I get a hankering for CDDA/WAV-player applets that have supposed-audiophile capacities. In the past, I've been a fan of the strong features provided by Winamp 2.71/2.81(?). Recently, I felt like I wanted an alternative.
I've been pleased with the clarity and minimalism of Coolplayer (advocated by some folks in these forums) which delivers audio in 'blazing-fast C'. It has plugins for Ogg and some nice skins, but does not seem to have a good applet for CDDA (so you can't just shoot yur cd into the tray and play on Coolplayer).
Freeware: http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/
Still more recently, spurred by the vehement denunciations of Coolplayer fans in their support forums, I've tried-out and liked Foobar 2000 -- another ostensible audiophile player that does play cds from the tray, supports a variety of compression codecs, including flac, and is similarly free.
http://foobar2000.hydrogenaudio.org/
While I'm blissfully free of any of the technical knowledge that gives opinions on audio quality legitimate authority, I'll say I like the two new players and would enjoy what other folks have to contribute on the subject. A dog-fight over which is better might be entertaining too (but people here at cdrbase are too good-natured for that kind of carry-on
I've been pleased with the clarity and minimalism of Coolplayer (advocated by some folks in these forums) which delivers audio in 'blazing-fast C'. It has plugins for Ogg and some nice skins, but does not seem to have a good applet for CDDA (so you can't just shoot yur cd into the tray and play on Coolplayer).
Freeware: http://coolplayer.sourceforge.net/
Still more recently, spurred by the vehement denunciations of Coolplayer fans in their support forums, I've tried-out and liked Foobar 2000 -- another ostensible audiophile player that does play cds from the tray, supports a variety of compression codecs, including flac, and is similarly free.
http://foobar2000.hydrogenaudio.org/
While I'm blissfully free of any of the technical knowledge that gives opinions on audio quality legitimate authority, I'll say I like the two new players and would enjoy what other folks have to contribute on the subject. A dog-fight over which is better might be entertaining too (but people here at cdrbase are too good-natured for that kind of carry-on