Media (MP3) Player.....

[nichomach]

'Nother MediaMonkey vote here. I've pretty much completely switched from WMP to this, which does a very nice job of ripping and autosynching.

[magneticman]

Winamp was never the same once AOL bought it (bloated), foobar is undoubtedly the best now.

and there shouldn't be any difference between winamp and wmp at stock, the former starts to benefit once you use the asio or kernal streaming plugins though..

[Gunbuster]

Xion and the Windows Startmenu with my neat Music folder

[CaptainCrash]

No, it is the case. It isnt just me who has noticed it. The sound clarity from winamp (without turning on or adjusting any settings in either player that will alter the sound output) is better than WMP. Same MP3 file, Same sound card, Same speakers, different players. Go figure.

I don't want to derail the thread, and debates of this sort over what people can or can't hear have a tendency to get a little tetchy, but it simply doesn't make sense - it's like saying that unzipping a compressed file with Winzip will produce a different result from doing it with Winrar.

Are you *absolutely* sure that there's no postprocessing of any kind going on in either player, volume levels are exactly the same, and if so, have you done any double-blind (eg ABX) tests to eliminate any possibility of placebo effect?

I suppose it's possible that some players may deliberately manipulate the sound by default, with no possibility to disable postprocessing, but I'm not aware of any players that behave in this way (which is not to say they don't exist of course). As a general rule, whatever your reasons for preferring one player over another, sound quality is (or should be) a non-issue...

[strike-down]

ok, looked right through every single setting possible, turns out there was dsp enabled **serves self with a helping of fail** didnt even know it existed in there

[torsionSW]

I use j.river media jukebox
http://www.mediajukebox.com/

[2Cold Scorpio]

Heck, I just use WMP11 coupled with CMSS 3D Headphone/Crystalizer/Entertainment Mode/Custom EQ (using the Rock EQ but with boosted bass frequencies) from my Creative X-Fi card and it sounds great. I don't use libraries, and the only time I use playlists is for game soundtracks; otherwise I justp ick the song I want to hear from Explorer directly (I'm firmly rooted in my old ways, I suppose).

Honestly, I think it depends more on your speakers/headphones than the player itself. Of course, sound card is pretty important too, and especially the quality of the source file.

[autopilot]

Actually WMP11 is quite good these days, not as bad as many people make out. It's certainly a lot better than iTunes IMO. That said, i use Foobar2000 - bloat free but far more powerful and flexible than anything else worth using IMO.

[PodgePapin]

I mainly use Winamp, but there are a few things i use wmp11 for. My mp3 player sometimes won't show album covers so i did add them in using winamp, but it still won't show on it. So i tried wmp and it now shows up when transfered to my Zen Vision M.

Winamp = player, wmp11 = mp3 tag editor.

[latrosicarius]

I'm the same way.. I use Winamp exclusively for music. I cannot stand WMP, iTunes, & Real.

I have better programs for ripping & burning. All I am looking for in a media player is FAST, SMALL, and a good drag & drop playlist. No "store", no "library", no "file manager", no thank you. I prefer to manage my own files.

VLC for video all the way, but I would never use it for music. Too slow & not designed for good playlist functionality.

MPC is another. Useful for videos sometimes, but not well designed for music & playlists.

I guess I'll have to check out foobar and mediamonkey that several of you have pointed out. Winamp has gotten bloated since AOL bought it, and it sometimes pisses me off.

[Leggie]

I'm a WMP11 person. I do like the look and it has good library management.

Unfortunately there are some minor-to-more-than-minor annoyances - namely, non-native FLAC support, including a weird seeking issue when playing FLACs that are not in a playlist. It also is a bit heavy all round. But overall I'm positive towards it. I really don't like iTunes and its intrusive service installing.

I do also use foobar2000 for transcoding - that's basic but does a good job.