[YoengJyh]

I am using SongBird, Recommended by Bowers & Wilkins.
 
Today i just found out that iTunes is more artificial if compared to Songbird, which gives me more natural sound.
 
Try it, free and it could play 24 bits songs.

 

[geneticaurora]

Ive gotta say that River media player is certainly the best I was unsure at first but after allot of listening I discoverd less distortion clearer dynamics in both bass mid treble. 

 

[Enverex]

Are people still spouting this nonsense about FLAC sounding different or "lowering the quality"? If it sounds different then there's something wrong with the player you're using or you've corrupted the file.
 
If you don't believe that the FLAC file is identical to the original, open up both the original and the FLAC version in an editor (such as Audacity) and compare them. You'll find they are BIT IDENTICAL.
 
That magazine is clearly either written for by idiots, or trying to create drama from nothing to sell more copies, maybe a bit of both.
 
Regarding JumpNChute's earlier comment. FLAC doesn't "temporarily reduce the quality". It never does anything to the quality, at any point. It encodes it just like any other lossless compression format (7zip, RAR, etc) and reconstructs it perfectly afterwards. It's not a "lower quality version" when compressed, it's not audio data AT ALL when it's compressed, it's purely encoded data and no-longer RAW WAVE (just as a RAR file won't be a lower quality version of your Word Document or Spreadsheet when compressed).
 
For anyone else that feels the need to say something silly, please see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_data_compression - first.
 
Oh, and to answer OP's question: Foobar2000.

 

[nopphong]

i don't know why you are fighting about wav and flac.Because tread owner ask about what is the best flac player and i come to this tread to read what is the best Flac player !!
 
could you please stop off tropic reply thank you.
 
I have problem to install foobar so i come here to find out about another player but could not find one.
so any one please continue in tropic reply please.
thank you

 

[OJNeg]

Quote:

i don't know why you are fighting about wav and flac.Because tread owner ask about what is the best flac player and i come to this tread to read what is the best Flac player !!
 
could you please stop off tropic reply thank you.
 
I have problem to install foobar so i come here to find out about another player but could not find one.
so any one please continue in tropic reply please.
thank you

 


What problem did you run into trying to install Foobar2k? Are you running Windows?
 
Foobar really is one of the best audio players around. There are plenty of themes out there and you can customize almost anything to suit your tastes. I suggest you give it a shot.

 

[CashNotCredit]

Honestly, apart from plug-ins, there is literally no sonic difference between these players. Looking at how Media Players work, we can conclude that no player "sounds warm" or "sounds natural", unless things are being added.

You get a bit-perfect stream from Windows, without running ASIO, if two conditions are met:

• Your volume in Windows is set at 100% and you control volume with your amp
• You are only running sound from one application at once. This can be done by muting the other applications you aren't listening to.

 
Everything else is placebo. The only real point of ASIO is to reduce latency, which is really only important to music production, to my knowledge.

So, in short, pick the one that meets your needs best. I love MediaMonkey because it's really easy to use. WinAmp and Songbird are pretty cool too. foobar has a lot of love because it's so versatile.

None of them sound better than any other ones, and all of them (even iTunes) can have a bit-perfect stream by meeting the two qualifications, at least to my knowledge.

 

[Leobrioschi]

You just have to decide on how big a deal library managing and playlist making is for you.

Foorbar2k is what i use, My library managing consist of Subdirectories divided by artists, then by albuns, and then the music files. I've set foobar to sort my music using the directory tree so it's fine with me.

If you make many playlists, maybe you should look somewhere else... songbird feels like itunes a lot, i've used it before. 
other than that, just make sure it's not very heavy on your pc (some music players are so bloated that i feel some hiccups and lockups that's why i'm mostly with foobar) 

anyway... http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html#extras_players_windows
(i've seen people that like the quintenssential player also)

 

[nopphong]

Quote:

 


What problem did you run into trying to install Foobar2k? Are you running Windows?
 
Foobar really is one of the best audio players around. There are plenty of themes out there and you can customize almost anything to suit your tastes. I suggest you give it a shot.

i have problem while install foobar 1.1.3 on winxp it said c runtime error some thing.... but now i found older version 1.0.3 i can install it and working ok.
somehow it can't work with new plugin.
i would like to try another program to compare the sound quality and usage of another program.did you have another recommend?
thank you.

 

[ROBSCIX]

I have used a few different players over the years but as my collection has grown I find my needs have changed.  Lately I have been using Album Player.  It is not a free player but it is a very powerful package.  For a free player foobar is pretty good but it can scare off people new to players as it needs some configuration to look the best.

 

[jmarsiglio]

Just use a free one that you like the UI of. I prefer WinAmp.

 

[HeatFan12]

Just use a free one that you like the UI of. I prefer WinAmp.

Foobar & Winamp indeed!

J., now that you brought up Winamp, have you experienced recently the seek bar not moving? The last couple of days, two of my machines are experiencing this. It stays at 0:00. I have the newest version and have not updated the program, it just started doing this 2 days ago. Looked for solutions but to no avail.

 

[Ghaunty22]

Can someone explain why FLAC sounds quieter in Foobar than WMPvista? MP3's sound the same.
 
Some FLAC's sound almost same but some were quieter.

 

[EnOYiN]

Can someone explain why FLAC sounds quieter in Foobar than WMPvista? MP3's sound the same.

Some FLAC's sound almost same but some were quieter.

Maybe you've got replaygain on in foobar?

 

[jmarsiglio]

Quote:

Foobar & Winamp indeed!
J., now that you brought up Winamp, have you experienced recently the seek bar not moving? The last couple of days, two of my machines are experiencing this. It stays at 0:00. I have the newest version and have not updated the program, it just started doing this 2 days ago. Looked for solutions but to no avail.

Sorry, my desktop that I use winamp on is in boxes currently but I'll let you know in a few days (if you haven't figured it out by then, hehe).

 

[pepemosca]

+1 on foobar2000.