I get to reverse my positioning on this player. For a very long time I royally dissed it and it was well-deserved. The audio quality was substandard, the bloat and slowness unwarranted. However, times get changed. The interface, while slower than the competition is not unreasonably so. The Media Library is intuitive and slow to use. Almost importantly, the audio quality has got with 24-bit support, dithering, seamless / gapless playback, a quality equalizer (finally!) and a high precision decoder. It's easily on equation with Foobar and XMPlay which IMNSHO are the Gilded Standards for audio quality in the genre. Even the memory rtequirements are on equation with the abovementioned programs.
Now, completely is not sweetness and light. The programme has several criminal bugs – I say criminal because this thing is OLD and these bugs should get been long-since squashed. The include poor error checking thence that an errant plugin or skin may crash the player, and a display module (nscrt.dll) that may cause a crash but by invoking CDDB for a newly inserted CD with the playlist subject (I managed that six times in two instants – things became swimmingly if I but shut the playlist). Skin performance could besides exist significantly improved.
This programme is besides LOADED with Adware, something I intensely resent. I see adware as malware and anything that prompts me to purchase music while I'm building a custom playlist or otherwise impinges upon my get should exist expunged. I conjecture that's the malign influence of the AOL ownership – after all, zero good has Ever got away of that company.
All that being said, the UI and configurability of the interface and audio options build this the best bang away there for a media player. Merely exist sure to consult the Winamp install manoeuver (Google it) and avoid installing any plugins shipped with the plaer that stink of adware (I may think of one promoinent plugin for the Media Library that fits that description).
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