[asdfjkl]

Which music player program is the best for good sounding music/ music management/ supports flac, m4a, etc

 

[bixby]

no such thing as best
 
best advice would be to search threads here based on what os you run to get impressions on how some of them sound
 

 

[Terja]

A perpetual question! OS of course dictates what you can use. Notes below are strictly Windows based.
 
Foobar 2000 has been on all the top lists since forever, and that's mostly due to sound quality. +1 on that. But as far as organization, intuitive interface, iTunes is by far the best audio software program I've come across. I know there tends to be a knee-jerk reaction when iTunes is mentioned, but it really is quite good. I also dig the revamped look of the interface.
 
The problem is finding a program that does all these things well, sound quality plus music management and organization. JRiver is quite good, but I've found the interface somewhat restrictive.
 
I'm still asking myself the OP's question so if anyone else has found a palatable answer I wanna hear. PS - I searched the forum for this sometime ago and could barely get past GO! So if anyone has links please post.Ta!

 

[fuzzyash]

Quote:

A perpetual question! OS of course dictates what you can use. Notes below are strictly Windows based.
 
Foobar 2000 has been on all the top lists since forever, and that's mostly due to sound quality. +1 on that. But as far as organization, intuitive interface, iTunes is by far the best audio software program I've come across. I know there tends to be a knee-jerk reaction when iTunes is mentioned, but it really is quite good. I also dig the revamped look of the interface.
 
The problem is finding a program that does all these things well, sound quality plus music management and organization. JRiver is quite good, but I've found the interface somewhat restrictive.
 
I'm still asking myself the OP's question so if anyone else has found a palatable answer I wanna hear. PS - I searched the forum for this sometime ago and could barely get past GO! So if anyone has links please post.Ta!

for mac users, there are add ons one can buy that use the itunes interface but apprently make it sound better

 

[jake120]

try media monkey... or look for equivalents
 
edit: yes iTunes is great for music playing

 

[TwinQY]

On *nix, cmus and mpd for simple playback/management. Handles large playlists (okay, not really handle) like a champ, you can configure ALSA, Pulse, OSS, what have you, to bit perfect, add all the DSPs you want, etc. Deadbeef/Audacious/Amarok for the graphical-inclined.
 
Windows - Mediamonkey, winamp, and foobar will give a run for your money. Not a fan of boutique players.
 
And I think Amarok and Clementine are ported to Mac as well. Heard good things about Songbird as well. iTunes still works pretty darn good on their native platform as well, so sticking with stock could be more enticing.

 

[Terja]

Quote:

for mac users, there are add ons one can buy that use the itunes interface but apprently make it sound better

 
Yeah, I found that out. There are also some freebie add ons to play Flac files in iTunes, but only on the Mac OS. Nothing for Windoze and that sucks.

 

[Satellite_6]

foobar200, but not because of sound quality - that's utter ********. Just because of features. 

 

[Terja]

Another one I didn't get to mention - AIMP3. It has improved by leaps and bounds and now rivals Foobar (in my book), but not in terms of 'tweakability.' If you're so inclined, Foobar 2000 is still the champ.

 

[elliott44k]

Media monkey is definitely one of my favorites.

 

[HeatFan12]

Whatever you are looking for in a media player, there is surely one out there (or 5) to fit your needs...I like Foobar, MusicBee, MediaMonkey, uLilith...
 
Cheers!!!
 
Foobar and Freddie and Co. to wind down the day....

 
 

 

[Terja]

A very useful page for this thread: Comparison of audio player software ... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_audio_player_software)

 

[pogy]

No love for old school winamp with WASAPI plugin? I like the simplicity of it
And I am to lazy to get used to a new one.

 

[65535]

I'm completely content with iTunes, I convert any FLAC to ALAC if I need to using the Max app on OS X.
As for sound quality, there really shouldn't be any difference between any player, if there is it's filtering which you may or may not desire.

 

[asdfjkl]

I'm completely content with iTunes, I convert any FLAC to ALAC if I need to using the Max app on OS X.
As for sound quality, there really shouldn't be any difference between any player, if there is it's filtering which you may or may not desire.

Yeah I'm using iTunes currently, but I just find it really annoying to convert any flac I have to alac. Plus I don't really like the idea of supporting an "apple" codec over an open source one.

I'm going to try out foobar and see how I go. Is there anything in particular that makes foobar standout? Thanks heaps!