Best Media Player for EAC and/or dBpoweramp?


Which media player has the best synergy with EAC and dBpoweramp?

Or is it mainly about personal preference?

Thanks.
david_ten
What does this refer to? EAC and dbPoweramp are rippers/converters mainly. Any audio player will play nice with their outputs.

What platform are you on?

Windows? Then Foobar
Mac? Then Decibel
Linux? Then Guayadeque

Zanth .... is right... you have to choose a file type, player and of course, Just what OS are you going to have to operate with?

That which OS bit alone might make up your mind.

I like Fubar, J River latest ver. iTunes though, less and less. Winamp (for net radio), if you've no web radio subscription already in place.

All these though have caveats as to their own unique setup plans with my own hardware, etc.

I have found there is some sort of synergy in software and the file formats being played thru the various media players, and some media players do indeed sound better than others. Setting them up is as key as is setting up the hardware you own.

You should be shooting for Bit true or bit perfect ripping & playback as one goal, with another option for High res file playback getting in the mix along the way somewhere. As well . That is if your seeking the best sound from the files your now ripping or plan on downloading later on.

Some Media players like certain file tuypes more so than others meaning some file types sound best when replayed via this player or that. Oftehn it’s a marginal thing sometimes it isn’t.

Sticking to lossless files (ALAC; FLAC; WAV; AIF)securely ripped with a well setup ripper like EAC, or power amp, and a good ROM drive, , the diffs in playback will be more the marginal variety, between those file formats. I tend to like WAV or WAVE. Windows lossless format. But it’s restrictive in the file info you can attach to it, and it will maintain.

More compressed files won’t show up with as much or as many diffs MP3, WMA, Aac.

between these two formats, compressed & lossless is where one might find significant audible dispairity.

just pick which platform you wanna use MAC or PC, and then which player, Winamp, Fubar; iTunes; Media Player; J River media center; and tons more are out there, and then which file type best suits your needs. AIF & FLAC are the more widespread choices. Normally. Fubar media center, and I think now, Windows media player too can play Aif, as does itunes .

BUT itunes has no support for FLAC. I DOUBT THEY WILL ANYTIME SOON EITHER.

WAV or WAVE, some will say still, sounds best. the issue with WAV/WAVE is that file format is often a temporary file container. It won’t capture and retain meta data info & tag, if transferred from one machine to some other. To be safe then, choose those which will FLAC, AIF, Apple lossless (ALAC), WMA lossless, WAV Pack, and I think that’s about it.

Realizing more noteable diffs in sonics will come from the hardware you select, though if the rig is up to demonstrating minute changes with minor setup alterations, you’ll have a better window to see them as they arise.

One set of examples I have seen myself are these on Windows boxes, XP, XP Pro, I like Fubar and FLAC, WITH A Kernel Streaming or an ASIO mode, playback device. JR MC 15 supports XP & KS.

With Vista or Win 7, I feel the resultant audio improves if the Windows Audio Session protocol is used. “WASAPI”, as the pathway to avoid the windows audio mixer inherent in the Windows OS’s. KS & ASIO are 2 more which achieve the same ends.

I do like the WASAPI best overall, despite the file type or output/playback device.

KS imho, COMES IN SECOND.... and ASIO holds down last place. Albeit, all 3 of these help greatly if Windows OS is in place.

The systems abilities to resolve the end product/music will determine much for you.

Enjoy
I am using Windows 7 (64bit).

File type preference is WAV & FLAC (DO NOT use iTunes at all).

I am currently using J River as my Media Player.

Using secure ripping checked via Accurate Rip.

Have ordered a TEAC optical drive in hopes of an improvement over my stock OEM optical drives that came with my PC.

Using an M-Audio Audiophile 192 and/or ASUS Xonar Essence STX audio card for playback.

Digital S/PDIF out to an external DAC.

Thanks for the feedback, Blindjim & Zanth.

Any additional thoughts?
Don't waste your money on new optical drive unless EAC can't get a good rip. And if it can't it's probably due to a disc that is in bad shape. Cheap/generic CD/DVD transports today work just fine with standalone rippers.
Larry,

That was exactly my thinking re. the optical drive. If I am getting perfect copies, as checked by Accurate Rip, then will a different drive make a difference?

I have not tested older, and possibly damaged cds, but the copies of new cds have been perfect on my stock oem drives.

I did see that dBPoweramp recommended Teac based on some comparative work between different drives, but I believe the cds used were defective cds.

Thanks for everyone's feedback.
dB recommends TEAC because most, if not all, Teac drive use C2 pointers for error correction. FWIW