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~misfit~[_3_] ~misfit~[_3_] is offline
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Posts: 96
Default Recommend software for audio playback under Win XP?

Hi Folks,

A quick question; I was wondering if anyone can help me with the subject
line? I know I could Google but there seems to be a depth of knowledge here
that out-strips what I'm likely to have to spend many hours sifting through
with a web search.

I'm poor (invalid on wefare - the mighty have fallen due to the smallest of
freak accidents) but have three sound systems in three different rooms of my
home. In my bedroom (where I have to spend a bunch of my time - bad
back....) I have a fairly old and basic (but 'clean') surround system that
is mostly used for A/V duty but also sounds great in stereo mode. With the
lights out at night it sounds as good as any 10K+ system I owned before my
fall - it's amazing what you can put together cheaply with enough time on
your hands to troll through internet listings - and knowledge to pick out
the pearls.

In the lounge I have the 'standard stereo' - reasonable quality CD player
and integrated amp playing into self-refurbished Gooodmans Magnum SL
speakers. It sounds good enough to not sound 'wanting', I don't feel the
need to replace any of it and it would be hard to better it on my budget

However it's in the office / living room / kitchen space where I spend most
of my listening time. I have the amplification and speakers sorted so that
it sounds actually *too* good. At times when I'm using it for background
music I find myself getting distracted from whatever task by the music -
even at low volumes. I don't have many people visit but the few who are
'hi-fi aware' have been stunned by the fidelity - usually I hear comments
like 'better than my main system'.

The problem though is the source material. As it spend most of it's time as
background music I have a laptop playing several thousand tracks on random -
with a CD player connected also for times when I want to do some more
critical listening. I'm hapy with the hardware - I have a few IBM-era
ThinkPads and use one of those as a dedicated sound server. They are 'clean'
enough that they were (and still are) popular as DAWs.

The software I've been using is WinAmp played through StereoTool. I'd like
the sound to be as true to source as possible but find I need to use
StereoTool for it's volume auto-leveling abilities. Before I started using
it I found that, as the source files are diverse - both in genre and format
(mp3, FLAC, wav...) - the volume was constantly fluctuating between tracks
from too quiet to too loud. However my problem is with WinAmps 'random'
engine. It seems that, from my fairly large collection I constantly hear the
same ~20% of tracks.

I need freeware as times have got tougher of late - what audio gear I have
now will likely have to see me out.

Can anyone advise me of suitable software? My main needs are fidelity,
'auto-leveling' between tracks without compression and a good random mode.
The CPU available is a Pentium M running at 2GHz with 2GB of RAM running
Windows XP from a 320GB internal HDD with a 2TB USB HDD attached.

Thanks in advance.
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface.]


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allen allen is offline
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Posts: 10
Default Recommend software for audio playback under Win XP?

On 27 Sep 2013 10:06:16 GMT, "~misfit~"
wrote:

snip


I need freeware as times have got tougher of late - what audio gear I have
now will likely have to see me out.

Can anyone advise me of suitable software? My main needs are fidelity,
'auto-leveling' between tracks without compression and a good random mode.
The CPU available is a Pentium M running at 2GHz with 2GB of RAM running
Windows XP from a 320GB internal HDD with a 2TB USB HDD attached.

Thanks in advance.


Foobar2000 (freeware) has a steep learning curve but besides being
very powerful and flexible (manages a 150,000 track library on a 6 y/o
Dell XPS here without breaking sweat) also implements Random/Shuffle,
and Replaygain which is 'auto-levelling' done properly ie reversible
and without compression.

http://www.foobar2000.org/

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Arny Krueger[_5_] Arny Krueger[_5_] is offline
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Posts: 239
Default Recommend software for audio playback under Win XP?

"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,

A quick question; I was wondering if anyone can help me with the subject
line? I know I could Google but there seems to be a depth of knowledge
here
that out-strips what I'm likely to have to spend many hours sifting
through
with a web search.

I'm poor (invalid on wefare - the mighty have fallen due to the smallest
of
freak accidents) but have three sound systems in three different rooms of
my
home. In my bedroom (where I have to spend a bunch of my time - bad
back....) I have a fairly old and basic (but 'clean') surround system that
is mostly used for A/V duty but also sounds great in stereo mode. With the
lights out at night it sounds as good as any 10K+ system I owned before my
fall - it's amazing what you can put together cheaply with enough time on
your hands to troll through internet listings - and knowledge to pick out
the pearls.

In the lounge I have the 'standard stereo' - reasonable quality CD player
and integrated amp playing into self-refurbished Gooodmans Magnum SL
speakers. It sounds good enough to not sound 'wanting', I don't feel the
need to replace any of it and it would be hard to better it on my budget

However it's in the office / living room / kitchen space where I spend
most
of my listening time. I have the amplification and speakers sorted so that
it sounds actually *too* good. At times when I'm using it for background
music I find myself getting distracted from whatever task by the music -
even at low volumes. I don't have many people visit but the few who are
'hi-fi aware' have been stunned by the fidelity - usually I hear comments
like 'better than my main system'.

The problem though is the source material. As it spend most of it's time
as
background music I have a laptop playing several thousand tracks on
random -
with a CD player connected also for times when I want to do some more
critical listening. I'm hapy with the hardware - I have a few IBM-era
ThinkPads and use one of those as a dedicated sound server. They are
'clean'
enough that they were (and still are) popular as DAWs.

The software I've been using is WinAmp played through StereoTool. I'd like
the sound to be as true to source as possible but find I need to use
StereoTool for it's volume auto-leveling abilities. Before I started using
it I found that, as the source files are diverse - both in genre and
format
(mp3, FLAC, wav...) - the volume was constantly fluctuating between tracks
from too quiet to too loud. However my problem is with WinAmps 'random'
engine. It seems that, from my fairly large collection I constantly hear
the
same ~20% of tracks.

I need freeware as times have got tougher of late - what audio gear I have
now will likely have to see me out.

Can anyone advise me of suitable software? My main needs are fidelity,
'auto-leveling' between tracks without compression and a good random mode.
The CPU available is a Pentium M running at 2GHz with 2GB of RAM running
Windows XP from a 320GB internal HDD with a 2TB USB HDD attached.


The *standard* audio player for Windows users with a technical interest is
probably FooBar2000.

Tons of plugins including automatic gain leveling.

Download it from the author's web site:

http://www.foobar2000.org/


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~misfit~[_3_] ~misfit~[_3_] is offline
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Posts: 96
Default Recommend software for audio playback under Win XP?

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Arny Krueger wrote:
"~misfit~" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks,

A quick question; I was wondering if anyone can help me with the
subject line? I know I could Google but there seems to be a depth of
knowledge here
that out-strips what I'm likely to have to spend many hours sifting
through
with a web search.

[snipped]
The *standard* audio player for Windows users with a technical
interest is probably FooBar2000.

Tons of plugins including automatic gain leveling.

Download it from the author's web site:

http://www.foobar2000.org/


Thanks Arny, I'll give it a look. I used to use Foobar when it was version
1.0 and it fitted on a floppy disc...
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface.]


  #5   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.high-end
~misfit~[_3_] ~misfit~[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 96
Default Recommend software for audio playback under Win XP?

Somewhere on teh intarwebs allen wrote:
On 27 Sep 2013 10:06:16 GMT, "~misfit~"
wrote:
snip
I need freeware as times have got tougher of late - what audio gear
I have now will likely have to see me out.

Can anyone advise me of suitable software? My main needs are
fidelity, 'auto-leveling' between tracks without compression and a
good random mode. The CPU available is a Pentium M running at 2GHz
with 2GB of RAM running Windows XP from a 320GB internal HDD with a
2TB USB HDD attached.

Thanks in advance.


Foobar2000 (freeware) has a steep learning curve but besides being
very powerful and flexible (manages a 150,000 track library on a 6 y/o
Dell XPS here without breaking sweat) also implements Random/Shuffle,
and Replaygain which is 'auto-levelling' done properly ie reversible
and without compression.

http://www.foobar2000.org/


Cheers Allen. As I just replied to Arny I used to use (and recommend) Foobar
a decade ago, back in the days when it fitted on a 1.44MB floppy disc
(although I wrongly stated it was version 1.0). I must have given away a box
of discs worth of copies to friends. (Internet was mainly dialup here then
and not everybody had access.) Somewhere along the line I also tried an
implimentation of Replaygain but couldn't get it to do as advertised. In
fact I went from that old version of Foobar2000 to WinAmp (which had a tinge
of irony as I used to champion Foobar as being better than WinAmp) so that I
could use Stereo Tool ( http://www.stereotool.com/ ).

I've just downloaded the latest version of Foobar and a Replaygain plugin
and will spend some time tinkering with it.

Thanks,
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface.]

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