Foobar2000 vs Winamp..

[downhill]

Foorbar is a no frills player for you puter....by no frills, I mean no UI. If that's important to you, then Foobar isn't for you...but if your into your music, and have a decient set of speakers then you might want to read on.


Foobar (http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/foobar2000/index.html)


Features...

foobar2000 feature list:
- supported formats: MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPC, FLAC, Ogg FLAC, WAV, MOD (needs foo_mod.dll), SPC (needs foo_spc.dll), monkey's audio (needs foo_ape.dll)

- 32bit floating point audio processing pipeline, with 6dB hard limiter and conversion to 16/24bit (dithered) at the end.

- lossy formats (MP3, Vorbis, MPC) are decoded directly to 32bit FP so there's no clipping

- transparent rar/zip reading (slow)

- full unicode support, new playlist format (m3u8) storing international filenames properly (using UTF-8)

- runs *only* on win2k/winxp or newer
*edited...it now runs on Win-98 and such....
- built in SSRC resampler component (DSP)

- reads APEv2 tags from MP3 files (id3v2 is not supported and will never be)
- fully customizable keyboard shortcuts, including global hotkeys

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

My listening tests involve....

Comparing Foobar to Winamp 2.8..no special output plugins used..
Pink Floyds Wish You Were Here, Columbia's Master Sound, recording using 20 bit Super bit Mapping Process..pressed on a gold CD...the song is the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond and encoded with the LAME mp3 encoder using the preset extreme setting.

Also using an MPC encoding using an extreme setting
An Ogg Vorbis encoding using an extreme setting and...

I haven't tried a lossless test like Monkey audio or FLAC yet...

My tired old ears tell me there IS a difference. The sound is warmer and with more definition. Also, the output is louder with Foobar vs Winamp..no imho, that isn't really a good thing but I don't hear clipping either so maybe it's ok..

The bad..
No disc writer output but no biggie as Winamp is as accurate as it gets for that chore anyway..

No UI...this is really NO frills.
And as the above states...no support for id3v2 tags but it does and I've verified that it supports APEv2 tags from MP3 files.
Your thoughts?

[EvilAngel]

Very basic yet effective. I like the options given to work with.

As far as quality... I can't really tell the difference.

I really like the program tho.

[downhill]

Another thing I noticed..very little CP usage...and I mean VERY little.

[Paft]

Well, I like the product. I don't know what that tells you, but I like how it's nice and clean (and small).

[UOD]

what soundcard are you using DH and what are the specs?

[downhill]

UOD...I'm using an Audigy..the one..which even though the site says otherwise, still is only a 16 bit card...Still waiting for that MWave to come out. :D

Now this isn't going to be night and day, as far as sound goes..but using a set of headphones (Sony MDR-V700's a gift from a couple of SG,ers and once more thanks!) and a set of Labtec 420's....If I can hear a difference with this setup...most with better speakers should hear a "warmer and more detailed" experience..Given that they arn't using a cheap soundcard..

If you have a more pro card..this software should probalby sound even better as you can set it for 24 bit output and you can resample for up to 96 khz.....can't wait for a true 24 bit card. :D

[Qwijib0]

Originally posted by downhill
can't wait for a true 24 bit card. :D

like the audigy2? :p

[UOD]

what are you using as your target sample rate?

[Humboldt]

Downed it, looking for coffee beans.

[downhill]

Originally posted by UOD
what are you using as your target sample rate?

48 khz...and I don't know if this card will actually sample at that rate...

Would it even matter if the card always samples down to 16 bit 44.1 khz anyway?

[UOD]

Originally posted by downhill
48 khz...and I don't know if this card will actually sample at that rate...

Would it even matter if the card always samples down to 16 bit 44.1 khz anyway?


Bump it up to the max setting....your Audigy can handle it....both recording from a digital source and playback. I think. lol

[drdoug99]

Whoa, this is pretty nifty.

I'm using Winamp 3.....one thing about winamp is that it takes like over 20MB of RAM!
and that certain files get distorted very badly...like clipping or something....but then when I play the same song in Windows Media player, it works fine....

and Foobar, very cool...shows all the song titles and everything automatically.....sounds excellent, doesn't take 20MB of RAM.
I see no need to use anything with all the bells and whistles like other programs.....as I listen to the music, not the graphics....I like how it's in the system tray too....nice.

[downhill]

By UOD
Bump it up to the max setting....your Audigy can handle it....both recording from a digital source and playback. I think. lol


Well it works fine. One thing I can tell better is artifacting in the cymbals on this song with mp3. I can't tell it as easily with Winamp. I can't hear any at all with either Foobar or Winamp, using MPC. But Foobar just seems a bit warmer still, and more detailed.

Where's that Mwave card at anyway..Wasn't it supposed to be out in time for Christmas? :D

Qwey...yeah the Audigy 2 is supposed to have fixed all the bs about the first Audigy....

[downhill]

The more I use this, the better I like it. Give it a try!

[downhill]

Have I mentioned......this rocks! :D

[downhill]

Edited my first post...

This player is being developed so fast that if you tried it...you should update it..simply update your exe file the the two dlls.. from the above listed download site...

If you like your music clean...you really should try this..