[RonaldDumsfeld]

Foobar.
 
Or if you wanted something even more powerful try Traktor. You can get a copy free with the $100 dual channel NI Audio 2 DAC.
 

 

[BigAl-67]

iTunes drives me nuts, I can't flow with the interface I'm constantly trying to figuring out how to do things and where things are. Honestly playback seems pretty poor on sound quality as well like certain ranges are omitted and others are [size=small]exaggerated[/size].  As a result I'm doing Apple Lossless and Windows lossless too. When I find a player that manages music better I'll stick my library there.

 

[Sherwood]

Foobar is excellent, and a model player in many respects. With some time and effort, you can make it truly great.

But really, if you're looking for the all-in-one end game player, that absolutely has to be JRiver Media Center 18 (19 is on the way).

jRMC is pay to play, unlike Foobar. Also unlike Foobar, it's well configured out of the box. The JRMC iPad app is an absolute dream, the sound quality is as good as you could possibly hope for, the compatibility is unrivaled, and the support is instantaneous. Jim and Matt make the whole thing, and also administer their own support forum. Problems are solved in hours, feature requests are listened to and addressed by the actual people who write the code, and their hardware support is absolutely bleeding edge. You can configure it as simply as you like, but there's always more to dial in under the hood, if you like to make changes.

The tagging and organization in JRiver is comprehensive and granular, which helps organize large libraries easily.

It's constantly updated, and updates are really good. I'm usually excited to download them. Your purchase price buys you all the upgrades for the life of a given version, and anyone who buys it now gets MC18 and MC19.

I've used everything listed here (only mpd on *nix) and prefer JRiver to every other solution on every other platform. Every cent of your investment goes into a good developers pocket, and you get a world class product for your money. Can't beat it.

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

Foobar is excellent, and a model player in many respects. With some time and effort, you can make it truly great.

But really, if you're looking for the all-in-one end game player, that absolutely has to be JRiver Media Center 18 (19 is on the way).

jRMC is pay to play, unlike Foobar. Also unlike Foobar, it's well configured out of the box. The JRMC iPad app is an absolute dream, the sound quality is as good as you could possibly hope for, the compatibility is unrivaled, and the support is instantaneous. Jim and Matt make the whole thing, and also administer their own support forum. Problems are solved in hours, feature requests are listened to and addressed by the actual people who write the code, and their hardware support is absolutely bleeding edge. You can configure it as simply as you like, but there's always more to dial in under the hood, if you like to make changes.

The tagging and organization in JRiver is comprehensive and granular, which helps organize large libraries easily.

It's constantly updated, and updates are really good. I'm usually excited to download them. Your purchase price buys you all the upgrades for the life of a given version, and anyone who buys it now gets MC18 and MC19.

I've used everything listed here (only mpd on *nix) and prefer JRiver to every other solution on every other platform. Every cent of your investment goes into a good developers pocket, and you get a world class product for your money. Can't beat it.

 
I'd also put my hand in fire that Jriver sounds better than Foobar. I don't know why. I didn't do a blind test, but somehow it sounds nicer. If I compare the songs side by side, I FEEL like Jriver's soundstage is slightly more natural, with more depth. Simply, it feels like there's a slight crossover turned on, but its not, its all turned off.

 

[audio duck]

Played around with Amarra. I like it and they have a free trial. I like that it interfaces with ITunes and I haven't found a player that is better at managing a library.

 

[Aerial Wave]

Quote:

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

 
Foobar uses less ram/cpu than itunes. tons of features, its very fast and customizable. 
I also made the switch from itunes, and i don't want to go back. 

 

[daigo]

I've always hated iTunes so I don't use it much more than to sync my iphone for updates and to manage music on the phone.  Foobar2000 is a nice player once you overcome the customization learning curve, and there are some nice configurations contributed by people out there that make it very usable and visually pleasing.  

 

[FredrikT92]

Ive gone from winamp Pro with Wasapi plugin to AIMP3. I dont know if its placebo, but I belive that AIMP3 sounds a little better. Little more clear and "natural".
I cant get foobar2000 to work with wasapi plugin, but foobar also sounded better then winamp

 

[wenyuanalive]

I am using foobar 2000 and it's great. It supports almost all lossless formats but for ape you may need to do download some file first.

 

[swspiers]

I just converted to JRiver from Media Monkey.  Maybe it's just me, but I find it extremely easy to use and flexible.  It just feels like a more polished product

 

[Jiffy Squid]

On my MacBook Air, I generally just use iTunes, but I'll switch to Decibel when playing 24/96 content. On my PC, I use Foobar.
 
Sound quality-wise, I don't hear a difference between the different applications, but that's to be expected.

 

[mfaoro]

I have tried Decible, Pure Music, AudioNirvana, IRiver and Amarra is -by far- my favorite player. The sound is just more natural and transparent to me. Pure Music in particular felt too harsh to my ears. Decible was neutral but its lack of Itunes integration was a non-starter.
 
This is with LCD3s and a Meridian Explorer out of a Mac Mini.

 

[trane1992]

what about KMPlayer

 

[FredrikT92]

I just tryed the JRiver trail and I have to say... It sounds like its got better seperation/soundstage then AIMP3 and Winamp, sounds very open. I think im in love. 

 

[pdrm360]

For me it was worth to pay $50 for the JRiver although the foobar 2000 is a great music player for free.