[Mike B.]

I tried Foobar and didn't like the layout and access to controls. All my files are recorded using DB Power Amp using WAV format. I did do the WMP optimization recommended at Benchmark. Volume control at max and sampling at the best.

[Audiovista]

I tried a few others, but still use WMP most often... don't see anything wrong with it playing WAV format.

[satfrat]

I liked WMP when using it but as I got to around 6000 albums on my hard drive, I had an issue with the WMP corrupting my album covers. I would not only find around 1/3 of my WMP's library showing the same album cover, the corruption would extend to my hard drive library also. After having to go thru my WMP library and hard drive on 2 seperate occasions to correct the abum cover jpg files, I finally had enough and went to J. River Media Center which I found to be vastly superior to WMP.
 
While I've never heard of anyone else having this particular problem with WMP, it was a blessing in disquise for me as I love the flexibilty of J. River as much as I love the audio quality. I'm strictly a 44.1 kHz guy,,, I don't do anything else.
 
J. River has a free Jukebox player  which really doesn't vary much from the purchasable J. River Media Center if you'd like to sample the player's features. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[Vincent Kars]

Another J River fan boy here.
I like the GUI and the ease to configure it to your taste.
Another plus is the option to use WASAPI.
In my perception it sounds better than DS (Direct Sound).
You can’t use WASAPI in WMP.
WMP12 resizes all your cover art to 250x250, I like a bigger picture
http://thewelltemperedcomputer.com/SW/Players/MC14/MC14_audio.htm

[Mike B.]

Thanks guys. I will take a look at J. River

[Lyndon]

I don't know about playback, I have been using Media Monkey. But may give J. River
another try.  Media Monkey has excellent forum support, but I have been doing what Robin mentioned in his post, and I am getting more than a little frustrated with the way MM catalogues some music, like the Sons of the Pioneers, "Wagons West" a box set.  After I ripped the 5 cd's, it then posted every one of the 114 songs separately! 
When I tried J. River last year, I didn't like the way it went through all my music and video and labeled each with its J. River icons.  Too intrusive for me.  But I am open to suggestions after spending hours and hours the past month ripping my cd collection and attaching cover art.
 

[Mike B.]

I have downloaded J Rivers and it is very nice. I had no problem integrating my recorded music. And the album cover size is much better. Thanks again for the suggestion.

[satfrat]

I personally like how J. River has Volume Leveling that analyzes each track in order to level it out either by track or by album. Loys of adjustment possibilities with that also depending on what works best with your gear. The DSP Studio also allows you to adjust the bit rate and sample frequency output if needed. Lot's of bells & whistles once you figure out how to use them. Once you figure out how to manually adjust the library perameters, you can pretty much setup the player format anyway you want. Plenty of skins to choose from also. Jukebox is pretty nice just the way it comes tho. Me, I like to tinker. 
 
Cheers,
Robin

[Mike B.]

Well I am very new to it, but I like what I have heard and seen so far. The fade in and out when you change albums is very nice.

[satfrat]

Well I am very new to it, but I like what I have heard and seen so far. The fade in and out when you change albums is very nice.

Well I'm 58, I've had J.River for about 1.6 years and I've only had a computer for about 7 years (Webtv doesn't count) so if I can figure it out, anyone can. But if you're as dense as I am, that'll be done the hard way with tons of trial & error.    Hell my 1st computer was my $4K HTPC,,, you want to talk about doing things the hard way.  But today I have over 12,000 albums on hard drives that's all backed up. It really ain't all that hard  ,,,, I can say that now.   
 
Cheers,
Robin