Audio file player suggestion

[jnelsoninjax]

I am currently using MPC and it is great for video playback, but I really need something that can play audio as well, I don't like the way it handles audio playback. I have tried Dopamine, but for some reason it will not stay associated with audio files, and when it was, it would not open correctly, so I would like to find a decent audio player.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

I still love Winamp

[jnelsoninjax]

On 20/06/2022 at 16:14, hellowalkman said:

I still love Winamp

I didn't realize that Winamp was still around.

[Fleet Command]

Try AIMP. It's the best thing I've seen so far.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

On 21/06/2022 at 01:45, jnelsoninjax said:

I didn't realize that Winamp was still around.

It is https://www.neowin.net/news/winamp-58-build-3660-beta-official/

 

https://download.nullsoft.com/winamp/client/winamp58_3660_beta_full_en-us.exe

[jnelsoninjax]

I'm downloading AIMP right now. @hellowalkmanI'll look into WinAmp as well, thanks for the link.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

The Windows Media Player (filename: WMPLAYER.EXE) is still available in Windows.  You may want to try that if you need something to play sound files.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[inactive]

Foobar2000

 

clearly the best general audio playback/basic audio conversion software. it's interface does not look fancy but it's practical function is where it actually matters with it's basic tab function etc. it can handle a lot of files to.

 

NOTE: I would not worry about audio file association as you just load up Foobar2000 and then drag-and-drop your audio files into it or into another tab etc and then play it. I tweaked mine a bit to where I use 'spacebar' to pause/resume playback and the left and right arrow keys for rewinding/fastforwarding etc.

 

p.s. Foobar2000 is what I use on Linux to through Wine. I am actually using it through PlayOnLinux (using 6.13-staging version of Wine), so it keeps it separated from the system installed Wine.

[Fleet Command]

On 01/07/2022 at 03:51, ThaCrip said:

clearly the best

Oh, my! I've been following every "best media player" discussion so far and there has not been a clear winner, but everyone claims their choice is "clearly the best."

 

On principle I avoid "clearly the best." Give me a diamond in the rough instead, preferably something whose name doesn't sound like "FUBAR." (Also I avoid the Voldemort database engine and the KeepAss password manager.)

[devHead]

For a free high quality audio player, I would also recommend Foobar  like ThaCrip did. It's got plenty of features, is relatively easy to configure and lay out to your preferences, and it can use WASAPI for audio output. 

 

If you want to pay for something, JRiver Media Center is the way to go. 

[jnelsoninjax]

On 30/06/2022 at 19:21, ThaCrip said:

Foobar2000

 

clearly the best general audio playback/basic audio conversion software. it's interface does not look fancy but it's practical function is where it actually matters with it's basic tab function etc. it can handle a lot of files to.

 

NOTE: I would not worry about audio file association as you just load up Foobar2000 and then drag-and-drop your audio files into it or into another tab etc and then play it. I tweaked mine a bit to where I use 'spacebar' to pause/resume playback and the left and right arrow keys for rewinding/fastforwarding etc.

 

p.s. Foobar2000 is what I use on Linux to through Wine. I am actually using it through PlayOnLinux (using 6.13-staging version of Wine), so it keeps it separated from the system installed Wine.

I had forgotten about Foobar! My favorite player was Cowon's Jet Audio, but they quit updating it

[Fleet Command]

On 01/07/2022 at 04:40, jnelsoninjax said:

I had forgotten about Foobar! My favorite player was Cowon's Jet Audio, but they quit updating it

Yeah. I remember. It was something.

[inactive]

On 30/06/2022 at 20:03, Fleet Command said:

On principle I avoid "clearly the best." Give me a diamond in the rough instead, preferably something whose name doesn't sound like "FUBAR."

 

For whatever it's worth... to my knowledge it's probably one of the most popular general music playback programs (maybe even #1(?)). it's light on resources to which is always a huge bonus and it's still updated fairly regularly to. hell, it seems that's what the people use over on Hydrogenaudio website (i.e. https://hydrogenaud.io/ ) who are basically experts on general audio stuff tends to be popular there to.

 

one feature I definitely use from time-to-time is conversion of lossless to lossy formats as it's the best in this regard to since it uses or can use all of the stuff everyone considers #1. like LAME for MP3, Apple's AAC encoder for AAC (or one can strip the FhG encoder out of the WinAMP installer for a quality alternative), Opus for Opus etc. basically install Foobar2000 along with the 'encoders pack' which gives you pretty much everything besides Apple AAC/WinAMP's FhG AAC encoders. but I already set mine up so I can use either Apple or the FhG if I need to use AAC but I generally stick to MP3 due to quality is good enough and it's supported pretty much on everything that supports lossy audio.

 

one can even convert "HD" audio back to standard CD Audio which is nice for efficiency sake since it takes up less space with no reduction in quality to us humans.

 

you can even do ABX tests with Foobar2000 to (through it's ABX plugin) which compares two files (lossless vs lossy), and purely by listening you have to distinguish which is which. it's a nice test to see whether someone can truly hear the difference at different bit rates or not as I have a feeling many people overestimate their abilities to hear a difference as some seem to think somewhat lower bit rates are crap, but it's not true given the public listening tests over on Hydrogenaudio's website etc.

 

I think that's why many use it... it does what it does very well and is not concerned with superficial stuff like making the interface look all fancy ; it's why ill likely be using it for the foreseeable future as I doubt something else will come alone to dethrone it.

 

I never understood people who who video playback programs to play their music as video programs are for video and music programs are for music.

 

for the record... before I switched to Foobar2000 many years ago now, I do recall using 'WinAMP Lite' but that was probably back around the early 2000's or so.

 

p.s. hell, they even have a Foobar2000 for android smart phones to.

 

 

On 30/06/2022 at 20:03, Fleet Command said:

(Also I avoid the Voldemort database engine and the KeepAss password manager.)

 

On password managers I have been using the same one since about 2005-2007 or so... pwsafe.org ; was using it on Windows and that same database worked on Linux version to when I changed over to Linux in Jan 2019.