PlayerABX Tool - Foobar2000 vs XMPlay, ABX GUI Tool that silently plays songs in two players Options

[robertcollier4]

This tool allows double-blind playing of the same songs in two different players. Please participate in this Double-blind ABX listening test to compare Foobar2000 1.2.2 vs XMPlay 3.7. You must choose 10 audio files in the interface - listen to each audio file in two anonymous players - and then make a radio selection as to which sounded better to you.

The tool was written in AutoHotKey Classic - and so you can view the code yourself to see what it does. If you have AutoHotkey installed - you can run the .AHK file, or if you don't have AutoHotKey installed you can run the compiled .EXE file.

XMPlay 3.7 and Foobar2000 1.2.2 are to be included in subfolders. Both programs are launched to the tray and produce no popups when playing songs via this tool - so as to provide double-blind compliance. From the author's original files, the following changes have been made to support double-blind operation:
1. XMPlay.ini is modified to add the line "NoReg=1" to make it into portable mode and "TitleTray=0" to disable tray bubble notifications for blind playing and "AutoAmp=0" to disable ReplayGain.
2. XMPlay Directsound plug-in has been installed into XMPlay to match Foobar2000's default DirectSound output.
3. Foobar2000 Preferences>Shell Integration>"Bring to front when adding new files" has been unticked.

Please post your results. This tool can also very easily be modified to perform double-blind tests between other players as well. My goal was to find the best sounding audio player for Windows - and I believe XMPlay is it according to my tests. If you believe there is a better sounding audio player than XMPlay then this tool can be modified (the .AHK source is included) for that player as well. Please post your results and lets verify what the best sounding audio player for Windows is.

Download: PlayerABX-Foobar-vs-XMPlay.zip (3.25MB)



This post has been edited by robertcollier4: Feb 10 2013, 09:58

[Kohlrabi]

1. You are violating the foobar2000 license by distributing foobar2000 in non-installer form.
2. ABX is not meant to determine a preference, but to show whether you can spot a difference.
3. The players play at (easily perceivable) different volume, so telling them apart is dead easy. I disabled ReplayGain processing in foobar2000, now they seem to play at the same volume.
4. The conclusion is wrong, I just ticked 4 vs. 6, and it still said "$foo sounds better in perceptual quality", which can not be said conclusively.

What's fascinating to me is that you can build a simple GUI just using AutoHotKey.

This post has been edited by Kohlrabi: Feb 10 2013, 09:33

[robertcollier4]

1. You are violating the foobar2000 license by distributing foobar2000 in non-installer form.
2. ABX is not meant to determine a preference, but to show whether you can spot a difference.
3. The players play at (easily perceivable) different volume, so telling them apart is dead easy. I disabled ReplayGain processing in foobar2000, now they seem to play at the same volume.
4. The conclusion is wrong, I just ticked 4 vs. 6, and it still said "$foo sounds better in perceptual quality", which can not be said conclusively.

What's fascinating to me is that you can build a simple GUI just using AutoHotKey.

Okay, thank you for the feedback @Kohlrabi

Point1 and Point3. I have removed the pre-installed and pre-configured Foobar2000 and replaced it with the original author's install EXE provided with instructions to disable "Bring to front when adding new files"and disable ReplayGain.
Point2. Okay, so if ABX is not the name - then "Double-blind comparison test" is a better name? Can a moderator change the thread title appropriately because I can no longer edit the original post after a reply.
Point4 - Okay, I have removed the "conclusions" section and now it just reports the number of times the "better" radio checkboxes was clicked - it does not "assert" any conclusions anymore since you are right the sample size has to be appropriate.