Which digital music software sounds the best?
(Credit: CNET Networks)Last week, I had an opportunity to sit down with the developers of MXPlay, beta jukebox software that lets you mash up your music with streaming movies, letting you create your own virtual music videos.
More interesting than the mashup features, however, is MXPlay's unique playback interface. A graphical interface lets you control the location of the listening audience and the position and direction of your speakers. Letting you tweak your own "room" does create better-sounding tunes. The MXPlay folks were very happy to compare its playback sound to that of iTunes, and I must admit I could tell the difference.
That got me thinking a bit about the existing digital music players for PC. There are a ton of great all-in-one jukeboxes on CNET Download.com for managing your library, making playlists, burning CDs, and syncing your portable devices, but how do they sound when playing music?
MediaMonkey is my personal favorite music-management and playlist software, but when it comes to listening to music, I generally use Quintessential Player, which has a similar plug-in architecture as the classic free music player Winamp. A variety of plug-ins let me customize the sound for headphones or my full stereo system.
JetAudio Basic is yet another powerful free music player with customizable sound, and Foobar2000 is the geek-chic pick for playing your tunes, but what's your favorite? Which digital music software do you use when you've got a party and you need the best sound? Tell me about it in the comments.
Minimal use of system resources. Excellent music management via it's Media Library. Active and devoted community that helps users with their wishes and issues. Ability to customize nearly exactly as one would want via the many plugins available. ALWAYS respects my files, and never edits them without my permission (how could you iTunes ... I expect that from Media Player but not you).
Winamp is still the best!
Just because it's a classic, doesn't mean it needs to be replaced.
About the topic question ("Which digital music software do you use when you've got a party and you need the best sound?") : I switch MM to Party Mode. Each one can add music to "now playing", but they can't modify anything and even access drives. about the sound quality, DFX (for winamp,of course) is good enough for most needs.
Honestly I never have downloaded the Yahoo! version. But I can truly asure you that what MM was once before, it will hardly be again.
Personally MediaMonkey is my best player.
MusicMatch was the king at one time, outstanding library organization, great sound, great ripper/burner. Nothing has come close enough for me to switch.
I now use WMP 11. I never used to like it because it was hard to use but since version 11 I havne't used anything else. It sounds all right too.
Media Monkey would be a close second or, if you're a linux fan like me, Armorok.
I now use WMP 11. I never used to like it because it was hard to use but since version 11 I haven't used anything else. It sounds all right too.
Media Monkey would be a close second or, if you're a linux fan like me, Armorok.
http://www.musicmatch.com/
However, as good as JetAudio is, it's parent company (COWON) is primarily focused on it's hardware and in my opinion, does not spend the resources neccessary to improve JetAudio even further.
Still, though XM Player is good, JetAudio is still king.
- Winamp better than WMP11
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by dbaudio1
May 17, 2007 9:03 AM PDT
- Winamp definitely sounds better than Windows Media Player 11
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- thank you very much
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by hannooo
May 17, 2007 3:28 PM PDT
- thank u very much
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