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Best Music/Media Player App

I'm doing this now, trying out players. I liked Mixzing, (even sprung for the paid), but it doesn't support FLAC files or other high resolution files, which I recently have been using (have always used WAV, FLAC recent discovery, most players ignore these). Tried MortPlayer a while ago, had used it on PocketPC, liked it, Android was buggy at the time (may be better). WinAmp is nice, has a setup for streaming media from home computer to phone; this is very buggy, and file recognition poor, uninstalled. Am very into the idea of file streaming, as I have a ton of music, and my phone can barely hold more stuff (in the remove an app to download an app situation), SD card not much better. Audiogalaxy the best one for this I've tried so far, though it seems to randomly recognize some uncompressed files, ignore others. I just downloaded andLess, Gmote, PowerAMP (free trial), and Meridian, which all claim to support uncompressed files (this may not be of concern to you, but these do sound much better than MP3, with the cost in larger files). In the non-player/streaming type music app, Pandora, Jazz Radio (if you like jazz), Slacker (find this the most bothersome ad supported free radio, very intrusive ads), and LAST.FM (which I believe is to start charging monthly for phone app use, though the desktop version is free). This should keep you busy for a while-I'll try to update with impressions as I listen to my new downloads (though I am generally swamped work-wise, so if it takes a bit, sorry).
 
Oh, forgot DoubleTwist, found it clunky, didn't keep files properly labeled, (a general problem in Android Music, I find), got rid of it quickly.
 
@Doctorjazz,
While I can appreciate the quality of FLAC files, I think most users will find it quite acceptable 320kbps encoded mp3 audio file quality. Any improvement above that will need a proper quality headphones and a quiet surrounding (almost impossible if you are outside).
 
True, I do use a variety of nice headphones (Monster, Etymotic research, Denon, others), mostly in ear to keep out external noise, no point for background or poor condition listening to bother with high bitrate files. It all depends on how you listen, how much sound quality matters, how involved you get with the music.
 
Hello.
I'm an ex Ipod user, new smart phone user.
All of the basic functions on most of the music apps are cool with me.
I paid for iSyncr and it works perfectly for syncing my itunes with my phone and tracking my skips and ratings.

The one thing I can't seem to find is a smart shuffle, one that does not play songs more than once. The only way around this, for me, is to just let the playlist play, but then it plays them in alphabetical order.

How do you guys do it? Or hasn't anyone really cared yet?

Itunes takes your playlist and randomizes it and then plays it in that order. Is there something that does that for android? Or is there a way to make my library not play back alphabetically?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jason
 
thanks for the list, bigu. do any of these apps let you select which directories to use? i have voice note .amr files from my blackberry in a directory named "voicenotes" and doubletwist mixes them in with the songs in the "music" directory if i have both on internal storage and i set it to shuffle all songs, so i keep voicenotes on uSD for now and doubletwist doesn't play them. doubletwist didn't find the songs when i had the music directory on uSD. the stock player and winamp play the voicenotes regardless of where they are located when i shuffle all songs.

i like how doubletwist lets me pause or change the song without having to unlock, so i'm sticking with it for now. do any of these apps allow you to change the song by holding down the volume buttons like blackberry, so i don't have to wake the screen and burn extra power?
 
As calbearz24 mentioned, most of these apps don't let you change the song without unlocking (as the stock phone does, and apparently doubletwist does as well). I'd rather not use doubletwist, i'd only be using it to play music and it seems like it has a lot of features I won't be using, which will bloat the phone.

Does anyone know of any music apps that let you change/pause the song without unlocking the phone?

(changing song by long-pressing the volume buttons would be great too... that and the dedicated music button are the only things i miss from my blackberry storm 2!)
 
Winamp is what I use. I've only tried it and Double Twist. I'd be interested in what other people use also. I play a lot of Podcasts.
 
AustinTech said:
Winamp is what I use. I've only tried it and Double Twist. I'd be interested in what other people use also. I play a lot of Podcasts.
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I'm enjoying Google Listen for podcasts, I had a 1st gen iPod nano and it was getting to be a pain to sync and whatnot. Listen isn't anything special to write home about but for me it does exactly what I need it to- it downloads podcasts and I can queue them up in a playlist so I don't have to spend a lot of time choosing what I'm going to listen to next after one ends (I guess I could have done this on my iPod with the on-the-go playlist feature, but I didn't).

If I may hijack the thread a bit, does anybody have any opinion on last.fm for Android? I don't want to stream anything from it (I'm not currently a paid subscriber- I have been before and will be again) but I do like to scrobble the stuff I listen to. My iPod bit the bullet so I was so pleased to be able to put my music on my phone when I got it, but I do miss things like last.fm scrobbling.
 
Nothing beats the Classic Player with its DSP effects, artwork management, awesome widgets, customizable UI, themes, and file support. It did cost me a bit more than average but boy it runs like a dream on my Optimus one!
 
Android music player..
Get PowerAMP off the market. It's by far the best as far as tweakability and overall sound!!:cool:
 
I like doubleTwist, I don't like PowerAMP because it sucks too much power. According to the task manager that comes on my phone PowerAMP uses 10 - 15% of the CPU compared to 2 or 3% when I use doubleTwist.
 
daveloft said:
I like doubleTwist, I don't like PowerAMP because it sucks too much power. According to the task manager that comes on my phone PowerAMP uses 10 - 15% of the CPU compared to 2 or 3% when I use doubleTwist.
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DoubleTwist fails me for one simple reason - no folder support!
 
Poweramp wasn't bad, just finished the trial, seemed to confuse sound files less than other programs. It still didn't recognize all files I use, was kind of "macho" feeling to use. I've given up at this point; use Audiogalaxy most of the time, a bit flaky but not at all bad. When it does behave, I find it great having access to my computer music anywhere. Have most of my 16gb Droid memory card filled with apps and backups of apps anyway (could spring for the 32, I suppose). I'm just back in the market for an iPod or similar DAP for music, use the phone occasionally as backup. (one problem with the phone a primary player: I like to set up my player at work on random repeat...I am often running from room to room, and, using the phone, I miss all my calls if I keep it hooked up that way).
(on a side note: anyone have an idea of the digital converter chip in the Droid 1? My dying iPod Classic had a last gasp of air before dying again, but I could swear the output on the Droid sounds better. Also, since the Droid uses dock connectors, is there a line out? Are there cables that allow one to access it to bypass the other circuitry and go from the DA converter to an external amp?)
 
I have Doubletwist. It's okay since it works with my desktop app. But I downloaded MixZing last night and yeah that was a good move. The built in EQ is just a bonus. It's definitely worth checking out. It also imported my DT playlists.
 
Gavin James said:
+1M I am a huge PowerAmp fan and would recommend it to anyone wishing to truly experience their music. It is what it is a pure music play and comes with presets and an equalizer...really wonderful sound.
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So i just down loaded PowerAmp how do i fine the things that i downloaded from sticher?
 
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