Which media player do you use for computer audio?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by SBurke, Jan 23, 2012.

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  1. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    jRiver for everything. I like to keep it simple.
     
  2. jukes

    jukes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Finland
    Just for fun, I bought the Decibel the other day. Love the (drag'n'drop) simplicity of it.
     
  3. chili555

    chili555 Forum Resident

    Other: Deadbeef
     
  4. Richard Austen

    Richard Austen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hong Kong
    This one is new to me - How do you like it. I have used foobar2000 but just bought a new PC and would rather try something that has an actual interface which this appears to possess. Plus as I recall Foobar was a bit of a pain to set up to get it to actually have the best sound quality. I'd rather not have to go through all that BS again.
     
    George P likes this.
  5. superstar19

    superstar19 Authentic By Nature

    Location:
    Canton, MI, USA
    I love musicbee. I use it to manage my lossless library and as my primary music playback software through my DAC feeding my home stereo system. I've been using it for a few years now after having used Mediamonkey. It is extremely versatile, and the developer is very active on the musicbee user forum and has done a great job of responding to user requests. It pretty much does all I need and handles all the formats I need, but some of my favorite features include multiple library layout options, decoding HDCD, linking with last.fm. I still use iTunes for syncing my iPod classic and iPhone and I like that the Musicbee uses the same tag fields for sort artist/album artist that iTunes does so conversion to my iTunes library is seamless. Musicbee has the ability to sync with iPods and iPhones but I haven't tried it as iTunes suits my needs there.
     
    arisinwind likes this.
  6. telemike

    telemike Forum Resident

    Location:
    Greensboro, NC
    I ditched iTunes for MusicBee. I like dragging new files onto the app and having it move them to the library and organize folders and file names like itunes does. Plus it handles FLAC! It works good for syncing playlists to my phone and mp3 player.
     
  7. superstar19

    superstar19 Authentic By Nature

    Location:
    Canton, MI, USA
    I forgot to mention that I really like how when it detects new files in your "library" folder on the HD, it puts them in your Inbox without automatically moving them to the library. This is useful for me because I like to verify the tags/cover art and get them to my preferences, and convert to AAC/MP3 for iTunes if necessary before they get "lost" in my library. I know most media software has a "recently added" folder/option, but I like how this isolates just the new things that I haven't messed with.

    The advanced search/replace plugin has been harder for me to get than the RegExp with Mediamonkey, but that's not too big of a deal, and I probably just need to spend a little more time doing some learnin' with it.
     
  8. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    MediaMonkey does have a way to isolate the newly added to the library via the ratings, anything added to the library has a rating of "Unknown" I use a playlist to isolate those files for editing. Once I review make any needed changes, I change the rating to "Zero" stars.
     
  9. Tommy SB

    Tommy SB Forum Resident

    Location:
    Santa Barbara, CA
    This is a re-post from earlier this year with updates.

    I currently have several different software players installed on my computer including JRiver Media Center, foobar2000, and Musicbee. My go-to software is foobar as I can play virtually everything audio with the available plug-ins, including SACD and DVD-Audio. Here's a picture of a foobar2000 theme that I've been enjoying.

    [​IMG]

    Update:

    I've installed and uninstalled countless software players that have been available through the years, and though not all inclusive, I found the following options suit my needs and sensibilities in a Windows OS environment.

    I used foobar2000 off and on for years, but it wasn't until I started using some of the custom themes, in particular Darkone v4, that it became pleasurable to use and easier to exploit the horsepower that foobar offers. There is no current free software that I'm aware of and has the same customization options and wealth of functionality that is available with foobar2000. It remains a staple in my music playback toolbox. Still the learning curve is substantially more challenging than a lot of other solutions.

    Additionally, I have been using the Roon Labs software since the first beta release and now have a licensed copy that I'm continuing to explore. The software is extremely powerful from a metadata standpoint, but I find myself still defaulting back to my themed foobar player due to its ability to play more formats and quick random single track selections that are not in a library. Still early in the learning curve with Roon, and the development team is aggressively improving and expanding functionality that would be useful to me.

    JRiver Media Center in Theater View with the ShowRoom setting makes for a really clean and fast scrolling of albums, and I have a lot of fun using it as well. Nice piece of software, though not free, and possibly a lot more multimedia functionality then someone would need for a standalone music player.

    Based on the recent post in this thread, I've updated my MusicBee software and I'm optimizing it both from an aesthetic as well as functionality standpoint. I agree with several previous comments that the software is maintained and improved continuously, with nightly builds available on a very regular basis. Great piece of free software that I would recommend to most users over foobar2000 based on its "out-of-the-box" usability.

    Ultimately, regardless of what software we choose, there's always going to be that learning curve to optimize our experience. It's easy to dismiss a lot of the software options based on the fact that we're not use to the GUI and/or the programs options. Fortunately for myself, I really like playing with a variety of different software solutions, though it can definitely be frustrating as well.

    Happy listening...
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2015
  10. Downloaded and played with this for awhile. I like it. I have been using Foobar2000 but this MusicBee will definitely get playing time.
     
  11. Slack

    Slack Forum Resident

    J River seems the best so far.
    I hate iTunes.
     
    BilboAlaska likes this.
  12. I used to use it but I found it to be unstable.
     
  13. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Ah..."the brick". I remember this thing. Not sure $179 for 30GB, even if NIB, is a price I'd pay for a Zune these days.

    But Groove Music could still learn a few things from the old Zune PC software.
     
  14. Yeah, not a good price, but if you want one, you can get it. I think the only Zune player worth getting would be the Zune HD. The Zune 4.5 firmware had a pretty nice interface. It took MS a while to get it right, but right before they killed it off, they had come up with a nice GUI.
     
    Ham Sandwich and Gaslight like this.
  15. JBStephens

    JBStephens I don't "like", "share", "tweet", or CARE. In Memoriam

    Location:
    South Mountain, NC
    Winamp. It'll play FLAC and APE.
     
    drh likes this.
  16. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    Didn't the llama finally kick Winamp's a**, a few years ago? Man, I loved that player back in the Windows 98 days.
     
  17. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Yes, and I think it was more recently than "a few years"--a few months, or maybe something around a year. I've been using it for years with perfect satisfaction, although I need to go back through old forum postings and review; there was some setting or other that needed to be undone or it would by default do something or other undesirable--compression, maybe? I fixed that at the time, but now I don't remember, and I'm planning to set up a new machine not too far down the road.

    But I must say MusicBee sounds interesting, assuming it can handle .ape files (nearly all my "server" files are in that format) and the idiosyncratic way I've set up my files, with files spread over a whole forest of folders and subfolders. I'll give it a look; my daughter is periodically at me to transfer music to her iPhone from my old Lenovo laptop, the heart of my "server," and although I installed iTunes I've had no luck getting it to talk to the wretched phone. All I get for my trouble is periodically iTunes will tell me it needs an update and then ties up my machine for the rest of the evening downloading and installing. :rant:

    [edit] Anybody know, does MusicBee support WinAmp playlists? To connect the tracks from those few CDs for which I wanted to preserve couplings (concert/recital recordings, mostly), I've set up WinAmp playlists saved to one of my folders.
     
    Gaslight likes this.
  18. Gaslight

    Gaslight ⎧⚍⎫⚑

    Location:
    Northeast USA
    If Winamp can support iTunes config export, then MusicBee IIRC can support import of iTunes configs.
     
  19. cgoodwin22

    cgoodwin22 Senior Member

    Location:
    Severna Park, MD
    Itunes & Audirvana
     
  20. Claus

    Claus Senior Member

    Location:
    Germany
    Audirvana
     
    Starwanderer likes this.
  21. cdash99

    cdash99 Senior Member

    Location:
    Mass
    I've been using iTunes with Pure Music but lately find that it's getting buggy. Not sure if the cause is iTunes 12, a 23,000 track library, or a 5 1/2 year old Mac that I installed Yosemite on a few weeks back.
     
  22. No Static

    No Static Gain Rider

    Location:
    Heart of Dixie
    iTunes 9.
    Still a great-looking interface and does what I need it to do...mostly the portability.
     
  23. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    Up until a few months ago and a significant system change JRiver for Mac had been my primary media player. I continued to use iTunes and played around with Audirvana 2.0 on occasion. Recently I've used iTunes more but I have updated to JRMC 21 for Mac and I'm beginning to work more with that along with the great JRemote app.

    As far as perpetration my preference are dbPoweramp for Mac, XLD and then iTunes.

    I think I'm at the end of chasing software rainbows although some interesting new things come around (Roon Software) and others think highly of certain softwares (JPlay, HQ Player) as long as the tools I have work for my needs and it continues to be an active software with updates and new versions on occasion I should be set.
     
  24. jukes

    jukes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southern Finland
    Haven't been able to crash it yet. Perhaps mr. Booth has fixed it (ver. 1.3.2: 9 Jan. 2015.).
     
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