[dirtythekid]

I'll start with talking about WASAPI. Basically, you're aiming to sonically reproduce your music with as little coloration as possible. Most audio players, Winamp included, use DirectSound to communicate with your audio device. This adds a level of potentially unwanted coloration.
 
DirectSound = Music player > Windows mixer > Audio device
 
WASAPI will communicate a bit-perfect version of your music to your audio device, allowing for as little coloration as possible.
 
WASAPI = Music player > Audio device
 
ASIO offers a similar bit-perfect path, but it's a bit more complicated to set up and more prone to issues in my experience. That's about the gist of it. Now if you are really attached to Winamp, there is a WASAPI plugin for it that will allow it to play bit-perfect music just like all the other audiophile grade music players. There is a lot of debate on whether or not all WASAPI players are created equal, as some people (myself included) think that they can sound different from player to player, despite being bit-perfect.
 
Personally, I would say Foobar and MusicBee are other simple players worth giving a shot. Good interface, wide selection of plugins, and no slouch in sound.

 

[ksathug]

Foobar2000 / MusicBee for music
 
and for videos media player classic + MadVr no one beats it trust me i have surched eavry player out ther for years 
 
j river uses madvr also but i love the simple media classic 
 
also if you want to customize foobar2000 check this video
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5um6NEMZGZo
 
and sory for my bad English 

 

[HanyTheo]

daymm, was a little sceptical on other media player other than foobar. tried the Jriver, the foobar sounded flat and thin in my already fat n full sounding LCD3 compared with the Jriver. Damn damn damn I'm still mindblown by the improvement. BIG THANKS

 

[guywithphones]

I really liked winamp and still do. According to the forums it might get a new build soon. Foobar is excellent, and I'm playing around with AIMP3 right now.

 

[saddleup]

  daymm, was a little sceptical on other media player other than foobar. tried the Jriver, the foobar sounded flat and thin in my already fat n full sounding LCD3 compared with the Jriver. Damn damn damn I'm still mindblown by the improvement. BIG THANKS

It wasn't until I discovered JRiver that I realized how good PC audio can sound.

 

[castleofargh]

you guys can just record a song from a few players with audacity, and find out the actual magnitude of differences.
 
my own experience pushes me to pick a media player for the features and not for the sound, that can be pretty much perfect from most of the well known choices.
having a functional exclusive bit perfect mode to bypass directsound could be a good idea depending on the soundcard. the rest shouldn't matter much at an audible level.

 

[billiejoel]

  I'm still using the NI Traktor Beatport SYNC from '07.
 

(minimized)

nice software, but its a bit old. How I find plugin?

 

[trung224]

 For my taste, the best music player is Signaylst HQPlayer + Jplay ASIO driver. The details HQPlayer managed to pull out by upsampling (especially to DSD128) is amazing. Comparing to it, Foobar and Jriver seems very veiled and muddy in details. Adding JPlay ASIO driver enhance the background blackness further.

 

[coli]

MPC-BE, I used to use Foobar but that thing never sounded correct...

 

[Creeping Doom]

I use a lightweight player , called Spider Player . I don't use playlists , never really have . I just pull up my music folder . I tried Foobar , didn't like it much . Jet Audio was ok , had the nicest gui , but their sound engine stinks . At present , I have my headphones (HD598 SE) , plugged in to the headphone jack on my speaker's (Boston Acoustics BA 7900) control pod .

 

[fuego]

  Foobar2000 / MusicBee for music
 
and for videos media player classic + MadVr no one beats it trust me i have surched eavry player out ther for years 
 
j river uses madvr also but i love the simple media classic 
 
also if you want to customize foobar2000 check this video
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5um6NEMZGZo
 
and sory for my bad English 

This is cool, I'll try it as I am not satisfied with winamp. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[rolli1949]

I listen to Decibel ,Audirvana plus and some other system but by far the best is ROON which is light years ahead of the competition in many regards .Yes it is expensive but you get so many info ,plays any music files
Keeps your library up-date and you explore your music collection in new ways which all the other systems simply cannot provide .Sonic performance is excellent and future proof .
At least download for two weeks free ! See what it can do and then you decide .

 

[rolli1949]

Hi  should try ROON its so advanced and by far the best !you 

 

[Dobrescu George]

I have been wondering what is the best software for audio playback for a while. 
 
For now, I have been using either foobar2k or jriver as my weapons of choice.
 
As my free to use project will come to fruition sooner than I expected, people might want to look at it, and give me some advice on how to improve. There are big differences between it and every other software out there, and I am actually into developing it tailored better for users, so if anyone want to request any feature, I am all ears (pun intended). 

 

[sterling1]

I've been pleased with iTunes, for a multitude of reasons. My favorite feature is iTunes Match. This service allows me to upload my entire music library to the iCloud. With this feature I can use AirPlay from my iPad or iPhone to stream my music in the iCloud to my home theatre. This saves a lot of space on my iPhone and iPad.