About player softwares

[Guilherme]

Hello,
I need to know about sound quality in music players. I've been using foobar for several years, but now I'm into this "hifi" thing and want to know more about how it works. If someone has nice tutorials about it I would be very glad.
I start with a very simples question:
I have a Behringer Audio Interface (UMC204HD) and put on foobar to play it by asio: UMC ASIO, the driver from Behringer (btw, is it the best way?). I've just sign up for a trial to Roon and put the same playback output: UMC ASIO. Doing this, do the audio players interfere on sound or just work as a "file finder", once what's doing the output is ASIO? Am I thinking right about it?
My only concern is sound quality. Organization I prefer through Windows's folders.
Thanks!

 

[BillG]

Perhaps starts here and work your way out:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-wasapi-and-music-players-foobar-jriver.7412/

P. S. Unless the player is doing some exotic, and unique, processing, they'll all sound the same.

 

[Sal1950]

Perhaps starts here and work your way out:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-wasapi-and-music-players-foobar-jriver.7412/

P. S. Unless the player is doing some exotic, and unique, processing, they'll all sound the same.

Or to put it the other way around, they all should sound the same.
If they don't, they're doing something wrong and manipulative of the data.
A bit perfect data stream of the desired file is just that, perfect.

 

[BillG]

Or to put it the other way around, they all should sound the same.
If they don't, they're doing something wrong and manipulative of the data.
A bit perfect data stream of the desired file is just that, perfect.

Yes, I'm well aware of that being a professional software engineer. However, some of them, HQPlayer for example, use some "exotic" DSP that certain audiophiles obsess over...

 

[Sal1950]

Yes, I'm well aware of that being a professional software engineer. However, some of them, HQPlayer for example, use some "exotic" DSP that certain audiophiles obsess over...

Why Certainly,
Everyone knows that once you take 16/44 and upsample it to 256 DSD it sound SOOOOO much better.

 

[vert]

I've been very happy with Audirvana, they offer a free trial too.

 

[luxnulla]

Hello,
I need to know about sound quality in music players. I've been using foobar for several years, but now I'm into this "hifi" thing and want to know more about how it works. If someone has nice tutorials about it I would be very glad.
I start with a very simples question:
I have a Behringer Audio Interface (UMC204HD) and put on foobar to play it by asio: UMC ASIO, the driver from Behringer (btw, is it the best way?). I've just sign up for a trial to Roon and put the same playback output: UMC ASIO. Doing this, do the audio players interfere on sound or just work as a "file finder", once what's doing the output is ASIO? Am I thinking right about it?
My only concern is sound quality. Organization I prefer through Windows's folders.
Thanks!

The main issue with players is when they route audio through window's mixer, which has global settings for bit depth and sampling rate. This means that if you have a file that is 24bit/96kHz but your windows audio settings are 16bit/44,1kHz, your file will be downsampled to match. If you will notice is a different topic...
The other issue with players is if the employ some signal processing to make sound better. I rarely see those around and when I do it's well marketed on the packaging.
I'd prefer paying for more music or some gear instead of software players, especially the subscription ones. There are plenty of free alternatives that can output an unprocessed stream (read bit perfect), like MediaMonkey, AIMP, clementine etc. As long as you have basic settings that allow you to pick the WASAPI or ASIO device from within the player you're good. I use MediaMonkey with a very large library and I'm more than happy with it. If you need a guide on how to set it up for bit perfect output, just PM me.

 

[solderdude]

Why Certainly,
Everyone knows that once you take 16/44 and upsample it to 256 DSD it sound SOOOOO much better.

It will when you are using a DAC that can only play DSD
upsampled sound is better than no sound in this case.

And I would argue that when you would play a 44/16 file on a filterless NOS DAC it won't reproduce/sound as good as when the same file is upsampled to say 192/24 and then reproduced by the very same filterless NOS DAC.

We can say a lot of things about Miska's player but his filters are excellent and are measurably 'better' than some other commercial offerings.
I will stay away from the audibility claims/reasons but look at it from a purely 'technical' viewpoint.
Won't use the player because my DAC doesn't need it and the user interface is horrible to me.

 

[BillG]

We can say a lot of things about Miska's player but his filters are excellent and are measurably 'better' than some other commercial offerings.
I will stay away from the audibility claims/reasons but look at it from a purely 'technical' viewpoint.

I don't doubt that his algorithms are quite good, but I've personally found no compelling reason to switch to HQPlayer from MusicBee. Then again, I'm a straight-with-no-chaser *.flac and *.m4a type of guy...

the user interface is horrible to me.

This is often the case when software engineers attempt to design user-facing software, and something that annoys me to no end in my own professional life. The UI and UX matter, and require attention of a UI designer, or at least a software engineer with a keen eye for aesthetics, if the application is to be an enjoyable experience for the user. But attempting to relay this philosophy to a lot of engineers will get one mocked and laughed at...

Archimago did some technical analysis of HQPlayer for those interested:

http://archimago.blogspot.com/2019/02/measurements-look-at-hqplayer-325.html

 

[solderdude]

I don't doubt that his algorithms are quite good, but I've not personally found no compelling reason to switch to HQPlayer

Me neither.

 

[Tup3x]

Personally I just use Groove since it works exactly like I want without the need to tweak the ui for hours. I'm pretty sure that UWP apps use shared WASAPI which is fine for me too (in my case Windows mixes everything to 32bit 88,2kHz). When I try to differentiate shared and exclusive mode... I can't, to be honest.

 

[Guilherme]

I really enjoy foobar2000. Will keep using it for now. Sharing with you my setting.
Now I have some questions about outputs inside foobar. I really notice a difference when I listening with UMC Asio Driver active on foobar, but it is really annoying when I want to quit foobar and go to youtube, for instance. I always take some time and get upset to have the sound to come back to default output. How can I do it easier? Almost considering to use the DS: Out 1-2 instead of ASIO all the time. Btw, what "DS" stands for? And how is the rendering going when I select that?

 

[David Marksberg]

For what it is worth... I have played 256kb downloaded files out of the headphone jack of my MacBook Pro directly feeding the power amp. Listeners (other pro musicians like myself) were completely satisfied that all the usual qualities, dynamics, imaging etc. were excellent. This in a blind listen. I know ways to make the same chain sound crappy (choose a terrible Apple EQ and slap some volume matching in the mix) but why do that? Typically I send optical out 96/24 to the DAC. No hiccups, just great sound.

 

[Sal1950]

I really like Foobar2000, it has so many plugins available for it that adds as much versatility as you could ever ask for.
I just wish they would make a clean port of it to Linux, I'll only boot into Windoz when I absolutely have to.

 

[iJay]

I really like Foobar2000, it has so many plugins available for it that adds as much versatility as you could ever ask for.
I just wish they would make a clean port of it to Linux, I'll only boot into Windoz when I absolutely have to.

I have FB2K and bounce my WAV files into whatever format and tagging format I need for specific players...in real time!

 

[Brab]

Anyone use Neutron player? It calls itself an audiophile player but I use it because I like the way it organizes internet radio stations I input, and can cast to almost anything, Chromecast, wifi, etc.

 

[MOCKBA]

Unless the player is doing some exotic, and unique, processing, they'll all sound the same.

It is very true. Actually any additional processing can just degrade a quality. If you consider a phone as DAP, then a quality will be restricted to 16 bit for Android, or 32 float samples for Android and iPhone. Regarding a sample rate, phones are more flexible, but still do not bypass 96000. Anything better will require attaching an external DAC and not using a phone provided APIs.

 

[MOCKBA]

It will when you are using a DAC that can only play DSD
upsampled sound is better than no sound in this case.

DSD sounds better for some reason, therefore all my music is in just DSD.