A Winamp alternative that's worth a look
Let’s begin with a very simple question: why should we surrender to the most downloaded software when there are good but not so popular alternatives? Robert Frost said: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by” which, applied to software, may be translated as “take a risk and use new apps... even if they’re not that famous”. So, if you’re looking for a free, fast, simple MP3 player, and don’t feel like bowing down to Winamp the Almighty, just give XMPlay a chance.
The first thing I liked about XMPlay is the fact that you don’t need to install it on your system. Just unzip it to whatever folder you like (for example Program Files/XMPlay), and you may start enjoying your music right away. The range of file formats supported by XMplay is reasonably wide, including Internet streaming, CD tracks and playlists. Surprisingly, XMPlay does not work with video, a feature that other “alternative” players such as KMPlayer do include.
Bearing in mind the large amount of MP3 players available, comparisons are hard to avoid. XMPlay does its job and it does it well, without using too many system resources. The XMPlay interface offers two possible sizes and can be customized with nice skins, a popular feature with users. But what I really loved about XMPlay is the fact that you can control almost every function in the program by means of shortcuts, which turns out to be very handy if like me, you listen to music whilst working with the computer. No need to maximize the XMPlay's window, look for the appropriate Pause button and click on it every time somebody talks to me: one simple shortcut gets the job done.
But hey, XMPlay is an MP3 player we’re talking about here so, what about the sound quality? In fact, this may be XMPlay’s major weakness, as those with a good ear will notice it doesn’t sound as good as other players I have tested so far, particularly Winamp or ALSong. It’s just one weak point, but quite an important one when talking about a program that is intended to play music. Besides, and while this may be precisely its main function, XMPlay lacks some extra tasty options that we find in other players, such as the built-in audio converter featured in Spider Player, the Lyrics Viewer included in ALSong or the impressive skins offered by Xion Audio Player.
Summing up, although XMPlay will not be able to compete against the “big ones” in the MP3 player market, it’s still a very nice, free application, as long as you don’t ask for high-fidelity sound quality.
User reviews about XMPlay
by Anonymous
XMPlay gives you music and it does it well: that's all it has to do..
Probably the best, reliable, useful, fast, stylish media player around. A must!
Pros:
Highly customizable, easy to use
Light, portable, fast, reliable, powerful, stylish
Cons:
It just needs (and deserves) more user. More
by Anonymous
puts your security at risk, contains trojans.
XMPlay contains several trojans please scan with
https://www.virustotal.com/nl/
by Anonymous
You're Kidding, Right Elena?.
The Pros I don't disagree with but the cons in the best case are unfair and in the worst case, inaccurate. Sound quality not so good?" I did not ever have any issues with this and as everyone already knows -- the quality depends LESS on any "player" and more on how good your onboard "sound device" is and the specific codecs you're using to encode and decode audio. Only supports audio? How an audio player "only supports audio" is a "con" is beyond my ability to comprehend. If anyone expects a portable MP3 CD Player to also have a video screen and support video DVDs without actually buying something like a PSP or whatever, that would completely blow my mind. lol. No extra functions? Not even taking into account the list of audio formats "other than MP3" that it supports, the addon-tools you can download for it on the home site of this player, or even the full equalizer and multimedia library function -- its DSP Plugins Support allows for limitless flexibility.
Pros:
I personally have "ripped the DLLs out of Winamp" that control what audio formats are supported, dropped them into the XMPlay Directory and like MAGIC, XMPlay supported all the audio AND VIDEO (audio playback only, of course) Formats that Winamp Supports. DSP Plugin Support FTW!
Cons:
That it doesn't support all the formats Winamp supports "by default" but at least you can inject them in! Even the SKM Plugin for Winamp WORKS PERFECT with XMPlayer. Though I do understand part of Un4seen's logic on it -- they wanna keep the download small. But at the very least they should zip up the compatible Winamp DLL Files and have them as an extra download option, in my opinion. More