"Best" audio player for Windows - ??

[OakIris]

I know this has been asked before, but....I was hoping folks would be willing to revisit this perennial question.

I am currently using MusicMatch, have been for a few years, and don't really have a problem with it, though some people feel it is a resource hog, etc. . My OS is Win2k (SP4) and I am going to be getting my new soundcard - the EMU1212m - tomorrow.

Unlike many here, I really only use my audio player to listen to retail CDs.

I have never burned a music CD, don't download MP3s, etc., I don't care about skins, so basically I guess I don't need a lot of features in the player at this time. Should I just stick with MusicMatch? Should I check out foobar2000?

Given my limited, unimaginitive, use of the player, what will foobar - or another player - give me that MusicMatch does not/can not?

Persuade me!

 

[elnero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OakIris Should I check out foobar2000?

Yes! Go download it and give it a try. That should be enough to convince you.

 

[minya]

You might be better off with MusicMatch, considering you only play CDs on your PC.

I personally am a foobar2000 guy. I'm of the opinion that MusicMatch (and software like it, including Windows Media Player) is atrociously ugly and worst of all, bloated to the point of uselessness.

I use foobar2000 because it supports all the formats I could possibly ever use, is extremely powerful, and its interface does exactly what I need it to without being gaudy or tacky. Of course, it's a lot more difficult to learn than a player like MusicMatch. Once you get the hang of it, though, it's a snap.

foob2k is both free and a small install, so it can't hurt to try it.

- Chris

 

[lan]

Try both Winamp5 and foobar200 and see which one you like best.

Be sure to download the ASIO output plugins for each here, http://www3.cypress.ne.jp/otachan/

 

[OakIris]

I have heard before that MusicMatch is a resource hog -"bloated" as minya wrote - so, though my computer is pretty powerful and doesn't get bogged down when I use the player, I guess I will check out foobar. Free is good, after all, and at some point, I might want to do more than listen to CDs. A lot of people here on Head-Fi seem to prefer foobar, too, and I have to respect that.

Thank you all for your responses. If not tonight, I'll head to musical nirvana (via foobar) tomorrow when I get my new soundcard. (And I should be receiving my CD3000s sometime this week, too.

)

 

[Jasper994]

Foobar is nice because it supports so many formats, is relatively easy to use, has great playlist capabilities, and comes with the ability to upsample. It also has available plug-ins for ASIO and Kernel Streaming allowing you to bypass the nasty Windows Kmixer... Give it a shot, I really like it personally and think you will too. I'm like you in that I don't need a fancy GUI but I do like the fact that I can choose my own fonts and colors.

 

[TheBigDu]

what exactly is ASIO and how will it benefit me? I listen to all 128-192kbs mp3's, 95% of which have been ripped directly from CD.

thanks,
Brian

 

[Jasper994]

ASIO is supported by a good number of semi-pro and pro audio sound cards. For our purposes here, it simply bypasses the windows kmixer which is said to add garbage to the output signal.

For you, the biggest improvement you'll get is going to 256kbps and above in your MP3's or switching to lossless compressions such as flac and ape.

...at least get a better sound card for music playback...

There are good number of budget sound cards such as the chaintech and audiotrak opto play on the lower end and some really nice cards such as the E-Mu for only $200. You owe it to yourself to get a better source, trust me.

 

[Edwood]

Be sure to try lossless compression. You're missing out on the best aspect of PC based audio.

Monkey's Audio is Easier, and FLAC is completely open source.

Hard Drive storage is cheap and getting cheaper every day.

-Ed

 

[TheBigDu]

Well, here's the full deal...

I ordered a Chaintech AV710 the other day, should be here tomorrow or on Thursday. So that's step 1.

Next is that I'm using iTunes right now, which I like for its layout (large, neatly organized display of music collection). However, I'm sure there is better out there since almost nobody on here mentions iTunes.

Third is that I have a decent bit (14 GB) of mp3's and I don't know that I want to re-rip all of them into another format.

I'm interested in finding out more about OGG Vorbis or Flac or whatever it is that is lossless and how much more room this occupies on the HDD for the quality it provides. I've looked into it a little bit before, but I couldn't find a good description of what these new fileypes were.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Jasper994]

To the best of my recollection, 128k is approximately 1MB/minute. FLAC or Ape (Monkey's Audio) is approximately 10 times bigger or 2/3 the size of the original wav file. It's not huge compression, but for archiving its wonderful since you can reproduce bit perfect copies of the original CD should something happen to it. While there are definately differences in sound quality between 256-320kbps MP3 and lossless files, the biggest jump is leaving 128-192 behind in favor of 256-320. Edwood is right though, hard disk space is getting so cheap that there isn't really a good reason not to use a lossless compression any more.

 

[Zemo]

Quote:

Edwood is right though, hard disk space is getting so cheap that there isn't really a good reason not to use a lossless compression any more.

Oh? How about the fact that I have over 3,500 complete albums in MP3 format? Takes up over 200GB.....that'd be 2TB of storage if it was .ape! do YOU have 2TB?!

About foobar: DOOOO IIIIITTT!!!!! http://ubernet.org/modules.php?name=...iewtopic&t=871

 

[Stephonovich]

Nope, I've got 120GB. Then, I've only got 56 albums ripped into FLAC -5, which is taking up 21GB. Then I've got another 261 MP3/FLAC rips from various sources, which comprise almost 3GB.

One day, though, yes, I'll have 2TB of storage. Well, maybe start out with 1TB. 250GB drives are cheap

(-:Stephonovich

 

[LeasingGuy]

[flame suit on] I use Windows Media Player 9 and have been playing a little with WMP 10 on another machine. I love it. It has HUGE support, lots of updates and the WMP lossless sounds good enough for my PC rig. I dont believe any player has the functionality of MS WMP. The mini mode (task bar) function is something I could never give up. I cant think of one reason not to use it.

$0.02

[/flame suite on]

 

[Stephonovich]

Oh, you'll pay for that, you'll pay...

Granted, WMP has tons of features. The problem I have with it is that it has too many features, all of which add more to it's sizeable memory footprint. I just opened WMP 8 (didn't bother ugprading...), and it's currently taking up 8MB. FB2K is taking up 2MB. Both of these are idle. When playing something, WMP jumps to about 10MB, and FB2K to 5MB. (this is playing a playlist with a few hundred items) I imagine 9 and 10 are even worse.

Plus, I can't stand WMP's UI. Give me simplicity any day.

(-:Stephonovich