XMPlay:
This is the XMPlay 3.7 installer. Local. XMPlay has no official installer, this is something thrown together at home :-) Version 3.7 (latest as of writing), with a few essential plugins thrown in so you don't have to scrape them together from the support site.
Once installed, don't forget to set XMPlay up properly:
- it must be set to output at 24-bit or 32-bit float (whatever the soundcard supports for processing, professional sound interfaces usually work with both). Use ASIO to insure the actual bit depth is used (Windows can sometimes mangle stuff and output as 16-bit). Output priority is ASIO>Kernel Streaming>Wave Out>Directsound, something like that.
Winamp:
Insure the FLAC plugin, in_flac.dll, is set up to output at 24-bit (FLAC really supports any integer BPS value, but the WA plugin is limited to 24-bps). FLAC plugin is bundled by default with all newer versions of Winamp, otherwise it can be downloaded from the
FLAC site.
Ota-chan's ASIO output plugin is ideal, also because it has by far the smoothest resampling engine. CD-sourced tracks play about the best they can.
The other output option for Winamp is the
Kernel Streaming plugin by Steve Monks.
Foobar2000:
Foobar2000 by default does all internal processing in 32-bit float, so there's no risk whatsoever with its DSP stack. Insure output is set up correctly to 24-bit or 32-bit. Again, ASIO or kernel streaming output is recommended, ASIO is always best. For playing lower-res files, pick up a decent resampler.
VLC works under both Windows and MacOS, and it uses Libresamplerate, another name for SRC. Not quite clear how accurate it is under Windows (most likely it isn't very accurate, ASIO output beats it by clarity). Under MacOS it should use normal high-res 24-bit output (the hardware/software capability is there, it's Apple's lame player that ignores it).
Cog is a very simple MacOS player, but it's confirmed to output normal 96/24 audio (tested it by ears with Themtunes playback against Cog - Themtunes quantised everything to cold/hollow 16-bit, whereas Cog preserved the warmth and clarity of 24-bit).
Arpeggiator