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Best Free Music Player and Organizer

Updated 23. May 2013 - 11:21 by cdissler

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Introduction
 

This article compares audio software that enrich the music experience or enhance everyday listening, and provide impressive music centric features. The best MP3 and audio player ought to quench our passion for music, such as by inspiring us to rip or download music, organize our music libraries, learn more about our favorite artists or music, or just listen to music.

The reviews evaluate products on sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for common and useful audio formats (MP3, WAV, FLAC, WMA, and others), performance, security and privacy.

Thanks to our faithful followers, who have been pitching their favorite players and organizers, we have a set of carefully considered selections. We have 26 listed music players and counting!

Latest article update: Added more quick links at the top (8-27). Current product reviews in the discussion section are from a previous editor (they are his "I" statements).
Micro Music Players
 

There are also basic and further stripped down music players that either didn't make the cut for the main review or don't fit the review criteria. They are listed in order of impressiveness (for sound enhancements, usability and unique features, support for music formats, state of development, performance and security).

  • Winamp Lite: I recommend the separate lite download (you have to scroll to the bottom of the download page) since the lite installer doesn't have the controversial OpenCandy, but it still has a pre-checked option to send off your usage stats. Privacy issues aside (just be sure to carefully inspect all the installation options), it plays an impressive number of audio formats for such a lightweight and resource efficient player, and mimics the wide array of options and feature richness of the full version. It lacks a library for organizing music (unless you already have the full version and use the 'Winamp classic' skin). Quick tip: save your eyes and use 'Double Size' from the options.

  • XMPlay: Has a wide range of sound enhancements (gapless output, 32 bit output, DSP and MOD settings), additional downloads (skins, visualizations, ASIO), and hidden capabilities (Internet streaming). It didn't support my primary music format (FLAC), but the site has many additional 'native input plug-ins' that expand XMPlay's compatibility. A minimal library sorts by various categories based on tag information (use control + A to select your folders and drag and drop them into the play list or queue or library).

    The negatives: a scattered interface (with many independent components) may not be to your taste, and the random play feature didn't work (random play only worked for me by manually right-clicking the play button each time, which I would only do to test whether it works). Developed by un4seen (known for the BASS audio library and MO3 audio format). Portable installation, very lite download.

  • Spider Player: Solid 'middle weight' music manager and player. It uses the trustworthy BASS engine, has many impressive enhancements (32 bit output, DSP effects support, 9-band equalizer and many presets, cross fading) and music managing tools (CD ripper, converter). One of the most interesting capabilities is an auto lyrics down loader, which displays lyrics in a pane next to your play list (you can manually save lyrics to tags), and an Internet radio player and recorder. If only it came with a library organizer it could have been a contender. And I couldn't pretend that a 'favorites editor' was good enough since I ran into error messages with it. The Pro version is now free and unlocks many extra features (mentioned above).

  • VUPlayer: Plays many audio formats and has a simple and user friendly interface (though some of the icons seem outdated). Comes with several sound enhancements (32 bit mixing, gapless playback, adjustable cross fade, 9-band graphic equalizer, and MOD/MIDI mixing) and other tools (converts files, grabs/rips CDs, retrieves freedb tags). In the forum some users report that it works in Windows 7. But it hasn't been updated since 2007 (it uses an old BASS library version) and has 1 moderately critical Secunia advisory (related to opening un-trusted play list files).

  • Winyl: Refreshingly simple and lite BASS player that is well worth watching for future improvements. For now it has a few basic enhancements (32 bit processing, equalizer) and tools (tag editing). More interesting is the care that went into its design. The library comes with long lists of radio stations and a few 'smartlists'. The smartlists automatically display your most played or highest rated songs, and you can create additional smartlists. The 6 skins that come with it are diverse and useful to fit your taste. To further please music fans, Winyl needs to work on additional sound enhancements and play options (I'd also like a random play option or perhaps better play list access).
Cuts: The Other Players
 

Here are music managers and players that are impressive enough for a quick mention, but not quite enough to get featured in the review:

  • Quintessential Media Player (qmp) had great potential, but testing was mired by equally great difficulty in finding a FLAC plug-in. Otherwise, it surprised me with a small download size, a thorough MusicID updater, and feature richness. Massively edits tags, renames files, and writes MusicID info to tags (or updates its library info from tags). It has flashy visualizations, three mode sizes, and automatic online radio lists.

  • JetAudio: Surprisingly lightweight and efficient for such a feature rich, flashy, and capable music/media player. It has many features to help build and manage your media library. Rip, Convert, Record, and Burn all in one program. Use countless auto play lists (the most I've seen, but some are based on tags you must create) in its library, view a simple lyrics windows, get radio stations (many languages), browse to music stores and fan sites from within the player, and choose between several unique skins. However, I found its separate media center/main window setup confusing (the media center does not reduce to a mini player and I kept accidentally exiting the whole program). Other negatives: limited tag editing, no 32 bit output capability in the free version, and 1 'less critical' Secunia advisory (and four past advisories in a previous version).

  • Songbird: An open source, refreshingly simple interface that highly integrates to Internet resources like a browser (integrating many Mozilla Firefox features). One advantage is the ability to expand and customize it through add-ons, but the underlying interface is still the most bulky and inefficient of all tested music players (nearly as heavy as Firefox and getting heavier all the time). But I keep going back to it, so maybe they have something for the future there. It's in constant development, with nightly Beta versions for testing. See its "Roadmap Wiki" for information on its ever growing list of new features.

  • Winamp Full has privacy concerns and now includes the controversial OpenCandy in its installer. Read its privacy policy to see if you agree with its automated data collection of non-personal information (some of which you can only opt out of by hiding or not using certain features). Privacy concerns and nags aside, the program is popular and professional with excellent support for many music file formats, good integration with Internet resources, and top-notch library and music organizing features (it's somewhat incorporated as the media library in The KMPlayer).

 

Some of these have fans, but didn't impress me in comparison to other players in the review. The quick negatives beside each aren't comprehensive comments; visit the respective sites for plenty of positives. Listed alphabetically.

  • 1by1. High I/O bit activity, limited support for music files.
  • Billy. High I/O bit activity (esp. for WAV files), limited support for music files.
  • Clementine. Stealthy association of files.
  • Cool Player. Unpatched Secunia advisories (related to using un-trusted play lists and skins).
  • Cool Player+. High memory use (near Media Monkey size).
  • Evil Player. Simplistic interface, problems running in a standard account.
  • iTunes. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • J. River Media Jukebox. Ad-supported: promotes purchasing Internet products as an essential feature.
  • Moo0 AudioPlayer. High CPU use, limited support for music files.
  • QuuxPlayer. Poor interface design/usability.
  • Trout. Problems with interface usability (slow loading of audio files, error messages).
  • Xion. Problems with interface (CPU spikes, crashes), Secunia warning (un-trusted play lists).
Related Products and Links
 

Download Music

Related Hot Finds and Articles

Additional Third-Party Tools

  • SharePod: Allows you to manage and sync with iPods ("Change, Backup, Share") to replace iTunes.
  • Free Music Zilla: Helps you record and download songs from members of online music-sharing communities.

Audio Editor and Music Creation

Play and Organize Media

Manage Media -- Rip, Tag, Convert, Burn, Record

Guides
Quick Selection Guide - Light Music Players and Organizers

Foobar2000
6
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Very customizable interface, many extra components at the download site, decent library capabilities, and includes all necessary tools for building a collection
Not very flashy design, no mini player, the other choices have better library features
http://www.foobar2000.org/
http://www.foobar2000.org/?page=Download
1.2.3
3.5 MB
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/server 2003/Vista/server 2008/7

Portable version available (the Foobar2000 installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4/M4A/M4B, 8SVX, AAC, AIFF/AIF/AIFC/AFC, APE, AU, CDA, CUE, FLAC/FLA, MKA, MIDI, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), SND, Speex, OGG/OGA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA, and more with additional components

Play List Formats: opens/loads ASX, FPL, M3U, M3U8, PLS, WAX, WVX, but saves FPL, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Components | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

AIMP 3
5
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Visually stunning design, special focus on sound enhancement features, excellent mix of features and light design, comes with two other utilities (tag editor, online radio browser), decent library and history features
Security concerns, requires patience finding features, most support materials not in English
http://www.aimp.ru/index.php?do=lang&lng=en%22
http://www.filehippo.com/download_aimp/
3.20.1165
7.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/ 2003/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Portable version available (the AIMP installer gives an option between a standard and portable installation; just select the portable installation)

*Note: I don't recommend downloading from the main website because it links to a download site (Brothersoft) that receives yellow ratings from WOT and block status from certain Host file providers (hpHosts, MVPS). A previous version had an unpatched Secunia advisory (may still be present).

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), MP4, M4A, AAC, AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, CDA, FLAC/FLA, MIDI (MIDI/MID/MI/KAR), Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), TTA, WAV, WavPack/WV, WMA

Play List Formats: opens/adds PLC, M3U, M3U8, ASX, PLS, CUE, XSPF, but saves PLS, PLC, M3U, M3U8

Screenshots | Skins | Forum | Change Log

Jaangle
3
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
Attractive and easily customizable interface with large album art, artist's photo, bio and easy access to lyrics
Doesn't display some some extended tag info, not yet fully 7 compatible.
http://www.jaangle.com/
http://www.jaangle.com/download
0.98i.977
2.3 MB
Unrestricted freeware
A portable version of this product is available from the developer.
Windows XP/2003/ Vista

Portable version available (files only version)

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), M4A, MP4, AC3, AIFF, APE, CDA, FLAC, MIDI/MID, Musepack (MPC), Tracker Music (UMX, MOD, MO3, IT, S3M, MTM, XM), OGG, WMA, and more based on directshow filters installed

Play List Formats: opens and saves M3U

Screenshots | Skins | Wiki | Forum | Change Log

Quick Selection Guide - Full Music Managers

MusicBee
9
 
Gizmo's Freeware award as the best product in its class!

Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager without the shady background connections, excellent tagging and music managing features, many sound enhancements
Some tag categories not updated. Not much else, but it's still a bit buggy - online help didn't always connect, memory use jumped extremely high (in very rare instances), experienced a few bug/error messages (without program crashes or data loss)
http://www.getmusicbee.com/
http://www.getmusicbee.com/download/
2.0
25.5 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Unrestricted freeware
There is no portable version of this product available.
Windows XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8

Has a "run as portable application" option.

Audio Formats: MPEG audio (MP1/MP2/MP3), AC3, AIFF/AIF, APE, BWF, CDA, FLAC, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OFR/OFS, OGG/OGA, Speex/SPX, TAK, TTA, WavPack/WV, WAV, WMA (see the vendor 'Help' link if you need AAC)

Play List Formats: opens/saves M3U, ASX, PLS, CUE, WPL, XSPF

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

MediaMonkey
8
 
Runs as a stand-alone program on a user's computer
All-in-one music manager, excellent for organizing complex music collections, user friendly navigation
Heavy on system resources, simplistic mini-player
http://www.mediamonkey.com/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Audio-CD-Rippers-Encoders/MediaMonkey.shtml
4.0.7.1511
14.3 MB
32 bit but 64 bit compatible
Free for private use only
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7, WINE (Linux)

Audio Formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, APE, APL, CDA, FLA, FLAC, M4A, M4B, M4P, Musepack (MPC, MP+, MPP), OGG, WAV, WMA

iPhone 5 / iOS 6 and iTunes Compatibility

Play List Formats: opens/adds M3U, ASX, PLS, XSPF; saves M3U

Screenshots | Addons | Help | Forum | Change Log

Editor

This software category is maintained by volunteer editor cdissler. Registered members can contact the editor with any comments or questions they might have by clicking here.
Tags

best free music player and organizer, MP3 and audio software, MP3 player, media library, lite music player for windows, music manager, sound enhancements or effects, online radio browser

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Comments

by Ket (not verified) on 30. September 2011 - 14:37  (80631)

Is there any Media Player (other than wmp) that you can have the library in the same structure as your folders in explorer? That is, not sorted according to album or artist, but according to folders. WMP can do that but otherwise it is very unstable and corrupts my library.

I really like to keep my folders in the player's library, the same way I have them on my hard disk. Yet I haven't found a media player that does that (only wmp). Any suggestions?
by rudy (not verified) on 13. October 2011 - 19:32  (81356)

foobar does ;) And then some. You can query them to create your playlists.
by Aleron (not verified) on 27. September 2011 - 20:08  (80449)

Hello i simply like this page so mutch everyday i visit it for a new recommendations. There is one music player i would recommend you for a review and it is named: A Tunes. It is available on Source Forge page and it is Open Source. I am looking forward to read that review
by Anupam on 20. September 2011 - 21:03  (79977)

Came across a free good looking player. Don't know if it is as good as it looks.

Mufin Player : http://www.mufin.com/us/software/mufinplayer
by Anupam on 21. September 2011 - 12:25  (80020)

I checked it out. The interface is good, but the software is quite heavy. It takes up a lot of RAM. Also, I found it to be quite slow.
by Anupam on 20. September 2011 - 21:01  (79976)

aTunes looks good :

http://www.atunes.org/

Requires JRE to run though, and that may be a disadvantage.
by 2P2M (not verified) on 22. September 2011 - 6:20  (80088)

Yes, aTunes is good but too slow...
Try Clementine Player (an Amarok clone written in Qt/C++) : the best now for me !
http://www.clementine-player.org
by Anupam on 22. September 2011 - 8:02  (80095)

Thanks! I may have tried Clemetine in the past, don't remember. Looks good though. Will give it a try.
Anyways, I am not a power user of such programs, so I wont know much on how to judge them.
by DWdddd (not verified) on 5. September 2011 - 7:12  (79011)

You said that Foobar 200 "As it comes, there are no ripping or converting capabilities."

Are you kidding? Foobar was created first as a converter, mainly from FLAC to WAV. It is THE premier converter program offering the best conversion algorithms around, right up there with EAC. Just right click on any entry and choose "convert"
by Anonymous2356 (not verified) on 25. August 2011 - 7:37  (78317)

Have you had a chance to check out Zortam? I'm just wondering if it's even worth installing or going with a player I've heard of already.
http://zortam.com/
by Anonymouse (not verified) on 24. August 2011 - 15:49  (78277)

Foobar2000 ~ Honestly, you need an advanced degree to set this up.
It's great if you want to build your own 'jukebox' from scratch and have about 5 months free time. They should offer a pre-setup version.

MediaMonkey ~ love how you can highlight all the files you want and re-tag them all at once. Awesome. Unfortunately, you can't select your entire library and 'randomize' it where you can see it all in front of you...then play it and send favorites to another playlist. Basically, the 'play library at random and show me what's going to play ten songs down the road' function is not there. I had this for a year but it started getting buggy and sluggish so I moved on the JRMC.

J River Media Center ~ Pretty good. It was the only one I tried that could handle my 900k file (and growing) library. But, it is getting slow and freezing / crashing as well. Thus, I am here.

Jaangle ~ Looks interesting, can't wait to try out the 'guess who sings this song' game. No 'clear library' button so I can possibly re-tagg library before (re) importing to Jaangle. So I have to uninstall, reinstall Jaangle I guess.

MusicBee ~ Cannot install. Says I need NET Framework 2.0? Even though I have 3.0 and for some reason won't let me register to their forum to ask what is going on, so...

I'd love to see a comments regarding software that handles HUGE libraries and has the ability to re-tag from online sources (preferably) or (at least) re-tag large numbers of file. Also, making playlists and randomizing your entire collection. Etc.

This is basically all I look for in a player:

~ Can handle very large library of every kind of format.
~ Can randomize whole library and display / play results.
~ Allows me to create a variety of playlists, easily.
~ Allows me to re-tag many files at once, easily.
~ Doesn't require me to build player or add dozens of plug-ins.
~ Allows me to burn playlists onto CD, easily.
~ Allows me to convert files to any format I want, easily.
~ For free.

That's pretty much it.
Is that so much to ask?
by ma_t on 24. August 2011 - 18:08  (78287)

Regarding MusicBee:

If you have .net 3 installed it does not mean that programs developed with .net 2 will work. You need to install the specific version each .net software requires.

As for the forum registration problem can you please provide more details. I am heavily involved with the MusicBee community and would like to let the developer know about this issue and sort it out.

You are missing so much if you have not tried MusicBee yet...

p/s

You have 900k files! WOW! That is a real challange for any software. I would love to hear feedback from you after you use MusicBee
by Rizar on 24. August 2011 - 16:37  (78284)

One of the first features I look for is similar -- easily add all songs to a playlist and randomize them. When I'm just listening, I'm happy with a randomize next kind of feature. And it's surprising how many players don't have high quality randomizing features.

In Jaangle, you can delete 'collections' and re-add them, but you might have to delete a database file in the program folder. I'm not sure on this, but you could post in the Jaangle forum.

To randomize all songs in Jaangle you can switch to a collection view and right click to queue the whole collection. But I usually use the auto continue mode and let it randomly select songs from whatever tag I'm interested in. I very surprised more players don't steal this ideal feature! Other players feel incomplete without it.
by keztag on 20. September 2011 - 20:03  (79972)

The "auto continue" mode is a great feature of Jaangle--it kept me using it over other alternatives for awhile. But it seems development has stopped and there were enough issues that I switched to Music Bee and haven't really looked back. The "Auto DJ" feature of Music Bee is customizable and does a nice job in my opinion.
by schondie (not verified) on 24. August 2011 - 15:42  (78276)

I agreed with the editor about AIMP2 about dubious download locations but it seems like they've (the AIMP team) have now sorted that out - no more redirects to very obscure Russian download sites.

The skins and plugins now download directly from their aimp.ru site.

I for one will not download anything from brothersoft and now download.com due to their installer programs.

IMHO AIMP is safer to download from than either of the better known sites.

BTW: AIMP is the best player out there. I've tried many others but I always went back to AIMP for its superb sound.
by ma_t on 8. August 2011 - 10:39  (77084)

"With all this functionality, I am surprised that I didn't find a CD burner lurking inside. I guess you can only pack so much into 40.6 MB."

Don't be fooled by the size of MusicBee's installation file. More than half of it is reserved for the XUL Runner engine. It's the open-source browser engine used by Firefox. The browser does NOT load when you load MusicBee, but only when it is needed.

Just because MediaMonkey has a smaller installation size it does not mean that it is more lightweight than MusicBee. All you have to do is to install them both and compare side by side. Only then you realize how bloated MM is compared to MusicBee...
by WHiTe_aSH143 on 17. August 2011 - 13:21  (77801)

MusicBee is a wonderful program and the developer is readily avaiable....

However, the last time I tried MusicBee it did iTunes type things to my music collection. Instead of embedding album art within the music tag, it had added .jpg's everywhere. And it also crashed every other song when listening to music. Perhaps it has been fixed, perhaps not.

MediaMonkey has worked EXACTLY how I wanted straight out of the box. All I had to do was set up my file organization folder tree. Also, when I tag in MM it sticks. iTunes, MusicBee (rarely), and even the tagging software reviewed elsewhere would set tags that wouldn't show up in the other programs.

Hate it or like it, MM works.
by keztag on 20. September 2011 - 20:06  (79974)

Curious. I had the opposite experience. I bailed on MM because it crashed all the time on me (granted that was more than a year ago). MusicBee has been solid for me; sorry it hasn't been the same for you.
by ma_t on 19. August 2011 - 19:05  (77974)

"However, the last time I tried MusicBee it did iTunes type things to my music collection. Instead of embedding album art within the music tag, it had added .jpg's everywhere"

You get to choose whether to embed the album art, link to the file or add it to the same folder as the file. You must have missed the option. Everything in MusicBee is done with the user's consent. I feel insulted to hear someone comparing it to iTunes

"And it also crashed every other song when listening to music. Perhaps it has been fixed, perhaps not."

Never happened to me. You should try it again. If it crashes still post about it on the forum

"Also, when I tag in MM it sticks. iTunes, MusicBee (rarely), and even the tagging software reviewed elsewhere would set tags that wouldn't show up in the other programs."

What other programs? Examples? Remember that there are different versions of id3 taggs. Maybe those "other programs" you are talkning about only recognise the older variety.
by MusicMan (not verified) on 6. August 2011 - 13:40  (77035)

Thanks for another extraordinary review. I always appreciate the quality, clarity and, depth of Gizmo reviews. I wanted to add a comment in support of MedaiMonkey, however.

While I share your sentiments about "be-all-do-all" software, lifetime subscriptions, and proggies that take control of my OS without asking, those concerns don't justify the short shrift you gave MediaMonkey in your review. Here a different perspective;

1. I have a collection of over 10,000 music files in several hundred albums of varying format. In almost 10 years of experimentation, no other software has been able to manage my collection without coming to a stuttering, choking death.

2. In terms of user-defined file-naming and folder management solutions, MediaMonkey puts all other wannabe's to shame. I can rename LARGE numbers of songs, albums, and album collections as fast as a hard disk and OS will allow.

3. MM also allows me to configure multiple macros/scripts to deal with newcomers and/or to maintain the integrity of files in my collection. I can drop an album in a predefined folder, like "New Music" and on the next startup, MM will identify the music files, relocate them to a folder with a user-defined naming style, download related album covers, lyrics, reviews, and add them to the correct genre, category, collection, etc.

These three functions alone set MM above most other music managers. When you consider all it's other capabilities, no music manager can even come close to it's collection management abilities. The memory footprint and program size are minimal AND it's one of the few managers that works with a single database AND multiple user configs across different PC's in a networked environment.

While your criticisms have some traction, you have seriously overlooked the unmatched capabilities of a real "work-gorilla" in the music management world. For the occasional user who wants to listen to their 100-song collection, it IS overkill. But for serious music file management, it is a marvelous must-have program.
by ma_t on 7. August 2011 - 15:17  (77083)

You say nothing comes close to MediaMonkey. That's okay to say if you have not tried MusicBee ;)
by RandyN on 5. August 2011 - 19:42  (76991)

Impressed with AIMP. Does anyone know how to stream Shoutcast in AIMP (and/or use custom in its' Internet Radio Browser).
by pbouthil on 22. January 2012 - 18:26  (87617)

You have to go to www.shoutcast.com and find your radio station in the listing of the directory. Then right click on the station that you want and select Save As. The file will be saved as a .pls. Then associate the .pls file to play on AIMP. Once the station starts to play then click Bookmarks and add it to AIMP. You can then edit and rename the station.
by keithof4 on 8. August 2011 - 20:40  (76928)

How about SPOTIFY It lacks some features But its like increasing your music collection and it works great.
by Bob is My Uncle (not verified) on 4. August 2011 - 19:28  (76921)

FOOBAR!

Janngle takes too long to load a thousand folders containing my music. Foobar took seconds.

FOOBAR!
by Panzer (not verified) on 26. July 2011 - 15:34  (76259)

Mirro player:
http://dncube.deviantart.com/art/Mirro-Player-174473179
by Philbert (not verified) on 23. July 2011 - 22:53  (76130)

I spent years looking for the perfect music manager and player. MusicBee is much nearer to perfection than any other I've tried because it's so well thought-out and implemented.

If I was to sum-up MusicBee in three words, they would be 'usability', 'automation' and 'pleasure'.
by George.J on 24. July 2011 - 7:56  (76150)

Yes and even the support is just awesome. The forums are so active and the developer is very supportive and implements the requests of the users quite fast.The software is constantly updated
by QuidProQuo (not verified) on 23. July 2011 - 10:29  (76096)

Regarding your NOTE ON SOUND QUALITY or your inability to detect sound quality differences...I have two words for you: SOUND ENHANCEMENT.

I have done side by side comparison tests on many players (Windows Media Player, WinAmp, iTunes, VLC, just to name a few) and on many different multi-media sound systems (Bose Companion 2 and Companion 3, Logitech, Altec Lansing, JBL, Eastern, including a variety of different makes of headphones) and, YES I found BETTER sound quality with AIMP2. Here’s what you need to do with the sound enhancement feature of AIMP2:

Left Click on the “DSP disabled” box on AIMP2 player, this will open the AIMP2 DSP Manager window; Under Sound Effects go to the Sound Enhancer meter and left click and hold the small box on the meter in order to slide it along to the right, while doing this if you look at your player, you will see the value of sound enhancement appear and it will be changing as you go. Ideally, if you are playing music you will notice a considerable improvement in sound quality as well. I recommend setting the Stereo Enhancement feature somewhere between (x 1.40 and x 1.70) depending on the multi media speaker system you are using (regardless of your EQ settings and never mind laptop speakers OK - lol). After setting it simply close the DSP Manager box and the setting will be saved automatically. This is truly an amazing feature for a free player! :)
by Humbledore (not verified) on 25. July 2011 - 22:09  (76230)

I agree, I have never tried another player sound that good as AIMP does. (I tried both AIMP 2 and 3 (Beta) and the sound quality is the same.) In in my opinion you don't need to adjust anything, not even the features within DSP Manager Window, to hear that the sound is more "Hi-Fi" then the average free player. It sounds terrific right out of the box and it made my ears very happy anyway. One concern though, is that I couldn't find any ripping features. It should be there according to specifications but maybe the UI played me a trick here. In terms of the UI generally I am not 100% satisfied unfortunately. I think it could be lot more user friendly and intuitive. But that is probably a matter of personal taste.