final PLAYER RATINGS (1=POOR, HARD, WEAK 5=EXCELLENT, EASY, STRONG) [N/A=not done] SUMMARY VALUES SETUP BIT NOTES AND COMMENTS DSD? D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s TIME PERF? SETUP TIME = START DOWNLOAD TO PLAY MUSIC Audacious Win10 5 5 5 1 3 4 2 4 3 4 4 3.64 1.29 3 1 03:10 yes yes Very ligHt (<20M RAM), fast & easy; basic player w/ many plugins, effects (e.g. 10 band EQ), LADSPA, echo, speed/pitch sHift, MacOS resampling/converting; GUI based on XMMS & can be reskinned; great Linux 5 5 5 1 3 4 2 4 3 4 3 3.55 1.29 3 1 01:20 no To 24 for managing multiple playlists; loads tracks fast; does DTS & some MC; Wine Colibri D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Win10 THe DAC/DSD test download (wHich I used) is free & Has a player in it. MacOS MacOS 4 4 3 3 4 5 3 3 4 3 4 3.64 0.67 1 0 too long yes yes THe full package costs $5 & may be wortH it to some. I found tHe GUI to be a little weird; SQ’s quite good but not tops; ONLY Linux Wine Cantata D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s A very nice “player” (actually an MPD front end) w/ great art & info Win10 5 5 5 4 5 2 4 4 5 4 4 4.27 0.90 5 0 02:30 yes yes displays plus strong collection-based library mgt. LigHt (<200M RAM), MacOS fast, clean GUI. No longer KDE, only Qt. Will play & rip CDs but only on Linux; SQ is tHat of MPD - tHe 2 make an excellent open source player Linux 5 5 5 4 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 4.55 0.52 6 0 02:10 yes yes for audiopHiles willing to configure MPD; SQ is up tHere witH tHe best Wine Daphile D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Fine player (based on Squeezebox) Has many features; only drives USB 5 4 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 5 3.55 0.82 2 0 06:10 yes yes DACs – no otHer options; web streaming seems limited to named installs witH its own sources – I couldn’t find a way to play by URL. Plays from RAM; browser Linux-based OS on controlled, Headless; flexible config Has more steps tHan many; installed x86_64 machines on botH AMD Ryzen and Intel i3 core boxes witH identical results; DeaDBeeF D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Win10 5 5 5 3 1 4 3 2 2 2 4 3.27 1.42 3 1 03:55 no yes Very fine – on Linux! LigHtweigHt, flexible, nice GUI, great SQ, multiple playlists, looks & feels almost as good as it sounds – on Linux! Windows MacOS version is weak in comparison & won’t do native DSD. THere are many Linux 5 5 5 4 1 5 4 4 4 4 5 4.18 1.17 5 1 02:35 yes yes better alternatives for Win. Wine Dopamine D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Win10 4 4 4 3 1 3 4 4 3 3 4 3.36 0.92 0 1 04:50 no yes limited file support but great looking GUI; Heavy memory use; does static Windows MacOS playlists well but requires great tagging (which it does not do for you); ONLY Linux Wine Elmedia D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Elmedia suggests QuickTime on steroids to me; free version is fine for Win10 TBD (Windows version is described on Eltima Software website as about to be released) 0 0 most audio use - “pro” version Has better flexibility & web functions but MacOS 4 4 4 2 1 3 3 4 2 2 4 3.00 1.10 0 1 endless no ? costs $30; bland GUI witH tHe usual info and functions, but no more tHan tHat. It does play FLACs and sounds good. But unless you want its video Linux capabilities, I tHink tHere are many better choices for an audio player; Wine Fidelia D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Seems like an iTunes substitute, sounds OK but only goes to Redbook MacOS Win10 0 0 spec on my virtual machine setup. Seems bit perfect up to Redbook ONLY – & MacOS 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 2 2 3 2.91 0.54 0 0 05:20 yes no wHen set up rigHt, but I don’t tHink most audiopHiles would like it as much as many otHers unless it’s a lot better on a native Mac platform tHan it is no iOS Linux 0 0 on VMware and Virtualbox; not great witH tags or playlists; versions Wine 0 0 Foobar2000 D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s THe grand old man is a bit more complex tHan many; it’ll do almost Win10 4 5 3 3 4 4 3 4 5 5 5 4.09 0.83 4 0 04:45 yes yes anytHing & do it well – stream from & over tHe web, rip & play CDs, edit tags, bit perfect Hi res, MC, etc. SQ is excellent wHen set up rigHt. Not tHe MacOS easiest to use, many plugins are outdated – but over 100 are great. Need Linux plugins for DSD & many otHer Hi end functions, but all are available & Wine 4 5 3 3 4 3 3 4 5 5 5 4.00 0.89 4 0 too long yes yes most work well. GmusicBrowser D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s not great for most audiopHiles; self-described as “..a Win10 customizable open source jukebox for large music collections”; LINUX MacOS fast & easy; displays & tags big collections well, but load/scan ONLY Linux 4 4 4 3 1 2 4 4 4 4 4 3.45 1.04 0 1 01:00 no yes taxes CPU; too many options we don’t want or need; You Have to love it to use it. But it sure was fast to load, install, and set up! Wine GogglesMM D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Win10 simple, ligHt, basic player witH modest but pleasant library and art LINUX MacOS capabilities; tHe player’s “volume control” appears to control tHe ALSA volume setting directly; ONLY Linux 5 5 4 3 1 5 3 3 2 2 4 3.36 1.36 3 1 04:00 no yes Wine Guyadeque D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Win10 Guyadeque is a resource-friendly, popular, tried & true Linux-only player still under active development; Huge libraries are no problem – it makes a LINUX MacOS great “juke box” player for unattended background and general listening; ONLY Linux 5 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 3 3 4 4.18 0.75 4 0 02:40 no yes many audiopHiles will want more tHan it does; Wine Jajuk D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Fast to load, install & configure – a very nice & flexible player. Provides Win10 5 5 5 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4.18 0.60 3 0 03:25 no (?) yes great info like artist discog, bio, etc (in Wikipedia and artist views). Good web radio / stream playing. Runs on Win, Mac & Linux; Linux instances MacOS N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0 0 require JRE ratHer tHan JDK runtime environment – did not spend time Linux Requires specific JREs on Linux – could not open Jajuk on 3 machines with JDK 0 0 fixing on 3 Ubuntu platforms; probably wortH tHe effort only if you want tHe info displays; Wine N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0 0 Kodi D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s A media player out of XBox witH JEOS tHat does audio well; most Win10 5 5 5 2 5 4 3 2 4 4 5 4.00 1.18 5 0 03:50 no yes standard formats + PCM to 24/384 & MC; it’s really for HT / video more tHan audio, but you don’t Have to use tHe rest; most flexible audio output MacOS 5 5 5 2 5 4 3 2 4 4 5 4.00 1.18 5 0 04:05 no yes tHrougH HDMI limits DAC choice; FLAC via USB from Rpi sounds witH JEOS or Linux 3 4 4 2 5 4 3 2 4 4 5 3.64 1.03 2 0 07:10 no yes excellent; I don’t tHink most instances update tHougH – you Have to as app on download and reinstall most Linux & Mac; some distros Wine Lollypop D’nload Install Config Lib Mgt Webstr’m System Reqs Art/Info U/I Flex’y Unique SQ Avg Sdev # of 5s # of 1s Latest version Has attractive, flexible, intuitive GNOME GUI (now also Win10 witH responsive formatting); earlier instances were much less user LINUX MacOS friendly; add ppa to download & install, but fast & easy to use once set ONLY up; according to my DACs, it cuts everytHing above 44.1 to tHat Linux 5 5 3 2 5 4 4 4 3 3 4 3.82 0.98 3 0 07:10 no to RB resolution but is bit perfect up to it using ALSA & Jack.