DAC Player : Music Player

The name says DAC, but you don't need one. DAC Player is a full-featured music player for your phone speaker, earphones or Bluetooth: library, playlists, synced lyrics, equalizer, sleep timer, relaxing sounds and 30 particle effects.

Plug in a USB DAC and choose USB direct, and your music reaches it bit for bit, untouched by Android.

■ USB direct — it bypasses the Android mixer (bit-perfect)

Most apps hand audio to Android, which may resample it and mix it with other apps. DAC Player detaches the kernel audio driver and sends isochronous USB transfers to your DAC itself, so not one bit changes: a 44.1kHz file leaves at 44.1kHz, a 384kHz file at 384kHz.

■ Three ways to play DSD

· Native — the 1-bit stream goes out unwrapped, up to DSD512 (705.6kHz) if your DAC can take it · DoP — the 1-bit stream rides inside PCM (for DACs that know DoP; you turn it on per DAC) · PCM conversion — safe on any DAC

The app reads your DAC's USB descriptors and lets you pick Native only when the DAC can do it.

■ It drives your DAC's own hardware volume

The app sets the volume inside your DAC over USB control transfers, and the side volume keys do too. Nothing is attenuated digitally, so nothing is lost.

★ Safe start volume — DACs usually power up at full scale, so the moment the app takes control it drops to -20 dB to protect your ears. Adjustable, or off.

■ Something to watch — 30 particle effects and a dome

On each new track, the album art scatters into thousands of grains and gathers again (or the title and artist, if there is no cover). Pick an effect — snow, aurora, galaxy, black hole, waterfall and more — or let them shuffle at an interval you set. Six, like Neon brush and Spectrum curtain, paint with light and smoke instead of grains.

★ Double-tap the particles to go full screen.

The dome is a mesh of dots that unfolds with the music: gold dust spills from its ring, and waves run through it on the beat.

There are also level meters beside the album art and a 12-band spectrum behind the library.

★ No microphone permission needed. The visuals come straight from the audio being played.

■ Built-in DSP equalizer

Computed in the app, not by Android's audio effects, so simply turning it on never makes your music quieter. Five bands, preamp, bass boost, stereo widening and reverb.

■ Everyday features

· Relax & Sleep — mix wind, rain, waves, campfire, night train and more, plus a valley and the sea recorded in Gangwon-do, Korea. Rain can fall on screen with the sound · Folders, albums, album artists, tracks, favorites and recently played, plus playlists and search · Synced lyrics — LRC, SRT, VTT, SMI and lyrics embedded in the file, with an offset control when they drift · Tag editing writes into the original file (MP3, FLAC, DSF), so PC tag editors and other apps see it too. Cover art and embedded lyrics are kept · Backgrounds: your own photo, the album art as a silhouette, or slowly drifting colors · Set text colors separately for titles, subtitles, times and more · Call recordings are hidden by default · Turn the phone sideways for a full-screen player

■ No ads, nothing collected

· No advertising · No personal data collected · No internet permission, so the app could not send data anywhere even if it wanted to · No account, no sign-in

■ What you need

· Android 8.0 or newer · Without a DAC, everything works except USB direct, DSD and DAC volume · For USB direct: a phone with USB host (OTG) support and a USB DAC

■ Before you buy, please read

· DSD means .dsf files, played through USB direct only (Android has no DSD decoder). Add them in Settings → DSD (SACD) · The equalizer works only through the Android mixer. USB direct skips the Android audio system entirely, so nothing can touch the signal — that is what bit-perfect means · On some phones, after USB direct you must replug the cable before the Android mixer plays sound again. This is an Android limitation the app cannot fix