Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Lightweight install with optional portability
Foobar2000 v1.3.17 has a clean, minimal, yet highly customizable user interface all while maintaining super fast performance proven with stable system file and hardware usage. And to top it off, in terms of performance, it gives you the option to install the program into a portable application! This can all be customized to your personal use case with Foobar2000 v1.3.17
Pro Functionality can be extended with components
foobar200 has over a hundred componenets to choose from that add ui functionality, decoding support for various formats, etc.
Pro Routine updates. Supports all standard media formats for Playback as well as Transcoding for each
In foobar2000, the Converter Component supports ripping Audio CD's as well as transcoding, to and from, any of the following audio formats: MP3, MP4, AAC, CD Audio, WMA, Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, Musepack, Speex, AU, SND.
Other formats can be introduced with additional components if needed. Application development is consistently updated making it a reliable choice for a stable application with routine bug fixes, some of which you may never encounter.
Pro Plugins can be used to bypass Windows mixer to output a bit-exact signal
Through the use of a plugin (of which there are three popular ones) users can get bit exact sound output straight to their DAC or soundcard. While not something every user will use, for audiophiles this is a pretty important feature.
Pro Advanced layout
At first launch, the player's only step is a simple basic layout configuration wizard which lets you customize the main view of the user interface to your liking. This part gets more into detail when you enable "Layout Editing Mode". There you can add/remove block elements, columns, and even the ability to rename those columns! So "Playlists", by default, can be anything you want. Additionally, color & font customization is possible through the "Default User Interface" preference options along with theme export and import options as a backup, but it's so simple to setup, that redoing everything wouldn't even be that much of a hassle.
Cons
Con Locks files and folders, making it hard to manage them
Several parts of Foobar lock files and folders in a way that they cannot be file-managed (move/copy/rename/delete) easily in the program (and externally). With the waveform plugin it's even worse. Cannot delete a file until the waveform is fully scanned.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Pro Variety of skins available
Browsing a site like DeviantArt will give you hundreds of skins (that have been made by other users) to choose from.
Pro Lightweight
Foobar2000 has a clean, minimalistic UI, small filesize, and is light on resource usage.