I am looking at switching from my PC (Windows XP Pro) to an iMac. My question is whether or not there is software that is functionally equivalent to Exact Audio Copy, FLAC encoder and foobar2000. For the foobar software, I need something that will allow me to bypass the computer sound and connect directly to my usb headphone amp. EAC and FLAC are what I am using to record my cd's onto a hard drive in FLAC format.
Unlike Windows, where prior to Vista there was a need to bypass kMixer with either kernel streaming or ASIO, there is no need to use special software to bypass the computer sound in Mac OS X. Macs are bit-perfect out of the box. No special software needed. Everything, including iTunes, is bit-perfect (provided you turn off the equalizer and "Sound Check", the normalizer, obviously).
The functional equivalent to EAC on OS X is called "Max". It uses Unix cdparanoia behind the scenes. The only real player with a significant following other than iTunes on OS X is "Cog" which can be found on the same website as "Max." Songbird will also play FLAC and has a bit of a following. Most Mac users use iTunes, simply because it works well and there is no reason not to, but if you want a traditional player with no library functions, Cog is good.
iTunes does not support FLAC directly. One thing to think about or consider is using dbPowerAmp before you switch to convert your FLAC files to ALAC, which is Apple's Lossless format. Then all your music would be accessible in iTunes.
If you really have specific needs that can't be met with Songbird, most of the Linux media players like Amarok can be made to work on OS X.
