[gamer539]

Which do you use, Winamp or Foobar and why?

I have been using winamp since forever, but coming to headfi.org, everyone seems to be talking about Foobar; is there a difference, what why and how? winamp seems to have more functions

 

[skudmunky]

winamp starts out with more features, but foobar is waaaaaay more customizable. It also a lot lighter, uses less system resources when you run it.

 

[epaludo]

Foobar 2000 here. Easy to use, better interface (IMO), also agree with skudmunky post ...

 

[HiFiRE]

Some people say foobar sounds better, however the developers of foobar disagree. Some people use foobar with special output modules (kernel streaming and asio) to bypass the windows kmixer which resamples sounds to 48kHz, however the same output modules are available for winamp too. Some people use foobar because you can spend all day customizing it's appearance. I like it because it has a replaygain scanner and it's good at renaming/moving files.

 

[gsansite]

Currently use foobar after years of using winamp.

The main advantages of foobar are customisability and masstagger, the downside is the learning curve involved in using/setting up.

With the right plug-ins winamp will sound as good and will be easier to use.

All IMO of course.

 

[Fungi]

I think the main draw for computer audio enthusiasts is the ease of getting ASIO/kernel output, and the ability to make it look nice without having to look for skins everywhere.

 

[gamer539]

what are the ASIO/kernel output, what do you or can you do with these? any good website that explains it?

well I can sort of see how it can be customized to how you like it, but I went to the post about how to make foobar pretty, but I can't seem to get any of those plugins to work =\.

 

[ShadowVlican]

i use foobar because i can easily use kernel streaming by downloading the plugin at their site

not to mention foobar uses updated quality decoders unlike winamp

i could care less how my foobar looked, it's all about how it sounds

 

[Nomada]

Foobar for me. I almost always choose what to hear thru Windows Explorer. What I like about Foobar is the very minimalist look. I'm not a fan of all the artists/album/playlist bloat in most media players. Also, you can't beat its transcoding/encoding capabilities. So simple.

I do like the IP radio in Winamp though. So many stations.

 

[Delerue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamer539 what are the ASIO/kernel output, what do you or can you do with these? any good website that explains it?

http://www.aqvox.de/Asio-USB-Audio-installation-e.htm

I really tried to notice some audio quality improvement over the DirectSound Output 2.46 (Winamp 5.31 default plugin), but I can't. ASIO also generates some glitch.

 

[Distroyed]

Foobar for the following personally most used reasons:

1) Less system resources
2) Shockingly powerful customizability (incl. album art, lovely interfaces, complex DSP's)
3) Many more native file type support (ogg, ape, flac, wv, etc)
4) Native cuesheet within tag support
5) Native transcoder (makes it no problem to convert those old ape's encoded at insane that you thought were a good idea at the time)
6) Native CDDB CD info retrieval and autotagger
7) No worries about phoning home or the like
8) No whipping of llamas

 

[ShadowVlican]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomada Foobar for me. I almost always choose what to hear thru Windows Explorer. What I like about Foobar is the very minimalist look. I'm not a fan of all the artists/album/playlist bloat in most media players. Also, you can't beat its transcoding/encoding capabilities. So simple. I do like the IP radio in Winamp though. So many stations.

exactly... especially when you have couple thousand pieces of music, there's bound to be tons that aren't tagged right

sorting using folders and using explorer to play..... works for me

 

[HiFiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShadowVlican exactly... especially when you have couple thousand pieces of music, there's bound to be tons that aren't tagged right sorting using folders and using explorer to play..... works for me

That's why i make sure the tags are the way i like em when i get new music

Once you get your tags all sorted out, the speed advantage from using a database rather than files is nice.

 

[ShadowVlican]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiFiRE That's why i make sure the tags are the way i like em when i get new music Once you get your tags all sorted out, the speed advantage from using a database rather than files is nice.

yes when i rip my music it's tagged right... but the ones i sample from my friends aren't always tagged right

database is quite nice though... the idea works really well on portable audio players

 

[003]

When I get my K1000 back from AKG, I will compare Winamp 5.13 (last version without that anti-piracy crap) with ASIO output to foobar 0.8.3 with the original SRC plugin set to 24/96 and ASIO version 47a. I will wait until I get my DAC-62 as well (soon).