I think it depends a lot on what you want from your music player...
Is convenience and usability the most important?
Do you want advanced searches, library functions?
Do you want something that only needs a split second to start-up, is dead simple, but still plays anything you throw at it (but has no library etc. features?)
Do you have a preference for a user-interface look? Some players are nice but ugly...
I have been where you are a few years ago, and tried many different players. I never settled on a single one... I use several:
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mpd
This is a server. You can control it with your iPhone (use the
mPod app for that). You can also control it on the PC with programs like
Cantata, which I like a lot.
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QuodLibet
As others have already mentioned, it is very good, especially the library search functions are amazing. If you have a large music collection, this will be your tool of choice. For example, I use the "Style" tag that
Discogs uses in their listings, and with QuotLibet you can simply have that custom tag scanned into the library, and listed just like genres. That's pretty damn neat...
-
Kodi
Formally XBMC, this is a very slick media player, for music as well as for video. It's great for things like parties, you can have a super-easy to use and slick looking interface to have people choose their music... nice visual effects etc. Also can be installed stand-alone, or with the
OpenElec Linux system. The latter is great if you want to make a media PC (e.g. a PC for nothing else than audio/music, with remote control etc.)
-
Audacious
I like Audacious because "it just works". Good layout, multiple playlists, advanced audio settings, many plugins. It can also work with JACK, so you can chain it with e.g. an equalizer etc. You can use the free Calf plugins for example, chain it all together... OK, maybe this is a bit over your head at this point, however, possibilities are endless!
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Qmmp
I like this player because it is small, simple, and fast. This is what pops up on my computer if I just want to listen to a single file real quick. It also has an EQ and Visualizations, if you like those kind of things. I think it is supposed to imitate Winamp a bit.
Well, and everything else I have seen I did not like very much... and I have tried most of them. At least all of them mentioned here so far.
One last thing I should mention, if you want to stream music on your new Linux computer, install
Google Chrome for Linux (not just "Chrome", you want "Google Chrome", which has flash support etc. built-in), and use
Deezer... of course, this is my preference, Tidal, Spotify etc will also work, but I do think that Deezer is one of the better streaming services out there, it had more albums of my interest than any other place, and their interface actually works (Spotify with 100+ albums was simply unusable on my iPhone).
'hope that helped,
DrTebi
