Different Audio Players

[steve]

I found these 4 digital audio players and wondered if anyone has experience
with their audio quality? Audio quality is most important to me.

AIMP

Spotify

VLC

Foobar 2000

Thanks

steve

[Nick B]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

[HAL]

Foobar2000 with the correct settings is very good.  I use it on my PC's for music playback from files.

[steve]

Thanks Gents. Any other comments welcome.

steve

[steve]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent.   

cheers
steve

[P.I.]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent.   

cheers
steve

I'm using VLC on a Mac mini that has aged out of Audirvana support.  Audirvana is superior to VLC, but not by a lot.    Getting the settings correct - eliminating spatialization, setting proper toggles isgoes a long way to make it a very good player.

Macs are hard to please with software...  Apple cancel drivers and other supporting data.

[Nick B]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

[HAL]

Foobar2000 is also available for MACOS

https://www.foobar2000.org/mac

Just turn off applied gain and set a large memory buffer.

[steve]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Hal, I clicked "none" for gain, slid "memory length" for higher, device to my dac, and no fading.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

[Nick B]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

Hi Steve,

As VLC is free, this turned out great for you. Not sure what  Audirvana costs. I took a look on the Apple apps store for comments about VLC, and it wasn't rated well at all. So apparently the issue is Simply having the right settings in place. When I used it years ago with windows, audio quality wasn't important for me.

Nick

[P.I.]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Hal, I clicked "none" for gain, slid "memory length" for higher, device to my dac, and no fading.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

With improper settings VLC is awful in SQ.  Get them right and it is quite good considering it is free.

Audirvana is quirky, but the SQ is very, very good.

I haven't tried the current iteration of Amara.

HQ Player is just a PITA for me.

The most important aspect to achieve excellent playback is to turn off every possible instance running in the background.  All of the millions of unnecessary toggles in processors generate RFI and EMI that screws mightily with audio quality.

[steve]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

Hi Steve,

As VLC is free, this turned out great for you. Not sure what  Audirvana costs. I took a look on the Apple apps store for comments about VLC, and it wasn't rated well at all. So apparently the issue is Simply having the right settings in place. When I used it years ago with windows, audio quality wasn't important for me.

Nick

I found about half a dozen settings improved the sound quality of VLC immensely.
I also downloaded foobar2000 and found they were quite close sounding after Hal's
suggested settings. Thanks Hal.

I could live with either. And both were clearly superior to Media Player and Windows
Media Player.

I found that Audirvana is ~ $5.50/mo and $6.99/mo.

I am thinking strongly of testing AIMP, will have all three players on board at once.

cheers

steve

[Nick B]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

Hi Steve,

As VLC is free, this turned out great for you. Not sure what  Audirvana costs. I took a look on the Apple apps store for comments about VLC, and it wasn't rated well at all. So apparently the issue is Simply having the right settings in place. When I used it years ago with windows, audio quality wasn't important for me.

Nick

I found about half a dozen settings improved the sound quality of VLC immensely.
I also downloaded foobar2000 and found they were quite close sounding after Hal's
suggested settings. Thanks Hal.

I could live with either. And both were clearly superior to Media Player and Windows
Media Player.

I found that Audirvana is ~ $5.50/mo and $6.99/mo.

I am thinking strongly of testing AIMP, will have all three players on board at once.

cheers

steve

Thanks for the update, Steve. I have not heard of AIMP, so if you get around to testing it, please let us know your thoughts.

Nick

[steve]

Steve,

I used VLC years ago when I was running Windows. My recollection is it was not near audiophile quality. Have heard good things about Foobar, but haven't used it.

Hopefully someone else here has much more information.

Nick

I just found out that there are some important Settings that need to be changed with VLC for optimum audio.
I was wondering if you made the adjustments as I clearly thought VLC was also inferior until
I made the Settings changes.

After making the changes, I find VLC is clearly superior to media player, windows media player, and even
foobar 2000. If I set foobar from 2x to 8x oversampling, it became closer to VLC but VLC sounded cleaner, more
natural, live sounding while foobar had a smidgen more bass, but also less live sound.
Your results may vary though, system dependent. 

cheers
steve

Steve,

I haven't used VLC in quite a while. Just no need for me nowadays. Glad you found the best settings. It's the first time I've ever heard anyone mention that it can sound that good 👍

Hi Nick,

I also started a string at another website after reading an article mentioning several
media players and a couple of posters mentioned VLC was excellent. So I tried it.

Thanks Dave. I will check out Audirvana.

cheers

steve

Hi Steve,

As VLC is free, this turned out great for you. Not sure what  Audirvana costs. I took a look on the Apple apps store for comments about VLC, and it wasn't rated well at all. So apparently the issue is Simply having the right settings in place. When I used it years ago with windows, audio quality wasn't important for me.

Nick

I found about half a dozen settings improved the sound quality of VLC immensely.
I also downloaded foobar2000 and found they were quite close sounding after Hal's
suggested settings. Thanks Hal.

I could live with either. And both were clearly superior to Media Player and Windows
Media Player.

I found that Audirvana is ~ $5.50/mo and $6.99/mo.

I am thinking strongly of testing AIMP, will have all three players on board at once.

cheers

steve

Thanks for the update, Steve. I have not heard of AIMP, so if you get around to testing it, please let us know your thoughts.

Nick

Your welcome Nick. AIMP is Russian, VLC, and Foobar2000 were close, but I think
VLC mids/upper mids were a little strident for me. Foobar2000 seemed more relaxed.

I am going to go back and check my Supra usb cable with these.

cheers

steve

[BobM]

Here's my beef with audio players. You have a bunch of songs saved to your phone/computer/whatever. I generally have them grouped by type ... rock ... jazz ... etc. I generally play them on random shuffle, so the player decides what comes next. There is a setting that allows me to play "most played songs", but I want a setting that lets me play "least played songs", because I'm damn tired of hearing the same stuff pop up when it's supposed to be random shuffling. There's stuff saved that I never hear on the shuffle.