I've discovered this site about an hour ago but I love the forums.
I've been using MPC to encode my music but I do also have a lot of MP3's.
In this forum you discuss the quality of the encoders but what about the players? For me audio quality is the most importante and I've discovered recently that Winamp isn't the best in that point, even with MAD decoder...
If you want to listen this by yourselves just shut-up all DPS's plugin and equalizers and download XMPlay from this site:
http://www.un4seen.com/music/music_xmplay.html
This little program of less than 250kb plays MP3's a lot better to my ears (I didn't try Ogg yet) so I'm going to search for the best player now... (Sonique, Quintessential, FreeAmp...)

What's your opinions?
Thanks...

Here:
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~djmrob/mp3d...rs/overall.html

According to this very well done comparision, Winamp 2.7 + IS among the best MP3 players.

Now it seems both Sonique versions tested have problems.

Of course, it's very psychological. Some people simply hate Winamp, and don't matter how much proof you show them, they won't agree that the decoding engine is excellent.

Just my 0,02...

Regards;

Roberto.

In older versions of winamp they used another mp3 decoder that was very bad, so the rumor started that winamp was bad.
Maybe some ppl still have this believe.

i have heard that the JRIVER Jukebox performed the best in decoding the various formats...i don't know if the MJBX8 beta/final versions will follow in those footsteps though...

but because i refuse to crack things anymore, in windows [which i will assume is what you are looking for] i use winamp 2.78 with PP's plugin's and the 90k mpc plug...no problems here...[for mpc, mp3, ogg]

i would assume that is what most people use with windows, too...

I just wanted to know which player "plays" best! I have an $300 multimedia system and for me the most important is the sound. I've listened Winamp for two years and now I can listen a major difference in this little player that I talked about... I don't know if people can hear it in a $10 speakers but now that I've heard something better I just can't go back to Winamp...

If you're hearing something "Better", then the player is doing some kind of postprocessing in the Audio, and it's not the sound you would get from a 100% ISO compatible (I.E: Winamp) decoder.

Usually, I'm against this kind of uncontrolled sound processing. Equalizers are fine, since you can control them in detail (But I don't use them anyway). But decoders that simply decide to do something to make a track "sound better" tend to do a bad job on lots of tracks, loosing the original track "character".

Just my thoughts.

Regarding "best" decoders (I.E: 100% ISO compliant), the list is available at the link I posted before. They are:


And I quote again:


Regards;

Roberto.

taseta: try using wav disk writer from XMPlay and later WinAmp (with EQs off).
Then do some blind comparisons with the wavs to find out if you really can hear a difference, or if it's just psychological difference.

Don't know what decoder XMPlay uses, but, it could sound just different than WinAmp. The question is not which sounds subjectively "better", but which sounds closer to the original.

Uhhhhh, is that good?

That's about how much it would cost for a good minidisc player and some decent headphones. I'm sure I must be missing something here...

Anyway, I think that Winamp sounds excellent when played through a SB Live and a pair of Sony V6 headphones. I doubt that there are any software based players that are better.

Looks like there isn't a konsensus on what plays MP3 best. Still new on the block I remain curious. There's mostly a konsensus on things, so why not here. Is it that this is simply off-topic?
I used to play w. sonique for a year or two but coincidentally installed WinAmp 3.9 after a major OS installation. Now that I'm getting more concerned about quality I prefer to have an insite into what's best. And like always, I simply have very limited time to do all the tests by myself. I noticed a Foobar Forum at HA. That makes Foobar look interesting somehow although I have no idea what this player is all about. BTW if WinAmp is the way to go, should I better install the older version? Which one and why, please.
Also getting confused about Lame being recommended. Isn't Lame an encoder? What's the story here? I'm currently having MP3 files but sure look forward to possibly go for MPC or / and Ogg.

C'mon guys, lemme know what you're playing.

I am amazed. No mention of Foobar2000 yet?!

edit: Oops, sorry, it was mentioned.

Ahh, the post above yours...

Hey,

Although I really do like XMPlay, I really doubt it sounds any different for MP3/Ogg. I can't hear any difference between Winamp and XMPlay, anyway, so I'm guessing you're just imagining things.
However, XMPlay *is* much better for tracker-formats (.IT, .XM etc.) So staying with XMPlay won't hurt ! It's a very nice player, and it's developer (Ian Luck) is very supportive towards users!

BTW: for those wondering which engine XMPlay uses: it's the Bass-engine, from Ian Luck himself. Great engine, and available for free BTW. Been using it myself for some time! B)

Since this thread is more then a year old, this is not very surprising.

Note that the first "new" post did mention it...

Let me try to help you here, since people seem to be focusing on other subjects.



Beware of the Foobar forum! The zealotry there is high (zealotry == morons claiming Foobar is the best player ever and everything else is crap).

That said, Foobar is indeed a good player. Check it out at http://foobar2000.hydrogenaudio.org



AFAIK, noone performed quality tests on Winamp 2.9. But, if they still use the same decoder (I can't imagine a reason not to use it), then there's no reason to downgrade.



Lame includes decoder routines based on mpg123.
http://www.mpg123.de



I would recommend you also consider AAC/AAC+. Just a friendly advice.

Regards;

Roberto.

Boy, just came back from a walk. You won't believe what I've seen there. Naw! 'was jokin'. You surely have already been there. Lemme tell you what the main message of this thread is before you're going to possibly knick the link..
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=ST&f=1&t=5789&

In this thread it all melts down to the point where most of the fella protagonists praise the MJ 8. They do provide some other links to some test reports where MJ 8 proves to be an excellent decoder and a lot more.
This piece of work has got gozillions of features etc. etc.
From my general experience in various other fields, multi talents had always turned out to be poor performers on one way or the other.
That could be wrong in the case of RJ8. If the RJ8 is selling exactly what it promises, then this one would be interesting indeed. I'm with EAC when it comes to serious business, but I like the idea of having MJ8 other neat feature in an all in one environment. What is the deal w. Media Jukebox 8?

Thank you for getting on my question on this ol' train. I still remain curious to read who's listening w. which player. Any celebrities or gurus around to give us some info about their preferences?
Curious burn out

Best bet, 30 day free trial. Wanna see where the next MJ is? Try v9 Media Center. Close to release now, and it is stable.

Yo Roberto, we must have been writing posts at the same time. Thanx a bunch everybody for the infos.
I recall that I once dropped into the foobar2K forum. That was about 2 weeks ago and I was an even more a b so lu te beginner. To make the story short, I really didn't pick up anything out of the threads except that the crowds where discussing soft ware problems,..lots of problems. At least the way I got it. I decided to crawl my way out and learn other basic stuff.
Now that we are at it. Is the LAME decoder just as good (famous) as the encoder definately is?

How do I actually use the latest Lame decoder? Is it only working w. one of these front ends? Can I use the Lame decoder as a Win amp plug in for instance, or are there other WinAmp specific Lame decoder plug ins available?

I will walk into the "AAC/AAC+. friendly advice" when my brain keeps up w. the speed of my feet. Have to learn more about it, so I won't bother anybody with it now.
But hey, what's the deal? Did you mention it as a cmpetetive alternative to OGG and MPC?
I for myself are of a more paranoid character. I like the files to sound as close to the originals as possible. I definitaly hear the difference between a wav and a 320 VBR file size don't really matters,....well won't go over 320 LOL....,
May I know what Roberto's choice on players is?

Yes, mpg123 is a very good decoder.



IIRC, it's something like
lame --decode file.mp3



You can use mpg123 as decoder (that is the lame decoder), but wouldn't make much sense since the Lame decoder is already very good.

If you want to try it out anyway:
http://www.aikis.or.jp/~otachan/in_mpg123_118ot40a.zip

Inside that file is in_mpg123.dll. Put that file in your winamp\Plugins directory and disable in_mp3.dll. (rename it to in_mp3.old or something like that)



Yes. That's my format of choice. (but don't take that too seriously. you should choose your format yourself, based on your tastes and experiences)



No problem, I have plenty of experience with paranoid fellas
(hello, Robb/dragnet )



Winamp2. I guess I'm too used to it to change now.

Kind regards;

Roberto.

Shit. It's happening again.

Is it just me? Could some admin check it out?

The lame team fixed on their own many bugs in mpglib, so its not fair to say they are just the same. In fact mpg321 (MAD based) may be a better solution than plain mpg123. (It was wrote as a drop in replacement).

btw: I tried the quote button of the above message, but couldn't reach the "add reply" buttons anymore...

Fine, but mpg123 is excellent anyway.

Check out 2Bdecided's findings:
http://mp3decoders.mp3-tech.org/overall.html

(it's the Winamp plugin, mpg123 1.18)
AFAIK, Naoki Shibata based his plugin on plain vanilla mpglib.



Yeah, this forum engine is all fucked up regarding quoting.

The Best MP3 Decoder of all time is at http://www.audioactive.com but that's all it does is decode, no special features except playlists and volume control lol but I've never heard anything better. And of course it's free

Audioactive == Winamp 2.666 and up.

Period.

O.K. guys, so you want me to buy that winamp is prob. the best player on the planet? Know what? I'm gonna buy it, if no one to come and give it the tail lights.
670 hits on this thread, but just very few players in the race. Thiought that this one could be a rallye.
C'mon guys lift up your hood and show me what engines you got.