Play music from a Mac to a Denon, Marantz or any UPnP player

Your library stays on the Mac. The amplifier in the other room plays it.

Most network amplifiers and streamers — Denon and Marantz with HEOS, WiiM, Bluesound, Eversolo, Cambridge Audio — are UPnP/DLNA media renderers: they can play a file that another device on the network hands them. BitMuse is that other device. Choose the amplifier as the output, and every track in your library goes to it: as the original file, or as LPCM made on the Mac with your DSP chain in it. Play, pause, seeking and the amplifier’s own volume stay in BitMuse and in the phone remote.

How to set it up

1. Put the Mac and the amplifier on the same network. Wired or Wi-Fi does not matter; they have to be able to see each other.
2. Open the output menu in BitMuse’s status bar. Network players appear under Network Players a few seconds after the menu opens.
3. Choose the amplifier and play. If macOS asks whether BitMuse may accept incoming connections, allow it: the amplifier fetches the music from the Mac, and a blocked connection is an amplifier with nothing to play.

Switching the output in the middle of a track carries the track across and continues it from where it was, the way AirPlay does. Going back to the Mac’s own DAC does the same in the other direction.

The original file, or LPCM made here

One setting decides what leaves the Mac, per amplifier: Settings → Audio → Send to <your amplifier>. The phone remote has the same switch.

• Send the original file (the default). The amplifier gets your FLAC, ALAC or WAV byte for byte and decodes it itself. If it will not play a particular format, BitMuse sends that track as LPCM instead and tells you it did.
• Convert to LPCM. Every track is decoded on the Mac, run through BitMuse’s DSP chain, and sent to the amplifier as uncompressed PCM in a WAV stream. Choose this when you want your equaliser, room correction or crossfeed on the amplifier, or when the amplifier handles some formats badly.

Tracks cut from a single-file rip by a CUE sheet always go as LPCM, whichever you choose: the amplifier would otherwise play the whole side from the top.

Your DSP chain, on the amplifier

Under Convert to LPCM the same chain that runs on the Mac’s own output runs on the stream: equaliser, AutoEQ headphone profiles, room correction, crossfeed and the rest, in the order you set them. The stream goes out at 24 bits whenever an effect is switched on, so the processing is not rounded away on the way to the amplifier. A surround file is folded to stereo with the same downmix the Mac’s output uses.

The amplifier buffers the track ahead of what you hear, so a setting you change is not in the part it already holds. When you stop adjusting, BitMuse sends the track again from the place it has reached: a short pause, then the same music with the new setting.

Is it bit-perfect?

With Send the original file, BitMuse does not touch the samples at all — it hands over the file, and what happens after that is the amplifier’s decoder. With Convert to LPCM and nothing switched on, a 16- or 24-bit file arrives sample for sample as it is on disk, at its own rate; deeper files go out at 24 bits, and DSD is converted to PCM at up to 192 kHz. The Signal Path window says which of these is running for the track in front of you, the same way it does for a DAC on the Mac.

What you control from the Mac and the phone

• The amplifier’s own volume. BitMuse’s fader moves the amplifier’s volume, and turning the knob on the amplifier moves the fader. Nothing is sent until BitMuse has read where the amplifier’s volume actually is, so choosing the amplifier never jumps it to the Mac’s level.
• Play, pause and seeking. The seekbar shows a spinner while the amplifier moves to the new place.
• Gapless albums, on amplifiers that queue the next track. The next track is handed over before the current one ends.
• The queue, playlists, radio and automatic mixes work exactly as they do on the Mac’s own output.
• The phone remote can pick the amplifier, switch between the original file and LPCM, and drive everything above from the sofa.

An amplifier in standby

Many network amplifiers keep their network side awake while the rest is off. Choose one in that state and press play: it takes the track while it is still powering up, and BitMuse goes on asking it to play for up to a minute, until the output stage is ready. If it has been switched off completely, BitMuse says so rather than showing a player that is quietly going nowhere.

Why not Roon for this?

Roon plays to its own certified endpoints, AirPlay, Chromecast and Sonos, but not to UPnP/DLNA renderers; requests for it have been marked “not on the roadmap” since 2016. If your amplifier is a UPnP player and not Roon Ready, a Roon setup needs a third-party bridge in between. BitMuse speaks UPnP itself. The Roon comparison covers the rest of the differences.

What it does not do

• No AirPlay or Chromecast — UPnP/DLNA players only.
• One player at a time. No synchronised multi-room playback.
• No streaming services. BitMuse plays the music you own.
• The Mac stays in the chain. The amplifier reads the music from it, so the Mac has to be awake while it plays.

FAQ

Which network players does BitMuse work with?

Anything that announces itself on your network as a UPnP/DLNA media renderer, which is most network amplifiers and streamers: Denon and Marantz with HEOS, WiiM, Bluesound, Eversolo, Cambridge Audio and many more. It is developed and tested against a Denon PMA-900HNE.

Do I need the HEOS app or any other app on the amplifier?

No. BitMuse talks to the amplifier directly over UPnP. The amplifier only needs to be on the same network as the Mac.

Does the Mac have to stay on?

Yes. The amplifier reads the music from the Mac, so the Mac has to be awake while it plays. The library can still live on a NAS; BitMuse reads it there and serves it to the amplifier.

Can I play to AirPlay, Chromecast or several rooms at once?

Not today. BitMuse plays to one UPnP/DLNA player at a time. AirPlay, Chromecast and synchronised multi-room playback are not supported.

Try it on your amplifier — free for 30 days

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$99.95 once if you keep it · macOS 15+ · Apple Silicon