Thank you Flash. You indeed know what an EQ is for. I agree that a real EQ hardware set up is better but to be honest they are a bit extreme for most people. I would love one though. It would make fine tuning the home cinema a whole lot better. Anyway, to get back on topic. Anyone after a quality audio player for their PC should get Foobar2000. It will make a difference even if you are using the monitor speakers. I'm so glad that 7Force recommended it. Yakumo
I personally use Media Player Classic Home Cinema (as it is tiny and simple) and the SRS labs Audio Sandbox as it was the only program I found that really brought out the music (it also becomes an Audio device so the effects are system wide).
I remember hearing about foobar2000 many years ago, and somehow I kept on using Winamp 2.95 (the best version IMHO)... After reading this thread, I tried foobar2000 under Crossover for Linux and it's working just fine. I still have to check all it's options and stuff, but it seems like a keeper. Thanks 7Force!
Thanks 7Force for the recommendation and Yakumo for the config tips. Downloading Foobar2000 tonight. Hopefully get a bit more out of my HTPC and laptop's audio quality. ^_^_^
About Foobar's UI, there are plenty of skins here: http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/media/foobar2000/?order=9. FB skinning requires some special components, but they are usually served within the skin packages the modders share. So, no biggie there. But DUDE! Be sure to try the dozens of game audio decoders- they are awesome! Here's a shot of the plugins I use: http://i.imgur.com/omAX7.jpg.
Thanks for the skin link. You're right about the game audio plug-ins. I got a few of them on day one. Great stuff!
FB2K is an awesome program, ugly but who cares. I have been using it for a few years now and I have never been disappointed in it. I don't use the EQ at all but I have mine set up with ASIO in my Auzentech Prelude through an external amp in my headphones and it sounds amazing. I have set up a few different skins on mine before and they seem to work ok, not all of them are that great though.
I thought I'd give it a whirl too, glad I did as it's pretty amazing! I've got it set up with the standard EQ and Adanced Limiter and there's certainly an improvement over Windows Media Player - which was my default player. Just a quick word regarding the playlist feature and total duration. If you're making a playlist and want to see the total length, you can do so by right-clicking the bottom left of the window/ status bar and checking 'show total time of selection'. You can then drag (or Shift + Up/ Down arrow) to select the entire playlist contents and view the total duration in the bottom-right of the window.
I used winamp for a LONG time, more than ten years, but yeah, once I got a PC for my entertainment centre, with 5.1 sound, it fell flat on the sound department. I too switched to Foobar 2000, and though the interface is horrendous and very hard to use, it did the trick. I get decent sound out of my 5.1. I still use winamp on my laptop, though. I like the interface and controls of it much more than foobar. I'll try that Enhancer later, as it looks interesting.
just tried foobar2000 in wine bad news dosnt work on my 2011 macbook pro. loads application up try to play something, foobar throws a error saying playback has failed.
I don't see the point in changing EQ settings really. My sound card is set to Hi-Fi mode (disable all faux filtering) which is plugged into my headphone amp into my headphones. To each their own I guess, although I guess you may benefit from EQ settings if you didn't listen to a wide variety, or just to suit your preferences. My hardware fits mine though sort of. Still need to configure foobar to my fancy sound card ability though too.
If you haven't done so, check the comments in the link below; hopefully you'll find a solution there: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=18689 You may also want to try under CrossOver.... although it's a commercial app... but works a treat
