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Topic: The Zune player (Read 4538 times) previous topic - next topic
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The Zune player

Hi,

I play music from my laptop, mostly 320 kbps MP3 along with some FLAC and the rare Monkey's Audio. I output digital through USB and take the sound from a Roland Cakewalk UA-1G through RCA to a pair of M-Audio AV40. I almost exclusively use WinAmp (no DSP of course) on Windows XP with the ASIO output plugin. I have tried using foobar2k but didn't particularly like the interface, and gapless playback by itself wasn't motivation enough to go through the time investment required by a new player.

Now a lot of my friends have been giving rave reviews for the new Zune player, and I must say it does have a very pretty interface. How does it work out in terms of fidelity? Can I take ASIO output from it? Would you recommend it to somebody interested in good fidelity of sound rather than merely interface aesthetics?

Thanks.

Molu

The Zune player

Reply #1 –
No chance anyone here would recommend it. It does not even play FLAC.

The Zune player

Reply #2 –
I have it and use it as source on my headphone setup. It does not play FLAC, but with MP3 @ 320mbps is good enough. It has a very nice UI and basic controls can be used via dock -with the remote-

Regarding SQ I am quite happy with it. The 32GB version can hold a lot of songs and you don't need to change CDs like with a CD player. Plus it has some extras like some games (audiosurf tilt) and internet browser which makes it handy on some occasions.

Hope this helps.

The Zune player

Reply #3 –
I think the OP was asking about the Zune software player as compared to Winamp and foobar2000(?)

Given that the Zune software is likely built on much of the same codebase as Windows Media Player, FLAC and Ogg playback can probably be supported via third-party WMP codec and tag support add-ins.

"gapless playback by itself wasn't motivation enough [to switch to foobar2000]" Seriously dude?

How about:
- Multiple useful UI configurations out of the box and practically infinite customizability
- A robust community of component developers and users who are willing to answer any questions
- Continuing new releases to keep pace with OS changes and user requests
- Developers who are active members of this forum and who listen/respond to user feedback
- Add-in components to handle a wide range of DSP-related sound enhancements
- A primary focus on audio quality and getting the cleanest possible signal to your ears (ASIO, kernel streaming)
- One application that pretty much does it all: CD ripping, library management, playback of just about any audio format (plug-ins sometimes needed), conversion from one format to another with tags intact, MP3 repair/rebuild, application of ReplayGain, tag download and editing, CD burning, on and on...

(All that said, I have to admit that I use EAC to rip and Mp3tag to edit tags.  Also a bunch of minor apps to trim/cut/edit music files.  No one package does it all!)

P.S. If the OP truly was asking about the Zune hardware player, then nevermind.  I've heard it's a nice piece of kit as long as you're happy with mp3, WMA or m4a.  It won't play FLAC but it should play WMA Lossless.  (Not sure about Apple Lossless.)

The Zune player

Reply #4 –
Of course I was asking about the Zune software, not the Zune PMP.

About foobar2k, as I said I don't use DSP, I don't rip CDs, and use ASIO even on WinAmp, so I didn't find much justification to learn a new UI. WinAmp is aurally transparent for me, so I'm not looking for SQ better than WinAmp. I liked Zune's interface, so I only wanted to confirm whether it gives SQ as good as WinAmp.

The Zune player

Reply #5 –
With SQ, you mean sound quality? I don't understand. If it's not broken sound quality is the same.

The Zune player

Reply #6 –
From a software dev's perspective the firmware has some serious flaws in it. Functionality bugs aside- the devs were so sloppy they didn't even escape characters when reading tags so for instance if you have a / in the artist's name you're in for some real irritation...

The Zune player

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Fandango on
With SQ, you mean sound quality? I don't understand. If it's not broken sound quality is the same.

This is true for player (decode) functions. It is not true for ripping (encode) functions.

I like the Zune player tagline, "Browse music, not spreadsheets." At first glance it does appear to achieve that. I did not use it long enough to see if it really delivers. Media developers should try and recognize that it's not so much what under the hood that makes a player application appealing. Ease of setup and use, user interface design and appearance are extremely important.

The Zune player

Reply #8 –
So is there any reason you know to not use Zune? Can I take ASIO output from it?

The Zune player

Reply #9 –
Quote from: frozenspeed on
From a software dev's perspective the firmware has some serious flaws in it. Functionality bugs aside- the devs were so sloppy they didn't even escape characters when reading tags so for instance if you have a / in the artist's name you're in for some real irritation...
It's not exactly sloppy.  If you are talking about the 'Artist' field, if one follows the ID3v2.3 standard, "/" is a reserved character to be used as a delimiter for multiple discrete names.  So, anything before the slash is the first artist for a track.  Microsoft implemented this part of the informal standard; it's used in the Explorer shell, and Windows Media Player, too.  (Microsoft did code an exception for "AC/DC" , FYI... it's read as a single name.)  The 'Album Artist' field, which doesn't support multiple names, can include a real "/"... and that's more important for organization.

(WMA/WMA Lossless users, which Zune supports, too, can use "/" in Artist... since WMA always had support for multiple artist tags.)