A mono signal traces the M diagonal (lower-left to upper-right). Stereo content opens into an ellipse or fills the circle. Out-of-phase material rotates toward the S diagonal (upper-left to lower-right).
Rendered via Metal point-sprites at 60 fps with additive bloom blending, the same phosphor persistence simulation used in vintage Tektronix scopes. Choose between P1 green and P12 amber phosphor. Detach the Vectorscope into its own floating window (⌘⇧V) to access the integrated Signal Generator and dual-channel measurement engine.
You can use it to diagnose your stereo image, verify channel balance, spot phase problems. Or simply to enjoy it.
Spectrum Analyzer
A live FFT frequency-domain display of the audio stream being delivered to the DAC. A 4096-point FFT with Blackman-Harris window (−92 dB sidelobe rejection) produces 2048 output bins, mapped onto a logarithmic frequency axis from 20 Hz to the Nyquist frequency and updated 30 times per second.
Five-level EMA smoothing, IEC 61672 A-weighting and C-weighting curves, peak hold with 1.5 s flat hold and 30 dB/s decay, two display modes (phosphor line and gradient fill). Hover anywhere on the display to activate an interactive crosshair cursor that reads exact frequency and interpolated dBFS level with sub-bin accuracy.
Works with both PCM and DSD sources. DSD bitstreams are FIR-decimated to PCM using the same sinc-Kaiser filter shared by the Vectorscope. The frequency axis updates dynamically when switching between tracks at different sample rates, from 44.1 kHz to 384 kHz and everything in between.
Spectrogram
A two-axis view of frequency content over time, complementary to the Spectrum Analyzer's single-trace instant view. FILE mode runs an offline 8192-point Hann-windowed STFT over the entire track with 75% overlap, caches the result in memory, and paints it as a CGImage with a perceptually-uniform colormap. A bright cyan playhead marks the current playback position; clicking anywhere on the bitmap seeks to that point.
LIVE mode taps the same FFT pipeline used by the Spectrum Analyzer for a scrolling 17-second ring at 30 fps. The DSP cost is essentially zero because the pipeline is shared via a consumer reference count. Vertical axis is log-frequency from 20 Hz to Nyquist, identical to the Spectrum Analyzer, with bilinear interpolation in dB between adjacent bins. Out-of-band region above the source fs/2 is painted as uniform "no-data" grey.
Three perceptually-uniform colormaps (Viridis default, Inferno, Grayscale) and three dB floors (−80 / −96 / −120) cover forensic work and publication screenshots. Primary use: identifying lossy-compression cliffs, fake hi-res upscales, and DSD noise-shaping behaviour.
VU Meter & Spectrum Analyzer
A dual analog VU meter with real IEC 60268-17 ballistics (300 ms rise time, slight overshoot, nonlinear scale), modelled as a second-order spring-mass-damper system after Lobdell & Allen (JASA 2007). Calibrated to K-14 (0 VU = −14 dBFS), it shows perceived loudness rather than instantaneous peaks.
The mechanical response is inspired by the Sifam AL19 moving-coil panel meter; the warm amber back-light pays tribute to the Pioneer RT-909’s fluorescent VU panel: aesthetic only, not the underlying meter type.
Pair it with the real-time Spectrum Analyzer for a complete picture: time-domain average level on the VU meters, frequency-domain detail on the FFT. Both share the same lock-free tap buffer and instrument rack bezel, and both run without touching the audio signal path.
Surround Sound Scope
A dedicated multichannel monitor with SMPTE speaker placement (ITU-R BS.775-3 for 5.1 and 7.1, SMPTE ST 2098-2 for Atmos beds with overhead heights). The layout adapts automatically from 3.0 up to 7.1.4 and falls back to a generic ring for non-standard channel counts. Per-channel RMS uses the same IEC 60268-17 ballistics as the VU meter, so integration time is consistent across instruments. LFE lives on its own horizontal bar, never folded into the front meters.
An in-app Speaker Layout editor (⌘⌥K) lets you declare, per output device, which physical output slot carries which Atmos role (L, R, C, LFE, sides, rears, four heights). The routing is applied as a pure index permutation, with zero sample arithmetic, fully bit-perfect-faithful. The Scope then reflects exactly what the device sees: a 5.1 file on a 7.1.4 layout lights the rears, leaves the sides dim.
The editor presents a live 3D speaker map around a central listener, with perspective, frontal and top-down cameras, so you can see exactly where every routed channel lands in space before you press play. A per-channel test tone (1 kHz sine, −20 dBFS, raised-cosine envelope) confirms the physical wiring of your speakers, in the spirit of macOS Audio MIDI Setup's Prova button.
Signal Generator
The Signal Generator turns VeraVox into a dual-channel audio analyser. Generate a known signal (pure tones, noise, impulses), route it through the exact same bit-perfect pipeline used for music, capture what comes back, and compare. No external equipment needed beyond a loopback cable or virtual driver.
Six test patterns (SINE, BEAT, LISSAJ, NOISE, IMPULSE, REF 0dB) with real-time Tektronix-style rotary knobs for frequency, phase, level, and correlation. Switch to DUAL mode to overlay output and input traces on the Vectorscope CRT, then read level (dBFS/dBA/dBC), frequency, phase, bit-perfect test result, and I/O phase shift from the integrated meter row.
Calibrate the round-trip latency with a single click, then verify bit-perfect delivery at every sample rate your DAC supports. BPT = PASS means every sample arrived untouched. No mixer, no SRC, no DSP in the path.
Mini Player
The Mini Player floats above your workspace: compact, always visible, never intrusive. Track info, format badge, progress bar and transport controls at a glance. Drag it anywhere on screen.
Web Remote
Enable Web Remote and scan the QR code. VeraVox starts a local HTTP server that serves a full-featured Progressive Web App directly to your phone, tablet, or any browser on the same network. No app install, no App Store, no internet required.
Full transport controls, seek bar, queue management, and a nine-tab library view (Albums, Artists, Genres, Composers, Tags, Folders, Playlists, Smart, Tracks) with persistent in-place search and album art grid, all in real time via WebSocket. On iOS, add to Home Screen for a native-feeling fullscreen experience. PIN-secured, local network only.
Supported Formats
Who Uses VeraVox
VeraVox is opinionated about its role in the signal chain. These are the setups it was designed for.
USB DAC Owner
The bit-perfect purist.
Holo, Denafrips, Schiit, Chord, RME, Topping. Wants the file delivered to the DAC’s USB receiver exactly as it left the encoder. Uses the DAC’s own volume (or an external preamp). Has run BPT tests at every supported rate.
R-2R & Tube DAC Owner
The analog-flavoured digital.
Output stages that benefit from thermal stability and clock lock. DAC Warm-Up exists for this setup. Tube and R-2R ladder DACs receive the same clean signal as everything else, with time to settle.
Network Renderer Owner
The streamer in the rack.
Whether the streamer sits in the rack or VeraVox is itself the renderer, the signal stays untouched. VeraVox serves files over HTTP for any UPnP/DLNA renderer to decode — or becomes the renderer, playing what a control app sends it through the same bit-perfect engine as a local file. A library, a controller, and a faithful endpoint; never an audio processor.
SACD & Archive Collector
The high-density library.
SACD ISO with native Scarlet Book parsing, on-the-fly DST decode, multichannel. DSF, DFF, WavPack DSD. One of the few players that opens these natively without third-party conversion utilities.
Measurement & DIY
The signal-chain auditor.
DIY DAC builders, calibrators, measurement hobbyists. SIG GEN with loopback capture, Bit-Perfect Test at every rate, IEC 61672 A/C-weighted level meter, latency calibration. The tool to verify the chain you built, not the chain someone sold you.
Multi-Room Listener
The desk-to-couch listener.
VeraVox runs on a Mac somewhere quiet; Web Remote turns any phone, tablet, or laptop on the Wi-Fi into a controller. Local network only, PIN-secured, PWA. No app to install, no cloud, no account.
DSP Chain Owner
The room-corrected purist.
Room correction, convolution FIR filters, custom processing chains in software on the Mac, or in outboard hardware. VeraVox routes to the virtual audio device or hardware processor your chain expects, and delivers bit-perfect samples at that handoff point. The processing stage receives a clean signal. VeraVox has already done its job.
Press
“The simplicity enabled my brain to think about only the music. And, the sound was fantastic.”
VeraVox Music Player – A Budding Rose Among Thorns
Read article on Audiophile StylePricing
No subscription. No feature gating. All 1.x updates included.
Try it free for 30 days, full features, no card required.
one-time purchase · tax included
The analysis instruments work on local playback, including a stream pushed to VeraVox in UPnP Renderer Mode. When VeraVox sends to a network renderer the renderer decodes the file, so there is nothing local to measure.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon & Intel · Direct download · v1.x updates included
Updates cover all 1.x releases · future major versions sold separately
Somewhere along the way, audio software became a rental. The app you bought turned into the app you keep paying to keep. Stop the meter, the music stops with it.
VeraVox doesn’t work that way. Buy it once, it’s yours. Not for a year. Not “while subscribed.” Yours.
When a future version of VeraVox arrives, you’ll choose: upgrade for what’s genuinely new, or stay on the one you already love. Your call. New features will never silently revoke old ones. And if a subscription ever arrives for things VeraVox doesn’t do today, a lifetime option will always arrive with it. That’s not a business model. It’s a contract.
Your DAC stays untouched by VeraVox. So does this.