Winamp sound quality is horrible... What's the BEST mp3 player?

[pm]

Everything depends on your speakers. I have 6 year old JBL speakers and they have ok bass considering what PC speakers sounded 6 years ago. Yeah, I could blow more money on way better speakers, but my setup is fine by me (once I tweak it a little) and I'd rather spend my money on silicon hardware. But what you think sounds best is going to depend a lot on what kind of speakers you have.

 

[sd]

MusicMatch works good for me, and its based on the Franhaufer thingy

 

[AfterBurn]

That AudioActive Player thing really really sounds very clean and good. The only gripe i have about it, it doesnt respond to the multimedia keys of my Natural Keyboard Pro. That sucks as im used to having my player minimized and control it with them keys. But sound quality is GREAT.

 

[Rudee]

OMG. That WOW plugin rocks! Thanks for the tip.

 

[OS]

I guess I won't bother then. I don't use little computer speakers for my rig The JBLs sitting on my desk are 3/4s the height of my 17" monitor. Plus the reciever my computer is hooked up to has it's own EQ

 

[Soccerman]

here's the dope.. Fraunhoffer codec will make bad MP3's sound like crap, so be prepare to rerip, and redownload what you don't like..

I've had Fraunhoffer on my computer for a while, and with my Sennheiser headphones, you can tell the difference. however that codec eats my CPU quite a bit, which is why I've got the LAME plugin working instead, of the default nitrane, or fraunhoffer. however I don't really notice anything different from Nitrane, so I'll probably go back..

I've got to check out this alpha version of the next winamp decoder..

finally, all these audio plugins (wowthing etc) are just poor excuses for not setting the eq/having bad speakers.. I've tried em, and they're more a hassle then they are worth. I have my eq set on full bass and full treble (I don't like to hear the middle spectrum too much), however that gives me alot of distortion.

I know exactly why it gives me this distortion. the only way out of it is to turn my pre-amp wayy down. when I turn off the eq, for the most part, the distortion gets wiped out (on some songs, there still is).

 

[downhiller80]

If you use a digital out on your soundcard you don't get the distortion.

Seb

 

[Soccerman]

oh? are you saying that it's in the DAC that gives me the distortion? so how would moving the DAC down the line give me less distortion? would it be because the DAC of Dolby Digital recievers is of higher quality?

 

[superbaby]

Use the EQ in Winamp guys, as I said before all these plugins tweak the output just a bit (just like an EQ would do) so it's the same! Some of the best generic presets are full bass, full treble and bass, and rock. Try them and you'll see! The default Winamp EQ is flat so you'll get "flat" sound.

 

[Dufusyte]

Following the suggestions on this thread, I found that the best sound was when I used the Fronwhatever in_mp3.dll and set the Out to use DirectSound (instead of Out=Waveplayer).

The AudioActive thing sounds maybe a bit better, but I found its interface harder to work with, and, um, it crashed after each song (this may be related to a known bug they are still trying to fix; it only effects Win95 systems).

As for the plug-ins, I've tried DFX and Realizer for Winamp. They do more than just adjust the equalizer. They try to extrapolate frequencies and restore overtones that are lost during compression. They make the sound come alive, but I found that ultimately the truest sound came from using the Fronwhatever-in, the DirectSound-out, and no extra plug-ins. Or, just use the AudioActive player, if you can work with the interface.

Specs: MX300, Cambridge 4-Point Speakers plus subwoofer.

 

[arthurb1]

Soccerman...

Right...the DAC on the soundcard usually (no matter if its SBThis or AurealThat sucks the big one compared to the DAC on your speakers if you got one em (digitals) (that is why waiting for Klipsch to make digital's) If you have analog speakers, turn the sound card way down and let the speakers amps do the work...the speakers amps are 10 times that of the one on CrossFires or Klipsch's...also if your CDROM's have digital, use them...while the DAC on the soundcard my suck...it is is way better than the one on your CD-ROM...the best non-digital I have heard is the Plextor UW40x...the one I have now...but it is still not as good as the Sound Card's then again never play CD's I rip, or DL, and then put the CD in my car or mini system in my room.

 

[AMB]

Im a bit late into this conversation, but I have like WMP7 and its quality ever since it came out