Best Sounding Computer Audio Player For PC

Give Roon's free two week trial a shot.

It doesn't alter your library or metadata in any way and is easy to install and de-install if it isn't for you. No harm, no foul. (Runs sweet with HQPlayer but the setup with it can be tricky.) 

The graphics and reviews are excellent and operation is easy. There's real good support at the Roon Community Forum. 

Roonlabs.com

It won't alter your library but it will definitely reveal any deficiencies in the library's metadata. 



I've used iTunes on both a Mac and a PC. For a free piece of software, it is a complete package and if it didn't sound as good as I'd hoped, the blame would've rested more on my system or the quality of recordings. iTunes with Bitperfect (upsampling app) sounds great to me. 

Good luck.

Are you using a NAS drive to store your music on, or a standard hard drive?

I have a Synology 415+ NAS that I use to store music and video.

HQ Player is the obvious consensus answer according to the online comments of the most enthusiastic computer audiophile crowd. The downside is you need a more powerful computer than typical and it is more complex to use than JRiver or similar. Built-in digital EQ is a bonus if you are into that. Many tout it's ability to upsample and convert PCM into quad DSD. Whether or not you can take advantage of it depends on your choice of dad since quad DSD is just coming into common use. 

All that being said, I don't do any of it because I prefer a simpler solution using a NAS and network player(aka single purpose tiny Linux computer made specifically just to run audio) with a tablet-based & phone-based control app. Search microRendu if you care about that whole thing which gets off your topic. Cheers,
Spencer 

Spencer, microRendu looks very interesting but would not work for me. My NAS is not in the same room (or floor) as my stereo. Also it does not say what DACs it supports. My DAC uses a special USB driver so I am guessing it wouldn’t work.

dbtom2, I browsed the roon website. The overall concept is interesting. But I don’t think it is what I am looking for.