[castleofargh]

And yes, Foobar can be heavily skinned too, but that doesn't affect the sound

Or does it?
"dun dun dun!"

I have mixed feeling about VLC. On one hand, it's been around forever and has played just about anything anytime something else didn't. Hard to match that. On the other hand, I prefer to use almost any audio player for music and almost any video player for videos. VLC is the survival kit I keep at the bottom of my bag, just in case. And every time it saves the day, I'm an ungrateful person who goes back to his regular chick. Feels like I mixed up my analogies but I did sleep with a survival kit once, so ...
It's not you VLC, it's me.

edit: lol @ Headfi replacing "illegitimate child" slang with "person" ^_^. Good one.

 

[magicalmouse]

anything new (since 2022) ?

d

 

[Squa7ch]

Switched to foobar years and years ago, haven't looked back since.

 

[Voidrunner]

Foobar is the way. It's stable, and has a ton of configurability.

 

[Phobian347]

Just spent a couple days comparing PlayPcmWin, MusicBee and XMPlay. Equipment listened to was Topping E30/Presonus Eris 5 & SMSL SU9/SH9 with BeyerDynamic T-90. PC is a standard mid-range gaming configuration. All players were tried using WASAPI Exclusive.
At first, PPW seems nicer, a bit more spacious and a nicely integrated (if a bit airy) stage but then you notice instruments lack a bit of bite and attack. (Maybe related to noise shaping?) MusicBee has that attack and instruments are well placed (etched) on the stage. I might say a bit more detailed but not for certain. Unsuprisingly, XMPlay sounded similar to MusicBee (both use the BASS libs), maybe slightly brighter?
MusicBee with ASIO seemed the best solution for the Topping/Presonus output but that may be more imagined than real. (Yes, I know all we're doing is moving bits over a bus.)
Oh, and tried Dopamine yesterday. Not even close. Just the standard fuddled Windows sound.