I'm a PC-Fi and using apogee mini-dac firewire. I have used softwares like foobar, winamp ,ttplayer and so on. Foobar is great and sounds good. But none of these softwares can play audio files as great as a real CD player.

Then what is the best software to playback audio content with the abbility to take out the full potential of lossless audio files and make a PC a true Hi-Fi CD player?

You bypass the Kmixer using ASIO, Kernel Streaming, or such. Right?
If not, then you're not getting everything out of your current players...

Yes. I would also say foobar with ASIO. Takes very little memory on your computer and sounds good.

Yes,I output with ASIO. I tryed several softwares with ASIO. Foobar sounds best.
I'm so confused that they all have excellent decoders then what make them sound different and is there any greater players than foobar?

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Actually, Foobar and Winamp with ASIO, in theory, should sound the same.

have you tried directly comparing the mini-dac to the dac in your cd player (i.e. using your cd player as transport feeding the mini-dac)? maybe you just prefer the sound of the dac in the cd player. if your cd player has digital out, you can try outputting it to your mini-dac to compare. better still if you can output a digital signal from your pc into the cd player. maybe you'll find out that you don't like the mini-dac as much in which case you can try exploring other dacs.

I highly recommend J-River Media Centre. You have to pay for it, but only something like $30, which is money well spent.

Basically does everything Foobar does and more. But it does it straight away, with no tweaking required and a nice interface.

Plays all common formats, supports replaygain, supports ASIO. Plus you can also use it for organising your photos and video collection.

There is a 30-day free trial if you're interested.

I love the bloat free simple build of foobar, I have converted many people to it! The ease of locating music is probably my favorite feature.

I also wasn't convinced that foobar was the last word and I found XXHighEnd which you can use as a demo without paying and I'm still stunned everytime I listen through it.
It's definitly worth a try!
XXHighEnd - Index

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Stunned in what sense?

Mainly the clarity I got from my headphones which I strangely didn't receive with my foobar KS setup.
It always sounded more intended with my XXHE setup.
Go have a listen and decide for your selve.
Greetz Ava

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I headed over there, at your suggestion. Seems a bit overwhelming at first blush. Also, there appears to be at least some limitation on the use of the trial version.

I'm also a foobar/KS (or ASIO) guy, and I do get bit-perfect output. I'm therefore naturally skeptical about claims of "higher sound quality." Which is why I asked you that question. I'm no expert, but what is there beyond bit-perfect?

Regarding people saying Foobar 'sounds' better .. here is something from their very own FAQ

"Does foobar2000 sound better than other players?

No. Most of “sound quality differences” people “hear” are placebo effect (at least with real music), as actual differences in produced sound data are below their noise floor (1 or 2 last bits in 16bit samples). foobar2000 has sound processing features such as software resampling or 24bit output on new high-end soundcards, but most of the other mainstream players are capable of doing the same by now."

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Nothing to be sceptic about. All software, all bit perfect, sounds different. And e.g. all ASIO using software has a similar character.

Btw the only limitation on the demo version related to sound quality is the Processor Core Appointment which can't be done in demo. There are no further restrictions related to sound quality, and the player plays 30 minutes on avereage per startup session.

A rather easy thing to try is violins, and the Q1 slider setting at e.g. 4 versus 14. If you want to take the trouble of checking : both are as bit perfect (Vista/Engine3 !!).
Don't give up within a minute if you don't hear a difference at A-B-ing. Try a complete album at least with one setting (like Q1 = 4). Then try another album at 14. Now imagine the differences (and I don't mean faking them).
Next make the different settings consistent over albums (like "heyyy, al seems to sound such and so at 4").

I am not going to tell you XXHighEnd is better as such. Okay, it was made for that, but if it is so is up to you.
But start with recognizing that differences really can be there. All bit perfect ...

Best,
Peter

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Thanks, Peter, for taking the time to reply. Yeah...I read alot of your stuff over there. You really do put a considerable amount of time into responding to your users' needs/questions. For that alone, you are to be highly commended. As far as the player itself, as Arnie the Terminator once said..."I'll be back..."

Best to you also...