Q:Hi, i've just bought the hrt music streamer ii. The question is, what are the best music player that is paired well with the dac. I'm using Mac OSX version 10.7.4
A:As most Mac based players are based upon iTunes, you can easily just configure iTunes for the source material you will be playing. The most important concept is to avoid SRC (sample rate conversion). This is accomplished by setting the sample rate using the Audio MIDI Setup utility outside of iTunes. The most important thing to avoid is making an adjustment to the sample rate while iTunes (or any application that produces audio content) is active in the foreground or background. Always close iTunes or any audio application, then make your sample rate changes before reopening the player.

Q:Ok, in your honest opinion what is the best music player for hrt music streamer?
A:The difference in media players is not in their playback of audio for the most part, it is in the feature set and UI (user interface) each offers. As long as you send unadulterated data (avoiding SRC) to the Streamer, the results are going to be fine. The question is does one media player offer any features that you find desirable to have? Does one have a 'look' that you prefer? For many users, these are going to influence their media player decision.

One thing I would recommend is that many players offer short term trials of their software, this would give you the opportunity to try a number of them first; I would however encourage you to try iTunes on its own using the configuration information that I provided. This list of 'options' is growing rather large and include things like, Amarra, BitPerfect, Decibel, Elmedia, MPlayer,Pure Music, VLC, even WMP and of course iTunes along with many more.

Q:Any other things that i should know?
A:As far as cables go, keep the USB cable as short as practical. You can also consider adding a self (not bus) powered USB 2.0 hub between the computer and Streamer. For some computers this can make a noticeable improvement in its performance by off loading the HS to FS translation task from the computer's root hub.