Quintessential Player Update

[the Tester]

Quintessential Player has updated to version 5.0
It's freeware and my media player of choice.


http://www.quinnware.com/index.php

[mrfargoreed]

I used to use this a few years ago and it was my favourite media player. It's taken them long enough to update! Will definitely give this another go - thanks for the info the Tester

[bgoodman4]

May I ask what makes this program special? There are many players out there most seem pretty much the same. For organising and "doing stuff" with my collection I use MediaMonkey. If I am checking out individual tracks that I am considering for purchase from some website or another I use JetAudio. What is it about Quintessential Player that would make me want to switch to it from one or the other of the mentioned programs.

[mrfargoreed]

Well I've yet to try the update, but the old version had excellent sound. I tried many players but the audio quality of Quintessential was superb. I've not tried the new version yet and it was a few years ago that I used it, so just about to reinstall and try out again. I have been using Foobar for my music for the last couple of years, but if Quintessential's sound is as good as it used to be I will definitely keep it.

[ASM]

At last... what a long long looooooooong wait. But QMP is . One of my fav.

[bgoodman4]

OK, I will give it a try based on your comments. Thanks.

[the Tester]

Why do I like it?
As mrfargoreed mentioned one reason is sound quality.
I have been using it for ripping cd's and it does that well.
I also like the video player , at least for my limited use.
It's easy to use and that's a plus.
If it has a cd burner it would be perfect IMO.

[ASM]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

For organising and "doing stuff" with my collection I use MediaMonkey. If I am checking out individual tracks that I am considering for purchase from some website or another I use JetAudio.

Same... I am using the MM for organizing. Checking of individual track... Sometime, I use QMP. It is using Gracenote MusicID® and doing the job well or better than Winamp.

[bgoodman4]

I just gave QMP a test drive and I must say I am reasonably impressed with its sound quality. The base install (no plug-ins) is better than Media Monkeys and slightly better than JetAudios (but only slightly). I however do not care much for its interface. I did not notice on the player plus media manager if there was a pause button or not but I could def not find one on the player only version. How this capability can be absent is beyond me, but this is enough to keep me using Jet. As to the media organizer I much prefer MediaMonkey. I like the high degree of customizability that you get with MM and I really like the way you access files to play. The ability to load the entire collection into the view pane and then set the entire collection playing randomly is something I would not want to do without. I did not look into QMP further as for me the lack of these 2 abilities makes QMP a non-starter. Nice sound which no doubt would be even better with a few plug-ins but the sound is only part of the equation as far as I am concerned. It does not matter how good the sound is if I cant play my music the way i want to I am not interested.

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking QMP, its just that it is missing a few features that for me are important. Everyone has different needs and expectations and I can see why QMP would be a good choice for many users.

[Espresso]

If you're interested in sound quality, use Foobar with ASIO or Kernel streaming.

[bgoodman4]

Very nice sound quality even without the plug-ins you mentioned,,,,which in all honesty I don't see are actually sound quality plug-ins. Or rather if they are I don't see/understand how they are. One thing that bothers me is the inability to reduce the player to a small unobtrusive size. I did find a plug-in that is supposed to address this issue

Advanced Controls (foo_advancedcontrols)
http://fb2k.org/section.php?section=8
Control all the playback functions of FooBar2000 from icons in the Taskbar Notification Area (that is - the tray)

But I do not know how to implement it. I extracted the files but there is no info on what to do with them. Any help will be appreciated.

I also am not terribly impressed with the programs documentation. Again, if anyone knows of a good documentation source I will be grateful to know about it.

Thanks

[mrfargoreed]

I installed the latest version of QMP and was a little disappointed. Last time I tried it, it seemed to blow everything else away sound quality wise, but playing the same files in QMP and Foobar and I thought Foobar was far superior. I still think it's a great player and I might keep it in my setup as I actually quite like the interface - very clean looking

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

Very nice sound quality even without the plug-ins you mentioned,,,,which in all honesty I don't see are actually sound quality plug-ins. Or rather if they are I don't see/understand how they are. One thing that bothers me is the inability to reduce the player to a small unobtrusive size. I did find a plug-in that is supposed to address this issue

Advanced Controls (foo_advancedcontrols)
http://fb2k.org/section.php?section=8
Control all the playback functions of FooBar2000 from icons in the Taskbar Notification Area (that is - the tray)

But I do not know how to implement it. I extracted the files but there is no info on what to do with them. Any help will be appreciated.

I also am not terribly impressed with the programs documentation. Again, if anyone knows of a good documentation source I will be grateful to know about it.

Thanks

Sorry, I just realised that folks might think I was referring to QMP in the post quoted, I was in fact referring to FooBar.

[Espresso]

Originally Posted by bgoodman4

Very nice sound quality even without the plug-ins you mentioned,,,,which in all honesty I don't see are actually sound quality plug-ins. Or rather if they are I don't see/understand how they are.

They're not "quality plugins" per se. They're low latency output methods that bypass the windows mixer. You set them up in the Output preferences.

You can also use WASAPI if you're using Vista

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by Espresso

They're not "quality plugins" per se. They're low latency output methods that bypass the windows mixer. You set them up in the Output preferences.

You can also use WASAPI if you're using Vista

I have no idea what that means or why doing this would be beneficial. Could I trouble you for a brief explanation?

Thanks

[Espresso]

ASIO, KS and WASAPI allow you to get "bit perfect" output to your soundcard without being resampled by Windows' relatively low quality mixer processing (KMixer). Thus, the audio quality is better than typical DirectSound output. It also gives you very low latency which is more of an issue with pro audio apps like Cubase.

[Defenestration]

I used to use QMP and liked it a lot, but could never get it to play gaplessly (ie. no gap between tracks), so I switched.

[bgoodman4]

Originally Posted by Espresso

ASIO, KS and WASAPI allow you to get "bit perfect" output to your soundcard without being resampled by Windows' relatively low quality mixer processing (KMixer). Thus, the audio quality is better than typical DirectSound output. It also gives you very low latency which is more of an issue with pro audio apps like Cubase.

Got it, thanks.