Comparison

Kalliopeia vs PMDA

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Kalliopeia

Experience your music in stunning detail with this high-resolution audio player. It supports a wide range of formats, offers advanced upsampling capabilities, and includes a powerful 11-band equalizer to customize your sound. Enjoy gapless playback, playlist creation, and more.

Highlights
  • High-res audio playback (DSF, DSD, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, AAC, MP3)
  • Audio upsampling to 192kHz
  • 11-band equalizer with presets
  • Gapless playback
  • Playlist creation and waitlist
  • Last.fm scrobbling
Features
Read full description

Kalliopeia is a high resolution music player app. Features: 1. High-res audio playback Supports up to 5.6MHz DSD and 384kHz PCM high-res audio. Capable of playing song synced to your iTunes. Compatible Formats  - DSF / DIFF  - FLAC  - WAV / AIFF  - ALAC(Apple Lossless)  - AAC  - MP3 * A device with a portable amp or other function that supports high resolution is required to output high-res audio at its original quality. Headphones plugged directly into a headphone jack will output at 44.1kHz or 48kHz. * To play DSD files, you need a DAC that supports DSD over PCM (DoP). 2. Converts standard audio files to high-res using upsampling Kalliopeia links to your connected device to provide upsampling and playback at up to 192kHz. * Kalliopeia has a fairly high CPU utilization rate, so your battery may drain faster when it is in use. 3. Built-in 11-band equalizer for bringing out that high-res power Built-in 32Hz~32000Hz 11-band equalizer. Use the 20 stock presets, or create and save your own settings. You can also assign settings for each musical genre. 4. Additional Features - Gapless Playback  - Create playlists  - Enter the next songs to listen to with "Play Waitlist"  - Save your listening history (up to 20 songs)  - Shuffle, repeat  - Post what you are listening to on Twitter and other social networks  - Override screen auto-lock during playback  - The Last.fm Scrobbling feature

About

PMDA

Features
Read full description

PMDA (pronounced "pimda") is one music lover's take on building the music library of his dreams — and now yours. Point the app at your own self-hosted PMDA server and enjoy your entire collection, beautifully organized, anywhere you go. WHY PMDA Most music apps lock you into a subscription and their catalog, or leave your carefully-built library a mess of mismatched tags and missing covers. PMDA is different: 100% self-hosted, private, and it actually understands your music. WHAT YOU GET • Your whole library, everywhere — browse artists, albums, genres and labels, with rich, clickable artist pages. • Real listening — gapless playback, history, cross-user recommendations, synced lyrics and waveforms. • Lossless, your way — stream bit-perfect FLAC or save data with smart transcoding; download albums for offline, even on a plane. • Clean and yours — your files, your server, your rules. No cloud lock-in, no ads, no tracking, no AI. HOW IT WORKS PMDA mobile is a companion to the PMDA server (a free, self-hosted music library app you run on your own machine or NAS). Enter your server's address, sign in, and your library is in your pocket. Nothing is stored on our servers — the app talks only to the server you point it at. Built for people who are in love with music. Welcome.

Screenshots

Kalliopeia3 screens
PMDA4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: PMDA at Free against Kalliopeia's $4.99. PMDA also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

PMDA is free to download; Kalliopeia costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Kalliopeia ships an update every 2 months, PMDA every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Kalliopeia versus PMDA: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKalliopeiaPMDA
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating3.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS26.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYU HASHIZUMERaphael Vael

In-app purchases

None

Kalliopeia

No in-app purchases

None

PMDA

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Kalliopeia free?
Kalliopeia costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is PMDA free?
PMDA is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Kalliopeia or PMDA have ads?
Neither Kalliopeia nor PMDA shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Kalliopeia or PMDA?
Kalliopeia ships an update every 2 months, and PMDA every 3 weeks. Most recently, Kalliopeia was updated on October 24, 2026 and PMDA on October 25, 2026.

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