# WINAMP 5.8 new version 2018 is up.



## Tomgang (Oct 22, 2018)

Winamp version 5.8 is official up to download now. Just if there are any other old farts besides me out there still using it.

https://www.winamp.com/

Side note: Skin used is called Anunaki and it seems it unstable for me. It keep crashing for some reason. So if there are others than what to go back to the version before i know work perfect, can be downloaded here: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=373755


----------



## Frick (Oct 22, 2018)

Oh man reading that playlist gives me serious flashbacks. Freestyler? Smack my bitch up? NICKELBACK???

Anyway yeah I saw they were doing a new release. I just have the few songs I had when I went with Spotify, and I only listen to them on the phone so it's not really applicable to me. I read something about incorporating streaming services as well somehow, like connecting to Spotify or something, but that could be entirely made up. I still have my skins folder.



Spoiler



OK, Nickelback. A lot of people hate them, like really, really loathe them, which I don't really understand. Personally I'm mostly dissapointed in them. The first album was kind of OK (at the time anyway, I probably wouldn't listen to it now), and the second album definitely had some high points, but then they didn't do anything new. I still remember the first thing that popped into my head when I first heard them: "In a few years with a bit of work these guys can get pretty good!" They didn't do that. They essentially went the other way. I mean what's this? I mean I like terrible music. One of my favourite bands is Electric Six for heavens sake. But Nickelback grate on peoples nerves. Just ignore them. Eventually they'll dissapear with the rest of Canada, when the mooses take over. They'll go away soon. Also, I once met an englishman who - in 2009 BTW - very seriously said Nickelback was the best band on earth. It was one of the most bizarre moments in my life.[/quote]


----------



## Sasqui (Oct 22, 2018)

Why is there a VLC icon on the lower right?

Edit, oh duh, you have it open lol.  Nice playlist


----------



## 95Viper (Oct 22, 2018)

Frick said:


> OK, Nickelback.



I like Nickelback... 

Anyway on topic.

For people's info:
I downloaded it and, seems,  it is a beta version (winamp58_3660_beta_full_en-us)  they released, because, some others released an un-authorized download version.   Looks like they are still working on the final release.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Oct 22, 2018)

Im tempted, but i wonder if my plugins for v5.6 would work....


----------



## Tomgang (Oct 22, 2018)

Frick said:


> Oh man reading that playlist gives me serious flashbacks. Freestyler? Smack my bitch up? NICKELBACK???
> 
> Anyway yeah I saw they were doing a new release. I just have the few songs I had when I went with Spotify, and I only listen to them on the phone so it's not really applicable to me. I read something about incorporating streaming services as well somehow, like connecting to Spotify or something, but that could be entirely made up. I still have my skins folder.
> 
> ...


[/QUOTE]

Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.

Nickelback maybe have hate some places, but for me there is no hate at all.



Sasqui said:


> Why is there a VLC icon on the lower right?
> 
> Edit, oh duh, you have it open lol.  Nice playlist



Yes i had VLC player open



FreedomEclipse said:


> Im tempted, but i wonder if my plugins for v5.6 would work....



I dont know if they do or not


95Viper said:


> I like Nickelback...
> 
> Anyway on topic.
> 
> ...



Yeah dit just see that the file has beta in it. So its not the full version, with also maybe explain why it keep crashing for me.


----------



## GoldenX (Oct 22, 2018)

This puts a smile on my face.
Best combination of looks and functionality on a player.
It can even play PC98 themes.


----------



## remixedcat (Oct 22, 2018)

Be careful and watch firewalls!! vivendi has a stake in the company that revived winamp. also there's something phishy about the company as well.


----------



## phill (Oct 22, 2018)

I remember WinAmp..  Man that was actually a piece of software that worked so nicely for just playing music as easy as possible!  

I hope the final release catches on well!!  Very much loving the playlist as well..  Grew up with that era of music, imo, some of the very best if I'm honest


----------



## johnspack (Oct 23, 2018)

Running the beta version with classic shell...  I love it!  It recognizes and plays flac and displays proper specs..  notice the 96khz below


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

remixedcat said:


> Be careful and watch firewalls!! vivendi has a stake in the company that revived winamp. also there's something phishy about the company as well.


Your concern is appreciated. I don't think they're mucking about with it though. My firewall log didn't show any unusual activity. So far the beta is on the level.


----------



## BumbleBee (Oct 23, 2018)

does it really kick the Llamas ass?


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

BumbleBee said:


> does it really kick the Llamas ass?


So far.


----------



## remixedcat (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Your concern is appreciated. I don't think they're mucking about with it though. My firewall log didn't show any unusual activity. So far the beta is on the level.


I'll experiment first with a machine that's VLANed out first as well.


Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.

e.[/QUOTE]

You stole mah playlist from then! haha Cotton eye joe was the first winamp song for me.


----------



## johnspack (Oct 23, 2018)

yes,  it does still kick the llamas ass!  I can confirm.  been listening to it for an hour now,  can't stop....


----------



## Space Lynx (Oct 23, 2018)

what are the benefits of winamp over foobar? i am new to this world... so i just always used foobar since that what people told me to do


----------



## johnspack (Oct 23, 2018)

Probably not much...  it's just a nostalgia thing for us old timers....


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

lynx29 said:


> what are the benefits of winamp over foobar? i am new to this world... so i just always used foobar since that what people told me to do


It would depend on your usage habits. The the only way to know is to give it a try.


----------



## 95Viper (Oct 23, 2018)

Tomgang said:


> Yeah dit just see that the file has beta in it. So its not the full version, with also maybe explain why it keep crashing for me.



Just playing around with it... so far, so good.  It has not crashed for me, yet  (never say never   ).
So far, I have not seen any unusual activity with it, either.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> So far the beta is on the level.


So far.


----------



## natr0n (Oct 23, 2018)

oh shit. I use winamp daily never gave up on it.


----------



## Radical_Edward (Oct 23, 2018)

Glad to see it back, I saved a copy of the installer back when they were going offline and have still been using it.


----------



## BadFrog (Oct 23, 2018)

I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.


----------



## puma99dk| (Oct 23, 2018)

It's nice to see Winamp the company that whipped the Llama's ass ain't totally dead I have been using this program for so many yrs that it's a most have application/player installed on my personal pc/laptop


----------



## GoldenX (Oct 23, 2018)

BadFrog said:


> I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.


We cool people have .flacs


----------



## Tomgang (Oct 23, 2018)

95Viper said:


> Just playing around with it... so far, so good.  It has not crashed for me, yet  (never say never   ).
> So far, I have not seen any unusual activity with it, either.



Yeah i dont no, for me keep crashing.



remixedcat said:


> I'll experiment first with a machine that's VLANed out first as well.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



You stole mah playlist from then! haha Cotton eye joe was the first winamp song for me.[/QUOTE]

Cotten eye joe whas a countries plague back then in my country. Play every time at party's and thing like that. 

But it looks like winamp still has is users based that this thread is pretty active. Not to shabby for software this old.


----------



## GoldenX (Oct 23, 2018)

I bet foobar2000 will be the same 10 years down the line.


----------



## Tsukiyomi91 (Oct 23, 2018)

As someone who uses Winamp as a go-to music player over Windows Media Player (still a good player, but not good enough IMO), seeing a beta release of what has been an eternity is a breathe of fresh air. Time to download it & test drive this new player. =D


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 23, 2018)

I gave up on hoping Winamp would ever be resurrected several months ago and switched to AIMP, but I am not entirely happy about the playlist and some minor things.
I might just give this a shot since it seems to finally support Wasapi as well.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

BadFrog said:


> I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.


Wow, really? Where do you store you music then?



GoldenX said:


> We cool people have .flacs


Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!



Tomgang said:


> But it looks like winamp still has is users based that this thread is pretty active. Not to shabby for software this old.


Good software holds on. If it works and works well, why use anything different.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!



I've just been looking at AAC files, done a few tests on some of my MP3's on my home server and the space you can save is about 2/3   So for a 4Mb MP3, for the same 'spec' AAC it's about 1Mb   Needless to say, it'll save you some space and apparently the quality is even better    I'm not sure you'd notice it on a set of basic speakers on a PC but with a decent sound card and such, it might be a little better?


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> I've just been looking at AAC files, done a few tests on some of my MP3's on my home server and the space you can save is about 2/3   So for a 4Mb MP3, for the same 'spec' AAC it's about 1Mb   Needless to say, it'll save you some space and apparently the quality is even better    I'm not sure you'd notice it on a set of basic speakers on a PC but with a decent sound card and such, it might be a little better?


Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.



Do you have much/many MP3's?  With my podcasts and music videos, I think I'm about the 2.3Tb at the mo, it grows every week but much like yourself, I still buy CD's and since the girl friend has moved in, I'll be ripping all of hers as well just for backup more than anything  
I'm of the same belief but I did find a few tool to do this with and the conversion didn't take very long at all   About 30 seconds for a complete album.  Obviously it might take a little less or longer depending on the sample/bit/stereo etc modes you use, but when I get home I'll upload my findings I did on a podcast I download.  Thought it might have been just worth while mentioning.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Oct 23, 2018)

Radical_Edward said:


> Glad to see it back, I saved a copy of the installer back when they were going offline and have still been using it.



I torrented the 5.6 pro version years ago. I cant remember when i did it but ive been running it for at least 6-8years or so. 



BadFrog said:


> I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.



I dont have any MP3s on my PC -- everything got moved across onto NAS some 8 years back. Now i can enjoy my content wherever i am!


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> Do you have much/many MP3's? With my podcasts and music videos, I think I'm about the 2.3Tb at the mo


Wow! Not nearly that much. Most of my collection is just music. Never done the podcast thing but do have some music video's, just not a lot.


phill said:


> About 30 seconds for a complete album. Obviously it might take a little less or longer depending on the sample/bit/stereo etc modes you use, but when I get home I'll upload my findings I did on a podcast I download. Thought it might have been just worth while mentioning.


Appreciated. Thing is, I'm happy with mp3 and the way it works. A new format has to offer a benefit over the existing one to justify that much effort and time, which right now not so much. There's also a compatibility thing, not all of the programs I use support AAC. All of them support mp3.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Wow! Not nearly that much. Most of my collection is just music. Never done the podcast thing but do have some music video's, just not a lot.
> 
> Appreciated. Thing is, I'm happy with mp3 and the way it works. A new format has to offer a benefit over the existing one to justify that much effort and time, which right now not so much. There's also a compatibility thing, not all of the programs I use support AAC. All of them support mp3.



Yeah I have a few podcasts as I'm a big trance fan, so I download a lot from a site called Trance Podcasts Site (it's brilliant, love it!! ) so that helps a bit with the amount of data that has shall we say, accumulated over the times   Plus I've got a fair bit of ripping to do as well as I think with the girl friends music and mine, it's going to take a while to go through our CDs..  I've got to take a look at my blu rays as well, I think it's not going to end well!!  

I'm happy with MP3 as well (wonder why I get talked into trying things and then get issues!!  but I've not had any issues playing the files as yet and I've just done some testing to find out how small the files can get and if I notice any difference when I listen to them (on board sound card and a Z-5500 Logitech speaker setup..  Nothing massively special) so nothing as yet to be honest..  I do have installed the big codec pack and I just use Media Player and Classic Media Player too view/listen to stuff 



FreedomEclipse said:


> I dont have any MP3s on my PC -- everything got moved across onto NAS some 8 years back. Now i can enjoy my content wherever i am!



Best thing I've ever done as well but my upload speed sucks from home so it might not be very much help at all lol


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> on board sound card and a Z-5500 Logitech speaker setup


I use a SoundBlaster card and a home theater system with 4 full range speakers for my PC. The fine grained controls that Winamp affords always shines on this kind of setup.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> I use a SoundBlaster card and a home theater system with 4 full range speakers for my PC. The fine grained controls that Winamp affords always shines on this kind of setup.



I do have a external sound card but I've not plugged that in (doesn't support optical sadly but I could get away with the 3.5mm jacks if I wanted) but my home cinema is downstairs where the TV is, I suppose I could always try Plex on my Server upstairs and see how that works  
What setup do you have for the home theater system?


----------



## bug (Oct 23, 2018)

Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.[/QUOTE]

Oh man, did you just say 2 Unlimited? I saw them in concert once (same for Rednex, but that was more like meh)

And yes, on Windows, my mp3s still open in Winamp.



lexluthermiester said:


> Haven't looked into it. My entire library is in mp3 format. Reconverting all of my CD's(yes, I still buy and use them) to AAC would be very time consuming. Not sure it would be worth the effort to convert at this time.


AAC only sounds better than MP3 at lower bitrates. Once you go 256kbps or more, you can't really tell them apart. Or you need really expensive equipment to do it. So yeah, I would waste time reencoding everything. You could try a few tracks to check whether you hear any difference though.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> What setup do you have for the home theater system?


It's an older AIWA surround sound bookshelf system, the NSX-D939. Example picture below.




Have had it for years and it's been great. For PC gaming and listening to music it hits all the right notes, pun intended.


----------



## DeathtoGnomes (Oct 23, 2018)

GoldenX said:


> I bet foobar2000 will be the same 10 years down the line.


MusicBee > foobar!

Shots Fired!


----------



## blobster21 (Oct 23, 2018)

Benefits of this v5.8 over the previous v5.666 ?


----------



## TheGuruStud (Oct 23, 2018)

Canada has the worst "artists". Is there a single one that's not terrible? They should reclaim those worthless people and hide them for public view.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> It's an older AIWA surround sound bookshelf system, the NSX-D939. Example picture below.
> View attachment 109229
> Have had it for years and it's been great. For PC gaming and listening to music it hits all the right notes, pun intended.



I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol:  As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about 





Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider


----------



## Ahhzz (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol:  As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about
> 
> View attachment 109232
> 
> Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider


Nice comparisons.... Makes me consider remastering my ripped discs....


----------



## GoldenX (Oct 23, 2018)

Go .flac and never look bacc.


----------



## Tomgang (Oct 23, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Wow, really? Where do you store you music then?
> 
> 
> Flac's are nice quality, but good grief the amount of space they take up. I personally prefer 256 or 320kbps mp3's. But hey, I'm not cool like that.. LOL!
> ...



Winamp is for sure propper working software accept the latest beta version, it crash for me.


bug said:


> Jep. My track list have most of the good old ones. Rednex - cotton eye joe, whigfield - saturday night, 2 Unlimited - No limit, Captain jack - Captain jack, MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This and so on.



Oh man, did you just say 2 Unlimited? I saw them in concert once (same for Rednex, but that was more like meh)

And yes, on Windows, my mp3s still open in Winamp.


AAC only sounds better than MP3 at lower bitrates. Once you go 256kbps or more, you can't really tell them apart. Or you need really expensive equipment to do it. So yeah, I would waste time reencoding everything. You could try a few tracks to check whether you hear any difference though.[/QUOTE]

Yes i dit infact say 2 unlimited. Love tracks from the 90's.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider


Ah but how does it sound, AAC 192k VS MP3 320k? Is 192k the highest bitrate AAC can do?

EDIT;
Just did some reading up on it and will try it out.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

From what I have heard, I couldn't really tell much of a difference, but then the issue you might have is it functioning on other devices (phone etc I suppose) because some devices may not support it..

I've been going through a few sites below (I hope this is ok TPU) and been wondering if anywhere would have given me a straight answer....  So I've hopefully included an audiophiles perspective and some other information as well..

https://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd/index.htm

https://www.cnet.com/news/what-is-flac-the-high-def-mp3-explained/

A few snipets from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2012/apr/12/ask-jack-digital-audio
I could also have used a lower bit rate with the AAC file format, because it is more efficient than MP3. AAC makes a real difference at low bit rates, especially below 128kbps, but it doesn't make any practical difference at 256kbps and higher bit rates. I decided against AAC because it was far less widely supported than MP3, because there are several versions of AAC, and because I noticed most people like me were using MP3. (If a lot of people have the same problem, someone will produce a fix.) 

This means the extra size of FLAC files – which can be roughly half the size of the original WAV files – is less of an issue. For comparison, a 24-bit FLAC version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (1973) takes up 239MB whereas my 320kbps MP3 version takes up 71MB. 

For anyone wanting pure audio quality, then FLAC is the best option.  According to everything I've just read, it's the best quality but then it makes the biggest files.. as always a pay off for having the best quality.  Then for the MP3, well again that's decent enough for most people and also is a lot smaller to fit on things so it's not taking up Petra bytes of storage....
As mentioned from the source above, a FLAC v MP3 is nearly 3.5 times bigger so if I converted everything over to FLAC, I'd need a few more TB's of storage just to fit it on my drives!  Not to mention I'm sure it'll be a right pig to stream from my home..  A 5Mbit is gonna struggle (so in real money about 600kb/sec to 700kb/sec providing the wind's behind it....)
It was mentioned that AAC was far better than MP3 even at lower bit rates (48, 64, 96 etc) in comparison, so anything above 128 might not show a massive increase..  

The only thing I can say really is give AAC or FLAC or stick with MP3 should you want to..  If I had the space I'd consider FLAC but then having to re-encode things to listen to them should your device not support it, seems daft..  
The conversion program I've been suggested and used, seems to be rather good.  It's here - Format Factory it's not got anything extra in the install that I can remember (please do be careful just incase!!) but it's free and works really well   I'll see if I can rip a CD later with FLAC and then try AAC, see if I can hear any differences with my Z-5500 speakers   I'm guessing I might be able to with my proper hi-fi but I'm not carting everything downstairs lol  

Apologises for the long post   Hope this helps


----------



## GoldenX (Oct 23, 2018)

Be careful with how you encode flac, most programs don't let you use the highest compression.
Any Android phone can play flac.


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 23, 2018)

I can't tell ANY difference between 128kb mp3 and FLAC (that is with high quality expensive speakers), and I suspect lots of people wouldn't either if blind tests were done 

edit: But let's not go there, lol. Audiofascism is a bad thing


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> From what I have heard, I couldn't really tell much of a difference


I just tried it out. While the quality is good and I could only hear a slight difference(nothing negative), the conversion process was a little more involved. The current utility I use is just a few clicks and it's done. However I did discover that Winamp itself can be used as a converter which seems interesting. It can already do conversions for other formats. Going to give that a try and see how it goes.


phill said:


> The conversion program I've been suggested and used, seems to be rather good. It's here - Format Factory it's not got anything extra in the install that I can remember (please do be careful just incase!!) but it's free and works really well


Have used that program and agree that it is very handy and easy to use. I use XMediaRecode these days but Format Factory was my go to media coder for a while.


----------



## bug (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol:  As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about
> 
> View attachment 109232
> 
> Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider



FLAC isn't about space. It's about having all the original bits in case some new standard for compression comes up in 5-10 years and you want to re-encode your collection. MP3 and AAC are lossy, there's only so many times you can re-encode before you start hearing difference.


lexluthermiester said:


> Ah but how does it sound, AAC 192k VS MP3 320k? Is 192k the highest bitrate AAC can do?
> 
> EDIT;
> Just did some reading up on it and will try it out.


Past 192 they sound the same. Also, past 192 is where you really need to start shelling out cash for higher end equipment to be able to discern differences. Go to 256kbps and you're gold with either encoding. But as all things related to sound, the proof is in the pudding. You have to hear it and see what your ears feel about it.



Tomgang said:


> Yes i dit infact say 2 unlimited. Love tracks from the 90's.



Then you'll probably want to check this out: https://www.playradio.org/ (you get to choose 5 songs each day if you want to)


----------



## xorbe (Oct 23, 2018)

Classical music instruments and smooth vocals are mp3's enemies even at 256, due to the fine constant repeated frequencies, small warbles are easily picked out by ear.  But for the noise they play on the radio, 192 is fine and even 128 usually, for me.  Which is great because I don't listen to classical at the gym, hah.


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> I can't tell ANY difference between 128kb mp3 and FLAC (that is with high quality expensive speakers), and I suspect lots of people wouldn't either if blind tests were done
> 
> edit: But let's not go there, lol. Audiofascism is a bad thing



Well that's what the home cinema setup is for downstairs, the PC speaker setup is just for effects and noise...   I'm not spending thousands on it  
Audiofascism as you call it, costed me a lot of money! 



lexluthermiester said:


> I just tried it out. While the quality is good and I could only hear a slight difference(nothing negative), the conversion process was a little more involved. The current utility I use is just a few clicks and it's done. However I did discover that Winamp itself can be used as a converter which seems interesting. It can already do conversions for other formats. Going to give that a try and see how it goes.
> 
> Have used that program and agree that it is very handy and easy to use. I use XMediaRecode these days but Format Factory was my go to media coder for a while.



I think like with a lot of things, hearing differences can be a kinda of mind game in a way but when I remember listening to lovely hi-fi, I was always amazed at how different a CD could sound on a few different players and speakers...  Whilst I would spend a load on proper hi-fi and a cinema setup, PC not so much 

I'll give that XMediaRecode a go and see how I get on, thanks for the recommendation 



bug said:


> FLAC isn't about space. It's about having all the original bits in case some new standard for compression comes up in 5-10 years and you want to re-encode your collection. MP3 and AAC are lossy, there's only so many times you can re-encode before you start hearing difference.
> 
> Past 192 they sound the same. Also, past 192 is where you really need to start shelling out cash for higher end equipment to be able to discern differences. Go to 256kbps and you're gold with either encoding. But as all things related to sound, the proof is in the pudding. You have to hear it and see what your ears feel about it.
> 
> Then you'll probably want to check this out: https://www.playradio.org/ (you get to choose 5 songs each day if you want to)



If I need to recode it, I'll just re-rip the CD!!   Something I have to do with a few now lol  Not really looking forward to it but I like to do it just because then if anything happened, I'd have at least got a copy


----------



## bug (Oct 23, 2018)

phill said:


> If I need to recode it, I'll just re-rip the CD!!   Something I have to do with a few now lol  Not really looking forward to it but I like to do it just because then if anything happened, I'd have at least got a copy


CDs were supposed to last 100 years, but I found out the hard way some don't last one tenth of that. A FLAC you can back up at will


----------



## phill (Oct 23, 2018)

I do like the backups   I'm just literally going through my home server to make sure there's no duplications and see how much space I've freed up..  I'm sure there's not going to be a lot lol 

Still just going to have a look at FLAC ripping and see if I can do some testing as I'm finishing work a little earlier tomorrow again, so might have a look into it then


----------



## xorbe (Oct 23, 2018)

bug said:


> CDs were supposed to last 100 years, but I found out the hard way some don't last one tenth of that.



In humid climates, if the shiny bit is exposed at the CD's edge, apparently some bacteria or fungus can get in there and slowly eat the entire reflective layer.  Relatedly, I'm throwing out a motorcycle helmet because something is slowly eating the _inner_ coating on the face shield.


----------



## remixedcat (Oct 24, 2018)

phill said:


> I remember the Aiwa systems, always wanted one, never got one :lol:  As I'm home from work early, here's the comparison I said about
> 
> View attachment 109232
> 
> Even with the maximum AAC settings, it saves a fair bit of space, so just something to consider



I've had a few Aiwa over the years. Used to also be a rep for them as well. Now I got 2 Exos9s paired for PC speakers connected to my Fiio E7K. Also got their Prodigy 1 IEMs. 

My fav was the NSXD70 shelf system I had. It was nice. Too bad the cd player died in it and for some reason the aux port was screwy  But the sound and operation was nice.


----------



## bug (Oct 24, 2018)

xorbe said:


> In humid climates, if the shiny bit is exposed at the CD's edge, apparently some bacteria or fungus can get in there and slowly eat the entire reflective layer.  Relatedly, I'm throwing out a motorcycle helmet because something is slowly eating the _inner_ coating on the face shield.


Lower quality CDs will simply exfoliate. That works in any climate


----------



## micropage7 (Oct 24, 2018)

Nice but i dunno today kids still recognize it or not


----------



## bug (Oct 24, 2018)

micropage7 said:


> Nice but i dunno today kids still recognize it or not


Kids today probably don't recognize MP3


----------



## Tomgang (Oct 24, 2018)

bug said:


> Kids today probably don't recognize MP3



What is MP3?


----------



## Octopuss (Oct 25, 2018)




----------



## Komshija (Oct 25, 2018)

BadFrog said:


> I can't remember the last time I had a mp3 on my PC, I do have random tracks on my iphone's ipod but wow, this brings back the nostalgia feeling.


What? How so?

Anyways, I still use winamp, since >90% of my audio library is mp3. Winamp is also good for some video files, but there is a room for improvement in that area.


----------



## Turmania (Oct 25, 2018)

Winamp was used to be the first program I installed whenever I had done a new build...good old times. One core pre 1 ghz days...


----------



## bug (Oct 25, 2018)

Turmania said:


> Winamp was used to be the first program I installed whenever I had done a new build...good old times. One core pre 1 ghz days...


Usually Firefox came first. Then, in no particular order Winamp and Windows/Total Commander.
Or maybe you want to me tell about about the time when I customized Windows 3.11 to play Masterboy's Different Dreams on startup


----------



## theFOoL (Oct 25, 2018)

I thought WinAmp was stopped in development ages ago like when windows 7 was around 3yrs prior to W8 but I guess not


----------



## bug (Oct 25, 2018)

rk3066 said:


> I thought WinAmp was stopped in development ages ago like when windows 7 was around 3yrs prior to W8 but I guess not


It was, but after AOL ran it into the ground, someone bought the rights and now they're trying to resurrect it.


----------



## remixedcat (Oct 25, 2018)

The media player I really really really wanna see make a comeback is Sonique.  that one it was so fun to use. I liked the S2 beta more than the main version. It had a more game like UI as well. Loved the rabbit hole viz!! 

My vid I made of it:









It still works on server 2012 and modern OSes just fine


----------

