Software Players

We need to get this out of the way. Software players make a difference. SnakeoilOS is the ideal platform to:

• Convince any sceptical audiophile there is a deeper digital can-of-worms and bits are not just bits
• Allow a dedicated audiophile to tweak and select the software player that can best highlight the strong points of his/her audio equipment.

But which player is the right choice? The short answer is: you need to try them all.

Note the subjective assessments are un-authoritative as everything is pretty much system dependent - what sounds good for me may not sound good to you and vice versa. So just read this as a guide. The Snakeoil motto:

Designed By Us, Defined By You. Snakeoil OS Is Music, Your Way!

We, the Snakeoil Squad designed the platform (Designed By Us), you the audiophile will use the myriad configuration and tweaks inside SnakeoilOS to "tune" the sound (Defined by you). At the end of the day, we are not going to tell you what good sound is supposed to be. There are already countless resource on the Internet force feeding you that.

SnakeoilOS is taking a different approach, forget the experts. The Snakeoil OS product is unique, in the sense that the quality is only going to be as good as you. Under the right hands, SnakeoilOS can give your excellent sound quality that will truly bring everything to life. And under the wrong hands, it can sound bad. Really really bad.

The onus is on you to tell yourself what good music is supposed to be.

In this article we will subjectively describe the sonic nature of these players. Take this as a grain of salt as this article is merely supposed to give you a brief introduction. Please evaluate these players and make your own judgement. Of course the player you choose may well be for practical reasons - e.g. streaming.

Opinion: MPD vs Squeezelite

Here are just some general observations based on my setup after using MPD for several years (and a few months with Squeezelite). These are personal observations and nothing more.

MPD is the clear leader in absolute resolution. You can almost resolve the shape and form of any instrument/vocal down to multiple single infinitely small points in a 3D space. However, at times the presentation can be very stressful - certain pieces of music can really tense you up and keep you on the edge of the seat. At times I actually felt exhausted and emotionally drained after a session, in a worse state compared to what I begin with.

Squeezelite+LMS is different, so far this combo always makes me feel fully recharged after a session, making me feel like I am ready to tackle on the next problem that comes my way. I never felt worn out with this yet. Perhaps it's because of the more natural timbre? The cost however is the loss of that dead-accurate pin point resolution MPD can give. While you can still 'break' the sound stage apart, it is just not to the same infinitely focused level MPD can give. The difference is I never felt stressed out and worse for wear like I do with MPD. With that 'lack of focus' issue, it seems WAV seems to present that problem less when compared to FLAC. So you can try that if you want (I'm still testing this myself as of this writing).

Ultimately which player you decide to use as your primary player is up to you, there are too many variables to consider to agree on a consensus. Personally I am mystified by the crash I can get after a high from MPD, something Squeezelite+LMS cannot do to me. This may suggest MPD is better, however one can also argue against the verdict of better because it involves a emotional crash.

The first post in this thread summarises the difference between MPD vs LMS+Squeezelite better than I can.

At the end of the day, find your way to enjoy your music.

More later.

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