Penta vs DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Penta
This app recreates the experience of a vintage five-disc CD changer on your Apple devices. It meticulously simulates the sounds and visual details of a classic hi-fi component, allowing you to browse your Apple Music library as if it were a physical CD collection.
- Five-disc carousel simulation
- Realistic sound effects
- Jewel-case browser
- Apple Music library integration
- Customizable display options
- iCloud sync for saved discs
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Penta turns your iPhone, iPad or iPhone Duo into a five-disc CD changer — the hi-fi component you grew up with, rebuilt for your Apple Music library. Open a jewel case, drop the disc into the carousel, and play. Every detail is here: the fluorescent display, the motorized carousel, the power-on self-test, a disc winding up to speed before it plays, and the clunk as it comes to a stop. ON IPHONE DUO The phone is the jewel case. Close it and you're holding the album; open it and the case opens with it. Open flat for the whole deck, or fold it like a laptop for your CD wallet above the tray. FEATURES • A real five-disc carousel — load, spin, and swap discs by hand • Real sounds, recorded from a five-disc changer: key clicks, the tray, the platter turning and a disc set down • A different deck each way up: the full carousel sideways, a CD wallet over the tray upright • Jewel-case browser — open the case and drag the disc out, or drop it straight into any of the five slots • Plays your Apple Music library in full, with real album art on every disc • Keys you can feel — on iPhone every key clicks under your thumb • Magazines — save a set of five discs and reload the whole cartridge later • Favorites, whole-library search, and Apple Music catalog search • A vacuum-fluorescent display with track, time, and format readouts • Any way up on iPad, and in resizable windows • Favorites and saved magazines sync across your devices via iCloud PENTA PRO A one-time unlock: Real CD Artwork (beta) shows the actual printed disc instead of the album cover, plus the full phosphor-colour set, the analog needle and VU meters, a gentle readable spin, the minimal readout, and unlimited saved magazines. The free deck plays your whole library with no limits. Albums you own play without a subscription. Streaming from the Apple Music catalog needs an Apple Music subscription.
DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA
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DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA brings the character of classic audio equipment to your personal music collection. An offline audio player for iPhone and Mac, formerly CD-VC Player. FOUR WAYS TO LISTEN Choose a vintage vinyl turntable, cassette deck, classic CD Player or compact Modern layout in Settings. Enjoy rotating media, mechanical controls, analog meters and illuminated displays. YOUR PERSONAL LIBRARY Add music folders, browse cover art and find albums, artists and tracks. The cassette theme presents your collection as tapes in cases. Modern puts every track in one shared list. SHAPE YOUR SOUND A 10-band equalizer with presets and Direct mode to bypass sound processing. Audio visualizers, repeat and shuffle complete the experience. CHOOSE YOUR LOOK 11 display colors, including sage, olive and grayscale LCD. English and Russian interfaces. ON IPHONE AND MAC Keep listening in the background on iPhone. On Mac, open your library beside the player or switch to the compact mini-player. Locally stored music plays without an internet connection. YOUR AUDIO FILES Supports MP3, FLAC, WAV, M4A, AAC and AIFF. Playback support depends on the file codec. Download cloud files to your device before playing. DRM-protected music is not supported. No music catalog is included. TRY IT FOR 15 DAYS Activate the free “15-day Trial” purchase through the App Store. All features are available for 15 days from activation. You can purchase the full version during your trial. After the trial, a one-time full-version purchase is required to continue. One purchase unlocks iPhone and Mac with the same Apple Account. No subscription or automatic billing. The current price is shown before you buy.
Screenshots
Verdict
Penta and DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Penta sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on November 10, 2026.
| Parameter | Penta | DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (11 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 11 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | John Seubert | Vladimir Zhuravlev |
In-app purchases
Penta
- Penta Pro$2.99
DIGITAL AUDIOTHECA
- 15-day TrialFree
- Full Version — iPhone and Mac$17.99








